Prince Edward County

[shanekingsley]

I've never been and want to check it out.
What's it like over there for riding around?
Any good places to stay overnight or things to do?
Is the ferry bike friendly or do I need to book in advance?

I vaguely remember Vlad posting about how much he liked going there and maybe he even led some rides out that way, but my search came up empty for those threads...

Elsewhere on the interweb I've found:
http://www.sundaymorningrides.com/canada/3724865/
http://www.pec.on.ca/other/location.html

Cheers.

[STARSHIP]

This is the place to stay in Picton. http://www.waringhouse.com/

Great restaurant and just as nice less formal pub.

Have not been on my bike but the roads south of Picton are nice, you can take a nice scenic run along the lakeshore route and then to Briton and along 94 to PEC.

It is on my list.

[shanekingsley]

Sweet place. Totally looks like a place we would be into staying and eating at.
It says on their website that weekends must be minimum 2night bookings - I hope they are flexible on that.
Thanks.

[GreyGhost]

This is the place to stay in Picton. http://www.waringhouse.com/

Great restaurant and just as nice less formal pub.

Have not been on my bike but the roads south of Picton are nice, you can take a nice scenic run along the lakeshore route and then to Briton and along 94 to PEC.

It is on my list.

Some of the food is the same on both sides of the waring house, but more expensive on the classy side. If you want pub type food eat on the pub side and save yourself some dough. County Cider is also a nice place to eat, decent food and you are up on a hill looking out over the lake.

If your budget allows it, Huff Estates winery has really nice accomodations (and nice wine).

Ferry is bike friendly, no need to call ahead or bring straps. Hold the bike during takeoff and landing, the ride across the centre will be smooth sailing.

[jibbijib]

As a former county resident, I suggest one of the B&B's for accommodations. Yes, the roads are great down there. A great ride is to start in Trenton and go down 33 into Bloomfield, then hang a right onto CR12 and follow that right into the Sandbanks, stay on it til you come out of the park and take another right on CR18. When you get into Cherry Valley, turn right onto CR10 and follow to Milford, and turn right again at Milford to stay on CR10. Follow that to CR13 where the Marine Museum is, and either check it out, or follow 13 to the Black River Cheese Factory. Have some ice cream, or buy some cheese, or just hang out and enjoy the scenery. Then from there go straight on 13 in through some fun twisties all the way to CR8. If you want you can turn right take the fun, long route of CR8 out to Cressy Point, which then turns into CR7, or just turn left and take a short blast to CR25 which takes you right across to CR7. You'll come across Lake on the Mountain, which has a very nice restaurant there. I suggest stopping there and taking in the sights. Then from there follow the road down to CR33 or Loyalist Pkwy, and either go to the ferry, or cut the ride short and head back to Picton.

When you go across the ferry, go along that road for a while and turn left onto HWY8. When you get to the corner of 8 and South Shore rd, take that road. But be careful of gravel on some corners. Be prepared for a rollercoaster ride though. Follow that road and it will bring you back to HWY8. Turn left when you get to HWY21 and then follow it and it turns into 8 again.

Follow into Napanee, and then decide where you want to go from there. There are soooo many roads to choose from. I usually go back to Belleville from Napanee along HWY1, which runs alongside the 401. It turns into HWY2 after a while. Turn right at Shannonville road, then left onto Airport pkwy and follow that right into Belleville. When you get to College street turn left onto it, and follow that right to North Front. At the right is a Petro Canada and Timmies, and probably by the time you get to Timmies there will be a bunch of guys there on bikes.

Then they will have suggestions on places to ride. You could spend a good week in that area riding around all the different routes!

Honestly, you don't need to stay at the ritzy wineries in order to enjoy the area. If you want to actually experience the county, stay at B&B'S and eat at the local restaurants. The people at most of the wineries try too hard to be like Torontonians.

[Shaman]

Don't take Highway 8 right now, it's all ripped to pieces. I love the south shore/hay bay road as well but it's not in good shape. Better to continue along the waterfront and turn up Hamburg road, which is a nice road... then hit the North Shore road - completely unecessary to get to the destination but a nice and scenic road without all the construction (disclaimer: been about a month since I was down North Shore).

Also one other thing to note, P.E.C. has about 45 cop cars and they're out looking for revenue constantly, so don't be doing more than 20 over or you'll risk a caning for it. There's no way off the island quickly (though there *are* a number of routes) and if you don't know the area then trying to nip off into the sunset isn't going to end well; the locals have been driving like madmen since they were teens and they love a good chase. Probably not an issue for it, but I'm mentioning it for the general well-being of the forum members.

[Hardwrkr13]

I did this ride last Wednesday. Tons of bed&breakfast spots to stay at.

Definitely pull over in Wellington at the park (you can park in the church lot beside it) and check out the waterfront. If you bring a snack it's a great place to have it.

Watch out for deer at Lake on the Mountain. We almost hit one there at 3pm when you're not expecting them to be out.

Anyone want to head out there for a day either Tuesday or Friday of next week?

[STARSHIP]

I could go on Friday, (early start) Maybe you can post the ride in the Ride section Meet at Tim Hortons near Rd 57/ 401 close to the Shell. I could be there as eraly as 8:00 AM.

[bgfa]

Stayed in Picton at a place called The Merrill In few years back. See www.merrillinn.com. Fairly nice and great little restaurant in it. There is a good restaurant on the East side too. Sorry don't know the name. Waring House is nice too.

[kiwi]

Theres a GREAT ice cream store out there - In Picton I think..

[jibbijib]

Theres a GREAT ice cream store out there - In Picton I think..

Scooperman.

[Shaman]

There's also Slickers in Bloomfield and the Black Creek cheese factory has cones, too.

[jibbijib]

Black River has skimped on the cone sizes. They used to be enormous and cheap, but they've felt the crunch and had to downsize the cones.

The route I wrote down is all the good twisties.

[STARSHIP]

So anyone up for a PEC run on Friday? Weather looks great (small chance of isoltaed showers to cool us off)

[shanekingsley]

So we went and had a great time. Got the last room available in the Picton Harbour Inn, which was a nice room with a view of the harbour for $120. Had an incredible lunch at Chesterfields in Picton who also served some even better chocolate chip cookies. Had dinner on the patio at Lake On The Mountain Restaurant which was also incredible food. Then we had blueberry pancakes at the Picton Harbour restaurant in the morning. Rode around the area too and spent Saturdays afternoon lounging in peace on the Sandbanks beach.
Great weekend and we hope we will be heading back to get some ice cream this summer and maybe eating at the Waring House, staying at the Lake On The Mountain Resort and doing some other stuff.
Thanks again to all for the info.
Cheers.

[Hardwrkr13]

I'm in for Friday if there's no rain.