Fantastic weekend | GTAMotorcycle.com

Fantastic weekend

zts1986

Well-known member
So, I'm newer to the forum here. I came here a week ago looking for good ride information up in the Parry Sound area. This place was a great help so I thought I'd share my weekend...

We left Buffalo around 9:30AM on Saturday, basically from around the corner of the Peace Bridge. First lesson: do not exchange currency at the Duty Free! The official exchange rate was $1.30 CAD for $1.00 USD on Saturday. The Duty Free was taking $0.12 on every dollar! I expected some sort of fee, but holy crap was that excessive. I'll go back to using the mall or the casinos for currency exchange.

The first few hours of the ride were wet, but the flat and straight nature of it didn't slow us down too much (slab). We took the QEW to 407 to 410. Got off on Mayfield Rd (rt. 14) and then a left on Airport Rd (rt 7). Rain the entire way to this point. It died down for the next several miles up rt. 7, which turned into rt. 18, 42, and ultimately 26 in Wasaga Beach. We took 92 through Wasaga to 27, to 93, to 12. Gassed up at 12 and 400. This was the long boring stretch that we had to get through to get to the fun stuff. 18 actually turned out to be quite hilly and mildly entertaining, but man is it straight.

Moving on from 12 we actually started to get to have some fun. We got to shed the rain gear finally and the rest of our day became enjoyable. 12 continued into 16, then we turned onto 17/Big Chute Road. This road was entertaining and got more technical as you went along. In addition, the only LCBO open in the entire province of Ontario on Canada happened to be in a small lodging village along the way! We were able to stock up for the evening. We did hit a few miles of construction here...heavily graveled road. Onto 34 and back to the 400. Cruised the 400 North for a few miles to 38. From here, I'm sure you guys are familiar with what happened.

38 into Bala, 169 North to 118 West (East) to Port Carling. From there 7 North through Minett to 632 into Rosseau. Fantastic roads. From there, 141 West to 400 which we road up to Parry Sound Drive to get to our hotel location. We stayed at Trapper's Choice Inn. I'm familiar with this place (and picked Parry Sound in general) because this is where I used to snowmobile back in the day. Haven't been there in about a decade. The roads from 16 into Parry Sound that we took were an excellent way to end the night. Everything was in great shape out side of a mile or two of gravel road from some construction on Upper Big Chute.

On Sunday, we were up early (-ish...damn LCBO). We decided we were going to follow an old snowmobile route of ours and head north to start the day. North on Nobel Rd., left on 559, and a right on Shebeshekong Rd. Shebeshekong Rd. was an excellent way to start the morning. Good scenery, solid twisties, nice pavement. This let us out on 69, which we carried north just for a few miles through Pointe au Baril and then onto 529, which was, again, nice and twisty. We stopped on this route to throw our rain gear on as there were some extremely dark clouds north of us. This was a good idea...rain came down about 10 minutes later and followed us up 69 and then east on 522 all the way into Port Loring.

We stopped at Jake's Place in Port Loring for some coffee and food, and to get out of the rain for a bit. All in all, 552 was the perfect road to be on in the rain. Long sweepers, nice pavement. No need to slow down much at all. It was a lot of fun being able to look over at the snowmobile trails that I road on over a decade ago now (I rode from 9 until 20...I'm 30 now). We left Port Loring, still with our rain gear on, and took 522 into Trout Creek. From there, 11 South for a few miles until we hit 124.

After we gassed up in South River, we carried on in rain gear. The rain just ended but the roads were still wet. We took 124 to 520 into Magnetawan and stopped to check out the locks and ditch rain gear for what turned out to be the rest of the day. The road got FUN from here. 520 to Burk's Falls and some misc. side roads to 518. And then here we go. The pack of four of us marched down 518, one of the coolest roads I've been on in some time. We stopped at one of the openings to the Seguin trail to reminisce. The road was quite technical but in great shape. Only two corners had a large amount of gravel. We were able to have a pretty spirited ride through. Carried on to the 400 and back up into Parry Sound for the night.

Day 3: time to head home. We ran down 400 to 518 and took that to Tally-Ho Swords Road to 141. 141 all the way to 11, which we went north for a few miles to Huntsville. Once in Huntsville, we took 60 East to 35 South. 35 was under some construction from 117 to 118, but nothing too severe, just some stripped road. Boy was 35 scenic. Lake after lake after lake. After this, the ride pretty much ended. We took 118 to 11 and then blitzed home. 11 to 400 to 407 to QEW to the Peace Bridge. Traffic was awful in Barrie.

All in all, what a gorgeous three days.

Day 1: 315.5 miles
Day 2: 221.1 miles
Day 3: 362.5 miles

Total = 903.1 miles

Bikes:
2015 Kawasaki Ninja 650 ABS (me)
2016 Kawasaki Z650
2006 Ducati Monster S2R 800
2014 Yamaha FJR1300 (my dad)

Thanks for all of the tips, guys. We had an incredible time on some incredible roads.
 
An excellent ride report and contribution. Definitely gives us "locals" some roads to consider when heading up north.

Thanks!


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Nice route - used to vacation as a kid near Port Loring ....good pickerel fishing. Went there a while back on the the bike but I think a good time to revisit.
Glad the weather was "reasonable"
 
did many of the same routes this past weekend with a group. Quite surprised that we did not see a lot of other riders since the roads are pretty fun. Towns were very busy as the holiday weekend but otherwise good to go! 141 one of my favs for sure
 
Wow a new yorker coming here to ride Ontario rds lol Theres a switch . Great write up and PS is a great area . Thanks for posting .
did many of the same routes this past weekend with a group. Quite surprised that we did not see a lot of other riders since the roads are pretty fun. Towns were very busy as the holiday weekend but otherwise good to go! 141 one of my favs for sure
 
Wow a new yorker coming here to ride Ontario rds lol Theres a switch . Great write up and PS is a great area . Thanks for posting .

That's what I was thinking too. I guess another 30% on your money helps.
 
That's what I was thinking too. I guess another 30% on your money helps.
Next time I'll exchange even less cash. The Duty Free was at $1.18 CAD for $1.00 USD. My credit card used $1.29. Waaaaaay better.

I grew up going to Parry Sound snowmobiling quite frequently. Maybe 3-6 times per winter for a period of 10 years or so. Havent been in a long time and we missed it so I thought hell, lets get up there on the bikes. Made for an excellent weekend. I'll definitely be doing it again. But yeah...hard to justify it often when I have the roads that I do basically in my own backyard!
 

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