Now that I have finally escaped from Ontario forever, time to write a review of the ups and downs (Ontario is nothing but hills) of the most populated area of Canada.
Days spent in Southern Ontario: 13
Rest days: 2
Distance pedalled: ~1430 km (wow!)
Steepest gradient encountered: roughly 20%
Beers consumed: lots, I can't even wager a guess
Money spent: way too much
Warmshowers stays: 4
Worst road: Highway 11 through Muskoka
Best road: Bruce County Road 25 west of Dornoch
Nicest Town: Stratford
Least Nicest Town: London
Best bakery: Williamsford Pie Company
Good things: Well, I will start by saying that there was actually a lot to appreciate in Southern Ontario. Especially in the Bruce-Grey county between Lake Huron and London, where nearly every small town had beautiful stone and brick buildings, a bakery and occasionally a brewery. Rural areas are actually very rideable, as long as you stay on the county roads and off the Ontario Provincial highways. I feel like there is great potential for cycle tourism in rural Ontario if the government is willing to invest in designating some specific cycling routes.
One thing I will say about Southern Ontario is that there are some very nice people there. Between Warmshowers hosts, and random people I met along the roads and campgrounds, I had a lot of good experiences with meeting people.
The Bad: Starting off with the big issue: money. Southern Ontario is EXPENSIVE. Camping anywhere in the region is minimum 30$/night for unserviced tent sites, and gets up to 50$ a night when you get close to Toronto. And often these campgrounds are nearly booked full with vacationers from the cities.
The other major issue is traffic. Southern Ontario has an incredible amount of people. Almost every road I took, including rural backroads, had a large number of vehicles. On the main provincial highways the traffic is more or less constant all day, 7 days a week. Add in the fact that highway shoulders are often only 6 inches wide, or nonexistant, and you have a situation that is very dangerous and unpleasant for cycling.
Also a downside that may just be my bad luck, but it seems like Southern Ontario is excessively rainy. No joke, I had rain pretty much every day at some point, and experienced something like 10 or more thunderstorms while in Southern Ontario.
In Conclusion: Lots of potential for being a good place to ride a bicycle, but needs better and way more obvious infrastructure. Avoid Ontario Provincial highways as much as you can and use the single or double digit county roads, which are almost always better in every way.
Utilize Warmshowers as much as possible, and try to stay out of the incredibly overpriced private campgrounds. Get to Quebec ASAP it seems really great here.
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