Day 37 – Orillia to Durham, ON – A 155km record day

We left the Mara Provincial Park campsite fairly early and headed towards Kincardine. We passed Bass Lake Provincial Park and turned up onto Horseshoe Valley Road. This was a pretty awful road, with minimal shoulder and a fair bit of traffic heading towards Hwy 400. It is one of the only paved roads between Orillia and Grey county. When we got to Hwy 400, we stopped at a gas station and met a local cyclist who told us there were actually other routes we could have taken and gave us some great advice on how to avoid the main road in getting to Stayner.

We followed his advice until shortly before Stayner. These back roads were beautiful and flat (although the cyclist described them as “boring” because they were flat). Before Stayner, we hit a construction zone and a closed road and had to detour closer to the main route. The flagmen were very nice and gave us our own passage through the construction site!

In Stayner, we stopped at the Coffee Culture for a rest and wireless internet (which was broken). We chatted to another local who gave us more advice on routing and headed towards the Niagara escarpment. The climb up the escarpment was quite something with very nice views behind us.

We continued on back roads, headed towards a campground on Adam’s GPS in Eugenia. This turned out to not be a campground but a series of cottages. Next, we headed to what appeared to perhaps be a campground on the GPS further along our route.. This turned out to be a Children’s Camp.

We asked in the next town and they said there was nothing before Durham, another 30km away on a day where we had already travelled 120kms. We decided to push on, each of us wanting to shower after such a long day.

Just before dark, we pulled into the Durham Conservation Area campground. We registered and asked for a site next to the showers and washrooms. We received a site that was a good 5 to 10min walk from the shower in what appeared to be an empty campground. We set up camp quick and had some tuna sandwiches and biked up to the showers. A lesson in looking at the map before the site is assigned!

That night there was a huge thunderstorm with lots and lots of rain. We were a bit wet in the morning because I had put the tent in a bit of a dip in the ground but all was well as we were to stay at friend’s in Kincardine the next day.

Click here for today’s photos

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