Road report Eastern Ontario to Southern Georgian Bay

[masonjs at nrtco.net]

I decided to take a couple of days off from retirement and visit my 
Daughter & 2 grandsons Mason & Rhys (The piano boys) in 
Penetanguishene on the south east end of Georgian Bay 400 km away.
First I had to extract my Suzuki vstrom from the garage.  All I could 
see of it was the rear tire and taillight.  After an hour of hauling 
crap out of the garage the bike was free.  I didn't want to back it 
down the hill so I was looking at moving more stuff to jockey bike 
around.  Then I remembered a method I used to move my old Yamaha 
parallel twin 650.  I put the bike on the center stand and fired it 
up. Then I pushed down on the rear luggage rack enough to get the 
front wheel off the ground .  The vibration from the twin cylinders 
makes the bike dance on the concrete floor and I just walked it 
around.  I could move the old Yamaha around with one hand and put it 
away in a corner for the winter doing this. The Suzuki doesn't vibrate 
nearly as much as the Yamaha so it was harder to rotate.  I never 
tried this with any of the multi cylinder bikes but it might work for 
them as well.

I decided to stay away from the main roads and run through "Dueling 
Banjo Country" some of which has become very high end cottage country 
(The Kawartha and Muskoka Lakes regions).
  I stopped beside White Duck Lake to have the lunch I packed  but  
deer flies the size of sparrows drove me off.  I stopped at Dark Lakel 
and Furnace Falls to have this lunch with same results, then opted for 
the Chinese Restaurant is Kinmount.   They make an excellent burger.
I left Westmeath at 10:30 am much to the dismay of my Labrador 
retriever Levi.  After 50 km of riding past farms and hay fields I got 
to Golden Lake where the bush, lakes and twisty roads begin.   Ruby 
Road from Golden Lake to Kilaloe was resurfaced a couple of years ago 
and is in excellent condition as was the Rockingham Road.  At the 100 
km mark I was at Combermere and now on Hwy 62.  I got off it at 
Maynooth and onto the 33 km of the Peterson Road (Elephant Lake road 
if you come in at the south end). This was a workout for both me and 
the bike as there are very few straight stretches in this 33 km.

The road surface was better than normal with the south 1/2 in 
Haliburton County the better portion.  Peterson Road stops at Monck 
Road and I took this west through the Kawartha Lakes to Orillia where 
I was back in civilization.  Here I picked up Hwy 12 and turned off it 
into Midland.  I cruised along Midland Bay/Harbor looking north across 
the blue waters of Georgian Bay.  Then through Sunnyside and into 
Penetanguishene.
I off loaded the bike then went to the grocery store to get some ice 
cream treats for the boys and the beer store to get some treats for 
Jim.

Jim  Stay tuned for the return trip