Road report Southern Georgian Bay to Eastern Ontario via Moskoka Lakes and Algonquin Park

[masonjs at nrtco.net]

I had planned to take a 250 km  run from Penetanguishene* to Sauble 
Beach on Lake Huron and back Tuesday but the weather didn't cooperate. 
 There was a vicious wet cold wind coming from the northwest across 
the Great Lakes that would have made riding miserable. On checking my 
gear at my daughter Liz' place I found that I had only packed cotton T 
shirts nothing warm nor my electric vest.
 I didn't mention I saw a black GPZ for sale in Harcount on the Monck 
Road on Monday.  It appeared in nice shape but that was a 50 kph once 
over.  It's the 1st time I'd seen one for sale on the side of the road 
except when I sold mine.
Wednesday I got up and made Mason & Rhys breakfast while Liz got ready 
for work.  They were off to school, baby sitter and work so I had 
breakfast cleaned up, showered and packed up.  It was a cool morning 
about 10C (50 F) so I rode down to my sister's place on Penetang Bay.  
I traded her a jar of Jim's wild grape jelly for the loan of a sweat 
shirt and was on my way about 9:15 am.
I retraced my route through Midland with its 4 stop lights and 2 stop 
signs vs the High Way 93 & 12 which is 2 stop signs, 14 stop lights 
and morning traffic around 2 shopping malls and a Walmart.
I took 12 to the 400 North at Waubashene*.   This is a 4 lane highway 
hacked through the granite of the Canadian shield.  In the 30 km on it 
I passed 2 work gangs blasting the granite.  Apparently the extreme 
cold of last winter had the water trapped in cracks the rock freezing 
, the rock shattering and shards of it landing on the roadway.  I 
turned off onto Muskoka 38 and rode through 18 km of twists and turns 
of  Mohawk land to the village of Bala.  At Bala I took 69a north but 
after coming on 2 bridges being rebuilt and cut down to 1 lane I got 
off onto "The Frank Miller Memorial Route"  who ever in hell Frank 
Miller was.  Now this was about 20 km of 1.5 lanes of tarmac that 
reminded me of the dragon in TN & NC.  There are about 1000 lakes in 
the Muskoka Region and the roads twist around these  The road is frost 
heaved,  potholed, blind cornered, with roads and driveways popping up 
every where.  The dappled sun light coming through the waving maple 
and oak trees didn't help either.  I clipped a cat with my front wheel 
1/2 way through one of these corners.  Didn't bother to look back to 
see how bad.
  The local road crews were putting cold patch in some of the pot 
holes.  There is a 3 guy crew--driver, shoveler and tamper downer.  
The Tamper downer was slacking off and hitting wad of untamped cold 
patch will really snug up you sphincter.
I was sweating pretty profusely when I got off the Frank Miller 
expressway onto 118  at Port Carling.     I'm thinking maybe Frank was 
the first guy killed on this road or was hanged for being the first 
one to kill someone on this road..  As bad as it was it will be far 
worst next week when the population of this area increases from 18,000 
to 100,000 or more durring the summer.
I stopped in Bracebridge to top off my fuel tank.  I don't like having 
to fill up at Algonquin outfitters "Last Chance for Gas before the 
Park" come in and get gouged.  It was &1.11/litre in Bracebridge and 
$1.29 at LCFGBTP 55 km away.  After gassing up I stopped at Tim 
Horton's for a sandwich.
While I was in the parking lot taking off my helmet an old white, 
primer and rust Chev Cavalier pulled up and parked.  The door opened 
and this huge chunk of humanity tried to extract himself.  This 
process took and good minute or more.  When  Colonel sweat pants 
finally got out he stretched .  He had matching pants and a sleeveless 
wife beater shirt.  I thought no wonder the fleece are becoming an 
endangered species in Ontario  A couple of herds of fleeces must have 
been exterminated to make this guy's outfit.
I went in and had a bathroom break and my sandwich.  While putting on 
my helmet back at the bike out comes Colonel sweat pants.  Now I 
thought him trying to deplane his car was comical.  You had to see him 
putting it back on.  A couple of gallons of grease and several shoe 
horns would have helped.  As he was donning his car I noticed he had 
an outline tattoo of a scorpion or crayfish on his neck.  That must 
have set him back about 10 time what the car did.  I'm just happy I 
saw this incident after I had traversed the Frank Miller road.  If I'd 
thought about this on that road I wouldn't have been found until the 
leaves came off the trees in October. and maybe not then.  He still 
had about 1/3 of him sticking out of the car when I left.
I took hwy 11 north for a couple of miles then 117 east.  This is a 
nice easy bike road with excellent pavement and 100 mph curves.  It 
runs along the south shore of Lake of Bays for 25 -30 km .  Its a 
spectacular drive in late September - early October when the maples 
are turning color.  Late September you get dark red leaves then 
oranges and yellows.  I turned north onto 35 at the end of 117 at 
Dorset and was immediately met by a bridge under repair and down to 
one lane.  While waiting for the light to change I watched a couple of 
white tailed deer does come out of the bush and start molesting some 
home owner's vegetable garden. I was so intrigued by the deer that I 
didn't notice light turned green until people started going around me.
I took 35 north, nice highway, excellent pavement and great curves.  
The curves are actually better between Dorset and Carnarvon to the 
south but I was heading for the park not Haliburton.  35 ends (or 
starts) at 60 and I headed east on 60.
The first 1/2 of the park was good then I started hitting ditch, road 
and bridge work with either stop lights or sign guys.  At one of the 
bridge stops there was a snapping turtle on the road beside me.  It's 
shell was about 16" long and 12" wide (40 cm X 30 cm).  He had a head 
the size of my hand.  I didn't want to fuck up at another light but I 
didn't need this dinosaur taking a bite out of my foot so I rolled the 
bike ahead past the white stop line.
I stopped at the lookout at Wilno and had a drink.  A Milwaukee Tools 
truck pulled in and female rep got out with her Jack Russel dog.  I 
asked if she might have any sample 12v batteries for my electric 
jacket.  She didn't have any but I did get a nice 6' metal scale and a 
magic marker.
The road work lasted to Kilaloe and put me about 1.5 hours behind.
I pulled into the cottage about 3:45 pm.  Marilyn had moved my piece 
of plywood that keeps my side stand from sinking into the fill around 
the cottage.  Fortunately my side stand disc was in my jacket pocket.
I took the saddle bags off the bike and went inside and changed.  I 
looked out the window and Levi was showing his love of my bike by 
pissing on the rear wheel.
I think I'll take Levi and the boat over to see if I have any 
interlopers at my cabin on the island that we can give "The Bum's 
Rush" to.

Ththththat's all folks