wheeling
through wine
country
Enjoy a Picton perfect day
BY ALLEN MACARTNEY
¦ Looking to try out some new cycling You can stay on a short, prepared cycling custom advice on how you can get the most
trails in beautiful, rolling countryside? Prince trail (like the 12-kilometre route through of your adventure.
Edward County, a vast, sprawling peninsula Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area), or Prince Edward Country is a cyclist’s (and
spreading out into Lake Ontario west of sketch out a more ambitious journey through wine-taster’s) dream. Summer or fall, it has
Kingston, offers a network of cycling and gentle farmland and vineyards. One example lots to offer – even the occasional wild turkey
hiking trails for the entire family. Only several (novice/intermediate level) starts at Picton, flock, foraging its way across a farm field!
hours’ drive by car from Ottawa, Picton is the then follows County Highway 8 southeast (Allen Macartney (Ottawa Outdoors’ managing
historic and picturesque hub of this beautiful to Waupoos, and continues in an anti- editor) and his family enjoyed a long weekend
area. Good restaurants and B&Bs abound. clockwise giant loop out to a beautiful little cycling with his family in Prince Edward County
From Picton (or one of many nearby marina, before swinging back on County last year.)
charming villages) you can follow winding Highway 7. You can cycle on paved rural
country lanes that lead to excellent wineries, roads the entire way, or take gravel lanes for
twO lOnger rOutes fOr
bird sanctuaries, 200-year-old stone part of the tour – an excellent day trip.
intermeDiate cyclists
buildings, and sandy beaches. For decades Prince Edward County is laced with a • Deseronto to Picton loop: This
the region has been a real mecca for artists network of vineyards, and boasts a rapidly 134-kilometre loop offers cycling over a
and photographers alike, drawn to the expanding wine industry that has already flat to rolling landscape. You’ll see lots of
area’s giant sand dunes and gently moving produced award-winning vintages. You can water on all sides.
pace of life. cycle from one winery to another, tasting the • Belleville to Bloomfield: This
You could do worse than start your liquid harvest from each, while you fortify intermediate-level loop follows a
adventure on a small network of trails that yourself with local cheese from the Black 124-kilometre paved route (one kilometre
begin and end at Sandbanks Provincial Park Creek Cheese Factory. is gravel) over rolling farmland.
in the county’s southwestern corner. Others The entire county is framed by scenic
lead through historic villages, and past shorelines – some rocky and others sand-
useful websites
restaurants with excellent menus. You’ll covered. Secluded beaches, some with • Wine and culinary cycle tours:
find live theatre, artist studios and galleries, plunging cliffs (like at the Little Bluff
www.pecwinetours.com
and many bird-watching lookouts beside Conservation Area) offer tranquil bathing • Conservation parks and beaches:
rocky bluffs that drop off into Lake Ontario. and picnic areas.
www.pec.on.ca/other/conserv.html
Roads tend to be uncrowded – except during Don’t have a bicycle? You’ll find many • Bike tour ideas:
www.bikeontours.ca/
long weekends. cycle rental shops in the area that offer
quinte.htm. «OO
www.OttawaOutdoors.ca OTTAWA >> SUMMER/FALL 2008 47
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