Need to get a long training ride of 150k or so for IMMT done while camping at nearby Pinery. Can anyone familiar with the area recommend a safe route (i.e. not alot of traffic and with paved shoulders)? Does not need to be a loop. O&B is fine. I am not from the area and hence why I am reaching out. I checked Map My Ride and there are only 2 suggestions. One route was 130k (point to point) and went along Grand Bend Line–>Hwy 5–>Hwy 4 but, no comments as to quality of the road, safety, etc. The other was 75k (point to point) and went into downtown London but, too many turns for me to care about writing down on a piece of paper. Thanks!
I don’t have a specific route for you but the best cycling route to london as far as road quality would be Greenway Rd to macgillvary. Macgillvary ends at den field road which you can take south all the way to Ilderton Road. One concession to the east is the town of Ilderton where you can pop into the convenience store to refuel if needed. You can go east or west on Ilderton road for at least 20 km either direction to add distance.
It’s also easy to get into london from Ilderton if you’d like. Most roads in that area are fairly good for cycling…if you like slowly rolling terrain with endless farm fields…
I would suggest avoiding Lakeshore/Hwy 21 which is the main road near the pinery. Lots of weekend/vacation traffic and not much of a shoulder. Also avoid Elginfield/Hwy 7, super busy with traffic.
Thanks for the suggestion.
yeah, lakeshore around the pinery would be crazy on the weekends, but otherwise not too bad and semi-popular with cyclists.
i know some guys out of sarnia used to go out to arkona to ride hills . . . all the county lines out there are quiet and reasonably well-paved. if you headed straight south to london road and turned east, that’d take you all the way to london eventually.
don’t know that there’s much point in going to london specifically - plenty of little villages you could ride to for food/fuel and then head on. london’s more and more sprawling and i think the suburbs might be really annoying on a bike.
anyway, my info’s quite out of date . . . good luck!
Not sure if this is one of the mapmyride routes.
There is a MS charity ride from Grand Bend to London and back… Their guide includes a route map.
I think this link will work… if not google MS ride grand bend to london.
http://mssoc.convio.net/site/DocServer/MS_Bike_Handbook_2014_EN5_WEB.pdf?docID=4481