My Favourite Ride: Oakville-Acton-Oakville

Today was a glorious one in Toronto, so I set out on my favourite ride. I brought my camera along, planning to document the route. But I ran out of batteries about three photos in. Luckily I had quite extensively photographed it on a ride last fall. But the colourful leaves are a bit incongruous in an early-May post! Well, bear with me.

The ride is an exactly 100km loop. It begins and ends at the Oakville GO station, and has as its turn-around the lovely town of Acton. Acton is perhaps best known as the home of the "Olde Hide House" leather shop, with its slogan "It's worth the drive to Acton." Well, it's worth the ride as well! The loop is scenic and fun, with two tremendously steep ascents of the Escarpment, and some fun descending as well... It's all covered below!

I first rode these roads with the Toronto chapter of Randonneurs Ontario. My route is a very slight modification of the Oakville-Acton 120 Populaire. See the route sheet on that page for exact directions, and read below for my modifications. (Basically, pick it up at Lower Baseline Rd.)

I'll try to mostly avoid gear-discussion in this post, so I'll get it over with now! Here is my bike at the Exhibition GO station, ready for the train ride to Oakville. This is my Nishiki, which was my winter "beater" until last week. There was a 200km Randonneurs ride I wanted to do, but since I won't have my Polito for some months, I was randonneur-less. So I set Nishiki up as a "temporary randonneur." As you can see, he's quite nice! I used the Stronglight cranks (46/30) that were supposed to go on Marta's Fuji (the spider was out of true—it took some work!), wheels from yardsale find (Weinmann rims and Shimano 600 sealed-bearing hubs!), the Berthoud bag that's been sitting on my shelf for a year, and various other things from my increasingly incredible "spare parts" collection. It's a true pleasure to ride—the phenomenally narrow tread definitely feels nice when riding. (I couldn't ride the 200km, alas, because I couldn't get a ride to the start. Distant start-points and my lack of a car are the bane of my randonneuring existence...)

My newly installed VO decaleur. It works quite well, though it rattles (I'll bend the tubes.) A shorter stem would be a good idea for keeping the bag out of my hands. The bag is supported by one of the silly-looking, cheap, but functional TA Mafac racks which bolt right on to any Mafac brake. The bell dinged jubliantly and independently throughout my bumpy ride...

My modified route sheet! Highlighting indicates extremely steep hills...

Okay. I arrived at the Oakville GO station, took Lyons Lane north under the QEW, and headed up Sixth line. There's a bike lane, and suburban traffic of this sort for about 4km.

Then, before you know it, you're in the country. (Here my batteries died, so we're back to fall!) You take Sixth Line until you hit Lower Baseline Rd, pictured above.

Lower Baseline follows a river. There are nice views to the right.

At two points it dips down and crosses the river. The bridges are a bit rough, but the little climbs away from them are fun (and gorgeous in the fall!).

Descending toward the second bridge...

You continue west on Lower Baseline, then head north on First Line. This is farmland, and flat. But visible on the western horizon is the Escarpment. Small as it may seem, this is as close as we get to a mountain range in southern Ontario...

Heading west on Britannia Road, bound for Tremaine.

You keep on Tremaine until 14th Sideroad, home of the first serious climb. And very serious it is! I don't know the actual grade, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's 20% in parts. It's also quite long, tree-lined, and twisty. When I rode this in a 42x15 fixed gear, I got about a quarter of the way up before I gave up. Two weeks ago I was out of the saddle and pushing hard in a 42x27 just to stay moving. Today, a 30x26 allowed me to climb in the saddle. It was still tough going, but for the first time I was able to appreciate the beautiful view from the top!

One you reach the top, you head north on the plateau along Appleby line, which leads to a steep descent. This is looking back up from the bottom. (This is one of the sad-to-non-Ontarians ski hills in the side of the Escarpment.)

Then, immediately, comes another tough climb—6th Line/Nassagaweya Road. This is neither as hard or as pretty as 14th Sideroad. It's quite manageable at first but kicks up viciously near the summit. This is the view from the top. I think these two climbs would make my route ideal "Spring Classics" material! (Thus the "Oakville-Acton-Oakville" designation above!)

Once you're up the Nassagaweya Road climb, you're in my favourite country. It's a nice plateau with rolling roads and lots of swamps, ponds, and streams. It's mostly deserted by cars and cyclists and very peaceful. There's even a nice section of dirt road! (That's Nassagaweya Esquesing Townline, reached from 15th Sideroad.)

The next turn is east on 17th Sideroad.

Then it's north on Dublin Rd. This another beautiful, rolling road. You stay on it past 22nd and 25th Sideroad right up until Mill St., which leads into Acton.

The halfway point!

Downtown Acton! My usual stop is the Jug City convenience store, which has a nice bench out front. But there's also a nice little restaurant, and a Tim Horton's on the outskirts. Today I only stopped for 5 minutes for a Pepsi, and was back on my way...

You leave town on Churchill, descending into more beautiful country... Glen Lawson leads to 4th Line, which leads to 22nd Sideroad, which leads into Limehouse—a gorgeous, tiny town I unfortunately don't have a picture of. It's a highlight!

From Limehouse I head south on 5th Line (skipping the detours on the Randonneurs' routesheet) to 10th Sideroad, then south on 6th line. Here it's back to farmland. The landscape doesn't excite me here quite as it does on the Escarpment plateaux, but there are pretty farmhouses and fields, and views of the Escarpment on the right...

Navigating back to the GO station is pretty simple: 6th line goes all the way there (you need to head east a bit when you hit Steeles to connect back with 6th line). As you get closer to the city, increasing numbers of cyclists out on "training rides" begin to come out of the woodwork. Today a fellow on a carbon Orbea passed me and said, "Old school! Cool!" I tried my best to stay on his wheel and show him just how quickly I could move on my "old school" bike... but I decided that wasn't quite in the spirit of the ride, and let him go!

I'm allowed to be moderately competitive with myself, though, I figure. I completed the ride in 3 and a half hours today — fast for me, and leaving me half an hour for donut-buying at Tim Horton's before I had to catch the train back home...