Guided Bike Ride on Algonquin's Old Rail Trail

A lumber baron accidentally built you the perfect bike trail

Here's a strange thing about Algonquin. The flattest, easiest way to see the park was laid down in 1896 by a logging magnate named J.R. Booth, who was thinking about timber and grain, not tourists on rented bikes.

His Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway ran clear across the park until 1959. Trains can't climb steep hills, so the line had to stay gentle and level the whole way. The rails are long gone. What's left is about 16 kilometres of packed gravel that rolls past lakes and through the forest without asking much of your legs in return.

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A guided rail-trail ride from Toronto, bike included

That's where the guided trip comes in. We handle the early start, the drive, the park pass, a fat-tire bike sized and waiting when you step off the coach, and a guide named Cristina who leads the whole ride, sets an easy pace, and knows the trail's history. You handle pedalling, snacking, and deciding how many photos of the same loon is too many.

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What the day feels like

• The first pedal stroke tells you everything. The grade is dead flat from the start, so there's no grinding uphill and no traffic to dodge, just open trail and the sound of gravel under fat tires.
• Lake of Two Rivers opens up beside you, wide and quiet, and somebody always spots the loon first. You'll stop. Everybody stops.
• The old airfield meadow is the lovely surprise: an overgrown runway full of wild blueberries in mid-summer. (Yes, the bears like them too. No, you will not be racing a bear for berries. Probably.)
• Cristina rides up front the whole way, setting a social pace with plenty of stops. Nobody is timing you, nobody gets left behind, and you never have to wonder where the trail goes next. Pull over for water, a snack, a photo, a reason to stand still in a genuinely beautiful place.
• Your "training plan" for this ride is: own a bicycle at some point in your life, ideally. That's it. If you can ride to the corner store, you can ride this trail.
• By the ride back, your legs are pleasantly tired, your camera roll is suspiciously loon-heavy, and you're on the coach home in time for dinner.

Come alone. You won't stay that way.

Here's what we've learned after years of these trips. A coach full of strangers arriving somewhere together does something a parking lot full of separate cars never does. Maybe you booked this solo because none of your friends will get up early on a Saturday. Maybe you came with someone who "doesn't really bike." Maybe you just wanted a day where someone else handles the logistics. By the first snack stop, you're swapping trail mix and bear stories with people you'd never met that morning. Solo riders aren't the exception here. They're half the bus.