{"id":33065,"date":"2014-08-01T10:53:35","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T14:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclemojo.com\/?p=33065"},"modified":"2020-02-28T12:16:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T17:16:24","slug":"highlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/motorcyclemojo.com\/2014\/08\/highlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Riding the Highlands"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you seek twists and turns, elevation changes around every corner, and faraway vistas, the Ontario Highlands should suit your needs<\/p>\n
Road trip! The good weather is here, and we\u2019ve escaped from the office. Glenn and I hit the open road the first week of June with a couple of 2014 adventure bikes to see what life looks like from behind a set of handlebars instead of a keyboard. Our goal was to cover 1600 km, traversing the highlands of eastern Ontario. I was anxious to make some new discoveries in my home province and to ride the twisting roads less travelled.<\/p>\n
Our trip was selected based on a combination of routes featured on the new interactive website ridethehighlands.ca. The site has been set up by the Ontario Highlands Tourism Organization (ohto.ca) to promote motorcycle tourism in the province.<\/p>\n
<\/a>For the next four days, we would be riding the 2014 Yamaha Super T\u00e9n\u00e9r\u00e9 ES and the 2014 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 SE. The Suzuki carried most of our gear and camera equipment, while the Yamaha was out front carrying the maps and directions. That\u2019s right, paper maps and written directions. We had access to a GPS if we had wanted, but this approach seemed fitting, given that we were trying to get away from the office and the hi-tech environment. Each morning we switched up bikes, allowing us to split the navigation duties.<\/p>\n Leaving the Mojo mansion was a bittersweet feeling (by bitter, I mean others were bitter, and by sweet I mean sweeeeet!). We first headed for Bancroft. The fast, sweeping corners of Highways 503 and 118 let us get a feel for the bikes and settle into our ride.<\/p>\n We passed through Bancroft on the way to Maynooth, where you\u2019ll find the beginning of Peterson Road, which turns into Elephant Lake Road. The next 34 km of riding is all the reason you\u2019ll ever need to get a motorcycle licence. Turn after turn snakes through forested hills, allowing you to test the limits of your skills and your bike. It is a must ride for anyone on two wheels. At the bottom of Elephant Lake Road, we arrived at Harcourt and the Olde Ridge Authentic BBQ. We wandered in to find owner Bobby Turner hard at work, prepping for the coming season. The smell of fresh-smoked BBQ ribs had me drooling as we attempted to secure our care package to the back of the Yamaha with a series of straps and bungees. The rest of the ride to Carnarvon was spent carving around perfect roads while keeping one eye and sometimes a hand on the precious cargo behind me.<\/p>\n Arriving at the Stouffer Mill B&B gave us our first chance to take the bikes off the pavement. It was only about a kilometre from the road to the top of the driveway, but the steep climb on the freshly graded driveway was a nice change and showed how capable the bikes are. Don and Jessie greeted us and welcomed us into their beautiful, bike-friendly establishment, even giving us VIP covered parking right next to their own bike.<\/p>\n I started the next morning aboard the Suzuki, en route to the Dorset Lookout Tower. As soon as we set out, I could feel the character of the V-Strom was very different than that of the Super T\u00e9n\u00e9r\u00e9.<\/p>\n