Algonquin Park – Fall 2022… Bike Trail and Track and Tower Trail

trumstravels

Dec 24

This park has so much to offer, even biking. They took a portion of the old railway line and made it into a bike trail. Totalling 16km, this flat trail is accessed at the following campgrounds: Mew Lake, Lake of Two Rivers, Kearney Lake, Raccoon Lake, Pog Lake, and Rock Lake. The trail follows the old rail line of the historic Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway and includes multiple bridges, lakes, forests, rapids and more. There are also interpretive panels along the trail. We normally leave from Mew Lake campground and take the trail down a short ways until you get to an intersection. You can go left to Rock Lake or right to Cache Lake area. We have done both ends, more than once. When we go right, we get to the end of the bike trail which also becomes part of the Track and Tower trail. We like to park our bikes and then walk a portion of the Track and Tower trail to areas we like and then head back home on our bikes. Now this walking trail is only about 8 kms (3 hours) but there is also an optional 5.5 km side trip which follows an abandoned railway to Mew Lake. The trail head is located on Hwy 60 at Km 25. It doesn't seem that long but there is a lot of ups and downs and the trail has a lot of rocks, roots etc. It does have an overview of Cache Lake and a variety of different landscapes.

Part of the bike trail
More bike trail
Part of the Track and Tower trail
Part of the Track and Tower trail
Part of the Track and Tower trail
Part of the Track and Tower trail

As I mentioned, you access the Track and Tower from Highway 60, but this is a short cut for us when we only want to do part of it. I think we did about 4-5 kms this day plus probably a few kms to bike down to this area. It's difficult to tell in the images below, but there is a big parking lot at the trail head but it gets so full that cars park up and down both sides of the highway in order to access the trail !