An 89 km loop out of Beeton, north through open farm fields to Cookstown, west to a coffee stop in downtown Alliston, out to the farm store at Sheldon Creek Dairy in Loretto, then the long way back with most of the climbing saved for the end.
Distance
89 km
Elevation
634 m
Ride time
3–4 hr
Difficulty
Moderate
The route
About this ride
Ninety kilometres of Simcoe County you would otherwise drive straight past on the way somewhere else.
Beeton is a village of about four thousand in south Simcoe County, and it is named after bees. It was Clarksville until the 1870s, when David Allanson Jones set up here and built what became Canada's largest commercial honey operation, founded the Ontario Beekeepers' Association and started the Canadian Bee Journal. The branch library we parked at still carries his name. The loop leaves the village heading north and is into open field within a couple of kilometres.
The first thirty kilometres are the flattest part of the day, a long run north and east through cropland to Cookstown, which bills itself as the antique capital of southern Ontario. From there the route turns back west across the top of the loop toward Alliston, the largest town on the ride and the halfway point. Alliston is potato country, it holds a potato festival every August, and it is where Frederick Banting was born. Downtown is a few square blocks of low main street, and Pink Peony Cafe on Victoria Street East is the stop.
After Alliston the route drops southwest to Loretto and the farm store at Sheldon Creek Dairy at about 63 km, a working dairy with a retail shop and an ice cream bar attached. The run home from there is where the elevation sits. It is rolling rather than steep for most of it, and then the road turns up again about two kilometres from the finish, which is a long way into an 89 km day. Leave something in the legs for that one.
Stops along the way
5 of 5 showing
0 km · 42 Main St W, Beeton
Where we left the car. The New Tecumseth library branch sits right on Main Street with a small lot, and it is a straight roll north out of the village from the door. Named after the beekeeper the town is named after. If the lot is busy, there is street parking either side of Main.
Open in Maps →0 to 31 km · south Simcoe cropland
The first third of the loop is the flattest ground of the day, concession roads through open field with very little between you and the horizon. It is the easiest place on the route to sit in and cover distance, and worth remembering that the second half does not stay this way.
~52 km · 5 Victoria St E, Alliston
The coffee stop, just off the main street in downtown Alliston. Specialty coffee, baked goods and a light lunch menu, and enough of a sit-down that it works as the proper break in the middle of the ride. Worth checking their hours ahead if you are setting off late.
Open in Maps →~63 km · 4300 Concession Rd 5, Loretto
A working dairy farm with a retail store and an ice cream bar on the front of it. The Den Haan family milk here and bottle their own non-homogenized A2 milk on site, and the shop carries several hundred other Ontario-made products alongside it. Listed as open daily 10 to 6.
Open in Maps →~84 to 87 km · the last climb into Beeton
Roughly half the day's elevation sits in the back third, and the last of it is the one that bites. The road pitches up for about two kilometres from around 84 km and only lets go a couple of kilometres from the finish. It caught us out after a long day, so ride the run home expecting it rather than counting the kilometres down.
From the ride
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