Login | August 27, 2025
Bruce Peninsula Canada
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: August 25, 2025
Despite the US-Canada relationship being a bit rocky as of late - and that’s about as deep as I’ll dip my political toe in on this issue - I just couldn’t imagine letting the current state of political affairs deny me the recreational pleasures that exist up north.
So to Canada we went, despite all my trepidations on how we’d be received.
And as a side note: I was completely blown away by both the Canadian’s warmth, hospitality and the gregariousness with which they welcomed us.
Our destination was Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula, a small finger of land lying between Lake Huron on its western side and the Georgian Bay on its eastern side.
The “Bruce” is a place, that when viewed on a map, appears as an insignificant little spit of land surrounded by an ocean of water.
What’s more, it’s a mere speck of terra firma amidst the immensity of Ontario.
But are looks ever deceiving because there’s a whole lot of territory to play on in the Bruce - like 1,500 square miles worth of land and 1,180 miles worth of coastline!
The Bruce is famous for its crazy beautiful vistas along the many miles of craggy, cliffy Georgian Bay coastline and its near tropical-like sandy beaches along majestic Lake Huron.
And what’s so amazing is that these two diametrically different topographic features are mere miles away from one another.
It’s analogous to surfing the ocean in the morning and skiing the mountains in the afternoon.
Thus, in the morning you can cycle along the west side of the Bruce down quiet country roads that hug Huron’s flat sandy beaches, and then within an hour or so of riding due east you can hit punchy rollers that eventually morph into bone crushing hill climbs - some as nutty as 25+ percent - to eventually end up at the Bruce’s eastern terminus along the turquoise waters of the Georgian Bay.
And that’s where you’ll find one incredible overlook after another for as far as the eye can see.
Okay, so I’ve written an ALN column (Gravel Cycling To Beach Chilling: Aug. 24, 2024) a year ago regarding a trip we did to Port Elgin, a lakeside town which resides half way up the western flank of the Bruce.
And in that little area alone we enjoyed five full days worth of cycling, hiking and beach lounging.
Now on this most recent trip we decided to expand our Bruce horizons and dig into several of the other regions that comprise the peninsula.
One foray was a bike ride east out of the town of Goderich on the famous G2G rail trail, a west-to-east 60-mile crushed limestone trail that crosses nearly half of the southern Bruce.
Generally it runs across a flatter part of the area with very picturesque farms and fields that seemingly continue forever.
Nearly half of the route is tree-lined so even on hot days you can get some shade, but there are other areas that offers zero protection from the sun and the ever present southwesterly winds that sometimes blow like freight trains off Lake Huron.
Other cycling forays entailed both gravel and tarmac routes across a large expanse of land between western Port Elgin and eastern Meaford, where the riding ranged from flat, fast and easy to hilly, slow and darned hard.
And as much as I don’t like riding tarmac anymore, if you stay off the few main thoroughfares that crisscross this area, the smaller secondary tarmac roads are almost totally devoid of traffic and an absolute joy to ride upon.
But…get thee upon the gravel roads and suddenly the world is your oyster, for there’s nary a peep from motorized vehicles and there’s nothing but blue sky, green fields and miles of solitude surrounding your soul!
Our lone hike was across a small section of the Bruce Trail, a 550-mile-long single track hiking/backpacking trail that follows the cliff-forming Niagara Escarpment.
And it to didn’t disappoint, as we were treated to some amazing vistas along the way.
And what made it even more amazing was the fact that we encountered only two people during an entire day of hiking. I subsequently nicknamed it “Pictured Rocks Without the People.”
Honestly, this trail alone is worth a trip to the Bruce.
Okay, I planned this Bruce trip via The Ontario Backroads Atlas by MapArt Publishing, an invaluable map book for plotting adventurous treks into Ontario.
So if I’ve managed to perk your curiosity about the Bruce region…your first step involves purchasing this amazing gazetteer.