Biking Collingwood's Georgian Trail

North America » Canada
June 10th 2008

Published: February 21st 2009

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Ursa Major

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Meaford Trail head at GPS: N44 36.446 W080 35.284

Biking the Georgian Trail

The Basics:
Number of times we have biked: 2-4 times each year since early 2000

Length: 34 kilometres
Surface: crushed limestone
Location: Meaford to Collingwood Ontario
Trailhead: Meaford (at the marina)
Parking: Meaford, Collingwood and others
Signage: at road crossings and on trail
Bathrooms: none on the trail
Water: none on the trail
Benches: at various locations

Ice cream: In Thornbury!!

The Georgian Trail runs from Meaford to Collingwood for a distance of 34 kilometres. It is a crushed limestone surface. The trail starts in downtown Meaford where there is parking at the wharf (by the bridge) GPS co-ordinates are N44 36.446 W080 35.284

The 12.9 kilometres from Meaford to Thornbury is the more scenic, passing through apple orchards, farmland and a golf course with a few glimpses of Georgian Bay and some new massive homes!

Thornbury is a great place to grab something to eat or/and tour the harbour. From Thornbury, the trail parallels Highway 26 (sometimes pretty close) and with some views of Georgian Bay.

When going by the beach, there are public washrooms, if you cross

Meaford

the busy highway.

The trail ends at a shopping mall in Collingwood where there are restaurants for a quick lunch. Close to Collingwood, there are a number of trails that go off. I have not taken any of these, but they appear to be more like hiking trails.

Round trip from Meaford to Collingwood will cover 68 km.

We have done this trail many, many times. In the Springtime wildflowers are out (including lots of honeysuckles, lilacs, daisies, wild roses, wild phlox, buttercups, apple blossoms and one especially delicious cherry tree!

In the fall the apple orchards are weighed down and many wild apple trees are found overhanging the trail.

In the Spring of 2009, 25 benches were added along the route from Meaford to Thornbury. There are also benches on the section from Thornbury to Collingwood.

The one major thing lacking along this route are washrooms. Your choices are to use restaurants in each town or (not well-publicized) is to use the public washrooms both at Meaford and Thornbury Harbours. Thornbury has two separate sets of washrooms at the harbour. You can also

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get water at these locations. Neither of the washrooms is on the trail so head for the harbour in both cases.

If you are camping we highly recommend Meaford Memorial Park (www.meaford.ca/memorialpark) which is just a few hundred metres from the trail and on Georgian Bay. In 2014-2015 the park was being upgraded so that the sites are now larger and more level. Very Nice

One of our favourite stops in Meaford on weekends is the NET SHED. It is where fishermen used to repair their nets. It has been taken over by the Friends of the Meaford Public Library. The building is BULGING with 10 000 plus books. On weekends, boxes and boxes of lightly used pocketbooks are laid out on tables. You can spend hours browsing and then walk away with bags of books for a donation. We stock up twice a year!

https://www.friendsofmeafordlibrary.ca/?page_id=42

Additional photos below

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