Cambden East Loop

 October 2017 after some recce had found a loop that passed through Camden East with as much unmaintained  or gravel as possible.

Cambden East Loop

It took much longer than I had hoped to be able to ride this loop as 2017 saw in the Spring a huge amount of rain. And with a already high water table it left lots more water on the tracks then normal. It caused me to skip doing the 2017 Turbine ride again with that new route.

I should note that it took me several weeks to recce the sections of this route. I wanted to ensure that it was all on unmaintained Loyalist Township roads. These same roads also act as snowmobile routes in winter. And as it was a route I was going to share publicly wanted to avoid any potential trespassing issues.

Once I parked and geared up at the Camden East and 401 Kiss and Ride lot. Sans a kiss it was off to ride the loop for the first time.

Of course it has to start rain as I do this route. But then that would have been to easy. After a turn down Maple to the dead end where the track begins and a bit of grinding through the un-mowed grass it was a left turn onto the unmaintained section of Simmons Road.

While there was water on Simmons which included one section of having to dismount to hoof it around one big body of water. It was pretty good section. At the end of Simmons it was right on Switzerville to go a bit before a left onto McKeown Rd. I had a suspicion that the first half of McKeown was going to be a ATV rut festivus.

And I was right as the first half had lots of ruts from ATV's. So there was more dismount and hike than I would have liked. But it would be a boring route without a few challenges. And by about the half way mark the ruts where gone to be replaced by lots of puddles.

The weather despite the rain did work in my favour as the whole time the rain was warm for October. It could have gone the other way and things worked out. The only downside to the rain was that being in Limestone land was wet limestone. And as is well known by internet studies...there is no known tire known to stick to wet Limestone.

After McKeown had to make a right onto County Road 1 East as the other option was on private land and was avoiding that option. With it raining didn't stop long in Camden East so no gas station. It should be noted that the Esso gas station has baked goods that are good. And on a hot day can get a nice cold cola.

From Cambden East headed south on County Road 4 heading for Love Road another unmaintained road. a few k out of the hamlet turned left onto Love Rd.  Nothing scary here just sand and gravel with traction thanks to the rain. After passing a DND training area turned south again on a un named track that took me to Fred Brown road Rd which I turned left on and followed till it forked and took Thorpe Rd. Thorpe being gravel.  When it dead ended at Maple headed right till it met back up with County Road 4. Turned left to head back to the kiss and ride. And the Dirtbag Ute to eat and relax.

One big bonus of getting the Dirtbag Ute is even if it rains is being able to sit on the tailgate with the cap door as a cover. Eat some food and drink a Pepsi while relaxing after getting off the bike. Much better plan then trying to drive 10k hungry needing food. Plus it gave me time to think about the next mod to the Dirtbag Ute.