Rouge to Goodwood Gravel Loop
A 50 km loop on the country roads around Rouge National Urban Park. Half smooth pavement, half gravel, with butter tarts in the middle.
Distance
50 km
Elevation
287 m
Ride time
2.5–3 hr
Difficulty
Moderate
A 50 km loop on the country roads around Rouge National Urban Park. Half smooth pavement, half gravel, with butter tarts in the middle.
Distance
50 km
Elevation
287 m
Ride time
2.5–3 hr
Difficulty
Moderate
The route
About this ride
Somewhere in that peace and quiet, you'll be reminded why you fell in love with this sport in the first place.
The route splits neatly in two. The first half is paved and holds most of the climbing over rolling moraine roads, delivering you to the hamlet of Goodwood, where Annina's Bakeshop, a long-time cyclist favourite famous for its butter tarts, is the natural stop. From there the pavement gives way to gravel for roughly half the loop. It's bumpier and slower, but the payoff is the calm: near-empty concession roads where it's mostly your tyres, the birds, and whoever you brought along.
Stops along the way
4 of 4 showing
0 km · loop start/finish
We parked at the Black Walnut Day Use Area in Rouge National Urban Park, off Reesor Road. A quiet, easy trailhead lot to roll out from, right where the paved roads begin climbing.
Open in Maps →~15 km · Goodwood
The reason to smile mid-ride. A long-time cyclist favourite in the hamlet of Goodwood, famous for its butter tarts, with coffee, home-style baking, and a big front-lawn patio with picnic tables. It's your main resupply, so fuel up here before the gravel begins.
Open in Maps →after Goodwood
Roughly half the loop is unpaved. The climbing is mostly done on the paved first half; after Goodwood the roads turn to gravel, bumpier and slower going. You'll definitely want gravel tyres for this one, a 25 mm road setup won't cut it.
gravel sections
The gravel concessions are near carless and services thin out fast once you leave Goodwood, so carry water, a snack, and what you'd want for a flat. That self-sufficiency is the price of the peace, and it's well worth it.
From the ride
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