Brian is your host for Tuesday’s ride from Presqu’ile Park. He wants to make sure you read this and reserve your spot soon! See his detailed email invitation and instructions for making a day use reservation below.
The Ride: Next Tuesday’s ride will start at the picnic area in Presqu’ile Provincial Park, and it will follow the Presqu’ile Promise route listed under Brighton on the website. Since we are starting inside the park, rather than at Gosport, the rides are a couple of kilometres shorter than listed (54 and 38 km). You should know, however, that the long route is considerably hillier than the short route as the former takes in the dreaded Telephone Road!
How to Get There: After entering the park, follow the Day Use Area signs for 5 km. After 4 km you will arrive at the Lake Ontario shoreline, but keep going for a further 1 km until you see the picnic shelter on your left. Look to the right and you should see my car beside the lake. I plan to be there by 9 AM at the latest, and will likely have my picnic breakfast there!
You Need to Make a Day-Use Reservation! The good news is that you do not have to pay the usual $21 fee to use a provincial park for daytime use Mondays to Thursdays this year; the bad news is that you do need to make a reservation as they are limiting numbers due to Covid.
There needs to be one reservation per vehicle, and here’s what you need to do:
- No more than five days ahead of time (so not before Friday), go to www.ontarioparks.com.
- Click on Reservations (top menu bar), then on Reserve Online.
- If you have an Ontario parks Web account, click on Sign In (top menu bar) and enter your credentials. This will save you time at checkout.
- Click on Create Reservation and then on Day Use. Select the Park (Presqu’ile, obviously) and the Date (July 20th).
- From the map, click on Daily Vehicle Permit, and then click on July 20thagain. Click on Reserve.
- Check the two “Please Read and Acknowledge” boxes and then click the green Confirm Reservation Details button that should appear.
- The Shopping Cart should then appear with an amount of $0.
- Click the green Proceed to Checkout button and then on the green Confirm Acknowledgements button on the subsequent screen.
- Finally, click on the Confirm Booking button and your reservation number will appear! It is not a bad idea to “Print Confirmation Letter” (which you leave on your dashboard) as you can then bypass the gatehouse if it is busy. Don’t worry if you turn up without your confirmation number as they will have a list of the day’s reservations at the gatehouse.
- N.B.: If you do not already have an Ontario parks account, you will need to enter your name at some stage, but I am not sure where that is!)
Although this sounds complicated, it really isn’t. I think you will find the Website to be very intuitive.
I urge you to make a reservation even if you are not certain that you will be attending the ride. There is no charge to make it, and you will not be sent to jail if you do not turn up!
If it is a nice day you should consider joining us for the “apres events” even if you are not riding as this is such a nice location. Take in the boardwalk, take a stroll along the beach, birdwatch, read a book …..whatever! We typically finish riding sometime between 12 NOON and 1:00 PM.
Ganaraska Freewheelers Cycling Club 
It’s never too soon to make your Presqu’ile reservation. Go for it!
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Thx Brian…..we have done ours via a phone call as rural internet was giving us trouble with buffering. See you Tues bright and early with our picnic, swimming gear and chairs. Enjoy your weekend everyone ……
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Assuming there is no charge to make the phone reservation, this might be the way to go!
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Jennifer, if might have been the easier route to take. I just finished ours and it was a bit complicated, creating an account and not the easiest site to navigate. Brian’s instructions (thank you Brian) were very helpful. It will be worth it in the end as it is a lovely site and will be a great ride.
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I am booked. It was a bit difficult because I missed the part on the map where it says Vehicle Permit. It shows you a picture of the campground map and at the top of that is where you click on the Daily Vehicle Permit (or whatever the words are). The rest was easy.
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Great instructions Brian. After a little frustration at the step of re-clicking the date, and going back and forth to reread your steps, I finally figured it out. Pete and Ruth are looking forward to the ride.
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Have booked, just me, one of us has to stay home in loco parentis for one of our grandsons. Looking forward to it.
Ricardo
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Hopeless site. Cannot get past Confirm Reservation. Will call tomorrow.
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I guess the one important step that is not particularly intuitive was mentioned by Sue.
WHEN YOU GET TO THE PARK MAP YOU MUST CLICK ON THE DAILY VEHICLE PERMIT (DVP) BUTTON AT THE TOP LEFT IN ORDER TO PROCEED. THERE SHOULD BE A SMALL GREEN BUTTON TO THE LEFT OF THE WORDS INDICATING THAT THERE IS STILL AVAILABILITY.
I have included a screen-shot of this map on our Facebook page.
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Thanks for the very detailed instructions, Brian. I phoned in this morning, and It’s all done. We look forward to another great cycle on Tuesday. See you there.
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Thanks Brian. I got my day permit and pre registered for fast entry. See you Tuesday…Paul
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I’m booked. It was easy after reading about everyone’s problems. See you all Tuesday.
Brian, that was a great ride last evening. Love the route.
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John checked the weather in detail and it looks like the rain won’t be until later in the day!
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I will be there! Looking forward to seeing everyone!
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Environment Canada is not forecasting any showers until 2 PM so we should be fine for the ride!
Be sure to read the instructions above about where to park otherwise we may never see you!
The main (54 km) route is either totally flat or very hilly. The climb up Fiddick Road and the trek along Telephone Road are the most arduous. The 38 km route avoids both of these.
The cool Lake Ontario water could actually be quite inviting for an apres-ride dip.
There is a well maintained pit privy close to where we are parking.
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I plan to ride and picnic
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