Rosseau is the quiet one of the three Muskoka stops. It lies at the northern end of Lake Rosseau, in a country of bare granite, black water and thin pine, and it is smaller, calmer and a good deal less manicured than Port Carling. In the nineteenth century this was a frontier: a colonisation road was pushed through the bush from Parry Sound on Georgian Bay, and the lake steamers met it here, so that settlers and goods could carry on by water into the heart of Muskoka. The land turned out to be far poorer for farming than the government had hoped, with soil that barely covered the rock, and a lot of the early farms failed, which is why the region turned to logging and then to tourism.
That history explains the landscape. Many of the roads follow the old routes, and they have a purposeful, slightly crooked feel, with rock cuts, short steep pitches, one-lane bridges and frost-heave bumps. The rock cuts are a pleasure on a bike: pink and grey granite, scraped by glaciers, with birch roots clinging to the top. Traffic is lighter than around Bracebridge and Port Carling, though the weekend cottage flow still reaches here, and there are logging trucks and the occasional tractor. Deer are plentiful at dusk, and in autumn the sumac and red maple are brilliant against the dark conifers.
The village has an old-fashioned centre with a small store, a few places to eat and a waterfront that looks across the bay. It feels like a place that has been a summer resort for more than a century, with old wooden lodges and cottages along the shore, but it has not been polished into a showpiece. A mooch along the water, a coffee and a slow ride out again is a good use of an hour.
Fuel is the thing to plan. Rosseau itself is small, so do not rely on it; Parry Sound, about thirty kilometres to the west on Georgian Bay, is the nearest town of any size, and Huntsville is a similar distance to the north-east. Fill up at one of them before you come in. The lake is lovely in the evening, when the wind drops and the water goes flat, and the mosquitoes come out, so keep a jacket handy.