Forks of the Credit

A hairpin in southern Ontario, which is rarer than it sounds.

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Why this ride

A one-way ride of 58 km, Orangeville to Orangeville - roughly 1 h 07 in the saddle. The stops in between: Forks of the Credit and Cataract. The line favours views over speed.

Roadbook

1. Belfountain start

   Belfountain is where the day begins.

2. Forks of the Credit scenic

   The Credit River has an odd name with a plain explanation. French traders in the eighteenth century are said to have extended credit to the Mississauga people who lived along it, and the name stuck. Here, in the Caledon Hills, two branches of the river meet at the Forks of the Credit, and the valley opens into a deep, wooded gorge cut by meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age. The walls are steep, covered in hemlock and maple, and the river runs fast and brown at the bottom.

   This is easily one of the better places for motorcycling in southern Ontario, and it knows it. The roads around Caledon rise and fall in a way that flat Ontario does not usually allow, with bends that tighten in the valleys and open out on the ridges, and with a good run of tarmac, in a rural setting of old farms, horse paddocks and stone walls. It draws a lot of riders from the Toronto area, and the neighbours and the police are very aware of it. There are speed limits and enforcement on a number of the popular lanes, and on the better days the road can feel like a car park with a few bikes in it. Early weekday mornings are the most civilised time.

   The area has an industrial past that is hard to see now. In the nineteenth century the falls and rapids drove mills, quarries and, from the 1870s, a railway line that wound up the valley, and the old line is now a rail trail. The Forks of the Credit Provincial Park preserves some of the glacial landforms and is a favourite with hikers, and the Bruce Trail crosses it. In autumn the valley is crowded with leaf-peepers from the city, so you may share the narrow roads with a lot of hesitant drivers.

   You will not find fuel here, so fill the tank in Orangeville, seventeen kilometres to the north, which is a proper town with all services, or Brampton to the south. The villages in between have the odd cafe, bakery or farm stand, but they close early in the evening, and in the cold months many are shut altogether. Spring meltwater makes the river impressive, and October is the busiest and most colourful month.

3. Cataract scenic

   Cataract is a village whose name is easy to explain. The falls on the Credit River drop over a ledge of Niagara dolomite into a pool below, and in the mid-nineteenth century the water was enough to drive mills. The settlement grew up around that power and, later, around the railway: the Credit Valley Railway came through in the 1870s, and its line, now the Elora Cataract Trailway, is one of the best-known rail trails in Ontario, running for kilometres through woods and farmland between Cataract and Elora.

   Today the village is a handful of old buildings, a few good houses, an inn that has served travellers for a long time, and a trailhead where cyclists and walkers gather. The falls are small but photogenic, with water that comes off in sheets in spring and slows to a trickle in a dry summer, and the walls of the gorge below are covered in moss and ferns. The area is part of the Caledon Hills and feels more remote than the map suggests, with forest close on every side.

   For riders it is a good place to join or leave the Forks of the Credit ride. The roads here are narrower and a bit more twisty than those closer to the city, with a tendency toward blind crests, gravel at the edges and short, sharp climbs out of the river valleys. The tarmac is usually decent, but frost heave in spring can leave broken patches, and the villages are small enough that you will meet a tractor as often as a car. A morning ride in late spring, with the trees in new leaf and the river running high, is the best of it.

   It is a pleasant market town with a tidy main street, a historic downtown and a long tradition of hosting travellers heading for the hills. The trail users and the local cafes keep the village alive on weekends, but midweek and in winter it is very quiet, and that is part of its appeal.

4. Erin finish

   Erin closes the day.

Where this sits

Rides near here