Vaughan to Bancroft: the mineral capital and the drive nobody else takes

Bancroft, north-east and out of the way

Bancroft sits on the York River in the Hastings Highlands, the eastern half of the cottage-country Shield that most of the GTA drives past on its way to Algonquin's west gate. It is a town of four thousand with a main street, a mineral museum, a hill called the Eagle's Nest with a lookout over the valley, and, in the first week of August, the Rockhound Gemboree — Canada's largest gem and mineral show, which fills the arena and the curling club with dealers and the surrounding hills with families digging for rocks. Vaughan families with children who own a rock tumbler book it every year; families with a cottage on Baptiste Lake, Paudash Lake or the Mississippi River book the transfer; and a group of friends books the fall drive for the roads.

The Gemboree weekend

The Rockhound Gemboree runs over the Civic Holiday weekend at the start of August — dealers' tables, demonstrations, guided mineral-collecting trips to the area's old mines and road cuts, and the swap tables where a child's found quartz is traded. A Vaughan family books the weekend as a daily hire: down on Friday with the Luxury SUV, a motel or a rented cottage, the show and a collecting trip on Saturday with the chauffeur driving to the site, the Eagle's Nest on Sunday morning, home in the afternoon. The collecting trips are on bush roads that a chauffeured vehicle handles and a family sedan does not enjoy; the SUV's cargo area carries the rocks home, which is heavier than it sounds.

The Eagle's Nest and the town

The Eagle's Nest is the cliff above the town on Highway 62 north, with a lookout platform reached by a short trail from a parking area at the top and a view down the York River valley that is the region's photograph, especially in the first two weeks of October. The town below has the Bancroft Mineral Museum in the old railway station, the Art Gallery of Bancroft, the Village Playhouse's summer theatre, and a main street with the outfitters and bakeries a cottage town needs. The Hastings Heritage Trail — the old rail bed — runs through the town for walks and, in winter, snowmobiles.

The cottage lakes

Baptiste Lake and Paudash Lake are the big cottage lakes north and south of the town, with Bark Lake, Wollaston and the Mississippi River's chain around them; the cottages are on private roads off Highway 62 and the county roads, and the transfer from Vaughan is a Sprinter's job like the Haliburton and Kawartha ones — family, luggage, coolers, canoe, one trip, the return a week later. The chauffeur takes directions rather than an address. Bancroft's cottage prices are the reason Vaughan families have discovered it: the same lake, the same dock, and a road that is not the 400 on a Friday.

The road from Vaughan

Two routes, and the chauffeur chooses by the day. The eastern one is the 407 to the 115, the 115 to Peterborough, Highway 28 north through Lakefield, Burleigh Falls and Apsley to Highway 62 and the town — the route with the better stops and the Kawartha lakes for company. The western one is the 407, 35 north through Minden, 118 east through Haliburton village to Highway 62 at the town — the fall-colour road. Both are about three hours with one stop; both are country highways for their second half, and the reason a chauffeured SUV suits them in any month.

The fall drive

The loop Vaughan groups book in October is the two routes joined: up Highway 28 through the Kawarthas, the Eagle's Nest at midday, lunch in Bancroft, back along Highway 118 through Haliburton and Minden and down Highway 35 — a full day of Shield colour on roads without the Muskoka traffic, in a Sprinter with the group facing each other and nobody driving. It is an hourly hire of ten or eleven hours, and it pairs with the Haliburton day as its mirror image.

Vehicles

An SUV for a family, a Sprinter for the cottage transfer or the group day, a Premium Sedan for a couple doing the Playhouse and an inn. The Gemboree's collecting sites and the cottage roads are gravel; the Sprinter and the SUV are built for it and a stretch is not. Booster seats are $25 each in the booking engine.

Costs

The cottage transfer prices as one Sprinter fare each way in the booking engine, tolls in, against a two-car convoy; the Gemboree weekend is a daily hire that a family buys for the bush roads and the rocks; the fall day for a group of eight divides into a figure that two cars and two drivers do not beat. For a single family the fall day is a comfort choice, and the site says so.

Around Bancroft

Algonquin Park's east gate at Whitney is an hour north on Highway 127 and 60 — a Bancroft cottage family does the park as a day; the Madawaska River at Combermere and the Barry's Bay lakes are the same hour; and the Haliburton Forest is west along 118. Vaughan families who book the cottage week book the park day as an hourly hire with the chauffeur returning for it.

The Gemboree weekend, in order

A family of four from Woodbridge on the Civic Holiday weekend: the Luxury SUV at 9 a.m. on Saturday, the 407 and the 115, Highway 28 north with a stop at Burleigh Falls, Bancroft by noon; the show at the arena and the curling club through the afternoon, the swap tables, the children's first purchase; the motel on Highway 62 for the night. Sunday, a guided collecting trip booked through the show — the chauffeur drives the family to the site on a bush road and waits — then the Eagle's Nest at three for the valley, and the drive home on Highway 118 through Haliburton with the rocks in the cargo area. Two days of daily hire, one number in the booking engine, tolls in; the family has been to the Mineral Capital and the parent who would have driven has been to it too.

The town's mines and the collecting sites

The Bancroft area's fame is geological — the Shield here is a belt of unusual minerals, and the old mines and road cuts around the town are where collectors go. The Bancroft Mineral Museum in the old station on the main street shows the local finds; the town's visitor information sells the collecting guide and, at the Gemboree, runs the guided trips to sites that are on private land or down bush roads. Families go with a hammer, goggles and a bucket; the chauffeur's SUV goes down the road that the family sedan would not.

Algonquin's east side from Bancroft

The east gate of Algonquin Park at Whitney is an hour north of Bancroft on Highways 62, 127 and 60, and it is the quieter way into the park: the Highway 60 corridor's eastern trails, the Visitor Centre at kilometre 43 and the Logging Museum are all closer to this gate than to the Huntsville side, and a Bancroft cottage family does the park as an hourly day with the chauffeur returning for it. The Madawaska valley — Combermere, Barry's Bay, the river — is the same hour east.

The Playhouse and a summer evening

The Village Playhouse in Bancroft runs a summer theatre season and a Vaughan couple at a Baptiste Lake cottage books the evening as an hourly hire with the chauffeur collecting from the cottage road, dinner on the main street, the performance, and the drive back to the dock at eleven — the version of the trip where a chauffeur replaces the cottage's one car, which the rest of the family has kept for the lake.

Pickup notes

From Vaughan the chauffeur enters the 407 at Weston Road, Jane, Dufferin or Bathurst depending on the community and chooses the 115 or the 35 route by the day; a Thornhill pickup is ten minutes shorter than a Kleinburg one and the fare, quoted from the exact address, reflects it. Give us the cottage directions, the loads and the rack, the motel for the Gemboree, the collecting trip if booked, and the seats; the chauffeur confirms the route the evening before.

Paudash Lake, Silent Lake and the beach

Paudash Lake south of the town is the cottage lake with the public beach and the marina, and Silent Lake Provincial Park beside it is the Ontario Parks day-use park with a sand beach, canoe rentals and a lakeside trail, no motorboats allowed — a family from Vaughan with a Bancroft weekend does Silent Lake as the beach afternoon between the show and the lookout, with the SUV in the day-use lot and the canoe rented at the beach. In winter the park grooms cross-country ski trails, which makes it the winter version of the same weekend.

The Hastings Heritage Trail and the winter town

The old rail bed through Bancroft is the Hastings Heritage Trail — a hundred and fifty kilometres of trail from Lake St. Peter to Glen Ross that is a walk and a cycle in summer and, in winter, part of the snowmobile network that brings a second season to the town. A group of Vaughan friends who sled books the Sprinter to a Bancroft motel with the trailer arranged, or rents in town; the chauffeur's winter drive on Highway 62 is the part of the weekend they are paying for.

Booking it

Book a one-way for the cottage with the directions and the return date, a daily hire for the Gemboree weekend with the motel, or an hourly day for the fall loop; tell us the seats, the canoe and the collecting trip if booked, and the chauffeur confirms the route the evening before.

Book the Bancroft trip