Travel Log #7

Within an hour radius of Picton (the small but main town of the county), you’ll find over a dozen wineries and another dozen or so food-focused locations along the Taste Trail http://www.tastetrail.ca/.  This route takes you on a sensory journey, inviting you to visit local wineries that each have their unique flavour and style.  We visited a few of the area’s wineries and were sad that we weren’t on time to see more (note: the area wineries close at 6 p.m. everyday).  Each winery has its wares available for eager sampling, some charge for samples others absorb sampling costs if you decide to purchase a bottle for home.  Huff Estates Winery http://huffestates.ca/index.html has a sleek, silvery red tasting room and offers modern accommodations at their own Inn .  Being red

wine lovers, we were shocked to find that we were very much attracted to their 2006 Rose.  This wine has a brilliant pink colour and packs a grapefruit aftertaste—something we found very unique to this winery.   We also had the fortune of visiting the By Chadsey’s Cairns Winery and Vineyard http://www.bychadseyscairns.com/

which sported somewhat of a polar opposite of Huff’s ultra-modern look. Chadsey’s tasting room is in a refurbished barn that has been warmly decorated to create an intimate ambience.  We found their wines to be fairly easy drinking and decided that our favourite was their Zweigelt 2006.  Last, we just made it into the Black Prince Winery’s tasting room shortly before they closed.  They sell their wares out of a gutted and redecorated bungalow on the Loyalist Parkway .  After a few different swirls, we voted for their Cabernet Franc!

Though you could easily make a weekend out of touring the winery and brewery scene, we opted to explore Sandbanks Provincial Park during our stay in the area.  This provincial park truly lives up to its name by showcasing one of the longest and softest sandy beaches in Ontario . I was particularly impressed by the abundance of garbage and recycling bins along the beach, making for an extremely tidy environment.  It’s also a great park to take a swim in because the sand dunes make for a great deal of warm shallow water. Of course, beware of the sudden drop-off at the end of the shallow bits! 

If you’re interested in staying a while, you can grab one of the 549 campsites, strewn across 5 different campsites if you book ahead.  Though there are usually a few sites for last-minute travelers, there’s not many!  Aside from sunbathing and swimming, the park also offers activities such as cycling trails, boating, canoeing and fishing.  For $12, we picked out some snazzy personal floatation devices, grabbed some paddles and set out on the Outlet river in a rental canoe for the afternoon.  We got some great views of the sand dunes as we paddled along and were accompanied by a large number of little fish too!  Lilly pads, reeds and water spiders were also part of the natural mix.  It was particularly interesting to see how some of the campsites were set up on the sand dunes and backed onto the river, providing a nice watery backyard for the kiddies to play in!  As it was Rob and I’s maiden paddling voyage, we had a few steering issues to work out but I must say that I think that we did pretty well

After our little canoe tour of the river, we still had lots of energy and took a hike along the Cedar Sands Trail, an interpretive trails with viewing platforms the overlook the Outlet River . It’s a quick 2 km hike through dense woodland and is particularly fun because you can stop and watch the boats cruise by! There’s also the longer (5 km), Woodlands cycle-friendly trail that starts at Outlet Beach and ends up in the day use beach area.

Since Picton and Sandbanks are just a quick 2-plus hour drive from Toronto , we definitely plan to take another tour of Prince Edward County in the near future!