Did you know that the tallest public ski hill in all of Ontario is found at Calabogie peaks near Ottawa? Do you feel frustrated over long lines for the chair lift at your local ski-hill? If so, time for a road-trip to Calabogie peaks (https://www.calabogie.com/).
The “vertical” in ski-lingo refers to the elevation from the top to the bottom of the ski hill. On this metric, Calabogie peaks eeks out a slim margin of victory at 780 ft of vertical compared to say Blue mountain at 720 ft. At least if this summary of public ski hills in Ontario from ski central (see https://www.skicentral.com/ontario.html) is to be believed.
Shortly before I did this trip, I traded in our 2015 Nissan Leaf S for a 2018 Nissan Leaf S with quick charging. As discussed in a previous post (https://electriccaradventures.ca/2021/09/28/how-many-km-day-can-i-get-from-my-ev/), my trusty 2015 Nissan Leaf S did not have fast charging, and thus it would be a 12 hour epic voyage to make it to Calabogie (about 12 hrs). While its possible (with charge stops at Bowmanville, Peterbourough and Bancroft, its a very long day. But having a 2018 with that crucial fast charging, we can make the trip in 5 hrs and 30 minutes.
The plan. Calabogie peaks is 380 km North east of Toronto, and there is a convenient fast charger located in Bellville (Flo station by Canadian tire, and an alternate by Tim Hortons, both in the Quinte Mall, also a Petro-canada charging station in nearby Napanee). On the way there we actually stayed overnight at the Best Western in Bellville which has an EV charger. This made sense for us as we picked up the kids after school and as Calabogie does not offer night skiing, the hill would be closed long before we would be turning off the 401 Highway.
The kids insisted on a stop at the Big apple, which conveniently has a J1772 charger although it was not working when we drove through. No matter, we had enough to make it to Bellville with about 10 % remaining. After an overnight charge at the Best Western, we hit the road and arrived at Calabogie with about 15% remaining. This was a long leg, and there really are no L2 or L3 charger’s available. We figured in an emergency we could stop and “bum a wall” from a restaurant or a motel along the way. Lukily, none of that was needed as the 2018 Leaf has ample range, especially when keeping to the 80 km/hr speed limit along hwy 41.
We stayed at one of their Condo units at Calabogie peaks. Our unit was located steps away from the slope with the back patio being our favorite feature as we could walk out, snap on our skis and go. Our charging cord (more on that in a later post) along with a 50 foot extension cord was put to work while we stayed and hit the slopes. The charge took about 24 hours, which was no problem we were busy skiing and enjoying the wonderful Canthooks restaurant. And believe me there were hardly any lines so there was a whole lot of skiing. The kids really loved the “Golden Chairs” as each chairlift has a chair that was painted in a shiny golden color.
After a fun few days of skiing, it was time to head back to the city. We did the same plan in reverse stopping in Bellville to charge. And at the big apple to charge ourselves (that mumble crumble apple pie is so yummy). The charging stop in Bellville was about 45 minutes to an hour at the Flo station in Quinte Mall. While it is true that the somewhat infamous rapid gate issue did slow our charge time, the real reason for the hour stop was all on us. Shopping at Canadian tire proved too much fun, but more on rapidgate in a later post.
Electric car adventures 