Exploring Ontario’s “west-coast” would not be complete without a stop at MacGregor provincial park which sits along lake Huron, about 240 km drive from Toronto. The beach is nice, and there is lots of hiking and exploring to be done in the park. Curious about how your EV gets its juice? The nearby Bruce power plant offers some answers, this one plant provides 25% of Ontario’s electrical needs. Southampton and Sauble beach are both within easy reach.
While its possible to get the 2018 Leaf to MacGregor without a charge stop, the 3 hour drive is just too long for the kids. Hence we usually stop in Orangeville (one of the downtown parking lots has a L2 Flo station, and there is a L3 fast charger at the courthouse), or Arthur for some food. Tang’s restaurant in Arthur was very good when we passed through and a very tasty way to wait out our brief 30 minute charge stop. Its a short walk from the Arthur library and medical center, where the L3 charger is located.
We stayed at an “electrical yurt” in MacGregor provincial park. It came with a 30A, TT-30 plug which I used to charge the Leaf which took about 10 hours. No problem really, we slept through most of it, and a decent hike through the park took care of the rest. This is one of my favorite benefits of EV’s, the ability to “fuel-up” at just about any plug. While 10 hours may seem like a long time to have the car just sit there, cars do spend an awful lot of time parked, might as well put it to good use.
We had a lot of fun at MacGregor provincial park. Our yurt even had a “skylight” in it which allowed for some very comfortable star-gazing as this was early spring so we had to bring our warm jackets. Its a lovely park, close to Toronto which can add a lot of fun to your weekend. After a few day’s it was time to head back to the grind, stopping for some more great food, although this time at the Barley Vine restaurant in the old Orangeville train station as the car needed a few more electrons from the nearby Flo L2 station.
Electric car adventures 