North Bay

With the warming temperatures, its time to start exploring the wonderful lakes Ontario has to offer. North Bay sits between two: Lake Nipissing a shallow large lake that empties into the Georgian Bay, and Trout Lake, the headwaters of the Mattawa river. There is lots to see and do, there is some fishing in these lakes, boating, and endless paddling adventures. Several hotels in town offer charging, we usually stay at the Best Western, but the Comfort Inn and Ramada also have chargers.

We usually go around lake Simcoe as its a slightly slower, but shorter route (at least from the east end of Toronto). There is ample charging in Barrie, some in Orrillia, as well as Ivy stations in Gravenhurst, Huntsville and South River. We usually stop at the Ivy station in Gravenhurst as its by a grocery store, Tim Hortons and an LCBO. Everything you need for adventures in lake country. This usually takes us about 5-6 hours, including an 1 hour stop in Gravenhurst for charging and supplies.

It could be argued that its more efficient to stop further down the road if you can, as that way your EV will likely accept faster charge speeds, plus you wont need as much charge as you are slightly closer to North Bay. However, if there is a problem with the Huntsville station, we would be stuck on a slower L2 charger with our 2018 Leaf, as it does not quite have the range to make South River in one go, and Gravenhurst has for us, a more convenient combination of retail, so we make good use of the charging stop.

After a lovely weekend in North Bay enjoying the lake, with lots of paddling adventures, it was time to head back to the city, we went the same way we came, stopping again in Gravenhurst for charging and dinner.

We did do the North Bay run in our 2015 Leaf as well. While the 350 km journey is a stretch for the 2015 Leaf, particularly as ours did not have fast charging, we did manage with an overnight stop in Orillia on the way up, and Arrowhead for some camping, on the way down.