Had to travel to Chalk river on the Ottawa Valley for work, and discovered a beautiful part of Ontario that is well worth visiting. In fact I did so later with the family. Conveniently located next to the hotel was a distillery that offered river tubing which was an wonderful combination, particularly as the onsite restaurant was really good.
We settled on a route through Minden, ON. Mostly as there is a good Flo station in Minden which we needed, as the overall 406 km or so, is a bit more than my 2018 Leaf can manage. The distance to Minden is about 180 km, which is doable with some discipline on the speedometer, staying within 90km/hr or so did the trick and we got to Minden with about 10% left on the battery. From there, its about 210 km to the Best Western, which happens to have 4 L2 charging stations, slightly ahead of the pair of L2 charging stations at the nearby Holiday Inn. That 210 km leg is tricky in the Leaf, so we opted for a stop at Eva’s Schoolhouse Cafe on Round Lake. There is a pair of Flo stations there, which gave us the margin to arrive at about 10% on the battery. I could have made it if I kept to 70 km/hr, but then I would have missed out on a sharp rice pudding, and refreshing ice tea.
There is lots to explore in the area. Military buffs will find the Petawawa military museum interesting, while nature lovers will find endless hikes in the area. You can access the backside of Algonquin from the Ottawa Valley area. There is a drive in Movie theatre there, one of the big advantages of an EV is that you can run the AC without an Engine idling. This came in handy as it was a hot night.
After a lovely time in the Ottawa valley, it was time to make the trek back. It took us about 7 hours in total, with two charging stops of about an hour each in Minden, then either at the Wilberforce Ivy station or Eva’s schoolhouse cafe to enjoy some wonderful local refreshments. Its a very beautiful part of Ontario well worth exploring.
Electric car adventures 