Silent Lake is an Ontario provincial park located just south of Bancroft. I camped there this past Canada Day weekend and had an opportunity to ride their mountain bike trail.

Before I talk about the trails, I want to mention that like most provincial parks, the camping at Silent Lake is superb. The majority of sites are of good quality and nicely spaced apart from one another. The lake itself is beautiful and lives up to its name thanks to the ban on motorized boats.

The mountain biking at Silent Lake consists of three loops-7km, 12km and 19km. We rode the 12km loop as it was raining. (Yeah, I know, excuses.) I would describe it as wilderness riding much like the Minnesing Trail in Algonquin Park but not as difficult. Silent Lake is less rocky and I was able to stay on my bike the whole time unlike the Minnesing where walking is required in a number of sections. It is not singletrack. The trails are cross-country ski trials in the winter so are more like doubletrack. There is a small section of singletrack near the campground that is a lot of fun but it is over too quickly.

The trails are well marked but we had some difficulty because we started our ride in the campground and went in the wrong direction, ending up in the main parking lot where the trail actually begins. It all worked out fine though because that was the only singletrack section and we would have missed it otherwise.

The ride was fun despite the cool, wet conditions. If I had been there solely for the mountain biking, I probably would have been disappointed. However, the camping was the primary activity (which was great) and the mountain biking was a nice bonus.

Not many provincial parks in Ontario have mountain biking. Silent Lake is a nice option if you want to camp for the weekend and have an afternoon of decent wilderness riding.