Day Trip 2021: Goodwood, Durham Forest, Uxbridge Day Trip

In planning a day trip around a hike in the Durham Regional Forest, we scheduled a stop at nearby Goodwood, Ontario, followed by the hike, then lunch at Slabtown Cider Company and finally a visit to the town of Uxbridge.  Accompanied by our friends Yim and Murray, we set off on another road trip adventure, which has become an almost weekly to bi-weekly occurrence for my husband Rich and I, to make up for the fact that we had not traveled abroad for over 2 years due to the ongoing pandemic.

Prior to the arrival of the hit Canadian comedy Schitt’s Creek, there was not much reason to stop at Goodwood Ontario, which is an offshoot of the township of Uxbridge.  All that changed when this TV show selected three buildings on adjacent corners of the intersection of Hwy 47 and Concession Rd. 3 to use as exteriors for locations featured on the show.  The faded blue warehouse representing “Bob’s Garage” is the warehouse of Goodwood handyman Joe Toby who makes special equipment for families with disabled kids. The frontage of “Café Tropical”, where Twyla served meals to Johnny and Moira Rose, is actually a private residence.  The building presented as the exterior for David and Patrick’s business “Rose Apothecary” was once Goodwood’s General Store.  It now has a sign on it for a Romni Wools store but this location seems to be permanently closed.  Crowds flocked to view these sites, especially after the show was picked up by Netflix and then swept the Emmy Awards in 2020.  The hubbub seems to have died down since, so visiting on a Thursday morning, we more or less had the block to ourselves.

We did stop by the fourth corner of the intersection where Annina’s Bakery catered food to the Schitt’s Creek cast and crew during their shoots.  The Bakery was quite busy with an unending lineup for their sandwiches and baked goods.  Apparently this has been the case ever since Annie Murphy, who played Alexis Rose, raved about Annina’s butter tarts on Late Night With Seth Meyers.  We had a quick breakfast at the bakery (not needing to wait in line for sit-down service) and sampled the butter tart (just OK) as well as some breakfast sandwiches and sausage rolls.  After breakfast, we found one last Schitt’s Creek set location around the corner.  The 145-year-old yellow-bricked building used as the “Town Hall” in the show was actually Goodwood’s Town Hall until it was sold and now has been converted to a private residence, with a chained fence blocking the front yard and a sign declaring “private property”.  The owner of the house sat in a chair on the front stoop, seemingly ready to defend his home from gawking interlopers.  We respectfully kept our distance but snuck a photo from afar.

After breakfast, we proceeded to the Durham Regional Forest to do some hiking.  Unlike many of the rail trails that we have hiked on (Caledon, Paris, etc.), the trails in the Durham Forest consist of loops of varying lengths and difficulties.  This was much nicer since we did not need to double back and retrace our steps to get back to our starting point, and we could veer off from the main trails onto smaller offshoots that had different terrains and views.  We intended to hike the 3.2km White Pine Trail Loop but along the way, we might have accidentally strayed onto parts of the Spruce, Maple or Red Oak Trails which crossed and ran parallel to the White Pine loop.  Then a couple of times, we intentionally took some smaller loops that ended back onto the Pine loop after a quick detour.

Durham Regional Forest has pretty forested trails that range from relatively flat level paths for casual walking to sloped and bumpy terrain to please the mountain bikers.  The main trails such as the White Pine Loop seem to be the flat ones while the smaller loops that we tried including “Baby Butter” and “Luce Link“ had more varied terrain.  For fun, Yim and I tried to do some yoga poses on some tree stumps although her knees were much stronger than mine and she nimbly hopped onto a taller stump that I would not have been able to manage.  The best part of the hike was discovering all the different types of wild mushrooms on the trails, which ranged in size, shape and colour and grew both in the ground and on tree trunks.  The trails were so pretty and interesting and there were so many others that we did not have time to explore, so we need to return here another time.

We had made lunch reservations at Slabtown Cider Company, a craft cidery located on Oak Ridges Moraine just south of Uxbridge, specializing in “handcrafted heritage cider crafted from 100% Ontario apples”, as well as ciders blended with other ingredients including cherry, pineapple, mint/lime or blackcurrant.  We had requested an outdoor table under a large covered patio with views of the apple tree orchards.  It turned out to be chillier than expected, so we bundled up and jockeyed for position in order to snag one of the limited propane heaters.  Despite having a later 2pm reservation on a Thursday afternoon, the restaurant was fairly full.

Yim and I shared a cider flight of 4 different ciders.  For my 2 glasses, I selected the black currant and the cherry cider.  Rich ordered a large pumpkin spiced cider.  For our meals, Rich and I shared the Thunder Ridge bison burger topped with crispy pork belly, onion rings, a cider-barbeque sauce and scallion aioli, as well as a prime rib steak pizza with sauteed onions, wild mushrooms, mozzarella, blue cheese and tomato sauce.  For dessert we shared an apple pie topped with pecans while Yim and Murray shared a crème brûlée.  I liked the black currant cider so much that we bought a bottle to bring home.

We finally arrived in the town of Uxbridge just after 4pm with the intent to check out the shops on their main street, followed by a self-guided historic walking tour that I had found on the internet.  To our surprise, most of the stores and eateries on the main drag had closing times of 4pm and were already shut down!  We thought maybe this was because we were there on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, our new federal statutory holiday, as was highlighted by orange ribbons tied around the trees.  But when we asked one of the few stores that was still open, we were told that this is the normal closing time.  Instead we started the historic walking tour with one of the highlights, the public library.  Unfortunately we found it covered with scaffolding, covering much of the library’s decorative features.  Given that it was getting later and the weather was continuing to dip on a grim, cloudy day, we decided to cut short the historic walk and just head towards the second highlight of the town, which is the train station.

Along the way, we did find a few points of interest on the main street.  A plaque on the wall in front of one store indicated that this was the location where Canadian artist and painter David Milne had a studio between 1940-47.  Using oils and watercolours, Milne painted Canadian landscapes.  During and following WWI, he acted as a war artist who documented battlefields, ruined cities and soldier camps.  Downtown Uxbridge features two main war memorials.  There is one next to the library that commemorates WWI, WWII and the Korean War.  A more personal memorial across the street pays tribute to Lieutenant Colonel Samuel  Sharpe who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and committed suicide following the first world war, haunted by all the men under his command who died.  This sculpture, depicting Sharpe struggling to write a letter to the widow of one of his men, highlights the issues of mental health and PTSD.    We admired the Art Deco design of the Roxy Theatre, with 2 screens showing both first-run and classical movies.  Given its beautiful exterior, it would have been fun to check out the interior and perhaps watch a movie.  Maybe we can do this next time we visit, hopefully on a warm sunny day when we can continue the historic walking tour.

Our final stop in Uxbridge was the train station of the Grand Trunk Railway, built in 1904.  Now considered a heritage site and acting as both a railway museum and a station within the York-Durham Heritage Railway (YDHR), the station was bought by the township of Uxbridge for $1.00 in 1988 and is the only remaining station with a “witch’s hat” roof in Ontario.  The YDHR runs 20km between Uxbridge and Stouffville and hosts themed rides including autumn leaves viewing and high tea in the fall and rides catered towards children in the months leading up to Christmas including “Thomas the Tank Engine”, “Wizards’ Festival”, “Santa’s Express”,  “North Pole Light UP” and “Bethlehem Express – Nativity on Rails”.  Cookies, hot chocolate and stories are included on the ride.  We were really lucky to arrive at the train station just as the attendant was about to close the gates.  He kindly allowed us to rush in and take a look at the old platform where I could envision myself in an old movie where I would be running up the platform waving goodbye to my loved one as he rode away.  This last experience made the trip to Uxbridge worthwhile and we will definitely check out some of the autumn rides next year.