The County is wineries and farm stands and two-lane roads — but the best of it is the few miles you can only cover on foot.
The County is a place people drive through slowly. You come for the wine, the cheese, the long flat roads between one tasting room and the next, and you measure the day in stops. It's easy to never get out of the car except to eat.
These five are the reasons to. Two trace the dunes and woods at Sandbanks, one follows the shore out past West Lake, one rides the old rail bed that runs the length of the County, and one climbs the little hill behind Picton. Tap any one to open it in Foray if you've got the app, or just read it as a map.
A compacted loop through the wooded dunes behind the main beach — the part of Sandbanks most people walk straight past on their way to the sand. Shade nearly the whole way, which matters in July, and a good chance of seeing more birds than people.
Runs along the edge of West Lake on the park's quieter side, with water on one shoulder for most of it. Flat fine gravel, easy to do with anyone — and the light off the lake in the early morning is the reason to set an alarm.
East of the main park, where the dunes give way to cedar and the crowds thin out almost entirely. Sandy underfoot in stretches — slow going, but the kind of slow that's the point. Loops back to where it starts.
The old rail bed runs almost the full width of the County, dead flat and dead straight, and this central stretch near Bloomfield is the easiest to drop into. Best on a bike — you can cover real ground — but it walks fine too. Fine gravel, little shade, farmland on both sides.
The little hill behind Picton — more conservation area than mountain, but it earns the name with a real climb at the start. A dirt loop through hardwood and meadow, with the County's oddest landmark, a scaled-down “birdhouse city,” near the trailhead. Can be muddy after rain.
Trail data sketched from public OpenStreetMap traces. The polylines on this page approximate the actual routes — your Foray app will resolve precise geometry when you tap into a trail. Got a correction? sundaylabs.app@gmail.com.