Why stop
If you only make one stop between Ottawa and Peterborough, make it Perth. The downtown is the best-preserved stretch of 19th-century stone architecture in Eastern Ontario — built by Scottish stonemasons who clearly intended it to outlast everyone — and unlike a lot of pretty main streets, this one is alive: independent shops, real restaurants, and a Saturday farmers’ market that draws from an hour in every direction.
Stewart Park, tucked behind the town hall on the Tay River, is the corridor’s best in-town picnic stop, full stop. Shade, water, room for kids to burn off an hour of back-seat energy — and in mid-July it hosts the Stewart Park Festival, a free weekend of music that fills the whole downtown.
For something quieter, Last Duel Park — 27 riverside acres named for Upper Canada’s last fatal duel — sits just off County Road 43 with its own picnic shelter, docks, and boat launch.
The detour
Ten minutes north on County Road 511 is Balderson, the village the cheese is named after. The Balderson Cheese Store is a corridor institution — the aged cheddars are the point, the fudge counter is the trap.
On the trail
Glen Tay, just west of town, is the eastern trailhead of the corridor’s rail trail — the Trans Canada Trail on the old CP line, running west through Sharbot Lake (where it crosses the K&P) and on toward Tweed. Cyclists can ride out of Perth’s back door onto a hundred-plus kilometres of old rail grade.
Know before you go
Perth is the one town on the corridor where a meal is worth planning around, and where you should expect summer weekend crowds — parking off Gore Street is the move. It’s also the natural halfway point for an Ottawa day trip: out on the 7, lunch and a walk in Perth, back before dinner.
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