Prior to 1997, the route continued north and east of Maynooth through Combermere, Barry's Bay, Killaloe, Round Lake and Bonnechere to Highway 17 in Pembroke.

A gap existed along the route between Barry's Bay and Round Lake for several decades pending construction of a new road which never took place.

[3] Exiting Bloomfield, the highway winds north through several communities in Prince Edward County, including Huffs Corners where the Huff Estates Winery is located, Crofton, Mountain View and Fenwood Gardens before crossing the Norris Whitney Bridge over the Bay of Quinte into Belleville.

Entering the municipality of Centre Hastings approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) north of Halloway, it follows the route of the historic settlement road north to Highway 7 at Madoc, passing through a mixture of farm fields and grasslands; the occasional forest interrupts the shorter vegetation, as well as the communities of West Huntingdon and Crookston.

[4][5] Within the village of Madoc, Highway 62 is maintained under a Connecting Link agreement as it passes through the centre of town.

[8] At Keller Bridge, the highway enters the Canadian Shield, with farmland giving way to thick forests and frequent rock outcroppings for the remainder of its length.

The next 50 km (30 mi) of Highway 62 bypasses the Hastings Colonization Road through the particularly barren townships of Tudor and Cashel and Limerick, with a combined population of under 1,000.

The Connecting Link begins south of Bay Lake Road and stretches 7.7 km (4.8 mi) through the village to Victoria Drive.

The highway then returns to thick forests, although the occasional farm dots the journey north, mostly surrounding the Hickey Settlement.

At the Peterson Colonization Road, the highway makes a sharp curve east and enters Maynooth.

The first section travelled from Madoc to Barry's Bay, the second from Pembroke to the community of Bonnechere, on the northwestern shore of Round Lake.

[32] As part of a series of budget cuts initiated by premier Mike Harris under his Common Sense Revolution platform in 1995, numerous highways deemed to no longer be of significance to the provincial network were decommissioned and responsibility for the routes transferred to a lower level of government, a process referred to as downloading.

On April 1, 1997, the section from the Laurentian Valley – Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards boundary east to Highway 17 was transferred to Renfrew County.

[12] Hastings County subsequently transferred its portion of the road to the townships of Monteagle and Bangor, Wicklow and McClure on April 15, 1998.