Ottawa Bike Tours

Social Isolation Edition

The city of Ottawa promotes a set of sixteen cycling routes to encourage you to go out and explore the local community and patronize the various businesses along the way. After completing the Ottawa redlining project last year I was looking for something new to ride. My normal mode of cycling is to just go, see the sights from the saddle, but rarely will I stop and smell the roses. I will usually pass a good looking bakery in a small town, decide I am hungry, and then pull out a cliff bar and eat it while pedalling. This project, I decided I would change that. For each ride, my intention was to stop and take the time to stop for a coffee or a beer. Maybe a lunch or a museum visit. That at least was the intention... then a small little worldwide pandemic took place around the same time I started the project. Well, I guess I have been training for social isolation most of my life so slipping back into that mode of travel was not too complicated. Maybe I will try this again some other time when the world goes back to normal.

Most of the rides are not overly long so my rule was I had to start from my house, ride to the start, do the ride as described (less the stops) and then bike home. This made some of them a fair bit more challenging. For most of the routes on roads the routes are fairly well described. For some of them on bike paths the descriptions are poor to downright awful. I could follow them because for the most part am fairly familiar with the areas. Perhaps if you follow the route with GPS it might be easier. I stuck to the printed paper and dead-reconing method of navigation. Almost all of this I had ridden before, but a few interesting sections were new to me and some of them will be worth riding again.

Anyway, here is a fairly brief set of trip reports of each of these unsocial rides.

April 4, 2020 - Ride C - Kanata & North Country Cruise

77 km, 37 km on route
Cool in morning, rode to Kanata on the Mikado for this loop. Social isolation meant no traffic, though lots of others out jogging or biking. Stopped at Piney Point for a snack, which is at the end of a short dirt road. One other person walking a dog. Got warm and sunny on the way back with a mild headwind.

April 7, 2020 - Ride H - Big Ottawa Loop

43 km, 31 km on route
Ride after work on warm sunny day. Route is fully on bike paths and though busy, for the most part was not annoying and I could ride quickly. A couple short sections shut down for construction work to be detoured around. No where to officially pee since the path outhouses are closed for Covid-19. Bushes are still open though.

April 8, 2020 - Ride J - Little Italy and Rideau Canal

33 km, 12 km on route
Morning ride, on a cold day. Route description is quite useless for this one, but I could figure it out from the map. Obviously this was written by a machine and not a human. Fully on bikepath which was not busy on an icy morning. After the route, I crossed over to Quebec over the Chaudiere bridge to see what the border defenses were like. I penetrated them easily... just lots of cops hanging out. They did not seem to be stopping anyone. Took the river path and crossed back on Champlain and it was similarly defended, but these cops had their light flashing.

April 18, 2020 - Ride N - Rail Trail & Winery Ride

94 km, 23 km on route
Sunny but very cool morning, warmed up by the end. Route is mostly on gravel trail or road. Most of the roads had been freshly graded so was very rough going. Rail trail pretty crowded with the social distancing. Rode home via new path along O-train from Hurdman to Ottawa U.

April 25, 2020 - Ride O - Cumber Tour De Land (Short)

100 km, 22 km on route
First metric century of the year. Sunny and cool in morning but warmer as I went. Quiet roads around Cumberland for this short tour. There is still snow in the east end. Stopped at the ferry for a break and then took the river path home, which was pretty busy.

May 2, 2020 - Ride D - Carp & Country Debunker

116 km, 46 km on route
Cold in morning but beautiful warm day by the end of the ride. Checked out the inside of one of the astronomy domes by the Diefenbunker which was open. Took a slightly longer route back because it was such a nice day.

May 10, 2020 - Ride L - Manotick South & West

122 km, 56 km on route
Very cold and windy Mother's day morning. Rode out to Manotick and then to closed Baxter conservation park, where I took a break on a freezing cold beach. Another break at the beach at Rideau River Provincial Park, which was closed as well. Fought the wind back northward through North Gower and finally back to Manotick. Rode to Mom's for lunch and a social distance walk. Rode home via Moodie which was also very windy, but fortunately slightly warmer in the afternoon.

May 17, 2020 - Ride J - Munster Meander

131 km, 48 km on route
Beautiful day. Left early morning and rode a tailwind out to Munster. A great loop from there through Ashton. Went right by the brewery... wished I could have stopped for a beer on the isolation ride. Stopped instead by a creek and fed the blackflies as I fed myself some leftover pizza. Was feeling good so took a slightly longer route home via the railtrail and then river path. Very busy in some spots. Also first day at attempting to make my own sports drink. 1/2 cup lemon juice, 2 tbls maltodextrin, 3 tbls sugar. Too much lemon.

May 19, 2020 - Ride G - Gatineau Park Out and Back

43 km, 25 km on route
Early morning ride into Quebec for the first time since the border re-openned.

May 30, 2020 - Ride P - Cumber Tour De Land (Long)

140 km, 68 km on route
Rode out to Navan and then loop through Cumberland, Sarsfield, and Vars. Forecast threatened rain, but turned out to be a nice day so took a longer route home past Petrie Island and back along the river.

Jun 1, 2020 - Ride I - I Like to See the Water when I Ride

54 km, 41 km on route
Cool morning ride before work. Lovely bike path route through some areas (Lac Leamy) which I have never been. A couple detours due to construction, and took a couple wrong turns on the Quebec side due to a confusing network of paths, but overall stayed reasonably on route with only one backtrack. Need to visit the waterfront on the eastern side of the Gatineau River again when pubs are open. Very pretty area.

Jun 6, 2020 - Ride A - Park to Park River Ramble

163 km, 45 km on route
Rode out to Morris Island conservation area in morning. Fought the wind the whole way. Katharina met me here at this pretty spot and then we rode together to Fitzroy Harbour park and visited the deserted/closed beach, then to Quyon via the cable ferry. After touring the town had a quick snack in the park here and caught the next ferry back. A final lunch at the conservation area in the closed picnic spots, then I said goodbye to Kat to ride home before getting rained on. Flew home with a tailwind as lots of black clouds rained all around me, but except for a few spits in Brittania, I managed to stay dry.

Jun 12, 2020 - Ride K - Ottawa River East and Farmland

50 km, 30km on route
Early morning before work on a mostly crushed stone path ride. Discovered new path over Vanier Parkway along O-train tracks which makes a more convenient way to connect Tremblay Road to Hurdman. Rain threatenned in morning so I packed a jacket but it ended up being a sunny, albeit very windy day.

Jun 20, 2020 - Ride M - The Osgoode Ride

138 km, 59 km on route
Alpine start for this one so I could meet Kat in Osgoode for 07:00 at the start of the ride. Nice cool morning, but as soon as the sun rose the heat began rising with it. Rode a lovely loop on country roads with Kat, and then after a brief break at the Seniors Peace Park we parted ways and I rode home via Greely. Had a tailwind most of the way home which was nice but it got very hot.

Jun 27, 2020 - Ride E - Kanata North to Stittsville, the Scenic Route

102 km, 63 km on route
Cloudy and occasionally drizzly morning, but that did not seem to deter people from getting out riding on the paths, which this route spent most of the time on. This route seemed a little contrived and had far too much back and forth along the same stretches of mostly gravel paths. Stopped at a rocky point on Shirleys bay which was the highlight of the trip though.

July 12, 2020 - Ride B - Out a Way 100k

143 km, 103 km on route
Woke up and checked the weather. Very variable, but looked ok for riding. Took the touring bike as it has fenders and packed a jacket in case it rained, which it did heavily for about 30 minutes in the morning. Rest of the ride was dry but a stiff NW wind made the ride out to Fitzroy Harbour challenging, however the tailwind coming home made up for it. This was a ride of wild turkeys... they seemed to be everywhere. Including a pack of five of them that trotted in front of me on the road for a good kilometer or so before finally freaking out and flying off. Since things are starting to open up, I stopped on a whim at the brewery in Carp for a beer to celebrate the imminent completion of the last Ottawa ride. The patio was empty except for me, so this made for a very fitting non-social end to the social distance rides.

The End

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