FLCC
Home Page

Ozolins in Ottawa

I let the summer get by without taking an extended tour, but the impulse of a moment got me and two others to Ottawa for three days to see what the cycling possibilities there are like. I had cycled to Ottawa last year on my own, but had to return before I could do any exploring. This year three of us — club-member Diane Salva, Steve Grossman (a friend from Syracuse), and I — drove to Ottawa with our bikes and got bunks at the Nicholas Street Jail, a youth hostel in a former prison. (A very interesting place with a history that doesn’t bear dwelling on at bedtime.)

 We had most of three days there. On Friday we spent the afternoon riding some of the about 160km of bike paths in and around the city. We set off south along the Rideau Canal and its locks for some 10 miles, visited the cascading falls in the Rideau River, and then rode the banks of the river to where it flows into the Ottawa River in a larger, more spectacular waterfall. It was an extraordinary experience to be on these paths — about 10 feet wide with a yellow line down the middle — which were well paved and maintained everywhere we went. Since we were interested in looking around, there was no question of wanting to exceed the speeds that were appropriate on the bike paths — frequent encounters with other cyclists, in-line skaters, pedestrians, and other users of the path required some attention.

On Saturday we crossed the Ottawa River to the city of Hull and searched out the Maison du Velo. This is an institution that provides information, advice, and help with cycling matters and also lends, free of charge, bikes they obtain from the police that they have fixed up and painted in an unmistakable color scheme. They are truly terrible bikes, everyone agrees. However, they are free and they work, and several people filled out their papers while we were still looking for route information.

Our ride took us along probably 10 miles of bike paths until we finally were on open highways. Traffic seemed quite accustomed to cyclists along the way. There were only a few instances of honking, and those were on the occasions when I was riding in the roadway where a bike path was available along the side.

 After lunch at the highly recommended Chez Eric in Wake-field, Steve decided to return to Ottawa and Diane and I set across Gatineau Park along some of the trails we saw on the map. Diane had a mountain bike with fat road tires; the trails turned out to be just a bit on the difficult side for my 25mm tires, but the tires and bike held up well enough to pass through some lovely forests and lakes in this remarkable park right next to a major urban center. By the time we found our way back to pavement we must have negotiated about 15 miles of loose stone and gravel. The pavement certainly felt wonderfully fast to me when we finally got on our return trip. It was about 50 miles all told.

On our final day we went to Gatineau Park during the weekly hours when all motorized traffic is prohibited. The park was buzzing with in-line skates, ski trainers, and bicycles, along with a few pedestrians. It’s a place where folks go to work out, and serious workouts are possible. The terrain is sharply rolling with some pretty demanding climbs every few miles. The circuit we did was about 20 miles, and after the previous day’s effort on loose gravel, I was glad to call it a day when we got back.

The pleasure of being in Ottawa wasn’t only from cycling, however. To people who love Ithaca, like me, Ottawa is a sort of wish-fulfillment. There are streets — many of them — closed to traffic, like The Commons. And each place has its own purpose and time of day and character. The museums are wonderful, even from the outside, because each is an architectural tour de force. The city clearly is the product of a society that wanted to create a showplace as its national capital. The next time I go there, I hope to see the inside of more buildings. But, the cycling is not to be missed. Let’s plan a trip there, folks.

 — Andrejs Ozolins, VP of Touring VP