Getting distracted from working on school things, I stumble upon GoBiking.ca and remember the promise I made to myself last summer to explore the Ottawa-Gatineau region on my bike.

Last summer I went on two long trips. One was from The Hogs Back area into Gatineau Park’s Lac Meech. The other trip was from Hogs Back to Britannia Park.

Over those two trips I had my beater Super-cycle generic mountain bike. Since that got stolen, I ended up getting a nice road bike. The weight difference and amount of speed you can get up to effortlessly has changed me for the better. Unfortunately I never went on a nice long trip with this new bike yet, only commuting the 7 kilometres to work every day, which was fine, but I’m regretting it now.

That regret is about to get flipped this year! When the nice warm spring weather comes, I’m immediately hopping on my bike and heading over to Timbuktu. Okay, maybe I’ll coast up the east side of Ottawa river and back, since I haven’t done that route yet.

I do plan on heading back into Gatineau park this year to do more sightseeing and to see if I can reach Lac Philippe. Me and my friends were considering camping up on Lac Philippe one of the weekends, but we never got around to planning it out. I recently head that the park shuts down the roads to cars on Sunday which is awesome! No fear of cars sneaking up on you.

Just out of curiosity I looked up the biking directions from Ottawa, to my cottage in Gravenhurst, Ontario. A good 440 kilometres. Practically a 2 or 3 day bike. One time my family and I drove that route. I remember it being immensely beautiful with the fog rolling in among the hills. I’d definitely take a sports car along that route, but this is a post about bicycling, not one about cars. This trip is definitely out of my skill range, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

Some maintenance I definitely have to do to my bike this season is to get better tires and brakes. I managed to pop both the front and back tires multiple times last year hitting potholes and sewer drains. It might just be me not pumping up the tires enough. The brake pads can definitely be replaced. If I remember correctly, only one set of brakes works fully. The other just slows the bike to a stop.

I can’t wait for the warm weather to come. I’m setting a goal for myself to get out and ride around the Ottawa-Gatineau region more than last year!