GNBR East Day 1 - Ottawa to Wakefield

 44.6 miles, 3887’ ft climbing, rainy

August 23, 2026

We woke up about 7am at our hotel in Ottawa to clouds and chances of rain.  We got dressed and headed out for a quick breakfast at Scone Witch, which is just what it sounds like, a scone breakfast sandwich. After that we went back to the hotel and got ready to ride and took our bikes outside where it was raining steadily.  We zipped up our rain gear and started riding. There was a bit of maneuvering through the city streets to find the start of our route, but eventually we were on our way across the Ottawa River to Gatineau.

We rode along the Ottawa River and up to Gatineau Park, a large park similar to a national park in the US. At first we were near small subdivisions and some small lakes and ponds, then we headed into the woods on a paved bike path. After 10 miles, we turned off onto some singletrack. It was still raining as we made our way over rolling hills with puddles, rocks, and tree roots. None of it was too challenging for our Day 1 legs. We saw a lot of trail runners. Between the woods and clouds, it was fairly dark.

Around noon the rain lifted and we came to a picnic area where we stopped for a bite. Clouds of mosquitoes stopped for the same! The mosquitos turned out to be a theme for the afternoon, not bothering us if there was a breeze or we were moving quick enough to create one, but on slower climbs they bit us on our limbs and faces, even through our long sleeved shirts. We planned our trip for after peak mosquito season, but there were plenty for us.

After some overlooks back toward Ottawa, we had fun, flowy down hill all the way to the beautiful Meech Lake. We rode around the southern end of the lake on weathered pavement and found some thimble berries we snacked on along the way.

There were some rocky sections and a bit of hike-a-bike as we made our way to Lake Phillip. We saw a couple mountain bikers going in the opposite direction.  At Lake Phillips there was a little market at a campground where we had a coke before we finished our ride at the Wakefield Mill Hotel.  A lovely little hotel and spa where we had a nice warm shower to clean up and a delicious dinner to end the evening.

GNBR East - Ottawa

 0 miles, 0’ climbing 

August 20-22, 2026

On the evening of August 20th we flew into Ottawa with the plan to ride the Great Northern Bikepacking Route (GNBR) from Ottawa to Quebec City. Afterwards we want to pedal along the St Lawrence to Montreal. Our plan is to ride at a moderate pace and take days off in each of the three large cities we pass through so we can spend some time exploring the sights, history, and culture. Neither of us has previously visited this part of the world.

We arrived in Ottawa at night and caught an Uber XL to our hotel, the Lord Elgin, which was really well located. We were even able to get a late dinner in their restaurant. Our room had plenty of space for our two large bike boxes.

Over the next two sunny days, we assembled our bikes and put on the bags, disposed of the boxes (the front desk insisted on doing it for us). We took busses and the metro to the local MEC to get fuel for our camp stove, we bought groceries for the ride, we watched boats go thru the locks from the Rideau Canal to the Ottawa River. We peeked inside the ginormous Fairmont Hotel, we walked around parliament hill, the seat of Canadian government. We looked at public art, walked Sparks street, a charming pedestrian zone. We took a historic walking tour of Bytown and Lower Town, walked up Major’s Hill to see the art and the view and enjoy a beer. We spent a couple hours in the fantastic national gallery, had dinner in a historic Irish pub that was brought from Ireland and reconstructed, rode water taxis across the Ottawa River, walked to waterfalls that turned out go be a dam, had dinner in a waterside pub, and had a dip in the pool at our hotel. We stumbled onto a kids’ break dancing competition. We each felt obliged to buy a short sleeved shirt because it was so warm and humid.  We did all that, not in that order, in two very full days. We found Ottawa charming and scenic, very much worth a visit.