Hi Gang, Who's from the Montreal area on this board? Looking for places to ride that are not TOO challenging for this off-road newbie. Got my first GS this season and already I've scared myself silly by riding the Chemin de la Rivière Rouge two weeks ago through mud as slippery as ice, deep potholes, ruts and snow covered sections. Can't believe I didn't drop the bike! What roads/trails do you recommend for getting used to riding off the slab? Does anyone know the area off Harwood out in Vaudreuil? I've seen a hand-written sign on a path leading into a hilly wooded area saying that it was only for off-road vehicles. Is that worth exploring? I'm going to take a day-long off-road class through Moto International (great BMW dealer) as soon as their instructor gets back from a skiing trip out west and he's able to schedule it. But in the meantime I'd like to get in as much practice as possible. Anyone up for going riding together? My weekends are always Sundays and Mondays. Here's the Chemin de la Rivière Rouge...
Pelvis, Oxford Station, ON, is close enough! I often ride out that way even as far as Brockville and then up towards Ottawa and through the country roads. Now that I've got my first GS I'm looking forward to exploring some of gravel roads I just had to pass up while riding my K1300GT. You must have great riding options our your way. Thanks for saying Hi!
Ever ride east of Ottawa? Like up in the hills between Gatineau and Grenville? I ride up to Hawkesbury quite often (using the excuse of visiting the LCBO there to pick up some products that aren't available in Quebec). Any good riding areas you recommend between Ottawa and Hawkesbury? Cheers!
Don't ride east of town that often, pretty flat. Mostly south towards 401, or west in Almonte/Calobogie area. There is a lot of nice riding north as well from Gatineau up towards Val-des-Monts.
There's some decent gravel roads further north after Rivier Rouge, good for new guys on new bikes or relaxed rides to enjoy the hills. Friends do more serious stuff straight north of Hawkesbury but they're all nuts on smaller bikes so I don't go with them. You can get up into Papineau - Labelle Park from Duhamel, thousands of km of trails and gravel roads. Early in the season to be up there, lots of snow and deep water crossings. the Ottawa boys have tons of good riding trails west of town. Worth a long day to hookup and explore with them.
I'll chime in.. In the Mt-Tremblant area a few of us up here..lot north and cutting toward st-donat and going toward lac taurreau....etc. I'll be remapping rides soon..been off the bikes for a few years and two of us just brought home some ktm 990 adventures..more to fallow.. PM me if you want to join us or vice versa.. will be doing some ottawa riding also..
Scotch road and roads in the vicinity, north of Grenville are nice. Join Moto Trail Aventure and meet many offroad riders. http://www.mototrailaventure.ca/
Thanks Dan. I haven't yet been up in the Papineau Labelle Park area. It sounds like a good area for me (as an off-pavement newbie) to get my feet wet so to speak. I did the Chemin de la Rivière Rouge a couple of weeks ago and there was still a lot of snow on the road in places and VERY slippery mud and lots of potholes and ruts. The whole way through I was way over my head, but loved it. Luckily I didn't drop the bike. Couldn't stop in the most interesting places either, as when I slowed down the bike got even more unstable so I kept the speed up (3rd gear) and the bike was getting thrown around a lot (front wheel caught in ruts, rear fishtailing). Gonna take an off-road class in a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll get better. The problem with a long day to Ottawa and then riding hard is that I also have to get home to Montreal at the end. Tired and possibly bruised (myself AND the bike!) and I probably need a lot more off-road experience first. Cheers!
Salut Tremblant! Must be a great area up there for riding! Sure, I'd love to join you some day. I'm trying to arrange a day of private off-road training through Moto International (BMW dealer). Supposedly they do a really good class. I've got years of riding experience but really none of it off-road (yet!).
Bumper, I've heard of Scotch Road before, but no one has been able to tell me where exactly it is, and I haven't been able to find it on Google maps either. It does sound like something I would like to try. That MTA group looks interesting, but unfortunately my written (and reading ability) French is on the poor side. I do speak it quite well though. I'm going to try to decipher what the web site says. Are beginning off-roaders welcome there?
Try www.ridaventure.ca Lots of organized rides, lots of guys with GSs, and a graphic scale of difficulty for each ride. Enjoy !
Mtl Biker; Going west on Autoroute 50, turn right at the Grenville exit and you are on Scotch road. There are many rides organised every year, for beginners and experts by the participants of the ridaventure.ca forum. I am not a member of MotoTrail aventure so I can't answer your question. HAVE FUN
Thanks for the link. Doesn't seem to be any English on that site at all though, and while I speak French fairly well I have a real hard time reading or writing it. Unfortunately for me.
I found Scotch road on Google Maps now. Thanks for your help! I hadn't even known what area it was in, so searching for it wasn't working. But now that I zoomed in to the Grenville area and then searched for "chemin Scotch" it came up right away. Have you ridden that road? How does it compare with Chemin de la Rivière Rouge? I did that one a couple of weeks ago and while there were muddy and snow covered sections, I think it summer it would be a fairly decent (and easy) road. Is Scotch similar or a bit more rough? It's probably still too early in the season to ride it (or Rivière Rouge for that matter) because of the snow and slippery-as-ice muddy roads.
Chemin-de-la rivière-rouge is a public road, but it is too early in the season, especially this year. I would not drive a car on Scotch road and it seems there are now some beaver dams. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzB8emrl_FY&feature=player_embedded
Too early in the season? Tell me about it!!! I rode it over two weeks ago and without (yet) any real off-road experience, was scared stiff and screaming, "Oh shit, Oh Shit, OH SHIT!!!!" as I slid along the slippery-as-ice mud and snow covered road. I was way over my head. But I LOVED IT! If you're interested, here's a short trip report about it: <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> http://www.i-bmw.com/showthread.php?t=43975 <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]-->
