This is a note on the first of a couple of rides I made in the first two weeks of June.
Midweek in the first days of June I made a short overnight ride up into the hills across the Ottawa River in West Québec, in the Gatineau Park. I needed a break from the city, and wanted to check out some new camping gear I had purchased over the winter.
I regularly make a 3 – 4 hour ride up into the hills, partly for training, partly for sheer enjoyment, but that ride is further to the West, to the escarpment overlooking the Ottawa River as it turns north just west of the city. The Gatineau Park is a spacious funnel-shaped affair, about 40 km south-to-north, narrow at its southern base (only a km or so wide) but widening out to 40 km wide, east to west, at its northern side. The park is laced with 200-odd kms of hiking and biking trails in the summer, which are used for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. In the larger, northern sectors, there are several campgrounds accessible by road, as well as some campsites reachable only by canoe.
For this trip, I booked a campsite on Taylor Lake, in the north-central part of the park, just at the “Parc de la Gatineau” symbol on the Google map of Ottawa and West Québec:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.6204967,-76.0266725,11zThe trip included an enjoyable loop, maybe 120 kms round trip: I crossed the Ottawa River into the southern end of the park, climbed to a ridge overlooking a lake, then took a nice long downhill out of the park to the village of Chelsea, an excellent spot for coffee, ice cream, and some very good eateries. From there I headed east and north to the Gatineau River, and rode along the river to the riverside village of Wakefield, about 60 kms or so from home. It makes a splendid spot for lunch, with a view across the river to the old covered bridge. From there, it’s a short 25 kms westwards to the northern entrance of the park, and to my campsite at Taylor Lake.
The brilliant green of early summer has softened the landscape, and I had an altogether lovely campsite. There were a couple of other parties in the neighbourhood, but none closer than a couple of hundred metres away. I spent a relaxing afternoon and evening, pottering around the camp, soaking my legs and feet in the lake, but not swimming—still far too cold, as we had had night-time temps down close to zero the week before.
There was a good breeze beside the lake, so the bugs were barely noticeable. (The next day, in the woods, there was no wind, and the mozzies took their revenge whenever I stopped for a photo. Brutes.)
The next morning, I took an old settler road south through the park to Chelsea. The road is passable gravel in the summer, and a ski trail in the winter. In the link to the photos below, I’ve included some shots taken in mid-February, and ones at similar or identical spots less than four months later, in early June. The landscape is not just different, but completely transformed: “All is changed, changed utterly/Our annual summer beauty is reborn.” (Thank you, Mr Yeats.) I’m always astonished by the amount of light in the woods in winter, compared with summer’s dense canopy of foliage. (Helps if you like trees. Jim K will find the scenery familiar, I’m sure.)
Here’s a link to a selection of photos taken along the route:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/echnrn9akxa0kp1/AABNMnlxAZQV2thiHxskUBnRa?dl=0 We’re so privileged to have this place on our doorstep.
A note on the gear I was checking: I had invested in some lightweight and compact gear, partly to reduce weight and bulk, partly to renew equipment past its best-before date. These were the items:
- A Tarptent Moment DW one-person tent, very light at one kg, but spacious, with two vestibules. Packed size: 10 cms x 45 cms.
- A Western Mountaineering summer-weight down bag, just less than 600 gms, and a packed size of about 12cms x 25 cms.
- A Revelate “Tangle” frame bag, which straps to the top tube, down tube, and seat tube.
- A Klymit Inertia Force sleeping pad, about 350 gms in weight, and about 10 x 20 cms packed. This was a bit of a gamble/experiment: the pad is inflatable, and its air chambers are a set of large bagel-shaped rings for one’s torso, with a separate inflatable pillow and a conventional chamber for one’s feet.
First impressions, with more to come as part of a post on a four-day ride this past week in the Madawaska Highlands:
- The Tarptent Moment is spacious and well ventilated. The dual vestibules are very handy. It pitches fairly easily and quickly, although the central hoop pole does not slide as quickly and easily through its channel as I had expected. It seems to be very well made. Definitely an upgrade from my faithful-but-aging Sierra Designs Cliplight. One detail, noted in the setup instructions, on which I’ll follow up: the ripstop nylon floor is quite slippery for sleeping pads and my WM down bag with its ripstop nylon shell. This puts a premium on pitching the tent on level ground! Tarptent recommends a few swathes of seam-sealer on the floor to add some friction.
- The WM bag was expensive, but is fabulously comfortable, and ridiculously light and compact.
- Revelate frame bag: Very well made, it mounts in a straightforward manner, but there are six Velcro tabs to be fastened, so it’s not a quick-and-easy on-and-off. I used it for my rain gear and my Click-stand. Very handy, and unobtrusive when I’m riding. The only slight negative is that the water bottle on the inside of the downtube nudges the bottom of the bag, so that it’s not quite as easy to return the bottle to its cage while in motion.
- Klymit sleeping pad: On balance, this didn’t work well enough for me. It seems well made, and is crazy-light and compact. But, there’s a design flaw. The bagels don’t hold enough air to support my weight (86 kg) when I sleep on my side, usually about 50% of the time. On my back, it’s quite OK. Maybe it would work better for someone 10 kg lighter? For the time being, I’ll stick with my Thermarest Prolite Plus, which is slightly heavier, and quite a bit bulkier, but supports my weight & is durable.
Beyond the (mostly) pro’s and (some) cons of the new gear, the aggregate of lighter and more compact items made a big difference in the load I carried. On this trip, I left my 28-ltr pair of Arkel front panniers at home, and thus could have left my front rack at home as well. The reduction and relocation (to the Revelate bag) in the size and weight of my camping load allow me to look at using smaller/lighter panniers and/or dry bags. More on that in the report to come on my Madawaska ride.
