Gatineau Hills Ride - 2. Club Ride to Gatineau

2. Club Ride to Gatineau    

A Foggy Start to the Day

We woke up to a very foggy morning. Yet after a while it turned nice and sunny. But riding from the hotel to the breakfast place in the morning was like riding through milk laced air.

Waiting For the 'Gang' at the Bancroft Hotel and Brewery

Our lunch spot was the Brewery Co. right in the middle of Bancroft. Naturally, Carol and I were early, it was a wonderful chilly but sunny morning for our ride from Maynooth to Bancroft and since Mike S. had reserved tables for the whole Ontario Club we just sat inside and waited for their arrival.

I had to smile during lunch, even though we had lunch in a brewery, nobody drank any beer. Most of our riders drank just water. I guess they take the motto don’t drink and drive (ride) very seriously. Good for them. 

Taking Off a Layer (With a Little Help From a Friend)

The lunch spot was kind of a 

collection location, riders met here for our ride in the afternoon. Our group, almost 2 doz. people, was too large to ride together.

Carol and I chose to ride with Martin leading our smaller group of about 8 riders. Martin has a knack for being very organized and calm. He is a good ride leader, technically very savvy, he plans well and had his trip and way-points entered on his cell phone and GPS. It was a pleasure following Martin. 

Ken, Jean and Ross

Riding with a group is very different than riding solo or as a pair. Most people love riding in groups, especially with a good leader. You don’t have to think, you just follow the leader. Even if he takes the wrong turn, everybody follows. If he stops for some reason, everybody stops. Nobody asks the question why are we stopping?  They all stop. While it sounds like we are a bunch of lemmings, I can understand the underlying reasoning. The tempo of the ride, the roads picked, the gas stops, the whole riding atmosphere all depends on the lead rider. 

Great Lunch Stop

There is, in most cases, also a sweeper. The last guy in the group should be in contact with the leader just in case some event happens on the trip where communication is essential. Some groups sync their intercoms that way, the leader can use the helmet intercom to talk to the sweeper. In our case, since we all have experience riding in groups, our sweeper just happened to be a good rider with a cell phone, in case some mishap necessitated him calling the leader.  

Getting Ready to Ride

Martin is very conscious of riding brisk but not too fast. The roads he charted were local roads, twisty, woodsy and he even built a ferry crossing into our route. And yes, when we reached the ferry we picked up Fiona, who had this meeting spot pre-arranged, I am sure. The predicted rains never came. We had a dry ride, a beautiful day, a very scenic experience riding through the local, rural areas of Eastern Ontario and then into Western Quebec. 

Waiting For the Ferry Across the Ottawa River

Our goal for the day was the Hotel Adams in Gatineau, QC.

For folks who do not know, Quebec (QC) is the French speaking part of Canada. All signs are mainly in French. People speak French doing their daily routine, their business talk is French. Every Store, every restaurant, gas station, etc. conducts their affairs in French. Some folks here do not speak English at all. Restaurants for example

On the Ferry

have special staff where maybe a few people speak English, but the majority converse only in French. It is like Europe, you cross an invisible border and the language changes. The signs change, even their mentality, I believe, changes. Other countries think differently. It must have to do with the language or they way they do math.

Maybe it is unconscious but just think about this for a bit; just think about how numbers are ‘thought’ about. 

In English we say:  Twenty Nine:   29

If you look at 29 and say it literally in German it would be: Nine and Twenty.

In French it would be almost like in English… Twenty and Nine.

But now look at the number 99: in French you would say:

Four, twenty, ten, nine.      I kid you not!             quatre-vingt dix-neuf

Thinking like that, using a different language all day, influences your mentality.

So now we are in French-speaking Canada, a totally different world from let’s say Toronto. The housing alongside the roads, the way business places look, reminds me a bit more of Europe. We now come to more round-about intersections instead of traffic lights. Quebec is different.

Gatineau could be called Ottawa, but it’s not. One side of the river is Ottawa the other side is French, is Gatineau.  Our Motel is in Gatineau.  We took a taxi at night to have dinner in Ottawa, a 10-minute taxi ride away, but it was a bit like coming back from a different county once we crossed the Ottawa River, and yet, it is all Canada. At least I felt this way.

Chateau Laurier Across From the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa

I will just mention about the traffic in Gatineau, I guess bottle necks cannot be avoided, especially if you are in an old city like Gatineau (formerly Hull), but it was terrible. The last few kilometers were especially painful. Way too much traffic, the narrow roads could not handle the onslaught of cars. We were stuck in Gatineau’s rush hour. Yuk!   

Our hotel, the Motel Adam, was a busy place, too. When we checked in it was fairly ok, but later on, the parking lot was full. Even 2 tour buses were parked among the vehicles. This hotel is in a good location, there are all the amenities one could ask for around the hotel. Even a local bus stop was just a few steps away.

Old Train Station, Ottawa

Our dinner that night, after riding all afternoon was at the Smoque Shack, the place came as a highly recommended place and our group took up a long table. We had a bit of a wait for the food as we were such a large group but I was disappointed when the portions turned out to be rather smallish. I guess I am used to eating in the U.S. where portions are much bigger, most of the time. What I did not like at the Smoque Shack was that a meal came without any vegetables or side dishes. You could have them, of course but they were an extra charge and quite expensive, too. Our bill that night, for just 2 people, was close to $70. - We just had one beer each and no side dishes. 

It was most economical to use a taxi to go to dinner, 4 people sharing a ride made the one-way fare about $5.-/each.

Group riding is like living in a commune. Whatever the group plans and does, is what you do regardless of your preferences.  

The room at the Motel Adam was OK, we slept well that night.