Gatineau Hills Ride - 3. Ride Around the Gatineau Area.

3. Ride Around the Gatineau Area.

Up early this Friday morning.

 I cannot live according to my inner clock on Club rides, this is Club time, we had breakfast at 7.30 am but we were not the earliest risers. The breakfast room at the hotel was over-crowded. People were 3 rows deep, huddled around the 3 toasters, waiting for their toast to pop up. The automated coffee machine took way too long brewing one cup at a time. It took us almost 45 minutes to just have a coffee and a toasted bagel. We even had to wait for a place to sit down.

Our group of riders left the hotel at 8.30 AM sharp, our goal for the day was to ride in 3 groups and then meet up in Mont Tremblant for lunch. Mont Tremblant is about 150 km northeast of Gatineau and taking the back roads and not the most direct route, it took us close to 3 hours to arrive near Tremblant. It was almost lunch time. We had a new ride leader for this day since Martin had already left before us to see the Chateau Montebello on the way. I am told it is a beautiful old timbered Hotel.

Chateau Montebello - Hotel Lobby

After said 3 hours, now around 11.30 am, we actually met Martin’s group just a bit before arriving in Tremblant. We met in a nondescript parking lot in a village we thought was Tremblant but was not and we needed to ride a bit more. I saw our ride leader and Martin coordinating their GPSs for our next stop, the lunch stop.

Martin waited for our small group of just 7 riders, but was waved on and told we would meet him at the lunch stop, a Crepe Restaurant, near the old Tremblant Village a little bit further away.

Something did not go right after that. Martin left and with the lemming mentality a group has, we followed our ride leader. After another 100 km northwest we arrived in Mont Laurier where we stopped for lunch around 1 pm. We never saw or visited Mont Tremblant, but somehow ended up at Mont Laurier. It was now way beyond Midday and we were all hungry. We stopped at a chicken place.

It was not a fancy lunch but a nice place never-the-less. After this lunch we rode again. We did nothing but ride all day. No sight-seeing, just the road and the views we had along the way. And the roads were twisty roads. Not highways, but byways. Some lanes had not been repaved for ages and were very bumpy. 

Now, Carol is a good rider, an excellent rider and she can certainly hold her own but after nearly 8 hours of riding, after about 500 km of twisties, even I had had enough of riding. It takes a lot of concentration to manage rough, twisty, winding roads; roads we don’t really know. At each moment something ‘could’ jump out at you when you ride through woods and fields. Deer are notorious for causing serious problems for motorcycle riders, as a rider you need to be totally alert at all times. You cannot really look left and right or day dream while riding; especially with narrow lanes and bumpy roads.

Well, to make it short, it was a day of hard work. It was too much riding, too many twisties, too much of something we usually like to do. 

We spoke with the ‘other’ folks who rode with Martin and Mike after we got back to the hotel and all had a good time, all had a nice lunch at Mont Tremblant, some folks even taking the gondola up to the top of the mountain, or enjoying the shops in the old town of Mont Tremblant, etc. but something went wrong with our group. We could not ask our leader because after we got back to the hotel, our ride leader had to rush home. 

‘Our’ ride made me feel like a lemming. I guess group rides just are not meant for me any longer. I like riding my bike MY way. I like to ride, but then stop and smell the roses, see the towns, talk to people. I couldn’t care less about the destinations; I like the ‘happenings’ along the way. The farm stands, the vistas, the way the land lies, how the farmer keeps his fields, how dense the woods grow how big the trees are, the way the light reflects off the lakes, etc. I ride a more sedate pace. I guess I am getting old. 

Carol and I like riding together, we are like a team, we kind of know when to stop, when to slow down or even when to have a coffee in a town, etc. 

Waiting For Our Pizza (With a Little Liquid Refreshment)

This Friday ride, this ride of nearly 500 km on twisty, rough roads was not my kind of ride. We were glad when we were back at the hotel that night around 5 pm. It was an especially frustrating ride because we did not see what we had been looking forward to seeing.

Dinner that night was supposed to be a Swiss Fondue place near the Hotel. I told Carol I was going to take her out for dinner to help her get over her aching backside. But of course…. The Club decided to order

Still Waiting

Pizza. So we decided to join them and ate in the parking lot on garden chairs. And… naturally for this day it rained just then, too. We all had to move under the overhang of the roof to be out of the downpour. The Hotel did not want us ‘rough’ riders to spoil their lobby with our noise and pizza smell. I guess we did not look ‘charming’ enough to them. Riding with a Club is like that, I try to do it the Club way yet somehow things don’t work out ‘my’ way.

Rainbow After the Rain

Case in point, just look at the way we had to get gasoline…

It was one bike at the time, all had to wait for the last guy to finish getting gas.

Getting Gas - Only One Pump

Call me whatever you want, but I know there is a better way to travel. I like the camaraderie, don’t get me wrong, it’s just the riding… I like to ride my way.

Taking a Break After Getting Gas