Ride to Ottawa tips?

[shanekingsley]

ahh nothing like going for a road trip...
ride safe.

[7plymaple]

There is better than Hwy 7, you can be in Ottawa by breakfast even staying off the 401, so you have lots of time to take the long way.

Here's a suggestion

I would have included Elephant Lake but I'm not sure if its been paved yet...

Oh and that route won't take 7 hours...

This ways fun! I did almost the same rout but I think I stayed on 28 to 41 then 132 to renfrew. Much more fun way to get to ottawa.

[Chaos]

I am back from my trip, and I am pretty sore/tired.

I took the map posted above to Ottawa, but for a lack of map, and a dying GPS, I skipped the Quebec portion. The route posted above was great! Good fun on a lot of the ride - it really made me realize how boring the GTA is in comparison.

I stopped about 4 times along the way, mainly due to stretching and some paranoia of running out of gas. I left Toronto at 9, and got to Ottawa around 5.

I also learned that you'll find gas stations in the strangest spots and are not on the GPS. In a city called Quadville, there is one general store for the entire community and it has a couple of old gas pumps (those analog ones - she asked me how much gas I pumped).

Other things I learned:
- Every little town has an "antique" store, but it's usually locals just getting rid of their used furniture, or making things out of wood
- It looks like tonnes of people have weekly yard/garage/lawn sales.
- Home hardware has a monopoly on small town hardware stores.
- I already knew this, but Ottawa is a great place to spend some time, especially in the Byward Market

On the way home, I decided to take highway 7. It was a boring route, but it worked out ok since the weather was crappy and I was tired, so finding places to stop (i.e. Tims) were abundant on the route.

I did one detour though - took 509/506/41/Flinton/Bridge Water/Flinton and back to 7. The ride home took me about 5 hours (including stops).

The Flinton/Bridge Water/Flinton road is not marked on the Great Ontario Roads, but it was good fun!

This was my first overnight trip, and 1000 kms over two days is the most I've ever done in such a short period of time. I am pretty rough shape physically (my arms and neck are brutally sore - day 1 was not too bad, but day 2 was a killer), but it was all worth it.

[gAbRoO]

Glad you got some good riding done and had fun at the same time.