Popular stopping points for Ottawa cyclists

Yesterday afternoon I rode my bike along the Ottawa River Pathway * (a 30km section of the Trans-Canada Trail), having arranged to meet my husband coming home from work on his own bike. His half-way point is near Mud Lake in the Britannia Bay area; I actually met him at Britannia Beach.

Located on the Ottawa River at Britannia Bay, the beach is great for swimming, picnics or just watching the sailboats go by on a beautiful summer day.

The city of Ottawa has a few more such recreational beaches. At three of them you can rent volley ball nets for $15 / hour and lifeguards monitor the bathing areas. We also passed the smaller beach without nets, at the Kitchissippi Lookout further downstream, where many commuting cyclists had laid their bikes on the sand and were sitting there taking a rest.

Britannia Beach: volleyball nets

Picnic at the old trolley bus station, June 2010

Britannia Beach feels like the seaside, with its yachts off the sandy shore, swimmers, pier and sun umbrellas. In the park are multiple barbecues and picnic tables. In the early 20th century this used to be a destination for day trips or cottage holidays for people from the city and was the terminus for a trolley bus ride (the line opened in 1900). The station roof is still there, now turned into a shelter for picnic tables. I had a stylish picnic here once with the ladies of the CFUW-Ottawa's Diplomatic Hospitality group. Yesterday a family was making use of it.

This year's rock sculptures

Closer to the city at the Remic Rapids are the numerous stone sculptures created (and photographed) anew each summer by the Canadian-Italian John Felice Ceprano and other "rock artists." They too are worth stopping for. It's best to stop there on your ride upriver because there's a gradual uphill most of the way in that direction; more opportunities for free-wheeling when you turn around and come back. Bring a camera!

Where we stopped on the way back was at the Mill Street Brew Pub near Victoria Island, Ottawa's oldest surviving mill, to have supper, with beer of course. It was packed with cyclists, to judge by the number of bikes stacked in the racks outside. The back of the restaurant overlooks a former log-chute channelling some of the water from the Chaudière Falls.

* The Ottawa River Pathway, intended for walkers, strollers and wheelchairs as well as bikes and rollerblades, is well maintained and signposted. It doesn't cross many roads, with underpasses under the main ones, but take notice of the stop signs at the minor roads and driveways. The major hazard is a sudden encounter with Canada geese wandering across the pathway. In summer time rush hour periods the trail is heavily used by cyclists commuting home from work, some of whom speed along at well over the 20kph speed limit, but they seem used to dodging the slower traffic and usually ring their bells if approaching fast from behind you. Informative plaques are posted at intervals along the trail if you have time to stop and read them.

Magic on the river bank

It was the night of the Lumière Festival again, tonight: the Evening of Light Celebration in Stanley Park. It was a well supported event and free of charge. Little girls were swarming through New Edinburgh on their way to the park, dressed as fairies; it's a wonderful experience for all the children whose families bring them along. Some of the adults indulge in dressing up too. Lanterns hang in the trees along the river bank and monsters in the undergrowth glow from within. This year there were goose-lanterns by the path and swan-lanterns floating on the river as well as a crowd of rabbit-lanterns in the grass. People carry their home-made lanterns with them when they visit the park on this night. This month there have been nine lantern-making workshops on different days / times of day.

From the opposite bank of the Rideau you could distantly see the lanterns reflected in the water. The organisers were lucky this year (the 10th time the festival has been held) with perfect mild weather, not a breath of wind to blow out the candles and a full moon to enhance the atmosphere.

On our way home we saw two real swans under the St. Patrick Street bridge, one swimming decorously behind the other.

Different every time

My original motivation for writing these river posts was wanting to share the variety of what we notice on our more or less daily walks beside the Rideau. The river itself never looks the same as it did the previous evening and will look different again on the following evening. With the days getting shorter now, we're seeing the river at nightfall more frequently. In cloudy weather with no wind the other day, seen from the St. Patrick Street bridge it turned a dramatic shade of dark grey. Monday evening this week was finer, with a gentle breeze, and then the river looked like corrugated gold.

On evenings like this I'm reminded of the last chapter of a novel (published in 1910) by H.G. Wells, The History of Mr. Polly, which describes an evening by a nameless river in southern England:

... It was one of those evenings, serenely luminous, amply and atmospherically still, when the river bend was at its best. A swan floated against the dark green masses of the further bank, the stream flowed broad and shining to its destiny, with scarce a ripple––except where the reeds came out from the headland––the three poplars rose clear and harmonious against a sky of green and yellow.

"...what have we done," said Mr. Polly, "to get an evening like this? ... Sometimes I think I live for sunsets."

They ... sat on in the warm twilight until at last they could scarcely distinguish each other's faces. They were not so much thinking as lost in a smooth, still quiet of the mind. A bat flitted by ...

On the Mississippi

Mississippi River, Ontario, from the air

No, not that Mississippi, but the one in Ontario that flows into the Ottawa River at Fitzroy Harbour, northwest of the capital. We had a leisurely drive through Carleton Place and Almonte yesterday, both of which towns lie on the banks of this river. We also came close to Pakenham, where the river narrows again, further downstream. My aerial photo was taken over that area earlier this week, showing the Ottawa River in the distance.

In the other direction, southwest of Carleton Place, the Mississippi flows into the town from a sizeable lake: Lake Mississippi.

There's a curved weir in Carleton Place near the site of a former mill and Almonte / Mississippi Mills has a whole series of waterfalls (the river drops 65 feet on its way through the town) as well as its own textile mills. In fact it used to be known as The Manchester of the North. A new board walk with fences, steps and bridges, right beside the rapids, makes an impressive addition to the central part of the town.

The waterfalls below Bridge Street, Almonte

In Carleton Place as well as Almonte you can sit at patio tables belonging to restaurants on the banks of the Mississippi. The main through road, in both towns, is called Bridge Street. I wonder who copied whom.

A Sunday bike ride

Another day of occasional summer showers today; we only needed to shelter once on our ride to the Hogs Back Falls. The trail from New Edinburgh follows the Rideau River all the way, only winding a short distance from it at the end to zigzag through a sloping field. We kept pedalling until we reached the outdoor "Cantina" at the Falls, now a Lone Star outlet, where we stopped for some lunch and took a look at the Falls, then turned around and pedalled back the way we'd come. We could have crossed the Hogs Back Road bridge and returned beside the Rideau Canal, except that would have meant riding amongst the holiday traffic in town for the last few kilometres.

The 25km ride was fun and good for us, no doubt, with small uphills here and there to increase the heart rate. We passed ducks, geese, rapids and innumerable picnic tables in the parks. Many other cyclists were doing the same. In the Vincent Massey park where a large party of people were enjoying a barbeque, we noticed a stone monument telling passers by about the Canadian Workers Mourning Day (my birthday, April 28th) "in recognition of all workers killed and injured on the job."

The Capital Pathway network in our city extends for 236 kilometres, apparently. The distance we covered today was the same as my husband's (one way) cycle ride to work from downtown Ottawa to Kanata. That route is mostly beside the Ottawa River and also almost entirely on the NCC's recreational trails.

A celebratory cruise

On Tuesday this week Chris and I had been married for forty years, and we celebrated on the river, inviting six friends to share a cruise with us on the electric Duffy boat owned by Au Feel de L'Eau. The little boat called BES I is kept from May-October at the Casino Marina in Gatineau. Look for the sign advertising Croisières as you come down the steps on the right hand side of the Casino building at the end of the Boulevard du Casino––and here's the boat:

Chris already on board, meeting Sylvie, Captain of the boat

The other vessels moored there are the temporary visitors' boats and the Aquataxi that also belongs to Sylvie and Jean-Marc, skippers of Au Feel de L'Eau.

The Aquataxi ferries passengers across the Ottawa River
from the Rideau Canal to the Museum of Civilisation and back

It is a tight squeeze by this dock, but the Duffy boat's manoeuvrability allows for neat parking and an easy embarkation. We carried snacks on board for supper, everyone wiping their shoes on a carpet before entering the boat which was beautifully carpeted and furnished with soft leather seats, and at 6pm we promptly set sail.

Chris steering

As soon as Sylvie had navigated her boat through the narrow channel into Lac Leamy, she let Chris take the wheel and served us wine from the first of three bottles provided by the company––wine glasses, plates and napkins were provided too. The best thing about the cruise is its quietness, the electric engine being so unobtrusive that all you're aware of is the lapping of the water against the hull. No engine fumes pollute the air, either! We had the bonus of perfect weather on Tuesday evening, but if we hadn't been so fortunate, the canopy and roll down blinds would have protected us from wind and rain, and that would have been a romantic experience too. As we cruised, we listened to music through the speakers: Ravel's Bolero (at less than full volume) and some piano music.

We took the canal from Lac Leamy to the Gatineau River, sailed under the Lady Aberdeen Bridge at Pointe-Gatineau and thence into the Ottawa River, upstream to the city, not turning around until we reached Victoria Island. On the return journey, the Aquataxi, after its last trip of the day, followed us home by the same route in reverse.

Entering the channel between Lac Leamy and the Gatineau River

Passing the Rideau Falls

Below Parliament Hill, half way through the cruise

We paid for two hours on the water, but Sylvie had noticed I'd been following Au Feel de L'Eau on Facebook and treated us to extra time, later posting a photo of me on their page:

Our Facebook fan of the month, Mrs Alison Hobbs, got an extra 30 minutes on her cruise for following us on Facebook. Congratulations and thank you, Mrs Hobbs.

Chris didn't steer all the time; I had a turn too, and Sylvie took over for some of the difficult sections, under the Rideau Falls for example, and for the docking procedures. On the return she let Chris take the boat through the mouth of the Gatineau where underwater rocks and shallows have to be avoided, with reference to markers in the river and the chart.

My turn to steer the boat, photo by Carol Hinde

We don't usually see the Falls from this angle!

The navigation chart

Sylvie keeping an eye on Chris at the wheel

At the end of the voyage we had the bonus of a beautiful sunset, as well, and as we set off to drive home, all the fountains down the Boulevard du Casino were floodlit.

Having spent such a splendid evening on the cruise, relished by everyone, I promised that I'd recommend this service as widely as I could. It won the bronze award in the Services Touristiques category this year (Grands Prix du Tourisme Québecois) and stands another chance of winning a prize next year.

Note to first time cruisers: Take advantage of the washrooms at the Casino before you embark or when you disembark because this is one thing the boat lacks. Parking at the Casino is free.