Gorgeous day riding the Rideau

We wrench ourselves from the bosom of little India, after two delightful days of rest and relaxation with Mak’s family, and hurl ourselves back onto the road. After a few days of rest, the bikes feel lighter, and the legs more enthused about pushing the pedals. It’s nice to stop a while, but the road beckons, and we are soon cruising along Riverside Road, doing our best to keep the Rideau Canal in sight.

We’ve got three days now following the historic Rideau Canal. The early Canadians were if nothing else, pretty amazing at wresting transport routes from water. There’s certainly plenty of water around here! The Rideau Canal links the Ottawa River to Lake Ontario, and opened in 1832. Colonel John By, whose name is all over the place in Ottawa (Ottawa used to be called Bytown), opened the canal as a military route, connecting Montreal to Kingston, in case hostile Americans ever blockaded the St Lawrence River. During construction, almost 1,000 workers died, mostly from malaria.

Today, the Rideau Canal is used for recreational purposes, with the operators extracting money from boat owners so they can cruise up and down the tranquil canal waters. It costs about 90c per foot per lock to take your boat through, and there are 45 locks in the system. People cruise along the canal by day, moor their boats at night, and enjoy the breathtaking scenery along the way.

It is well set up for boats. For bikes, apart from a lovely paved canal path back in Ottawa, you have to follow the roads, and get glimpses of the water when you can. Much of the Rideau river frontage is owned privately, with people’s houses blocking views, and their back yards stretching right to the river bank.

It would be lovely if there was a paved route all the way along the canal, but sadly there is not. Maybe one day?

It is a great day for a ride! Today is the first day we are without a head wind. The sun is out, and we are also enjoying the first full on blue sky day for the whole trip.

We cruise out of Ottawa on the south side of the river, crossing to the north side at Manotick. We are following a route I found here and pieced together backwards with some modifications. It looks like there are many routes to follow, but it was a bit tricky finding route information before we left home.

After Manitock, the road surface deteriorates. We travel on route 13 for some 10km or more. There are horizontal cracks, edge to edge, it seems every 10 metres or so, and for bikes with no suspension, it is a pretty bumpy ride. The road edges are quite rough, with large webs of cracks. Where possible we ride in the centre of the road, moving to the side only when cars come along, which is fortunately infrequent on this quiet road.

But when we catch sight of the river, all is forgiven. On this truly lovely day, the views are equally lovely.

We finally cross back to the north side of the river, and the road surface improves, as do our spirits. We are making extraordinarily quick time today, and look forward to reaching Merrickville and relaxing by the river.

But there is one more obstacle. A detour. Road closed. Gah! Maybe they don’t mean bicycles. Do we ignore the signs and push on? We stop and consult maps and ask a local. A bridge is being repaired. He doesn’t know if a bike would get through. The detour takes us from our idyllic river road to route 43. It’s a “five minute” detour by car. He doesn’t know how far it is.

We take the detour. It’s a couple of kilometres to the very busy route 43. We could take this road all the was to Merrickville (only about 13km), but the road has no paved shoulder, and when we are elbowed out of the way by a large truck that had nowhere to go on the two-lane road because of oncoming traffic, we choose to follow the detour back to our idyllic riverside road.

The last 14km or or along this road is the prettiest of the day. The road is small, but not used much by traffic, and we enjoy a stop at the very pretty lock 17 to watch some boat traffic go through the lock.

Here’s how it works at a lock. The man (always the man in my observation) drives the boat into the lock. The woman (again, always this way in my observation), clad in a sheer cover over her swimsuit, and sporting a deep tan, runs around the boat, shouting directions back to the man-driver (always in French, again by my observation), and ensuring the boat does not touch the sides of the lock. She secures the boat with ropes, and then keeps a wary eye out as other boats enter to ensure they do not touch her boat. The lock keepers close the gates, fill or empty the lock, depending on the direction of travel. The woman stands anxiously on the boat deck throughout. The man remains behind the wheel. When the gates open at the other end, the woman unties the boat, pushes gently off, and the man drives off. Sometimes the woman dances on deck as the leave. Sometimes the man calls out to crowd of people watching the manoevure.

I hope we see something that bucks this stereotype somewhere along the canal.

It’s a short ride then into Merrickville. After an almost perfect day of riding, this beautiful little village is the perfect end point.

We are welcomed at B&B by our host, Mike, who is very enthusiastic about the town, pointing out places to visit and eat. It is great to see somebody so passionate about his town. He reminds us of some of the passionate people in Heathcote, who have the best interests of the town in mind.

We cap off the day with a post-ride beer, a turn around town, and a lovely dinner at Baldachin Inn.

Stats for today:

• Distance: 69.7km
• Climb: 160m
• Average speed: 21.2km/h
• Average temperature: 29C
• Moving time: 3:16:59
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken in the courtyard of Baldachin Inn the local watering hole. It’s a shame there was no place on or near the stunning water views in this town.

Along the way today: