Mountain Bike Trails in Ottawa

I was searching for a MTB trip in the US for this November and its really hard to find good rides say in Northern California. I guess MTB riders like to keep the trails secret to minimize traffic.

Anyway here are my favorite rides in Ottawa. Actually the rides are in Gatineau Park, very close to Ottawa. I found a map of the park. My favorite trails start at the O'Brien parking lot near Meech Lake. Your riding trail 36 and trail 50 on the map. My ride ends at Herridge (and goes back to the parking lot) but you can ride as far as you want as shown on the map. The trail is best described as a roller coaster. It has a bit of everything and the views along the lake are beautiful. The ride has some technical sections and I don't think I would recommend it for beginners, its more for intermediates. You can easily walk the harder bits though. Nice thing about the trail is you can't get lost. You can do this ride comfortably in about 1.5 to 2 hrs.

The second ride also leaves from O'Brien but for this one take Meech Lake road to P12 (McKinstry). You ride up trail 40 to 24 to 1. And I mean up. It's a pretty hard steep ride up that takes at least 30-45 mins. Make sure you turn left at trail 1. Your headed to Champlain Lookout for a beautiful view of Ottawa across the river. You can go left on trail 1 to McKinstry but its a boring ride on a fire road (with no view at the end). After a break at Champlain Lookout go back into trail 1 but go left. Trail 1 is an easy, very fun trail that is mostly down hill through the woods. Take that and you will cross Lac-Fortune Pkwy. Stay on trail 1 until you hit trail 4. Go left on 4 for a really fun down hill where you pop out at Camp Fortune. From there you can take the road down where it meets up with Lac-Fortune Pkwy (turn right) That goes down to Meech Lake road. You turn left and ride back to the O'Brien parking lot. I would say this ride is a bit shorter and easier (except for the painful clime in the beginning). A beginner can do this ride - it's not very technical but you've got to be in good shape for climbing. And you can very this ride depending how far you want to go.

Gatineau park is a treasure in the Ottawa area for biking. Road biking is also fantastic on the parkway. I'll write about that next.

After your ride head into Old Chelsea. Great little town for food and drinks!

Enjoy