Fri.
11 September: The OVRT: Beyond Renfrew
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Waterfront Park, Pembroke, looking out to the Ottawa River.
Pembroke was my main base of operations today
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Hard to believe, but the multi-use Ottawa Valley
Recreational Trail (the OVRT) has been open a couple of years now. I wonder how many people have bicycled all
the way from Smiths Falls to Renfrew and back (roughly 93 km each way), not necessarily in one day? Perhaps quite a few.
But then how many people have tried to cycle “beyond Renfrew”
on the OVRT/Algonquin Trail? Probably
not many. Especially since the stone
dust surface soon gives way to ballast, just a couple of kilometres or so past
the Bonnechere River bridge, at McBride Road.
Even for a mountain bike, it’s just about impossible to cycle on the
rough ballast surface.
It’s about fifty two kilometres along the OVRT from McBride
Road to Pembroke. Today I explored the
route, accessing just about every point of interest along the line, including
several river bridges. With one short
exception in Cobden, it’s all ballast cover.
The Renfrew County folks told me that future stone dusting work will
depend on available budgets. I look
forward to biking into Pembroke one day, but it won’t be this year.
In Pembroke, at Algonquin College, the bikeable trail restarts, and heads in long straight stretches to Portage Road in Petawawa, a
distance of about sixteen kilometres. Here
the good surface ends, but you can pick up a beautiful biking trail which crosses
the Petawawa River then winds through the woods up to Paquette Road. I didn’t explore any further today.
It’s well worth the journey between Pembroke and Petawawa,
especially with the Waterfront Park beside the Ottawa River at one end, and the
spectacular Petawawa River at the other.
Perhaps one day I’ll be able to bike up the trail all
the way to Mattawa, about 134 kilometres beyond Petawawa. I hope so.
Since I was in Pembroke, I spent an enjoyable couple
of hours exploring all the railway lines that once passed through, and around,
the town. None of these is suitable for
bicycles. They belong to the motorized
brigades - at least for now!
Enjoy these snapshots of today’s adventures.
Note: I use N and S as the general directions, although in reality it is closer to NW and SE
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McBride Rd. at Hwy 60 looking North: end of bikeable section
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Not bikeable: Butler Rd/Hwy 60 looking S.
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At Astrolabe Rd., Cobden: good surface through the town
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Poff Rd. looking N. I biked 400m to Snake River....
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...Snake River from OVRT bridge...
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...and on the bridge, view N.
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Muskrat River bridge N of Hwy 17 crossing
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From here into Pembroke (about 10 km) the route is closed....
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...as this barrier and sign make clear.
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The Muskeg R. bridge in Pembroke looking out to the Ottawa River
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Algonquin College, Pembroke....
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...here the biking trail restarts, view N.
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Long straight stretches heading north
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Views of the Quebec hills off to the right
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Big lumber operation north of Achray Rd.
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Approaching Petawawa: 7 or 8 kms still to go.
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Petawawa River bridges, looking N.
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Petawawa River
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The biking bridge
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Looking back to the rail bridge
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Limit of today's travels at Paquette Rd. looking back down the trail
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Racing back to Pembroke
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Just S. of TV Tower Rd the CN connector branches off to the right
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Here is the S end of the CN connector line at Bruham Rd., view S.
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100m further S looking N, the main CN line on L and CN connector on R.
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CN line crosses Boundary Rd E heading S
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CN line heading towards Beachburg: ballast surface the whole way.
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Pembroke railways: 1915.
Red = CP, Blue = CN, Black = Grand Trunk
(from "Tracing the Lines" by Brian Gilhuly - 2015 - an excellent publication) |
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My own rough map of railways within Pembroke
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