The OVRT: Beyond Renfrew

 

Fri. 11 September:  The OVRT:  Beyond Renfrew

Waterfront Park, Pembroke, looking out to the Ottawa River.
Pembroke was my main base of operations today

 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

 

McBride Rd. at Hwy 60 looking North: end of bikeable section

Not bikeable: Butler Rd/Hwy 60 looking S.

At Astrolabe Rd., Cobden: good surface through the town

Poff Rd. looking N.  I biked 400m to Snake River....

...Snake River from OVRT bridge...

...and on the bridge, view N.

Muskrat River bridge N of  Hwy 17 crossing

From here into Pembroke (about 10 km) the route is closed....

...as this barrier and sign make clear.

The Muskeg R. bridge in Pembroke looking out to the Ottawa River

Algonquin College, Pembroke....

...here the biking trail restarts, view N.

Long straight stretches heading north

Views of the Quebec hills off to the right

Big lumber operation north of Achray Rd.

Approaching Petawawa:  7 or 8 kms still to go.

Petawawa River bridges, looking N.

Petawawa River

The biking bridge

Looking back to the rail bridge

Limit of today's travels at Paquette Rd. looking back down the trail

Racing back to Pembroke

Just S. of TV Tower Rd the CN connector branches off to the right

Here is the S end of the CN connector line at  Bruham Rd.,  view S.

100m further S looking N, the main CN line on L and CN connector on R.

CN line crosses Boundary Rd E heading S

CN line heading towards Beachburg: ballast surface the whole way.

Pembroke railways: 1915.
Red = CP, Blue = CN, Black = Grand Trunk
(from "Tracing the Lines" by Brian Gilhuly - 2015 - an excellent publication)

My own rough map of railways within Pembroke