GNBR East Day 4 - Notre Dame du Laus to Centre Touristique du Lac Simon

 51.4 miles, 3083’ climbing

August 26, 2026

Lac Simon Campground

The hostess at our B&B brought us a great breakfast at 7:30, all homemade and including tomato slices that tasted fresh from the garden. We pedaled out into the fog onto a paved country road that went past farms and forest. The fog lifted. After about 10 miles, the road turned to good gravel, and soon after that we turned up a smaller track into the Reserve Faunique de Papineau Labelle, an area known for its moose population.

Around mile 18, we turned onto a track so small and overgrown that we checked our route a couple times. Maybe it’s a quad track or snowmobile track? For the first two miles, we dismounted several times to push our bikes up rocky washouts. Bushes and trees were overhanging the route. After that, there were three-ish more miles of riding up a two track, over some thin fallen trees. Here there were signs that somebody had done a little trail work, but maybe not this year. The forest was pretty dark. We both noticed more pines and firs among the aspens and other trees today.

After five-ish miles on the small track, we came to a semi collapsed bridge. With a little teamwork, we got the bikes up the embankment, and we came out on a better forest road. The whole day we passed thru lakes, creeks, and wetlands, moose heaven, we thought. But we didn’t see any animals other than whitetail deer, turkeys, a hawk, some marmots, and some garter snakes.

One road led to another. About two miles before our intended destination, we stopped to walk to a small waterfall near a rail trail, remains of a steam powered locomotive that was used by the timber industry. There were pictures from 1985, so it wasn’t decommissioned so long ago. 

About half a mile from our destination, we came out onto a paved road. The campground is huge, like a national park, but only about half full tonight. They had some small stores with sundries, some washing machines, a huge beach and playgrounds for kids.  People were in the water, under umbrellas, kayaking around. The weather was good, and it was pretty idyllic.

We are only a mile or two from the town of Duhamel where we will pick up groceries and have breakfast in the morning.

GNBR East Day 3 - Gracefield to Notre-Dame-du-Laus

 37.6 miles, 2641’ climbing

Gîte Bertrand, Notre Dame du Laus

August 25, 2026

It was a day of forests, lakes, and light rain showers today. We packed up and left the Pickanock campground, hopped on the nearby Veloroute des Draveurs, and rode back into Gracefield where we had a good breakfast at the eclectically decorated Milano Restaurant.

After breakfast, we hopped on a quiet paved road, crossed the river, and passed a few farms on our eastward route. Soon the road turned to good gravel with few cars, and the only houses seemed to be lakeside vacation homes. We rolled past many lakes, some we glimpsed thru the trees and some obscured by the thick forest. Knowing our ride was short today, we took the time to ride down to the shore in a few places. We rode in a light rain or mist for most of the day. We could often coast down a hill and half way up the next one as we wound around the lakes — fun bicycling. 

The forest is dense with ferns and other undergrowth. There are pines and fir trees, but they are in the minority. We spotted a large heron and a hawk and many birds that didn’t stick around long enough for us to identify them. Some wet areas had blooming water lilies. In spite of all the wetlands, we saw no moose.

We rode down a peninsula peppered with houses and glimpses of water on both sides as we approached our destination. We crossed a hydroelectric dam and were briefly stymied by a locked gate until we saw a nearby opening in the fence.

Because it was a couple of hours before check-in, we lingered at the park near the dam. The outflow from the dam was dramatic. We dried our tent, very wet from last night, talked to a fisherman, and relaxed until we could check in to our charming B&B. The owner spoke little English and our French is a work in progress, but all was overcome. It’s good to be indoors after such a wet night last night. Our bikes are safely stored in back of the house. Tomorrow we will have a homemade  breakfast before we ride through the Reserve Faunique Papineau Labelle, a wildlife reserve. Dinner was from the local market.

GNBR East Day 2 - Wakefield to Gracefield

45.3 miles, 1929ft climbing
August 24, 2026

 After a comfortable night in our lovely hotel, we went for our gourmet breakfast which was included. It was delicious, but it took a while. Finally we were ready to head out, but Ed’s electronic shifters indicated low battery. Alas, new batteries did not cure the problem. We rode into town to the charming general store (Ed in a low gear), where we spent some time swapping batteries, verifying they were good, and experiencing shifter frustration. Time passed, and it was a late start. Finally we headed out, knowing Ed could only upshift. A downshift required fiddling with the derailleur. 

We pedaled up to the scenic Rivière Gatineau which we crossed on a historic covered bridge. Then we headed upstream on a good gravel road, passing houses with large porches and windows facing the river and floating docks out over the water across the road on our left. At this time of year they all looked amazing. Our road periodically turned inland to go over small hills. Here there were farms with hay out in the fields in round bales. Some roadside apple trees had fruit. Ed found he could reach his derailleur and downshift without getting off his bike. 

We crossed the Rivière Gatineau at a scenic hydroelectric dam with a reservoir to our right and a rocky river far down to our left. After crossing a small wooded island, we crossed a second dam and pedaled into the town of Low. It was close to noon, but the expected pizzeria seemed to be gone. We turned onto a rail trail which took us all the way to Gracefield. Periodically there were pit toilets, picnic tables, and at on place an old train station. At on such stop, Ed was finally able to get his shifters working. Near the town of Kazabazua, the trail turned to smooth asphalt that was so new we could still smell it. We cruised along this easy, scenic path all the way to Gracefield.

Because of our late start and delays, we decided to stay near Gracefield. We bought a picnic dinner at the local grocery store, then we rode to the Pickanock campground. It’s a rustic riverside place that mostly serves long term, seasonal visitors in RVs, but the host was welcoming. We set up our tent, took hot showers, and explored the area before sitting down to dinner at a picnic table.

Our short day puts us a little off kilter with our travel plans because there’s a nature reserve on the trail ahead where you cannot stop. We will take another short day tomorrow to make it work out.

GNBR East Day 1 - Ottawa to Wakefield

 44.6 miles, 3887’ ft climbing, rainy

August 23, 2026

We woke up about 7am at our hotel in Ottawa to clouds and chances of rain.  We got dressed and headed out for a quick breakfast at Scone Witch, which is just what it sounds like, a scone breakfast sandwich. After that we went back to the hotel and got ready to ride and took our bikes outside where it was raining steadily.  We zipped up our rain gear and started riding. There was a bit of maneuvering through the city streets to find the start of our route, but eventually we were on our way across the Ottawa River to Gatineau.

We rode along the Ottawa River and up to Gatineau Park, a large park similar to a national park in the US. At first we were near small subdivisions and some small lakes and ponds, then we headed into the woods on a paved bike path. After 10 miles, we turned off onto some singletrack. It was still raining as we made our way over rolling hills with puddles, rocks, and tree roots. None of it was too challenging for our Day 1 legs. We saw a lot of trail runners. Between the woods and clouds, it was fairly dark.

Around noon the rain lifted and we came to a picnic area where we stopped for a bite. Clouds of mosquitoes stopped for the same! The mosquitos turned out to be a theme for the afternoon, not bothering us if there was a breeze or we were moving quick enough to create one, but on slower climbs they bit us on our limbs and faces, even through our long sleeved shirts. We planned our trip for after peak mosquito season, but there were plenty for us.

After some overlooks back toward Ottawa, we had fun, flowy down hill all the way to the beautiful Meech Lake. We rode around the southern end of the lake on weathered pavement and found some thimble berries we snacked on along the way.

There were some rocky sections and a bit of hike-a-bike as we made our way to Lake Phillip. We saw a couple mountain bikers going in the opposite direction.  At Lake Phillips there was a little market at a campground where we had a coke before we finished our ride at the Wakefield Mill Hotel.  A lovely little hotel and spa where we had a nice warm shower to clean up and a delicious dinner to end the evening.

GNBR East - Ottawa

 0 miles, 0’ climbing 

August 20-22, 2026

On the evening of August 20th we flew into Ottawa with the plan to ride the Great Northern Bikepacking Route (GNBR) from Ottawa to Quebec City. Afterwards we want to pedal along the St Lawrence to Montreal. Our plan is to ride at a moderate pace and take days off in each of the three large cities we pass through so we can spend some time exploring the sights, history, and culture. Neither of us has previously visited this part of the world.

We arrived in Ottawa at night and caught an Uber XL to our hotel, the Lord Elgin, which was really well located. We were even able to get a late dinner in their restaurant. Our room had plenty of space for our two large bike boxes.

Over the next two sunny days, we assembled our bikes and put on the bags, disposed of the boxes (the front desk insisted on doing it for us). We took busses and the metro to the local MEC to get fuel for our camp stove, we bought groceries for the ride, we watched boats go thru the locks from the Rideau Canal to the Ottawa River. We peeked inside the ginormous Fairmont Hotel, we walked around parliament hill, the seat of Canadian government. We looked at public art, walked Sparks street, a charming pedestrian zone. We took a historic walking tour of Bytown and Lower Town, walked up Major’s Hill to see the art and the view and enjoy a beer. We spent a couple hours in the fantastic national gallery, had dinner in a historic Irish pub that was brought from Ireland and reconstructed, rode water taxis across the Ottawa River, walked to waterfalls that turned out go be a dam, had dinner in a waterside pub, and had a dip in the pool at our hotel. We stumbled onto a kids’ break dancing competition. We each felt obliged to buy a short sleeved shirt because it was so warm and humid.  We did all that, not in that order, in two very full days. We found Ottawa charming and scenic, very much worth a visit.

RAAZ Day 10 - Big Lake to the New Mexican Border

Also part way up to Alpine, AZ

60.3 miles, 4790’ climbing

We needed to resupply at the Big Lake marina store which didn’t open until 7am, so we took our time in the morning, then rode over to the store. There wasn’t much on offer, and later we realized that one of the freezer-burned sandwiches we bought for lunch had ants in it, and other food was a year past its sell-by date. It’s what you get when you resupply in tiny places, but disappointing. Our food karma was not great at the end of the trip.

We rode back to our route and headed through the forest, seeing a coyote lope across the road. A lot of this area burned in the past, and there were signs warning that dead trees could fall in winds. There was also logging taking place, and we passed a couple of logging trucks before we turned off onto a smaller road.  We lost a lot of elevation which made the miles pass quickly.

As the day went on, we continued thru pine forests, then we turned a corner and found ourselves out of the pines on a several mile descent through scrub, oaks, and juniper. It was hot and windy, exposed to gusts, switchbacking down to the Blue River crossing. The Blue River canyon had red dirt cliffs, stands of cottonwood trees, and private properties. It was 93F according to Ed’s bike computer, hot. Thankfully we had a tailwind for many of the last miles of our route. We stopped to chat with a friendly local, then soon arrived at the New Mexican border.

We took a couple of photos to mark our finish at the RAAZ sign, then there was nothing to do but start the steep ride to Alpine where we left our car. The climb was more elevation gain than any on our route, and very steep, a grind. We pushed on for about 7 miles, then a local, Mike, gave us and our bikes a ride for the final few miles to our car at the Outpost RV park, our bikes piled precariously in the back of his small vehicle and secured with some of our voile bag straps.  We heard that a couple other riders had similar experiences, grinding up the hill then catching a ride with a friendly passing driver. We loaded up and drove to Show Low for the night where we celebrated with dinner out. It was great ride, and we will be glad to take a few days to recover.

RAAZ Day 9 - Show Low camp site to Big Lake

64.7 miles, 5275’ climbing

At our camp site, about 10 miles past Show Low, Sarah’s sleeping pad failed. It was a long night on rocky tent site for her. We thought the valve was the likely culprit.

We were close to civilization and a paved road. We packed up early knowing it was a long day to Big Lake, and the store there closes early at this time of year. We turned onto a few miles of pavement early in the day, the smooth riding easing the start to the day. Soon we were on a washboard gravel road with high speed traffic, then finally we turned off into the woods.

The bulk of the morning was spent going from one dirt road to another in the pines, oaks, and aspens. Most roads were good with the usual rocks and ruts. We chatted with a turkey hunter who lamented the lack of snow and rain this winter.

We had a long climb, about 9 continuous miles, to the high point of our entire ride, around 9600’. Cloud cover kept us from getting hot, and there was a predicted chance of rain that never materialized. We saw storm cells, but it looked like the rain wasn’t reaching the ground, but it did bring strong headwinds for much of the day.

We stopped for sandwiches, but the cheese we had just purchased in Show Low, with a sell-by date of Sept 2026, was full of green mold. Yech! Plain rolls for lunch. We continued up hill.

At around 8900’ of elevation, Sarah saw a creature on the roadside, head facing her. For some moments they stared at each other head on, then the creature turned and dashed into the trees. It was clearly a Mexican Gray wolf, much too large to be a coyote. They are known to be in this area, having been reintroduced in years past. As we rode past the trees where it left the road, we tried to catch another glimpse of it, but there were only chittering squirrels. We’ve seen wolves before in Canada and Yellowstone, but never in Arizona. A couple of miles later we saw a handful of turkeys cross the road ahead of us, quickly disappearing into the trees, a prudent choice given all the turkey hunters that are out and about.

Soon we came over the high point of our ride, out into some open meadows and strong headwinds. We could see the Sunrise Ski Area and Pole Knoll, where we have snowshoed in the past. The wind was vicious. It should not be necessary to pedal down hill, and it’s particularly offensive when it’s a washboard road! We slowed down. Eventually some hills and stands of trees gave us shelter.

We knew the store at the Big Lake marina closed at 5pm, and we were not likely to get there. Shawn the rider we had driven to start with had passed thru 2 days ago and told us there were showers at the campground, so we were motivated by the thought of rinsing off. As we approached Big Lake, our route had us turn onto a rail grade trail that was so faint that it was nearly invisible. Shawn had also mentioned this, so we plowed ahead.  This was the only singletrack riding on the whole route. We stirred up clouds of mosquitos in tall grass as we approached the lake, then we were on pavement to the Apache Trout campground which had luxuries such as potable water, picnic tables, and showers. Sarah tried to use a ponytail holder to partition off the leak in her sleeping mat, but it didn’t work. That’s a problem to be addressed later, and it was another night on cold rocks for her.