Cycling With An Iron Twist

Cycling With An Iron Twist
Old rail lines provide great trails for two wheels
By Allen Macartney
Rating: **

This article talks mainly about the opening of a new cycling path where you can cycle along a 19th-century steam railroad track that has been refurbished for 21st-century cycling.

Just outside the Ottawa-Gatineau area, there's about 80 wonderful kilometers of beautiful cycling just north past Gracefield and Blue Sea Lake to Maniwaki. Along the way you will encounter some towns, campgrounds, pubs and impressive lookouts. Also there are a lot of areas where you can stop for a meal and also pick fruit such as cranberries, blueberries, and blackberries. A lot of the ride is also through a thick deciduous forest. Many people aren't able or just don't fancy cycling 80 kilometers, so they put in seven parking lots along highway 105 which runs parallel to the trail. This is good if you have small children and you just want to go from one section to another so you don't have to do the full 80 kilometers straight. There are also many different ways you can choose to go, so if you do it once you can go back and try a different way, all paths lead to the same spot but the journey will be different every time.

The thing about this article was that they had a 19th century steam rail road track and did a little tweaking so that any cyclist who's up for a ride can do so as well as bring their family and friends. Another cool thing I thought about this article was that it's not just about the ride, there are so many other little things that you can do from stopping in a town and looking around to picking berries in a field, it's just fun for the whole family. I would recommend this article and this trail to anybody who's passionate about cycling and trying new things.

Macartney, Allen. "Cycling With An Iron Twist" Ottawa Outdoors, August 2014. Print.