2011 Tall Tree Cycles Ride of the Damned

My dad and I decided at the last minute to partake in this year's running of the 2011 Tall Tree Ride of the Damned (RotD). We showed up at the lac-leamy parking lot on sunday morning expecting a hellish day in the rain and cold, with lots of wheelspray and rough road conditions. However as the ride got underway and the rain faded, it turned out to be a beautiful day riding some of the nicest roads in the area. In fact, this ride exposed me to all kinds of new roads around the cantley/wakefield area that I have never ridden before. Some of which were great for the cross bike, with steep paved climbs swoopy long gravel downhills, and rolling gravel  through farmland.

The loop took riders all the way up to Paugan Falls, where we crossed the gatineau river on the dam. As seen from space below:

This is somewhere I've never crossed the river before, and it opens up all kinds of possible new routes and rides. It's also quite scenic, with the all the rocks eroded from water rushing through the dam (when they open it up). Shortly after the dam crossing, we stopped in Low where there was water, pretzels, raisins, bananas, and even pre-made PB&J sandwiches available for riders to re-fuel. We then continued on the loop back to wakefield, and followed the usual route from wakefield back to Lac-Leamy (The entire route can be found here). At the end of it all, we were greeted at the start finish area by the smell of freshly cooked burgers, and the lure of salty chips and lots of different salads/beers/veggies.

Kudos to the guys over at Tall Tree Cycles for putting this event together and coming up with such a fantastic route. It was a great day, and a great ride. Pictures from the ride can be found on Tall Tree/Steelwool Bicycles' Flickr.