Parkway Cycle Watch

April 27 Update: Last of the snow gone from Fortune Lake hill. See report here.

April 22 Update: cyclaw confirms via Twitter that the only place there is snow left to bother cyclists is near the top of the Fortune Lake hill. I was hiking today but took a look under the Kingsmere Road bridge to see if there was any ice left. Here’s a picture of the remnant granular hazard.

April 18 Update: (Mike’s Report follows) Rode mountain bike up Fortune Parkway and found it a bit snowy, particularly the section at the top of the hill just before Fortune Lake. This is always the last piece of parkway to melt since it is north-facing and is shaded by the north side of what was once called Mort’s hill. The Champlain Parkway however is cycleable for its whole length (revision - I may have jumped the gun here, Mike shows one short section of snow just east of where I was). There are snowy patches particularly between Lac Bourgeois and the Fortune Parkway intersection, but these are not very long and in general have a skinny edge of pavement along which you can ride.

I didn’t ride the parkway sections either side of Penguin but I imagine the ice under the bridge caution should still be heeded.

Here’s how the top of the Fortune hill looked:

 

From Mike Teske Apr 18 end of day:

I rode to the Champlain lookout tonight.

There is one section of snow just before Lac Bourgeois. On the way up it was a quick ride in the grass then a one footed scoot on a short section of snow. On the way down I walked this section and it took one minute.

The hill just before the turn down Fortune parkway narrows to one foot for about 200 feet.

On the way back down the small streams were icing up. A little scary to say the least.

April 16 Update: Karl updated his parkway cycling observations at XC Ottawa

April 14 Update: Pavement clear and largely dry all the way up to the top of the hill above Black Lake (not quite so far as Lac Bourgeois). Only two places below that where snow encroaches to impose inch-wide wet pavement passages. I didn’t venture up the right fork of parkway but only investigated left on the Champlain Parkway section. I’d guess much of the snow on the hill down toward the Kingsmere Road must have melted, but even if it did, take note of this cautionary tale about ice under the Kingsmere Road bridge.

Here’s what the top of the hill between Black and Bourgois looked like:

April 12 Update: (an update also at TriRudy) Amazing how quickly the remaining snow is going. I was able on the Gatineau Parkway to get to the top of the hill that descends to pass under the Kingsmere Road without having to portage once (including under the power line reported to be the longest portage yesterday). Tires on pavement all the way, but not always dry pavement. The slushy snow covering that did stop me was remarkably thin and should disappear soon.

Heading up the Champlain Parkway the first portage is still fairly solid though not long. It’s at the first rock cut which is only half a kilometer from the Champlain Parkway turnoff. I was tired of damp socks and soaking cycling shorts so turned around at this point.

We can assume that the open pavement above this spot is even more abundant today than yesterday. I did see numerous other cyclists.

April 11 Update: The 20° plus weather today and the downpour overnight opened the parkway up considerably. I rode up to just beyond the Mackenzie King Estate before the snow stopped me. There were about 4 portages over snow patches to get there, the longest about 70 metres under the powerline near the bottom of the Pink Lake hill.

I’m sure that there are plenty of other bare pavement sections above Mackenzie King, but as you climb the ratio of portage to pavement continues to increase. I checked out Gatineau Parkway branch as well, that reaches toward P5, P8, etc. but it becomes quite snowy with every north-facing hill.

Although there are lots of sections of completely bare dry pavement, there are also lots of places where there is only a foot of wet pavement along the edge of the snowpack, drenched with the meltwater. I was also told that parts of the north loop were underwater.

Here’s the view up the hill beyond the former Mackenzie King parking lot.

April 10 Update: Warmth and rain pushed the snow front up past the top of the Asticou hill in the last 24 hours. Only one small snow portage to get to the cliffs south of the Hickory Trail. The cold of the snow turned the rainy humid air into fog for this image looking southeast off the thinning snowpack.

April 9 Update: Not a large change in snow-free accessibility since yesterday although the melt continues.

April 8 Update: Significant meltage in the last 24 hours. Now one can ride without getting off your bike to the start of the hill above Asticou & below Hickory Trail.

I also noted in my approach that the Champlain Bridge had been swept since yesterday. The grit is much reduced but I’d say it will need another sweep before it’s really cleaned up. The bike trail between Tache and Gamelin has also seen significant snow melting; I found only one place I had to walk my bike though there were several places where snow made riding hazardous. This path has not yet been swept free of sticks etc.  Here’s how the parkway looked:

That tiny figure part way up the Asticou hill is Keith pondering the fact that he can go no further on his skinny tires.

Because the Google map in the sidebar will change every day I am also including these Google Earth extracts so we can look back and see how things have progressed day by day.

First entry April 7, 2001: Here starts the spring parkway watch, telling you how far up into Gatineau Park you can cycle before hitting snow.

The first request asking if Gatineau Park parkways were open yet for cycling appeared on March 26th. On April 6 the NCC posted on their website that it would be noon, Friday, May 6, that sections of the parkways will reopen to motor vehicles. The forecast over the next week has temperatures reaching into the teens, sometimes with rain, so things will be changing fast.

Today I rode only to the top of the hill above the overpass over Boulevard Saint-Raymond before I hit the white stuff.

That’s the Gamelin parking lot P3 at the bottom of the picture and Asticou P1 just above the little green cyclist.

Here’s how it looked

Since I may not get out to check progress every day I welcome submissions that will bring us up to date. You can do that in the comments below or by email.