(With apologies to the Night Riders of the Canyon, those ski pioneers of the Gatineau hills) I got this from Steve Fischer.
My riding buddies John, Steve and I thought we’d ride up to Pink Lake from Gamelin last night at 9:30. It was so nice out – we kept going all the way to Champlain Lookout, via the Champlain Parkway. We had to walk the bikes though a couple of areas where the snow covered the road – near Bourgeois Lake, but everything else was clear sailing. Came back the same way – fortunately John had a powerful headlamp – so he could call out areas where snow covered part of the road. We kept our hands near the brakes on the descents. I highly recommend a night ride up there – especially this time of year – with the gates closed – quite a different experience from a daytime ride. I even enjoyed navigating around the occasions snowy spot – it kept us on our toes!
Editorial comment – if you choose to follow the lead of these brazen bikers do use extra caution on your descents since hitting snow on skinny tires will lead to airborne adventures that will only end in tears.
The cards that GuideGatineau has begun distributing to promote the website are considered to be highly environmentally responsible due to the fact that the paper used is 100% recycled and is produced using energy from biofuels plus the ink is vegetable based.