Ottawa to Kingston – Road

Darcy Mountain Biking Leave a Comment

This is a trip that a lot of road bikers do. There are a dozen ways to get from Ottawa to Kingston on a road bike and they all take you through small picturesque towns.

Not a particularly tough trip is you go in a group of bikers where you can draft off your fellow riders, talk to them and speed along on your feather light, thin wheeled geared out road bike. When I did this trip, I was too naive to know the difference of of doing it my way and the right way. Chalk it up to being a 22 year old in a time when the road bike craze had not caught on yet.

Just one of many ways to get to Kingston via bikeI’ve always wanted to do a 200km ride on my mountain bike because I thought that would be a good challenge. I had almost done a trip of that distance a year earlier (New Liskeard – Timmins) but my father made me an offer I couldn’t refuse on the particular weekend I was supposed to do the trip so I put it off until later (in retrospect, he probably didn’t want me driving on the Trans-Canada highway with all the transports so he cooked up a tantalizing offer.

Well eventually the time came when I decided that I was going to do this trip. I planned to take some backroads down to Kingston on my steel framed, thick and knobby tired mountain bike. To remove any kind of crutch, I decided to go on my own so I wouldn’t be able to draft off of someone else and thus I would have to fight the wind the whole way. Looking back on it, I don’t think I had a choice, no one I knew at the time would have done this trip with me.

I departed from Ottawa at 5:00am and got off to a good start. I had to leave without my trusty sunglasses (they had broken two days prior) and figured thought that I wouldn’t need them. I did the first 90km in 3 1/2 hours and though that the rest would be a breeze but I did not realize how hilly things got as you neared Kingston. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to throw in the towel several but I pushed through it and made it to Kingston (200.3km in 9.5 hours – including my rest breaks). As I biked along the roads, time flew by and eventually my goal became making it to the next corner or over the next hill. I had brought a few powerbars (remember those pieces of leather?) and realized quickly that I need to scarf down food or I would bonk before I made it to my destination. As I neared Kingston, I even stopped at a greasy spoon and ordered a chicken burger and Gatorade.

By the time I got to Kingston, my eyes were full of grit (guess I did need those sunglasses) and if I stopped biking for more than 10 minutes to rest, my legs would start to cramp up. Going forward was my only option (or calling a friend and live with a lifetime of razzing). When I pulled into Kingston and hauled my bike up onto the doorstep, I had such a feeling of accomplishment and all of a sudden, everything that I had gone through over the 9.5 hours was completely worth it. I ended up getting a ride (as planned) back home after the weekend but for the remainder of the weekend, I could barely climb stairs as my body recovered. I had done the trip in late August and my desire to bike for the season was pretty much destroyed afterwards. Come the following spring, I was pretty eager to get back into it again though.

A trip highly recommended for the stubborn and for those who want to see some small Eastern Ontario towns while losing a couple of pounds.

Worthy Quotes

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Mark Twain
There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
Steven Wright
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Benjamin Franklin
When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.
Benjamin Franklin
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
History is written by the victors.
Winston Churchill
The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
Mark Twain
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way that when you die the world cries and you rejoice.
Native American Proverb
We learn something every day, and lots of times it’s that what we learned the day before was wrong.
Bill Vaughan
Well begun is half done.
Aristotle
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Benjamin Franklin
We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin
You can do anything, but not everything.
David Allen
Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.
Cullen Hightower
A Man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
Benjamin Franklin
It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
Benjamin Franklin
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
Franklin P. Jones
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Mark Twain
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Winston Churchill
Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
Kurt Vonnegut
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Plato
Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.
Benjamin Franklin
I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.
Mark Twain
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin
Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.
Yoda
Jedi Master
Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
Ovid
Poet (43 BCE - CE 17)
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
Groucho Marx
When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.
Thomas Szasz
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.
Mark Twain
Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
Mark Twain
Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.
Benjamin Franklin
The manager administers, The leader innovates. The manager maintains, the leader develops. The manager relies on systems, the leader relies on people. The manager counts on controls, the leader counts on trust. The manager does things right, the leader does the right thing.
Forbes Magazine
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Harry Truman
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
Mark Twain
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
Benjamin Franklin
If I only had a little humility, I’d be perfect.
Ted Turner
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage. He didn't have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn't have to hear about the way his mother cooked.
Kimberley Broyles
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
Zig Ziglar
Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.
Benjamin Franklin
Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
Benjamin Franklin
If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Anonymous
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Mark Twain
Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away
Benjamin Franklin
He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas.
Benjamin Franklin
We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.
Robert Wilensky
Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.
Benjamin Franklin
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.
Erica Jong
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.
Frank Wilczek
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Groucho Marx
Don’t ever wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get dirty, but the pig will enjoy it.
Cale Yarborough
We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!
Benjamin Franklin
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein
Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Gandhi
The measure of a life is not what that life accomplishes,but rather the impact that life has on others.
Jackie Robinson
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain
Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.
Alfred A. Montapert
To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
Jack Handey
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Benjamin Franklin
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
Mark Twain
If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.
Mark Twain
Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
Albert Einstein
Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not.
Virgil Garnett Thomson
Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.
Kristian Wilson
Nintendo, Inc, 1989
To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.
Abraham Maslow

Subscribe!


Instagram Feed