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

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Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin
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Forbes Magazine
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Mark Twain
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Cale Yarborough
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
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Winston Churchill
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
Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
Ovid
Poet (43 BCE - CE 17)
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Anonymous
We learn something every day, and lots of times it’s that what we learned the day before was wrong.
Bill Vaughan
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Mark Twain
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Groucho Marx
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
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas.
Benjamin Franklin
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Winston Churchill
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Benjamin Franklin
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The measure of a life is not what that life accomplishes,but rather the impact that life has on others.
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Frank Wilczek
To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.
Abraham Maslow
We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!
Benjamin Franklin
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Mark Twain
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Mark Twain
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Benjamin Franklin
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill
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
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.
Alfred A. Montapert
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin
To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.
Jack Handey
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Mark Twain
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
Mark Twain
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Benjamin Franklin
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Winston Churchill
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
Zig Ziglar
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Benjamin Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Benjamin Franklin
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
Groucho Marx
It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
Benjamin Franklin
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Albert Einstein
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein
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Aristotle
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.
Benjamin Franklin
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Plato
When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.
Thomas Szasz
A Man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
Benjamin Franklin
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill
There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Mark Twain
Well begun is half done.
Aristotle
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
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Yoda
Jedi Master
Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away
Benjamin Franklin
There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
Steven Wright
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Benjamin Franklin
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Kurt Vonnegut
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Mark Twain
Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.
Cullen Hightower
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
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Mark Twain
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
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Robert Wilensky

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