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Bikepack Adventures
A Day in the Gats is meant to be a slightly less challenging route through the Gatineau Park. It follows some of the route of the Canadian Shield 400 but sticks to the easier path when possible. It’s also a much shorter route, making it achievable in a day for most riders with a good endurance base. While the beginning includes a large amount of climbing and more technical terrain, the trail gets smoother and easier going once you clear Meech Lake and trail 36.This route provides a good mix of single-track, double-track, rail trail, gravel road, climbs, descents, and everything in between. This route can be ridden in one day or done over two days with some camping along the way.
Chris Panasky, host of the Bikepack Adventures Podcast.
For this route you need a minimum of a gravel or cyclocross bike with 38c tires. It’ll be a tough day without having some suspension and will challenge you physically. Using a hardtail MTB would provide some relief to your upper body and allow you to hit the single-track a little harder. A full-suspension MTB would be overkill on this route.
This route is mostly in the Gatineau Park but does pass by a few small towns along the way where accommodation is available. Otherwise, you will need to make do with camping if planning the trip as an overnight adventure. There are also shelters and yurts that can be rented for a more comfortable experience.
From the get-go this route gives you exactly the amount of physical challenge one could hope for in a 142km route. With an abundance of climbing right from the start, some of the hills will require a bit of hike-a-bike on your part to get to the highest point of the route. These difficulty level 7-8 climbs will be sure to challenge you. After that initial challenge, things get a little bit easier going as you ride single and doubletrack that can be unrelenting at times, but always fun. From the level 5 trails, things soften up some more with country roads and rail trail.
The majority of the technical riding occurs early into this ride. Once that is done it mostly becomes mostly roads and trails that are a 3-4 on the difficulty scale.
