This story is about my experience riding the Arcol Backcountry & Railtail Loops, a 208km winter bikepacking loop that takes riders on some beautiful Ottawa Valley rail trail as well as through North Frontenac backcountry trails. This route incorporates the North Frontenac Bikepacking Loop, from RideGravel.ca as well as the extension into the Ottawa Valley to explore more amazing winter fatbike trails.

Fat biking is unlike any other type of biking, period. It's one of those things that can bring a smile to just about anyone's face. However, it can also be extremely difficult, challenging and exhausting. All difficulties aside, I try to get out on a fatbike adventure of some kind, every year. Ideally, it would be a multi-day trip, with a minimum of 2 nights camping. This year, as a result of catching a pretty bad cold my toddler daughter during the Christmas break, I had to cancel my planned trip. When a weekend availed itself near the end of January, I couldn't resist the opportunity to get out for an overnighter, riding a mix of rail trail and backcountry snowmobile trails. With the Wendigo Fatbike Ultra only a month away, I figured it was the perfect time to test out some gear and make sure everything was feeling good on the bike.

About a year ago, some friends went out and rode the North Frontenac Bikepacking Loop in the early winter. I decided this would be a great option but wanted to work it into a longer route, ultimately creating a 208km loop that incorporates a bunch more rail trail and even some gravel roads. It's important to note that while riding a bike on snowmobile trails in the province of Quebec is not allowed, it is perfectly acceptable in Ontario. It's just really important to make sure you wear bright colours and have front and back lights to make as you visible as possible to any snowmobilers out there. I extended the route so that it would go to Renfrew and follow the Ottawa Valley Rail Trail (OVRT) and Algonquin trail as a loop to Arnprior and back. I started my ride in Renfrew heading in the direction of Calabogie for a couple of reasons. First off, it's closer to where I live. Secondly, you can park at the My FM Centre and leave your car overnight without worrying about it getting ticketed or towed. It's also a flat 22km ride to Calabogie, a great way to warm up the body and prepare for the challenges to come. Calabogie is the first and only town you will come across until you return roughly 100km later. This is a great place to have a rest, refill water, pick up snacks or even grab a meal from one of the restaurants.

Let's jump back and talk about packing for an event like °this, a mildly crazy solo ride into the backcountry in the middle of winter. Luckily, the weather was on my side, with temperatures hovering around -15°C during the day, dipping to about -27°C at night. For the most part, my setup was pretty standard. I was riding a Panorama Chic-Chocs carbon fatbike with 45Nrth Dillinger 5 tires. I've got a rack mounted on the back of the bike, where I carried two small Ortlieb front roller panniers with my tent strapped across the top. Simply put, one pannier stored my food, stove, air mattress, camp booties and a couple other items for nighttime, while the second pannier had extra clothing. I decided to take my Tarptent Rainbow which was strapped on the top of the rack, while in the front I attached a Calad Co. handlebar bag to my Bar Yak Expedition SL rails. This helped keep the bag up off the front tire, as fatbikes typically have less space than other bikes. In my Handlebar Bag, I stuffed my down quilt and puffy jacket. On the frame, I had a Tailfin Wedge Bag carrying spare tools/parts and snacks, and a tool keg in a bottle holder with some other extras. On the top tube I mounted my Tailfin 1.5 litre Top Tube Bag to hold some electronics and more snacks. I was also using the Calad Co. Thirsty and Snackie stem bags. This allowed me to carry an extra water bottle and more snacks.

Back to the adventure. While topping up my tires in the parking lot, I noticed my rear tire was leaking at the valve. After faffing about with it for a while, I decided to open up the tire and put in a tube. Long story short, after 1.5 hours, I installed a RideNow Fatbike tube that weights 99g and was ready to go. Needless to say, the added stress of tire issues wasn't ideal, so I did something my friend and host of the Overcome Cafe Podcast, Louis-Philippe, asked me the prior summer. I asked myself, if I went home now, how would I feel next week, next month, or in three months. The answer was simple. I would still be upset because I didn't give it a fair shot. So, I got on the bike and did what I do best. Not long after I started riding, my mind cleared, and I was able to start enjoying the adventure.

Those first 22km to Calabogie went by fairly quickly. I saw maybe a dozen snowmobiles and learned from one of them that they actually don't really notice my light, but that my jacket is what stands out from a distance. Good to know! Reaching Calabogie, I drank a bunch of water and topped up my water bottle, had a couple butter tarts and took a bit of time to rest my legs. Unlike normal rail trail and gravel roads, riding a rail trail on a fatbike takes a lot more work and always feels like you are going nowhere. Because of the late start, it was 3:30pm before I was ready to leave Calabogie. I knew that I only had a few hours left before sunset and that I was unlikely to get as far as I had initially hoped. Not a particularly big deal, as I had carefully looked through the Crown Land maps and compared it to the RideWithGPS route file, marking the locations of potential camp spots.

13km after leaving Calabogie, I reached the first significant climbs and immediately realized what I got myself into. With 270 metres of elevation gain over the following 12km, the majority of it being backcountry snowmobile trails, I had my work cut out for me. Luckily, the lack of snowmobiles on the trails kept them firm and not too mushy, so I was able to stay on my bike for all but a couple climbs. My initial goal was to get further that day, but due to the late start I decided to set up camp at km55 on some Crown Land at Mair Lake.

The end of day routine when on winter biking adventures is extremely important. The first thing that needs to happen when stopping is to put on a jacket to help the body keep warm. This actually applies to any stops that last more than 5 minutes, even during the day. I then took off my bags and got the water boiling while I set up my tent and sleep system. As it was getting dark, I was trying to minimize wasted time, so multi-tasking was the order of the day. Pro Tip. Butane stoves like the Pocket Rocket 2, are terrible in the winter and take forever to boil water. While the water was slowly boiling, I cleared away some snow and set up my tent. Because I couldn't use tent pegs, I brought along a bunch of para-cord to help string it up to some tress on one end and my bike on the other. All-in-all, this setup worked surprisingly well. While it wasn't my most taught tent, it did the trick and wasn't lying flat on top of me when I woke up in the morning. I wanted to bring my new Wind Anchor tent, but since I had yet to use it, I figured a night in the frigid outback was not a good place to use it for the first time. After supper, I laid out my sleep kit inside my tent and went in to change into fresh clothing.

My sleep setup for the night was quite simple. I used my Big Agnes insulated air mattress (3.5R), paired together with my -20°C rated Outdoor Vitals Stormloft Down Topquilt. I also wore a down balaclava and because it was about -27°C out, I slept in my insulated jacket for extra warmth. This worked quite well, but I neglected to put on a better pair of socks for the night, so suffered needlessly until I couldn't stand it anymore and stuffed some extra clothing into the quilt's footbox. The morning routine was much nicer, except when I realized it had snowed a few centimeters during the night and that the wind had blown my awning aside (due to the loose nature of my tent) and filled my boots with a couple inches of snow. It wasn't a particularly big deal as it was light and fluffy and easily dumped out. As I learned in my army days, as soon as you put on your boots, you need to get moving so as to get the blood circulating and warm up the feet. I got the water going again for my breakfast and packed up all my gear. I was ready to rock'n'roll by 8:30am.

The last 15km on Arcol Road, down to Palmerston Lake, made me thankful I stopped the previous day, as the hills were significant, and fresh powder made the climbs challenging. Needless to say, those 15km took over two hours, but lent me some beautiful sights. The next 10km riding along Canonto Rd to get to the K&P trail was a gorgeous road to ride, practically devoid of traffic but filled with beautiful winter vistas.  While heading up the K&P trail with about 45km to get back to Calabogie, I was shocked to not see a single snowmobile the entire day. Trails were covered in fresh snow, and I felt truly alone in the beautiful landscape. While the plan was to take some forestry backroads for about 15km, I decided to skip it, as I was behind schedule and had to work the next day.

One of the most challenging things when winter riding is to remember to drink water and consume calories. I had to be really mindful of this, since it can be really difficult to dig yourself out of a hole once you get yourself in. It is far too easy in winter to forget to eat and drink, but critical to ensure you do. Unfortunately, I knew that I was a bit low of water and would need to keep an eye on how much was left in my water bladder. While water bladders are great, it is difficult to judge how much water you have in it, so you need to be ready to stop and boil snow in the event you run out. I've run out of water on several occasions on past bikepacking adventures, so I knew how it affects my energy levels and what to watch out for. I also knew that if I did run out of water, I would be relatively close to Calabogie, where I planned to stop for a proper meal and a chance to re-hydrate. I had actually planned it so closely, that when I was on the outskirts of town, I finished the last few mouthfuls of water in the bladder. I stopped at the Redneck Bistro, drank a pitcher of water, downed some Skratch electrolytes and devoured a pulled pork poutine. With 22km to get back to the start point, having decided to skip the final loop to Arnprior and back, I slightly modified the route, so as to take some roads back to the My FM Centre, rather than ride the same rail trail again. This road turned out to be challenging and hilly, leaving me wishing I had of just rode the rail trail.

I reached my car at 7pm, quickly put the bike and all my gear into the back of my wagon, grabbed a coffee from Tim Horton's and headed home. I was happy I allowed myself to take on such a challenge. While the trails were challenging to ride and being completely solo in the backcountry like that was mentally fatiguing, these are the types of adventures that bring clarity to my life and allow me a chance to breath and feel connected to the world around me. If you are interested in checking out the route, it's definitely a beautiful area to pedal. If I were to ride the route again, I would probably start on a Friday after work from Calabogie and ride 17km to the first Crown Land campsite at Belanger Lake, so that the next morning I could get a full day of riding in and hopefully finish the full route by the end of Sunday.