Bikepack Adventures

Overview

The Larose Forest Shred is a great way to get out for a day of gravel riding with a good mix of gravel roads and single-track trails. This is a great ride to practice your single-track bike handling skills, particularly if you use drop-bars and don’t get onto trails too often. There are lots of people so take it easy on the blind corners not to run over any small children.

This route was created by

Chris Panasky, host of the Bikepack Adventures Podcast.

Close to Ottawa: A short drive to the Larose Forest parking from Ottawa, or a good warm-up ride from Ottawa along the Prescott-Russel rail-trail.
Single-track: Larose Forest is full of single-track. None of it is overly rough or difficult, so it is a great place to hone your single-track riding skills.
Gravel roads: As you make your way around the region, it will all connect with plenty of gravel roads.

Single-track: Take your time and practice leaning into the curves to get tighter turns.
Pack for multi-day: I recommend packing your bike for a multi-day trip so you can get used to handling a loaded bike while off-road. This is a good safe place to do so.
Warning: Larose Forest can be very busy in the summer, with many families coming out to ride.

Recommended bike: 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.

Starting from P1 in Larose Forest, you get to warm-up hitting a bunch of single-track, take you all-over the forest. There are lots of exits in case you need to short-cut it back to the car.
Heading to the eastern part of Larose Forest, you will take a combination of gravel roads and forest trails.

No sleep necessary, but if for some reason you are looking for a place to stay, I’m sure you can find a place to pitch a tent, or head to a nearby town to get a motel.

Minimal re-supply locations: Throughout this ride there are no stores to re-supply food and drink. There are no restaurants and no toilets. There are a few bodies of water where one could filter or purify water in order to re-fill their bottles.

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Quick Stats

Overview

This route was created by

GPS Route + Points of Interest

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