Ottawa Valley Weekend Gravel Road - May 28-30 2021 (cancelled)

absolutely! you go first.

 

If you want to get lost..... follow me!

 

i would like to run swisha again this year but fwiw i wouldnt do it too early in the spring if there is a big snowmelt or a lot of rain. most of the roads are sandy/gravel and probably better without the dust but also a lot of trails that run right next to lakes/ponds where the water can be over the trail. in july 2020 i had water almost completely covering my 33s a few times so could be dicey in April. in those places there are no convenient reroutes.



we hacked brush for around 2 hours in the rain with 4 people on the north side of the washout and figuring we had about another km or 2 of brush to get to the washout we bailed and went around. not sure what its like coming up from the south but you would still be coming through this section. would still like to get through next time.



my buddy and i both brought 3 spare 20L fuel cans based on trips reports etc and on the principle of better to have and not need than need and not have. i ended up emptying 2 but could have done it on 1 spare but that would have been uncomfortably tight. thats being fully loaded with my Four Wheel Camper getting around 14mpg or 16.5L/100km on pavement. next time i bring 2. a stock truck not doing donuts in every sand pit could probably comfortably do it with 1 can. YMMV.



if i did it clockwise again i would enter the loop at rapides-de-joachims like last time and cut off the section after otter lake through kazabazua, paugan dam, and down to cantley and back. its easy to cut across and get back on the loop and dirt road and avoid a lot of paved nonsense. if you have your heart set on "doing the entire swisha loop" do it. thats a day i would save to go elsewhere or skip if i was tight for time.

the pin striping problem is real as per my other post. might take some mental preparation before taking my 2021 through there before its first oil change.

 

Yeap, I keep hearing it might be tricky with the high water in the spring.

It might be safer to do Ottawa region in April as long we run snow flake tires and we don't cross snowmobile trails

I also want to do swisha, so we can try to plan for another time of the year.

 

That looks like fun

 

How many kms on that $65,000 2020 Gladiator Rubicon when your buddy took it through the bush?

 

he already had his "i cant believe i am doing this to my new truck" moment at VMUTs so by the time we did the Swisha trip which included some scratchy trails on the way there and back as well he had progressed to the acceptance stage. he was able to get most of it buffed out when he got home save a few bad ones.

i think he said he said he paid around $60k.

 

my gladiator fit well in atv trails, the paint looked great, because i like scratches! if that sack of beautiful turds didn't get death wobble i would still be driving it

 

I'm in for the Ottawa Valley tour

 

Yeah F that shit... Thats not a trail, thats a forest haha. Theres no bypass tracks or possible wrong turns around those sections? Honestly seems like a trail that is closed down intentionally, at least thats what it would look like locally around these parts.

Bush or Busch?

 

I'm removing my self from the list too much stuff to get done and concentrating on preparations for tuk.

 

hate to say it again but that is what real exploring looks like!!!

 

Hey guys, I believe it's best we focus on the Ottawa one, doing swish at that point might be too risky. We can do it in the summer.

I will change the thread to Ottawa only.
I still need to get the gpx and verify if the roads are part of the ofsc trails.

 

More than just groomed trails are likely to have snow 5-6 weeks from now. Hopefully not much as we don’t have much as of now! It was looking ay some pics from the 1st wknd of may last yr where i got turned around in my gladiator on 35’s with a 3.5 inch lift

 

Personally I've always started off the year with the ovo spring fling. And that's always been may24.
That's almost 2 months after this trip. So yes I think there will be lots of snow...

 

And snow wheeling sucks! It f i want to work that much for a bit of fun i can fuck a fat chick

 

Yeah, with plenty of snow on the ground, it's not a trip anymore, it's an off-road challenge, lots of digging, shoveling, pulling and towing, winching. The only way this would be feasible is if those roads are maintained, as gravel roads.

 

Now that woke me up

 

I was up past the damn in Calabogie on Frand the road was not even plowed to Dodge lk

 

I say you have not done real snow wheeling, as it is the most fun you can have in 4lo imo


But hey some guys love those big asses, so what can ya say. To each his own.

^^

And yes you are supposed to stay off of trails until May as mentioned.