An image showing a polar bear and a pinguin skating between and around data about the Rideau Canal skateway

Will the Rideau Canal open for skating this year?

January 11, 2024 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 5 minutes The Rideau Canal in Ottawa has been a beloved skating destination since 1970. However, warmer winters are affecting its ice quality and duration. With fewer days open in recent years, speculation arises about this year’s opening. Upcoming cold nights could lead the canal to open end of January and when it does, don’t wait to go out.

A Winter Holiday in Ottawa Gatineau

February 23, 2020 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 7 minutes Ottawa is a great place to spend a winter holiday. The great outdoors are around the corner, there are great coffee places and the XC are fairly accessible without a car too.

Using a bike during the #Transitchallenge2020

February 20, 2020 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 6 minutes O what a gorgeous day it was on Wednesday. Clear skies and a temperature of only -5C. The windchill made it feel more like -15C according to Robyn Bresnahan though. Should I go downtown by bus? I had to do some errands downtown and I was heavily leaning towards public transit. Bus 88 to Hurdman and then backtrack to downtown on Line 1 would do the trick within about 25 minutes. But when I saw the sun light flowing into the house, I realised that I really should cycle at least part of the way, because a real, let alone [Read more…]

Snowshoes at Renaud hut

Gatineau Snow Shoe Trail #74

February 7, 2019 Hansonthebike 1

Reading Time: 4 minutes Hans on the Bike had family over. They went to check out snowshoe trail #74 starting at the Lac Philippe parking lot P19 in the northern part of Gatineau Park.

A weekend in rural Quebec

March 15, 2018 Hansonthebike 0

Reading Time: 4 minutes Last weekend we visited a friend’s cottage near Chèneville, roughly 60 km north of Montebello. We took the quiet back roads from Buckingham via Mayo to stop in a small ski area near Ripon, the Parc des Montagnes Noires. It is not a big area, but there are a few kilometers of cross country ski trails with a few small huts. In 2015 a new building was added, the Chalet Stephane Richer, named after the Montreal Canadiens hockey forward. The chalet is not exactly a cozy chalet made of hand hewn logs, Hudson Bay blankets and a roaring fire. It [Read more…]

Parkway in Gatineau Park

Gatineau Park: Winter Paradise in Ottawa’s Back Yard Captured on Mapillary

February 27, 2018 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 6 minutes The title of this post is a bit unfair, because Gatineau Park really is in the province of Quebec and Ottawa isn’t. It is managed by the National Capital Commission, which also manages the Greenbelt and the Rideau Canal Skateway to name but a few of the many properties they look after. But hey, in a globally connected world, in which two left-of-centre NDP run Canadian provinces (!) (Alberta and British Columbia) duke out a trade war over oil sands oil pipelines, Ottawa, Gatineau and the NCC (National Capital Commission) really should market the area together as one big National [Read more…]

A bike street in Utrecht, Netherlands running along the Rietveldhuis.

Speaker at Winter Cycling Congress 2017: Montreal

January 26, 2017 Hansonthebike 4

Reading Time: 4 minutes I was asked to talk about winter cycling for a Montreal winter cycling congress. I decided to take a different take and will talk about winter cycling to train stations in the Netherlands, because I don’t remember ever having to cycle in snow in the Netherlands.