The Western Part of Trail 1- A 24.4 km Bike Ride in Gatineau Park

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We headed back to Trail 1 in Gatineau Park this fall after I tried (and failed) to bike the whole route one day in late September. The last time I was out on the trail, I made it from the Old Chelsea Picnic Area to the Champlain lookout, and this time around I wanted to make it to the end of the trail.

Trail 1 starts at the Old Chelsea Picnic Area and ends at the Luskville Falls Fire Tower. At the tower, it connects to the Luskville Falls Trail (which makes for a great day hike).

Lucky for me, Trail 1 is open for biking from May 15^th to November 30^th (depending on the weather), so I had time to get back out and finish it. If it starts to snow before November 30^th, the trail is closed to biking.

I absolutely loved the eastern part of Trail 1, and was excited to see what the trail had in store west of the Champlain lookout.

The Champlain Lookout.

Getting There

For this second trip, we started where I had ended last, at the Champlain lookout. Just driving up to this lookout is spectacular. Go slow though, as there are a lot of cyclists on the road up to the lookout getting their hill work in.

You can use these coordinates to get to the Champlain lookout: 45.509001, -75.911279.

Driving up, the lookout was to our left. We entered the one way road to the right, and pulled off into the first parking lot to our right. This is where Trail 1 connects to the lookout. This parking lot has space for at least a hundred cars, and has two washrooms available for use. There are also garbage cans available closer to the lookout.

We headed towards the “back” of the parking lot, on the northeast side, and got back onto Trail 1 via the large gate at the end of the lot. Near this spot, Trail 1 actually splits into a loop, and we had the choice of taking Trail 1, or Trail 1B. We chose to stick with Trail 1 on our way out.

The Trail

This section of the trail was much wider than the eastern section. In most places on this section of the Trail, it looked at least two metres wide. For the duration of it, it resembled more of an old logging road than anything else. The trail was well maintained, although it was grassy and rocky in places, while in other places quite a bit of gravel had been laid.

We rode hybrid bikes on Trail 1, and managed to do okay. I don’t think there’s any way a road bike would do the job here.

Much like the eastern part of the trail, the western part of the trail was HILLY. See the elevation chart at the end of this report. The eastern part of the trail felt like one giant hill (because it basically was). The western part had MORE HILLS- they were just a bit smaller. There was a lot of up and down on this trail, and it was a fantastic workout.

There were fewer points of interest on this section of the trail than there had been on the eastern section. But, that also meant fewer people and more fellow bikers, so that was okay with us.

There’s a nice lookout not long into the trail with a bench available. Trail 1 also intersects with a few others in Gatineau Park, including one of my favorites, Wolf Trail.

The only lookout on the western part of Trail 1 .

There is only the McKinsey shelter on this part of Trail 1. We stopped there on our way back to get out of the heat for a bit and have some snacks.

I always enjoy seeing the Luskville Falls Fire Tower because it’s a really neat structure. We turned around after reaching the tower.

Points of Interest on Trail 1

Everything on Trail 1 is really well signed, so it’s always easy to tell where you are, and which direction to head in to stay on the trail. There was a topographic map at the McKinsey shelter.

Point of Interest on Trail 1	Distance from Champlain Lookout
Split to 1B (north)	0.1 km
Split to 1B (south)	1.2 km
Lookout and Bench	2.3 km
Crossing Wolf Trail	3.8 km
Bench at Wolf Trail	5.4 km
McKinsey Shelter	9.4 km
Luskville Fire Tower	12.2 km

Fire tower at the end of Trail 1.

Getting Home-Loop 1B

On our way back to the Champlain lookout, we decided to take the loop for 1B back to the parking lot. 1B had a VERY different feel to it. It felt like more of a “trail,” whereas Trail 1 felt like more of a road. There were some very fun, rocky sections on 1B, as well as some fun little hills and skinny sections on the trail.

There were a few spots like this on the 1B loop.

We reached the split for 1B at the 23.2 kilometre mark on our way back, so we got to ride on it for about a kilometer before finishing our trip for the day.

All in all, we biked 24.4 kilometres to get out to the fire tower and then back to the Champlain lookout. It took us three and a half hours (but we’re pretty slow).

Starting and ending the day at the Champlain Lookout was fantastic. It’s hard to beat those views. I would absolutely recommend any part of Trail 1 for biking.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!