OttawaVeloOutaouais

Last week an essential component of my bike helmet snapped in the cold, so on Sunday morning I set out in search of a new one. Armed with great advice from friends in Twittersphere, I consulted the list of local bike shops on the Capital VéloFest links page and chose as many I felt confident I could get to within a 1-1/2 hour ride, stops included. Many shops were closed Sunday morning which eliminated a few along the way. Here’s how it panned out.

First stop, Tommy & Lefebvre on Bank Street. No helmets. Still in ski mode.

Next stop, Kunstadt Sports on Bank. Slim pickings, none of which fit. The helpful fellow serving me promised more would be arriving within the next two weeks. He also suggested some folks use ski helmets in the winter because of the built in ear warmers. Interesting concept. I’ve become accustomed to the versatility of using a balaklava when required.

On my way west towards Wellington I was happy to discover this nicely packed footpath through Commissioners Park beside Dow’s Lake. Perfectly fine for biking as long as you are prepared to hop off and walk your bike on the side of the trail when encountering pedestrians coming the other way. Following this packed path allowed me to avoid biking down a good length of dangerous Carling Avenue.

Sherwood Avenue, which cuts diagonally through the Civic Hospital neighbourhood, is lined with impressive big old houses. In contrast, this more recent interesting design at Sherwood and Fairmount caught my eye. Love how it conforms to its angled property. The choice of exterior materials is also interesting, particularly the glazed plywood panels. I’m guessing the panels are designed to be easily removed should they require replacing, as glazed ply doesn’t always age nicely in our climate.

Next shop stop – Fresh Air Experience on Wellington. Again, limited selection as they too are still in ski mode. The fellow serving me did manage to retrieve a couple of Bell helmets from the basement which fit, however the slim pickings were making me contemplate putting off my helmet hunt until the spring. Then I got to … BUSHTUKAH!

Great selection of helmets, from some on sale to newly arrived models in the pricier range. I liked the fit and price of this Giro model, and this Bell model.

One more stop on my itinerary – Mountain Equipment Co-op. I was pleased to discover they have a fine selection as well. Not as extensive as down the street, but still lots to choose from. They definitely have the best selection of funky helmets, such as these shown below. I tried a black one on but it didn’t quite fit. Many others were equally as comfortable as those I tried on at Bushtakah, but none matched in price.

Kudo’s to MEC for keeping their bike racks cleared of snow.

I headed back to Bushtukah…..

In the end I chose the Bell helmet – equally comfortable to the Giro, and slightly more comfortably priced at $32. Wore it on my ride back along Scott Street and arrived home pleased as punch with my purchase.

This is my first season winter biking in our Nation’s Capital. Shortly after the first few accumulations of snow I realised our fantastic local network of bike paths is geared towards the summertime recreational cyclist versus the all season bike commuter. That’s because, apart from a few routes like the Laurier bike lanes, most bike paths aren’t cleared. As such, I have found myself riding down treacherous roads which I wouldn’t dare bike along even in the summer. So I was encouraged when I read about Craig Daveys successful attempts to clear short bike path links in Lowertown through his often humourous ‘Meet me halfway’ email correspondence with the city, which he describes here. That was back in mid January. (UPDATE May 2014 – The link has disappeared, but the benevolence of his lane clearing spirit lives on).Today I chose a route that took me along most of those bike path links mentioned in his emails, as identified by the blue markers on the map below. Red markers are interesting buildings I clicked along the way.

Lowertown is filled with wonderful old two and three story dwellings like this.

As you can see, the first section of bike path at Guiges and Dalhousie described in Craig Davey’s correspondence unfortunately hasn’t received recent attention from local shovelers or the city sidewalk plow.

At 158 Guiges sits this interesting dwelling partially constructed with big old square timbers.

The second section of path at St Andrew and King Edward HAS been kept clear! Why someone chose to interpret it as a parking spot, even with signs saying don’t do that? I dunno.

Lowertown has historically been a workers neighbourhood, as described in stories like Angel Square by Brian Doyle, and represented by the few remaining dwellings those residents built and lived in. A selection of these are slated to be demolished to make way for a new Claridge Homes condo development in an area called the wedge, defined by King Edward Avenue, St Patrick St and the Rideau River. That is not to the liking of the authors of a report titled ‘Lowertown East, Our Disappearing Heritage’.

The Gauvreau Rowhouse shown below is one of those buildings, ironically being used by Claridge as their sales centre.

Around the other side on St Andrew Street sit these two condemned dwellings which are described in the above mentioned report as important to preserving the working class heritage of Lowertown. The buildings now sit empty and abandoned while Claridge banners hang triumphantly from temporary flag poles on the corners of each of the properties.

Path link at St Andrew and St Patrick – CLEARED!

This Rather well preserved building sits at the corner of Cumberland and Bruyère. It was originally constructed as a store in 1862, which I’m guessing explains the big corner entrance.

The final Lowertown bike path link at Cumberland and Bruyère wasn’t cleared. Here’s hoping Craig Davey’s generous spirit and good intentions provides encouragement to make bike commuting safe throughout snowfalls to come.

Here are couple of other glorious old buildings along Dalhousie with truncated corners.

I made a final stop at Stubbe chocolatier on Dalhousie. A friend told me it was the best in town, and Carla is a chocoholic.

Arts Court is a very important facility for local artists and art lovers. Located right downtown in the old court house, it sits on a small plot of land encircled by four busy streets that aren’t particularly velo friendly. So, how do you bike there? Here’s a route I took this weekend to attend a rehearsal for Third Wall Theatre’s production of God of Carnage, with a pit stop at Mags & Fags on Elgin Street.

Cooper is a quiet one way street heading east from Bronson as far as the canal. Most of the houses along the street between Bronson and Kent date back to the late 1800’s, like these two well preserved gems.

Here’s the view looking down Cooper from Bay Street.

The Czech embassy is at 251 Cooper and described in this Urbsite post.

After stopping off at Mags&Fags I biked a few blocks north up Elgin, a busy bike-able street with lots of pedestrians keeping it civilized. I then crossed the Mackenzie King Bridge which has bike lanes hugging the inside meridian like so.

But then the bike lane suddenly ends on the other side of the bridge when it reaches Waller Street.

Waller is a very nasty road. Not only is it lacking any shoulder or bike lane, it is filled with transport trucks who use it as an awkward winding link through downtown from the Queensway to King Edward Avenue to the bridge over the Ottawa River. I suggest avoiding it all together by going over to the sidewalk on the left and walking your bike along the well trodden path to the Arts Court parking lot, as per the photo below. By doing so you can catch a glimpse of the back of the old jail, the building behind the tall stone wall. It is now a youth hostel. The boarded up arched opening beneath the pediment was where they publicly hung condemned prisoners, the wall being just tall enough so onlookers would avoid seeing the dangling body. I know – freaky.

Down through the driveway brings you to the entrance of the wonderful Arts Court.