On June 8, a small group of cycling enthusiasts gathered at Café Art Brûlant in Shawville to set on a trek of the most scenic and remote gravel trails the town has to offer in the Gravel Guys’ fourth annual Magic 100!

Organized by local cycling group Gravel Planet, the event served as an opportunity for cyclists from the Pontiac and the Ottawa Valley to get a taste of what the landscape provides when it comes to its best cycling trails.

With no timers or any sort of signage, participants rode through the trail at their own pace with directions loaded up on their respective GPS devices.

According to one of the event’s main organizers, Cameron Dube, the event is a great economic benefit to the town as it invites outsiders to spend time and money in the region, which supports local establishments, such as coffee shops, restaurants and gas stations.

“These guys and girls, they live and work in Ottawa,” he said. “The demographic that we have here, they have great jobs and we all probably have a few bikes of more in the basement that are worth a couple thousand each. You bring these types of people to these areas, they have money to spend and they’re going to eat here, which is great for the local community.”

A resident of Beachburg Ont. who’s ridden of very well every trail in the Ottawa Valley, Dube believes the Pontiac’s gravel roads are a very unique luxury. Largely removed from society with an eye-catching landscape, it’s the ideal setting for cyclists hungry for rougher, more isolated terrains.

“The lack of people, the remoteness, the gravel,” he said. “There’s this huge scene out there in cycling right now that’s all about gravel roads.

Stretching just over 100 km with no stops in between, the trail extended from a portion of the PPJ near Campbell’s Bay and ended on chemin Magic in Bristol, hence the name of the event.

As a teacher at Algonquin College in school’s outdoor guiding program, Dube has spent a lot of time riding on the PPJ with students for guide training. An avid cyclist and gravel trail enthusiast, the preservation of the trails is very important to him and holding an event like the Magic 100! is another way of showing that not everyone is in favour of sharing the trails with motorized vehicles.

“We do our 100 km ride and probably see three cars,” he said. “It’s amazing. People would drive from Toronto to ride here if they knew of the place.”

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