Donald
Teuma-Castelletti
FORT WILLIAM July 8, 2017
The Jamboree PPJ continued their bike tours last weekend, this time riding a bit off the smooth trail by starting in Fort William and ending in Chapeau.
Cyclists of all kinds of experience levels came out to explore this section of the Pontiac on Saturday morning, meeting for a 10 a.m. start and riding the 47.3 km trail that was mapped out.
However, since the initial tour back on May 20, the turnout to the event has been underwhelming to organizers, especially event organizer Tiziana Fortin-Rompelberg.
“It’s a little bit disappointing for all the work we’ve been doing,” said Fortin.
She said the first tour in May saw 27 participants, while the second tour had 12. At the beginning of the day on Saturday, only eight riders had pre-registered, while a few more just showed up the morning of.
There’s a couple of factors that Fortin-Rompelberg considers to be working against the tours’ popularity, and the big one, of course, is the recent weather. Saturday morning saw an ominous collection of clouds drifting over, and after a night of heavy rain, she assumed that most people from further away, like Gatineau, would stay home. The previous tour in June was also met with rainfall later in the afternoon.
The biking tours were designed with the idea of getting locals out and using the PPJ more, while attracting tourists into the Pontiac.
“They’re designed to have the people of the Pontiac see more of it,” said Fortin-Rompelberg, of the trails.
A big part of this was also to weave “culture stops” into the courses. On the past two rides, pages of these locations had been compiled with help from locals, offering insights on the stops and plenty of suggestions for neat places to check out.
However, this tour only featured one stop, at the Chichester Museum, because she found not a lot of people were taking advantage of the suggestions.
“We didn’t want to waste the time,” she said.
The tour does still feature multiple checkpoints to sign in at, an excellent option for those with young children. Fortin-Rompelberg finds these important, as younger kids can start at the last leg and finish the trail with the rest of group, providing a sense of accomplishment evident with their smiles.
The next ride put on by the group is scheduled for August 7, along the PPJ in Shawville. Billed as a Full Moon Tour, this one starts at 9 p.m. and will end in Campbell’s Bay.