I went up to the Ottawa area to visit family a few weeks ago. I would have never thought to bring my bike (as it was nearing the end of November), but Ryan suggested a ride so enthusiastically I just couldn't say no - and I'm glad I didn't.

After I wrapped myself in what I hopped was the correct number of clothing layers, we loaded up the bikes on Ry's roof rack and headed to Kanata. Neither of us really felt like tackling the more difficult trails of Gatineau this day, so Kanata sounded like a good option.

After checking out a small collection of very unique custom concrete homes built into the sides of rocky hills near the trailhead [give us a break, we're both engineers], we made it to the small parking lot, which was rather busy. I think everyone was trying to get in that "one last ride".

The first bit of trails we started on were rather wet - in fact the word 'swamp' could probably be used without much exaggeration, so we headed over to the trails on the other side of the road, and hopefully higher ground.

Well, the ground was indeed higher, as we climbed for a bit to start out, but the trail was all mud! Thick, heavy, tire grabbing mud.

We had a great time slipping, sliding, and trudging through the trails. It was definitely a battle out there in Kanata that day, but for some reason we were smiling the whole way.

We stopped for some photos...

and while we pondered how my pedals were still working, Ryan looked up, and saw a train coming right for us. Definitely not something you see on every ride; I'm glad it was moving pretty slow.

After a wave from the conductor, we charged back into the mud. It was soon after that we realized our map was a rather questionable, and we were getting dog tired. Thankfully we met up with two local riders who knew their way around and guided us back to the parking lot.

Despite the slow pace, due to dragging about 15 pounds of mud around all afternoon, it was definitely a great way to end the season.