GNR LITEバイクパッキング1日目：オンタリオ州南部のグラベルアドベンチャー

GNR LITEバイクパッキング1日目：オンタリオ州南部のグラベルアドベンチャー

hello I’m on the way to another train station so the plan for today or this week is to do a route called the GNR light which GNR stands for Grand Nithramble and this is the light version so this gets a little more a little bit more technical than the last route I did but it’s light on distance and not quite as technical and Grand Nith are the names of two rivers in south southern or southwestern Ontario so let’s get going so there’s the St. Jacob’s Farmers Market it’s um Thursdays and Saturdays are the days that it’s open you have a lot of outside vendors and uh local farmers um we’re bringing their stuff to the farm or to the market so check it out if you ever come here and right beside it there’s a number of hotels well the main chain hotel so if it takes a while to get here you can stay overnight at a hotel and then continue on the next day all right so it’s taking me about 45 minutes you get from the Kitchener GO station to the start of the route which is in St. Jacobs I could have got on the route closer to the GO station but I decided I would actually do the route right from the start so that’s why I’m heading to St. Jacobs here’s the official start and here’s the Eco Cafe which is the uh unofficial coffee shop or maybe it’s the official coffee shop with the bt700 well here we go sorry because I’m trying to hold my camera and ride at the same time nice tree canopy just on the edge of Waterloo oh a little bit of hike-a-bike all right so just getting through Kitchener or south end of Waterloo Kitchener uh had a pleasure of riding with gentleman named Alex from St. Jacob’s down here good time getting to know him he’s new Canadian had a real pleasure talking to him and uh I’ll pass the time oh so it took me about an hour and a half to get from St. Jacob’s down here to uh south end of Waterloo just because you’re you’re kind of following the river down and the river’s not straight it zigzags back and forth But it’s a beautiful day. It’s 16th of September. It’s warm. I think it’s 27 degrees, which is quite warm for this time of year. But really, really good opportunity to get out here and ride and do this, the GNR Lite. Anyway, gotta keep riding. so Alex was riding with at the beginning so I met him at the Eco Cafe at the beginning of the where the BT 700 the GNR starts and uh anyways he was asking a little bit about my bike and I told him what was going on where I was heading and he hadn’t been on those trails before he lives in Waterloo he hasn’t been on those trails before so uh he asked me if you could join me I thought sure if you could why not good opportunity to catch up and to meet somebody new. And I think I’ve said it before in other videos is that I think bikepacking is best done as a shared experience. Go with somebody else. I think it really adds to the experience when you can share your knowledge and the environment and I was able to share that with them. and he was very appreciative of it and I was really appreciative getting to know him and getting to know about his experience arriving here in Canada a lot of fun it’s a nice hour and a half ride with him until I got to the south end of Kitchener and it was time for me to keep rolling anyways I should do that keep rolling starting to see some of the leaves change another two or three weeks it’ll just be lit up here red yellow and orange I went off course a little bit so I’m just trying to get back over to the river where the single track is so I can get back on course there we are sweet sweet single track all right just had my first forest detour so when you get into Kitchener the course used to go through the back of Chicopee Ski Resort and you would go across the back side of the mountain and then come right to the front but uh when I got to where the entrance was it’s closed and there’s no trespassing signs up and since it’s a private business kind of have to respect that but otherwise we would have been coming up and over into that hill there anyways I don’t mind last time I did it I did an endo so I don’t mind missing out on that so I’m on a section of trail I believe it’s called the Walter Bean Trail between Kitchener and Cambridge and so far it’s pretty good but I remember it in the past and I haven’t finished it yet is these uh this long rock garden it was about I don’t know half a kilometer of just rubble that the road or the trail was made out of and uh I sacrificed a pair of sunglasses out there one time they bounced out of my pocket because it was so rough anyways uh it’s looking pretty good right now so I better just uh ride along and enjoy it Well, it’s still a rock garden. You can see behind me. it’s just these little baby head rocks all the way along here just rattle things loose if my bike wasn’t loaded and if I didn’t have cameras and stuff like that on it I might try to actually attack it and go a little faster through it but it’s high probability of a pinch flat if I try to pick up the pace so I’ll just you know noodle my way through and we’ll get to the end when I get to the end it’s always nice to see on a on a bike trail that there’s a well-stocked set of tools on this trail so Cambridge has done a good job of making sure that the tools are there for you so you get out there and ride there’s some great back roads for riding a gravel bike or bike packing nice tree canopy a little bit of shade in the hot day that it is today almost missed my turn I know the GNR, the Grand Nith Ramble, both the light and the full start in St. Jacob’s, but that’s probably the hardest place to start the ride because you’re right into the toughest probably section of trail. Not that it’s technically tough, it’s just it’s long, it’s you have to make sure you’re Your maps are good because navigation can be a challenge because you’re in the tree cover. Sometimes the garments can’t see the satellite. So you need to make sure you have a good GPX file so you can follow it. And you might have to go a little bit slower in order to navigate some of the turns and not miss turns like I did. One mistake I did, and I’ll make sure I correct this, is I had an old GPX file and some of the roads have shifted because of construction and new home development. So their Ride with GPS, if you’re a Ride with GPS user, has a feature called auto trace. I’d recommend running that over your old GPX file so that it kind of relearn the route and be more accurate. I’m going to do that when I get to the campsite tonight. I’m going to actually, or maybe even when I get to Cambridge. I’m going to see if I can get some internet access and see if I can fix the file I’m riding because I’ve missed too many turns and it’s just because of the GPS file is about it thinks the road is like 10 meters to the left or 10 meters to the right and sometimes where there’s different road crossings the different trailheads you you know you pick the wrong one at least I do seems to be the the course for the day is picking the wrong one anyways I better get rolling so rolling into Cambridge we are on Grand Trunk Trails which leave me to leave that the old Grand Trunk Railway is coming through here I’m south of Cambridge now. The trail’s a little more active, a few more people out here running, but riding, but this is an old railway bed, and it’s primarily downhill to Paris, and Paris is kind of the south end of the loop, the further south that I go on this loop. And so some good things to know about Cambridge, it’s Good place to refuel, especially, you know, if you get there midday or morning midday. You’ve got some nice coffee shops. You can also get some food. It’s just things like, you know, something quick. You can go to the subway on Main Street. If you get further down the trail and you get to Paris, it has some really nice restaurants. Nice place to stop and rest. Hello. Nice place to stop and rest. get some food you know top off the tank before continuing on oh this evening light is just amazing it’s about an hour before sunset it’s just gorgeous so just looking out over the Grand River have our Canada geese there trumpeting their songs just spectacular weather for September really can’t beat it this is just amazing so it’s about an hour before sunset and I’m just trying to figure out there’s a campsite about five more kilometers at the road but it’s not that far I want to get past Paris tonight I’ll have to look at the map because I think once I get past Paris I’m gonna be in the sparse camping options there’s Pinehurst campsite but that’s a little bit off-route I don’t really want to do that again I’ve been there before it’s a great campsite and it’s an option but I have a feeling I’m either gonna have to pick this one about five kilometers down the trail or consider stealth camping tonight wild camping but first I’ll go see if there’s even accommodations at the site down there down the trail and then I’ll make my decision then just coming up on Paris so apparently my cellular service wasn’t very good because I had already passed that campsite I was supposed to be looking for up the road so I guess I’m gonna be trying to scope out a campsite for the night well the sun’s setting I’m just heading north I guess it would be west out of out of Paris so I’m going to start looking for a place to uh camp for the night um the place I was looking at earlier it uh like I said my uh phone the data was showing me ahead and then all of a sudden it jumped and I was 10 km 10 km past it so I went on to Paris and uh just went through quickly through Paris decided to skip a little bit of the nith section just because it’s dark um I don’t really have lights for riding at night just for being seen so I’ll err on the side of caution I don’t know if you can see me in the video but This little helmet light that I’ve seen on my helmet in all the videos on Tour Divide and rides around Ontario. I’ve always just had it as a backup light. Never really planned on using it as a headlight, but man, oh man, I’ve been riding here for 45 minutes in the dark and it’s lighting up the road in front of me. So anyways, it’s a gorgeous night. It’s quite warm, no air, no wind, I should say. and uh yeah just kind of looking for a sweet spot out here to uh wild camp for the night so hopefully I’ll find something soon

Join me on a bikepacking adventure along the **GNR Light**, a scenic and challenging route that winds through the beautiful landscapes of Southern Ontario. In this video, I tackle the GNR Light, which stands for the **Grand Nith Ramble**, a route named after the Grand and Nith rivers. This journey takes me from the charming town of St. Jacobs through Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, all the way to Paris, Ontario.

Along the way, I share the joys and challenges of bikepacking, from navigating tricky single-track trails and unexpected detours to enjoying breathtaking scenery and meeting new people. You’ll get a glimpse of the famous **St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market**, ride on the historic **Grand Trunk Trails**, and see why I believe that bikepacking is best as a shared experience.

I’ll also share a few tips for aspiring bikepackers, including the importance of a good GPX file and how to handle route changes. Despite a few navigation hiccups and a closed trail, the ride was an incredible experience. Watch the video to see the stunning fall colors, learn about the route, and get inspired to hit the trail yourself!

Chapters
—————————————–
0:01 Intro
1:06 GO Train
2:01 St. Jacobs
5:30 Bikepacking Shared Experience
7:00 Detour
9:45 Clean GPX file
11:53 Cambridge
13:25 Grand River
14:48 Paris
15:49 Night Riding
16:20 Stealth Camping
16:30 Outro
—————————————-

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