Riding to Costco in Gatineau

Of all the Costco’s in the region, the one in Gatineau is the most accessible by bike from neighbourhoods in and around downtown Ottawa. A couple of riders who regularly pedal out there were very kind to let me tag along on their latest shopping adventure. (Update – Biking to the Costco on Innes from areas closer to downtown is pretty good too since bike lanes were added along Cyrville Road. Click here for a route there from Overbrook).

Because everything is sold in bulk at Costco, I put out a request for suggestions on which bike trailers would best be able to handle a big load. The overwhelming favourite were those manufactured by Wike out of Guelph Ontario. Giacomo was very kind to lend me his Heavy Duty Flatbed Bike Trailer he uses to roast his Bike Hibachi Pigskin Pork Tenderloin. It performed extremely well on this Costco test ride.

Here’s how it all panned out. Blue line is the way we got there. Purple line is how we got back.

.
We started off from the Woonerf on Cambridge St North in Centretown.

Yes indeed. There are six big Rubbermaid bins on the back of JP's trailer. — Yes indeed. There are SIX big Rubbermaid bins on the back of that trailer.

We accessed the Ottawa River Pathway at the bottom of Nanny Goat Hill and followed multi-use paths all the way to Pointe-Gatineau on the east side of the Gatineau River.

UPDATE 2020 – Rue St-Antoine running parallel to Rue Greber is a relatively quite street with bike lanes that lead all the way to the back of the Costco. This route is depicted on the above map.

I loaded as much as I would have on a typical car run and even had room for more, especially if I had brought rear rack panniers.

Loaded up and raring to go! — Packed with room to spare

Mr One Wheel Drive managed to load 237 lbs (!) on his custom made trailer, like so.

The bike path along Boulevard de la Gappe described in this post passes by the Costco one block north so we followed it on the way back.

I managed to click this final image as we headed over the Rapid-Transit bridge before it got dark.

The path network gets a little labyrinthian from Lac Leamy to downtown Gatineau. I’ve heard all efforts at introducing directional signage through this maze have been covered up with spray paint, so a couple of dry runs with Google Maps in hand is highly recommended.

Et voila!

Update – Patrick filmed a subsequent trip we made to Costco following the purple route, which turned out like so!