Manawan Reserve ride

When I came back from a test ride to Parent in July, I met a retired logging truck driver in Mont St-Michel.  He suggested I take the Manawan fire road instead of the boring Highway 15. 

Waste of time.  Despite searching around for a while, I never found the road in question.  I promised myself that I’d give it another shot eventually.

So, in September, I planned a ride to the Manawan reserve taking the road bearing the same name.   I brought a ratchet and a socket along just in case.  The last time I rode on a fire road, the Parent road, it was more than the Versys suspension could handle.  Most of the vibrations caused by the washboard sections of the road were directly transmitted to the handle bar.  So the ratchet could come in handy for adjusting the suspension and hopefully making the ride enjoyable.

The ride plan below (http://goo.gl/maps/gQYe0):

Note all the parks on the map, from the left: Papineau-Labelle, Mount Tremblant, Ouareau Forest, Taureau Lake, La Mauricie National Park and more.  It is amazing all the places I can explore just few hours away!  More to the east, there is the huge Laurentian Park.

To reach Manawan, I left early in the morning to have some spare time to take a few shots.  So at around 7:30 am I was off: 640 east, 25 north, 125 north, the 337 north.

9 a.m. The most beautiful site during this ride: the Dorwin falls in the Chute-Dorwin park along the 337 in Rawdon.

Quite a nice waterfall! I told myself: “How come I never heard of this place before?”  The picture does not really show how great it is: it is huge!

Accessing the park is not free, but when I got there, the gate was open and the booth was empty - I could access freely.

I went back with my family a few weeks later.  The ride is a little long with young kids from my place, but once there everyone enjoyed walking in the forest along the river.

To be continued.  See next part.