Super Adventure Parc de la Mauricie ride

Velomag this month has a travel feature on the road ride through Parc de la Mauricie. I recall it here from memory. Factual Accuracy may not be 100%!

Update: boy, I screwed that up! This will be an organized group ride of three distances, including a 105 km out and back ride. The roads in the park WILL BE CLOSED TO CARS!

I said THE ROAD IN THE PARK WILL BE CLOSED TO CARS!!!!! Woohoo!

Le parc national de la Mauricie accueillera près de 600 cyclistes lors du Défi Vélo Mag de Shawinigan le 22 septembre prochain. Le parc national étant fermé à la circulation automobile lors de cette journée, les cyclistes de tous les calibres pourront sillonner à leur guise les sentiers destinés à la compétition. (Link)

The main park road goes between the two main parc entrances. It can be ridden as an aller-retour ride for a distance of over 100 km. Returning by a loop outside the park could be quite long. A car shuttle may be required.

The ride goes in an arc between the two park entrances. and is supposed to have something around 56 hills (...and 56 downhills) (this could be for the round trip). Additionally, if you are doing a loop, you have to connect back to the start outside the park, with additional klicks and hills.

My ex-boss Francois said this was the hardest day of his life. He's not in the dedicated daily cyclist category, but he's got the guts to have done some big rides, like Ottawa-Montreal in a day. I've never done that one. Maybe long flats with tailwind are too easy? Or maybe I should make rides like that a good opportunity to use the recumbent bike.

Anyway, back to the Mauricie, a ride which has lots of entertaining hills. I love hills!

The map below shows the route. Lots of hills and curves. The route outside the park is hypothetical, I need to so more research on that segment: there may be shortcuts.

Useful links
Cyclique Mauricie (local bicycle club)
Cyclique Mauricie's useful map
Parks Canada Parc de la Mauricie webpage

Here's my crappy route map:
Red Dots- inside Parc de la Mauricie (can be done as an out and back ride)
Blue Dots - Hypothetical route outside the park back to starting point