Gain a province, lose an hour!
It took some time getting out the door at the HI Hostel in Riviere du Loop with people asking me about my bike and its components and about the trip itself.
Heading South East inland away from the Saint Laurence through rolling farm land the ocean smell quickly disappeared. We moved through small village after small village each each with its own church trying to out do the other. We decided our final destination for the night would be St. Jacques. I found a great free spot on a rail trail just East of town that met all of the criteria and that being a toilet or in this case a pit toilet on the rail trail.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Riviere du Loop to Saint Jacques! July 30/14
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Saint Jean Port Joli to Riviere Du Loop! July 29/14
It was a fast ride from Saint Jean Port Joli to Riviere Du Loop with it's big tailwind and dry weather. This was the first time I could smell the saltiness of the Saint Laurence. Beluga whales, sea lions and harbor seals are seen here. Even killer whales come up the Saint Laurence to pick off the harbor seals. I love the smell of ocean air, or is that just the rotting sea weed. Doesn't matter, it's the ocean I smell and that is what counts. It took 6500kms to reach this point.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Quebec City to Saint-Jean-Port-Joli! July 28/14
We left beautiful Quebec City under threatening skies and they didn't disappoint. And they did it with unseasonably cold conditions.
We crossed the river to Levis and consulted with a local as to the best way to head to Ste. Jean Port Joli and he told us to use the Route Verte Bike Path so off we peddled. It wasn't long before we realized the Route Verte Bike Path was leading us in the wrong direction. This has happened to us a number of times before because of inadequate signage. I think people are stealing the signs because of the popularity of Route Verte amongst cyclists. So it was back onto the road, #132, where there was no chance of loosing our way.
Today we had a constant head wind with gusts in the 30km/hr range and combined with the unseasonably cold rain caused Karin to become hypothermic and down to a crawl speed wise. Bailed into a cheap motel after a hundred kilometers for Karin to warm up.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Two days off in the Old City of Quebec! July 26th, 27th/14
Day one was beautiful and warm and the tourists like ourselves were out in droves. The cobble stone roads inside of the walls were still wet from the street sweeper trucks spending all night with their vacuums on passing back and forth under our hostel window. I must admit for the number of people walking about it was exceptionally clean. We started out with the self-guided walking tour that quickly went to the wayside when something else would catch our eye and off we would go. Around 3:30pm we met up with my oldest daughter's mother-inlaw, Mary, who drove from Vermont to Quebec City to see us. How cool was that! After some walking and talking mixed with sightseeing, Mary invited us for dinner so off we went to a small French restaurant close by and enjoyed Raclette at our table.
Day two we started with a short ride East of the city to see Montmorency Falls, another site where the British and the French shot canon balls at each other. This city was shaped by war between the English and the French. Hilltop placement with multiple walls for canons and high ground advantage. The rest of the day was spent dodging thunder showers walking through the lower city with its shops and cafes.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Trois Rivieres to Quebec City! July 25/14
Another early start on a beautiful sunny day. We have about 135kms to cover into Quebec City and I wasnt going to make the same mistake we made coming into Montreal in the dark. Today was also about touring through some of the opulent Catholic churches along the way. It was the church that developed and shaped the land and government of the area so thought it would be interesting to check them out. Each village would try to out do the other with a bigger more opulent building. The pay-off was to attract the rich patrons to support the church and village. A church we stopped at had rebuilt four times over four hundred years in order to to have a lager more impressive building.
One church we toured has a crypt in the basement with over one hundred and eighty buried patrons. The practice was brought from France and was lucrative as the patron had to pay a large sum to be interned there. They believed being close to the praying congregation above would help them ascend to heaven.
Thunder and lightning chased us into the city and we were able to book into the hostel in the old city of Quebec by 8pm.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Montreal to Trois Rivieres! July 24/14
Up early and heading East to Trois Rivieres by 7:30am. Route Verte 5 took us out of the city on bike paths for about 30kms. Far enough where the city traffic had lightened up on highway 138, our "Rue Du Jour". We hugged the St. Laurence all the way to our destination which I'm sure was a factor in keeping the temperature and humidity down on this clear sunny day. Another interesting observation is this day's ride was the flattest I've seen on the whole trip. Even beats out Saskatchewan or at least the route we took through that province. I can see why the 260kms bike ride between Montreal and Quebec is so popular. And the fact that you can eat all you want in Montreal or Quebec City guilt free after completing the distance.
In Quebec it's easy to tell when your coming up to a village because there's always a church spire sticking out above the tree tops easily seen from a long distance away. It was the same way with towns in Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan it was the grain elevators you could see from a distance.
Lots and lots of Harleys on the road in Quebec and today was no exception. I had drafted the guy on the Harley I parked beside in the picture going through a round-a-bout and surprised him how fast I got a loaded touring bicycle going. 55kms/hr before he dropped me.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Montreal! July 22nd, 23rd /14
The morning of the 22nd was filled with chores. Laundry and groceries were on the to do list and once they were out of the way we had a city to explore. I should change the name of the blog to, "Ken Eats Across Canada!". Montreal is a city of food. Restaurants, cafes, fast food, slow food, bars and bistros are crammed into block after block. The front desk manager at the Y joked with us saying they weigh people when they leave and if they haven't gained any weight they haven't had any fun. Lots and lots of food and drink twenty-four hours a day. Maybe not the drink but I'm sure you can find that after hours, too!
Bikes rule here in Montreal with all their city bike paths. Cars are bumper to bumper with horns blaring while cyclists in suites and skirts calmly ride by. Many are riding Montreal's public share bike called, "Bixi" but I see most ride cheep old bikes they don't have to worry locking on the street.
There is just to much to see in two days. Old Montreal was first on the list with its churches, old city architecture and outdoor cafes to sit and drink coffee and eat.
Next was the shopping districts of Rue Ste. Catherine's and the "Village".
We took in parts of the Comedy Festival Just For Laughs.
We walked the 256 stairs to the top of Mont Royal in the rain and walked back to the Village district to eat some more.
There is an underground city here in Montreal, "La Ville SouterraYine" with over 32kms of interconnecting shopping malls, banks and even schools. We walked through a small portion of it during a string of thunder storms the morning of the 23rd.
I added up the approximate distance we walked over the two days and it came to 40kms. Believe me it's a different set of muscles you use off the bike. A little stiff and tired but we'll worth the effort.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Mont Tremblant to Montreal! July 21/14
We left Mont Tremblant on the Le Petit Train Du Nord which is a rail trail that is 90kms long and connects with the Route Verte system of bike paths. Well over a 140kms today was used by us to get to Montreal. It's not without it's flaws though. Because of lack of signage to tell you where each path is taking you we became lost a number of times going through Lavel. The other problem was numerous roads with the same name. On the maps we had they neglected to tell you if the name ended in "Est" or "Oest", same name with a French "East" or "West". Very confusing. We left Mont Tremblant 7:30am and arrived at the YWCA 10:30pm making for a very long day. Our kilometer total was going to be 150 but because of wrong turns and I hate to say miss direction from people trying to help our total for the day was 166.
I didn't take many pictures because we were starting to get a little stressed making our way through city sprawl with confusing streets.
Day off the bikes in Mont Tremblant! July 20/14
Today we checked out the resort town of Whistler. Oops! I mean Mont Tremblant. Mont Tremblant is just a mini copy of Whistler/Blackcomb mostly because they both are owned by Intrawest. It's the weekend here and being only an hours drive from Montreal it was packed with people.
We walked the 7kms from the HI-Hostel into Mont Tremblant and walked the 3kms to the top of the ski hill. I was expecting a steeper climb but it wasn't too bad. The other thing I was expecting, since there was so many people in the village, the trail would be packed but not so. I guess the novelty of a gondola ride is part of the experience as a tourist. You can pay to take it from the top down like we did for the view and to save our knees.
There was some showcased French Canadian music happening, much like Whistler does, so we spent a good couple of hours lounging in plastic Adirondack chairs watching the show.
It was a homemade spaghetti dinner cooked up in the hostel's kitchen then a beer out by the fire. I got to talking with a couple from Australia about traveling and found their way of seeing the country very interesting. They use HI-Hostels when they can and stay for a week or so in the city or region walking or renting a car to see the sights. If they like where they are they stay a little longer and move on when it suits them. They have been on the road in Canada for five months and traveled just over half the country. To get to where they want to go they have been using buses allowing them to be unencumbered with car or RV.