Thursday, June 15. Montreal to Coteau du Lac, Quebec. Today we turned west for the first time on this trip. (We'll be in Kansas before we know it.)This will be either my shortest or longest blog--it's actually Friday night, and I've just sat down to a cup of coffee laced with butterscotch schnapps and Baileys--called a Butterkiss Coffee. It's true that everything looks better after a shower and a drink! I'll pause here for anyone who needs a beverage break.
Yesterday (Thursday) morning started off with a relatively (for us) early breakfast at the University B&B in old town Montreal. We sat with a couple from Kentucky, both high school teachers on summer holiday. They'd been in Montreal for about a week, but had lost the better part of the previous day. He had misjudged the distance to the Holocaust Museum, and when it turned into a 5-mile walk they gave up and metro'd their way back to the hotel. It was 3pm before they made it back, and they were so tired that they didn't leave their room for the rest of the day! Today was looking better for them--they were back on track for another day of fun in QC.
Our trip for the day would take us along the Lachine Canal on Montreal's Route Verte. The canal-way is a great path, easy to ride and well marked. There are some interesting projects now underway on this historic waterway. Canada has recently re-opened the canal to pleasure crafts--it had originally been THE shipping lane until the St. Lawrence Seaway opened. Now recognized as an historic treasure, the canal is re-opened an dthe rail line next to it has been converted into a multi-use path. Joggers, cyclists, bladers and their dogs are out in force on the path. At one of the locks, we watched as the water level was raised and the lock opened for a small boat to pass through.
A little later on, we came to a bike shop right on the path called "On the Spot". It was just beginning to sprinkle a little, so we pulled up under the trees near the shop. The shop is housed in an (historic) railcar from the 1920's, and run by Steve and Jeff. Steve is the mechanic, Jeff is the everything-else guy. I had noticed a new clicking noise in my left pedal the last couple of days--Steve seemed like the guy who could find it and silence it.
These two guys are on the verge of a very successful business. They've been friends for 10 years, and opened this business together last year. Jeff has ideas about opening a bicycle boutique in the second (and historic) railcar, and wants to start a line of low-priced, "re-cycled" bicycles. They're an interesting pair--both them talked non-stop about the shop, their plans, their friendship, you name it. As Steve talked, he worked on my bike, noticing little things here and there that needed adjusting. So we were at their shop for over 90 minutes while he worked on my ride.
While the canalway path is great riding, it does not allow for speeds much over 8 or 9mph. Too many winding bends, too many pedestrians, too many dogs. So while we're enjoying the ride, we realize that it's taking us longer to get to the journey's end--a KOA Kampground about 48 miles from Montreal. The weather was partly cloudy, and cool. Occasionally, a dark cloud would pass over and mist us--threatening, but not really raining.
We stopped for a late lunch in the village of Lachine, and by the time we got back on our way, it was after 3:30pm. We still had about 30 miles to go, so we decided to try to ride the roads instead of the path to try and make up some time. This worked for a while; eventually the road and the path become one and we saw the ugly side of the Route Verte. The bike lane was only about 4 feet wide, but now it was a 2-lane path! To make it more of a challenge, the path would switch from one side of the road to the other with no warning or directional signs. In a few places they didn't have enough room for a separate bike lane, and marked the roadway for bicycles--expressly forbidding bicycles on what had been a path but was suddenly re-marked as a sidewalk only. We tried to follow it as best as we could, Matthew watching his map to try to keep up with intersecting roads. At one point we followed a path across a bridge onto Interstate 20, only to have the path dump us out on a dead end. We watched other cyclists cross the bridge and join the interestate--so we followed them.
The Interestate ended shortly after that bridge--at an intersection where we needed to cross 4 lanes of traffice to turn left.
Once we got through the town of Ille Perrot and found the elusive Rang St. Antoine, it wasn't long to get to Rte 338--the rural highway where we'd find the KOA Kampground. The clouds had been moving in all afternoon, cooling the air down. The rain statyed ahead of us, and for most of the afternoon, the pavement beneath our wheels was wet. And we had our customary headwind. At a small crossroads we stopped for a break and I phoned the KOA to check on what kind of food supplies their store stocked. I was assured that "a large grocery store" waited for us at the town right before the kampground, and we should stop there. Only about 3km later we rolled into town, but had to ask some local teens where the store was located. We'd passed a Marche' on the way into town, but we both dismissed it because it didn't fit our idea of "a large grocery store". That was our destination, though, and it did indeed have everything we needed. Including 9% beer. Trois Pistoles is brewed in Quebec, and comes in a bottle bigger than your head. It also comes corked. Matthew can't say that he drank the whole thing, because I did have a couple of sips. It's a dark brew, and by the time he made it through the first half of the bottle, Matthew was a happy kamper.
Because of the rain, there were alot of mosquitoes out, so after showers and laundry were done, we retreated to the tent. Because of all the delays, though, it was already after 11pm--which is why I'm just getting around to Thursday's blog. Matthew will have to write Friday's blog, though--I'm about ready for another spiked coffee. Cheers!
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