Oct 5 - Val David 65 km

Waterfall going into the river La Diable.  

These were the rocks that I climbed to place the camera for the selfies taken from up above.  Don’t worry, there was a user friendly slope on the left.  

 Another fantastic day….even though I was back tracking to where I was two nights ago. Yesterday I had planned on going forward to Mont Lucier, but was told that the best views are at Mont Tremblant and that it’s best to spend a bit of extra time there, rather than going farther.  

After packing up this morning I headed to the mountain ski village of Mont Tremblant…about a 15 km ride.  It’s quite amazing that there are so many bike routes, and I know this is a very touristy area but they sure take care of the cyclists.  Plus everyone here seems to follow a few simple rules.  Despite me encountering over 100 cyclists/walkers/roller skiers today, no bells were rung, and everyone was safe.  Walkers used half of the path, only two abreast at most.  Cyclists would wait behind the walkers, or slower cyclists until the path ahead was clear and only then would they pass.  A cyclist never put a pedestrian in danger.  

The views today were spectacular….unfortunately the camera does not highlight the true red color of the maple leaves.  I tried many different camera settings but the reds aren’t as vibrant as in real life ☹️.  It didn’t help that it was so sunny today, and I was taking pictures into the sun.  

I’m going to head towards Québec city….likely take me 4 days to get there.  Hopefully the leaves won’t be all blown off before I get there, as the weather is supposed to turn in a few days.  

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Oct 4 - Mont Tremblant 49 km

Many of the photos have been enhanced to show their true colours….just as I saw them.  Touch up done my my good friend Mike😀😀

I managed a selfie after several tries.  The phone kept falling down.  

Cycling path 

There’s actually a construction yard behind the rock with lots of debris….!!!

The little river I followed out of town this morning, and for some distance today

This is a golf course with geese on the green!

The farmers market this morning 

Breakfast was raclette.  That’s a half round of special cheese placed under a heater, left there until it’s slightly charred, then it’s scraped into a toasted croissant with ham.  So yummy….as only cooked/melted cheese can be.  

Soaps for sale at the farmers market.  Too beautiful to use, plus I didn’t think that the delicate flowers would survive 2 weeks of jostling.  

 Ok, so only 50 km today…..but I just kept stopping to take photos that it was almost a full day.  I thought that Mont Tremblant would be a nice spot to stop and explore the village, but I didn’t take into consideration that it’s Saturday on likely the last spectacular weekend of the year….i think that everyone is in the area looking at the leaves and soaking in the warm sunshine.  Apparently the forecast for next week is snow!  Hardly likely with my good weather charm, but I don’t want to push my luck!!!!  😇

I haven’t changed my watch yet, so when I woke up at my usual 0430, I couldn’t understand why it was light out….well, that’s because it’s 0630 here 🤣🤣

I lounged in the sleeping bag for about an hour, waiting for it to warm up a bit.  It’s not super cold but nicer to get up a bit later.  I packed everything up and headed out to find some breakfast.  I found a restaurant called le petit poucette….and it was full….including the waiting area which had a wood burning stove with chairs around it for those who were waiting.  I decided not to wait the 55 min to get seated.  Instead I headed into town and found a farmers market!  Perfect….I wandered around, found some me breakfast and a nice seat outdoors!

I stopped so many times for photos….the trees just keep getting better and better.  I think that tomorrow I’ll keep going along the same path of le p’tit train du nord to Mont Laurier, about 95 km from here.  After that I’ll head back towards Montreal and pick up the same route to Québec.  I think I’ll have time to return to Montréal then head south east before returning home.  A short but spectacular trip!  Thanks for following along….abd thanks for the texts and messages on the live tracking   😀😀😀

Oct 3 - Val David 92 km

This is the name of the cycling path

Beautiful colours on the path

A ladybug hitching a ride

Village du père Noël - for everyone who loves Christmas!!!!  🎅 

My camping spot for tonight…..perfect 😀

 Today was a great day….and the weather is spectacular…fingers crossed that it holds for a while.  A bit cool this morning when I headed off but quickly warmed up to a high of 22C!  

I am headed to the Laurentides and Mont Tremblant for some nice views.  Today the first 15 km were in the city….it is so challenging cycling in the city as I’m often on the sidewalk.  Even though the sidewalk has a dedicated to cyclists, there are so many bumps getting on and off at the intersections, not to mention having to wait until the light is green and always having to watch for people turning right.  Eventually I found my route….and it’s amazing.  

The route is called le p’tit train du nord - which translates to the little train of the north.  This route is amazing for so many reasons.  First it’s a tree lined path, which gets me off of the busy roads, and the views are spectacular.  The path was paved for the first 30 km, then it was hard packed pea gravel…really nice.  The best part about this route is that the train is no longer running after the 30 km….but the stations are still there.  So every 10-15 km there’s a station that they have turned into restaurants or pubs with lots of parking available .  This is why the path was so busy today, so many people can drive out, and do an out and return of the length that they want.  Fabulous way to get people out and active.  Lots of e-bikes out today, but the majority were not.  

I’m camped in a campground in the town of Val David….lots of chalets here and seasonal spots.  The campgrounds are open until Oct 15, so I should be ok to find campgrounds every night….unless it gets too cold of course!  I’m good for tonight….a lovely little spot to put up my tent, and the spot right next to mine is powered so I’m able to charge up my devices close by.  The plan for tomorrow is Mont Tremblant.  It’s only about 65 km from here but might just be far enough.  The sun sets at 6:30pm here, and before 7pm it’s very dark outside.  So I need to be aware, and ensure my night is set up long before it gets dark.  

Oct 2 - Laval

 Hello everyone…I’m off on another adventure….just a short one this time.  I noticed that I had two weeks off at the beginning of October and thought I would go for a little ride around BC to stretch the legs a bit.  I was mulling over a few different ideas like the Golden triangle, or riding to Vancouver and flying home, when Ted suggested that I fly to Quebec to see the fall colours!!!  What a fantastic idea, I’ve been wanting to see the colours for years….so that’s where I am.  

I took the 0100 flight to Montreal, took a taxi to my friend Caroline’s place to assemble my bike.  If you remember, I met Caroline on the ferry to Newfoundland in August.  After I finished assembling my bike, I headed off.  It was slow going, riding through the city.  This is a much different Montreal than when I was here the last time.  Then I was on a bicycle path the entire way, mostly trees, through parks and by the water, so pleasant and quiet.  This time, because I’m headed North West to the Laurentiens instead of straight North, I’m riding on bike lanes on busy roads.  I’m protected but the traffic is busy.  

It was almost noon by the time I had my bike all assembled and loaded up.  I put the destination of Mont Tremblant in the GPS - knowing that I wasn’t going to make it all the way, but to get me going in the correct direction .  I googled a restaurant, and along my path was a deli….i was craving some good Montreal smoked meat!!!!  But alas, it was not to be 🙃. Google brought me to a residential area.  Ok….next….I found a dumpling place.   Not sure what it is, but I’m up for an adventure…..again I’m brought into a residential area.  Ok, I give up, I’ll stop when I find a place.  I was near a shopping mall, but didn’t want to go in as there isn’t really any good place to secure my bike.  Eventually I found a fast food hot dog and burger place that of course also had poutine.  It was good, filled me up.  

A few hours later I started to look for a campground.  The closest one I could find was still 50 km away.  It was already past 3 pm with sunset at 6:30.  I was so tired, the morning of my flight I was awake at 0430, on the go all day packing up my bike into the box, packing up all my gear, then going to the STARS open house.  Ted dropped me off at the airport around 9:30pm for my 0100 am flight.  I slept most of the 4 hr flight to Montréal, but it wasn’t quite enough!  I found a hotel and fell asleep by 5pm and woke up the next morning.

  

Aug 12 - gander, twillingate,

Twillingate today

Look who I ran into - Josh and Sarah and a helicopter!

Puffins…photo credit to Josh and Sarah 

Putting the bike up on the vehicle for the return trip

After the beer comes the ice cream

Mike bike at signal hill.  Feels strange to not be riding it!

Puffins

Celebrating

 

I did promise some stats….so here they are.  

8837 km 

573 hrs

55,376 meters of elevation gain

96 days

Lost - 3 gloves…not three pairs, just 3 gloves.  

Mechanical - one broken chain.  No tire punctures despite finding a thumbtack in my tire.  One broken tent pole - replaced the entire tent after three attempts to fix it….3 strikes…. I’m out!!!.  

Regrets - 2.  First is that I never wild camped.  Second is that I didn’t take my buddy Mike’s advice to upgrade my phone to have a better camera.  I didn’t understand the views that I would have.  

I appreciated every text and comment.  It helped to relieve the homesickness and I felt less alone.  🙂

I knew that Canada was a wonderful place to live, and I was so appreciative to see and learn it first hand, and I was so happy to share all the wonder and beauty we have, along with the kindness of so many strangers that are now friends 😀.  I sincerely hope that this blog has encouraged you to explore a part of Canada that you have never seen, read up on the history of Canada, talk to someone about their hometown or share the uniqueness of your hometown.  

It’s been two days of no riding, and yes it does feel strange to be riding in a vehicle, watching the scenery rolling by so quickly!  But it is a good way to see as much of Newfoundland as we can in the few days that we have.  I’ve been told that 5 weeks of visiting wouldn’t be enough and that is correct.  So many wonderful little towns to explore, so many coves and hikes that are possible.  

This is an unfortunate year to be visiting as the fires are raging out of control.  A combination of extreme heat - it was 37C today - strong winds and lack of moisture have created a perfect environment for huge fires.  Yesterday as we were heading out of St John’s an alert came on our phones to let us know that a fire close by necessitated the closure of the Trans-Canada highway.  We were over 10 km away and could see the flames shooting up.  Today there are more fires out of control and I have no idea how the firefighters are managing.  I can barely be out in the sun for a few minutes before I can’t stand the heat anymore.  It feels strange to be visiting and touring when so many people are on evacuation alert.  Tomorrow starts a cooling trend, and the forecast is high temps of 17 by Saturday, but that’s still several days away. Fingers crossed for cooler weather, but unsure if any precipitation will also come.  

Our views of Twillingate were spectacular, and they are quite far from the fires that there wasn’t any smoke in the area.  Tomorrow we will visit Gros Morn.