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.