Le Petit Train de Nord - a cycling trip: Day 3

Today was going to be our biggest uphill day. We were riding from La Conception to Val-David. Fortunately the next night's B&B was going to be right on the path.

We were up early, ate a delicious breakfast, and were on the road at the usual time. It was a chilly morning today. I was glad to have cycling gloves.

Our bikes had been locked in a 3-sided shed by the driveway entrance. Not as secure as our very first night in St.-Jerome, but there would have been much less traffic going by here.

Today for lunch we stopped at a grocery store and sat at picnic tables out front. No duck fat today!

One of several very pretty train bridges

We would be cycling 54 km today, plus a few extra to get to the trail first thing in the morning. Our extra bit was on a very narrow paved highway. It had been nerve-wracking riding here yesterday with the busy Saturday traffic. But on Sunday morning, it was much quieter. 

We had a bright, sunny day today.

As anticipated, the hills were higher today. Well not only higher, but because of the gradual grade, they seemed to go on forever.

On one of the train bridges we climbed down to the river below. I found a special souvenir that I carried home and still have.

Railway spike souvenir (camera for scale)

We found our B&B very easily and this town, Val-David, was hopping. It is much closer to Montreal and I'm guessing there are lots of people that head out into this area for the weekend. We could tell when we had our first dinner out at a chichi restaurant that was freaking expensive. Oh well, one fancy dinner was called for on the trip.

The B&B from the river

Just a bit beyond our B&B on the trail, there was a farmer's market in full swing. We stopped over there to check it out before checking into our B&B. We had arrived and knocked on the door, but no one was home. So we explored a bit.

Embrace the ice cream!

Our B&B, the Maison de Baviere is a very interesting building. It originally was a shed to store wood for a sawmill. It is right on a lovely rocky river. I spent some time climbing around on the rocks in the afternoon. It is so picturesque and the sound of the water is so calming. There is also a small bridge beside the B&B. 

View from the B&B 

Pretty bridge, pretty river 

Hand-painted windows

The B&B website is: http://www.maisondebaviere.com/?lang=en

Our rooms were on the main floor from the road. However, this floor is the upper floor, with the dining room and living quarters of the hosts below us. The walls and were hand-painted in a German style. And there were a little pair of wooden shoes in the closet of my room. My room overlooked the river and I opened the river to hear the sound of it flowing over the round rocks.

Klompen

Overview              Day 1             Day 2              Day 4

Le Petit Train de Nord - a cycling trip: Day 2

We all slept pretty well and got up to enjoy another very delicious meal at the B&B. We chatted a bit with the hosts, the husband spoke more English than his wife. Their heating costs alone for this building are pretty high. But they've done a lovely job of maintaining it and improving it for every room to have a bathroom. My bedroom was done in a Chinese theme.

My Chinese themed bedroom

I'm sure a bathroom wasn't the purpose of this room originally

We sat on the wide front veranda with our bags ready for pick-up, trying to digest our food a bit before taking off down the huge hill. A couple of cars were arriving, it was early Saturday morning and others would be staying here tonight who were spending their day cycling. 

We set off. Today we would be following La Riviere Rouge, the Red River. Every once in a while we'd either be alongside it, or crossing it on a bridge very high over the river. The views were spectacular.

Our path was still asphalt. Some of the trail would eventually be stone dust, but it was well packed and you could use a road bike on it if you wanted to. I was riding a hybrid. Nat and Chris were riding mountain bikes and Munch had a road bike but with a wider tire. Munch and I had decent-sized saddle bags. He had all those snacks to carry!

The weather in the fall can drop at night and be cooler when you start out in the mornings, warming up quite a bit during the day. I wanted to have enough layers and a bag to carry the extra layers in as the day got hotter.

Today we would be riding 58 km on the trail. It was a grey day with bits of sunshine here and there. It got very cold shortly after lunch and it really felt like it was going to pour rain, but we were very lucky, it didn't. There may have been a few threatening sprinkles, but no full rainstorm.

La Gare = duck fat!

Labelle

Covered bridge view from our train bridge

We stopped at Labelle. There was a train station cafe and what looked like a small fair on. The townspeople were gathered. We managed to get a table for 4 on the wooden deck of the restaurant. I ate french fries cooked in duck fat. I cannot remember ever eating french fries that were soooo delicious. With that I had a grilled cheese with bacon, also cooked in duck fat. Now you see why there was no weight loss during this cycling trip!

Our B&B for the night was not on the path. However, the directions for finding it were not very good. We did manage to eventually after some backtracking and I would say that we probably rode an extra 10 km looking for the place.

Once we found it, the location was amazing. It was on the banks of La Riviere Rouge surrounded by tall pine trees. Even though it was September, we put on our bathing suits and waded into the sandy river. We were able to walk almost the full way across it.

Sandy, shallow Red River

Munch's wife was here to greet us. Tonight was their anniversary so it was a treat to have her company for the evening. 

The name of the B&B is A La Croisee des Chemins, website is: http://www.alacroiseedeschemins.com/

Our straw house

The house was very interesting, made out of straw. There was a glass panel where we could look and see the interior of the wall. Our host was very gracious and kind. Our hostess was not so much. I thought maybe it was just my incorrect observation. However, once we were home and I was looking at reviews on TripAdvisor, I saw that she was routinely criticized for her lack of hospitality.

Dinner was lovely, the wine was flowing, and everyone enjoyed themselves. My room was interesting, the bathroom looked like it was a converted closet. It was a very comfortable room, comfy bed, and I was glad to have a private bathroom even thought it was small. 


Overview              Day 1             Day 3              Day 4

Le Petit Train de Nord - a cycling trip: Overview

I know this blog is for canoe camping in Algonquin Park. However, I'd like to share some other self-propelled outdoor adventures and this trip qualifies for that.

I'd been discussing taking a cycling trip with a friend I work with. She's primarily a runner, but we talk cycling as I commute to work on my bike and she had been meaning to do more of that. Her husband had cycled a lot when he was younger, but it had been a while since he'd done much riding. In their spare time they would often kayak. She would occasionally talk about backcountry camping with some friends and I'd throw up my hands and say "car camping for MEEEE". How I ate those words the next year!

Another friend of theirs joined us for the trip, so we were four in total. His wife didn't feel ready for this length of a journey, however she was inspired enough that the following year the same group (minus me) went on an even longer trip.

One route that is fairly accessible from Ottawa is the Petit Train du Nord. We did this trip in 2014. It is considered a linear park and the dedicated bike trail runs from Mont Laurier in Quebec down to Ste-Jerome. I think it has extended a bit since we rode it. We planned to do 200 km from Mont Laurier to St.-Jerome, QC.

Here's a link to their website: http://www.laurentides.com/en/linear-park/cycling

We made reservations through a website that not only set us up on the shuttle bus, but also reserved our three rooms each night in the three bed and breakfast places we would stay at. Also we had a shuttle bus picking up our bags each morning and dropping them off at our next stop so we weren't carrying much on our bikes. The next time I do this trip, I would carry my own bags on my bike. We found that even if we didn't want to get up super early and prepare, we pretty much had to as our bags needed to be ready by 9 a.m. each day.

We would drive to St.-Jerome the night before in 2 cars and stay in a hotel near where we would leave our cars, take the shuttle bus, and return to via bike several days later. The shuttle bus will transport you, your bike and your bags to the point where you will start cycling, although I guess you could do it the other way around (cycle from your car, get a shuttle back).

Here's the link to the shuttle bus:  http://www.autobuslepetittraindunord.com/en/

This area is in the Laurentians, a hilly part of the country. We do call them mountains, although next to the Rockies they are just hillocks. Our strategy was to start in Mont Laurier and cycle to St.-Jerome. We thought that we would be cycling more downhill that way. In the booklet you get describing the route there is a map that shows elevation, just like they do for the Tour de France!

The path is built on a former train track bed. There is something very special about cycling these routes. Trains needed quite a distance to power up a hill, so the hill climbing, although it still exists, is much more gradual than you might find on a regular road or path. The rail bed tends to be a bit straighter too, no sharp turns.

We did the trip in early September (Sept. 5 to 8, 2013). The weather is usually gorgeous, the bugs aren't too bad, the kids are back in school, and the crowds should be a bit thinner.

We all took Friday off work and on Thursday night we headed to St.-Jerome. Nat drove with me. I am able to put a couple of bikes inside the back of my Hyundai Elantra GT. Ask me about when my sister convinced me a new bathtub for her renovation would fit in the back of my car - it did! I only had my bike though, the other three bikes though were strapped onto Nat's husband's Jeep Compass.

Both Nat and I were very disappointed that we'd already eaten dinner before we got to our hotel that first night, there was a St.-Hubert next door and we both love their chicken!

We got our rooms and were able to lock our bikes up into a special storage area the hotel provides for all the cyclists. After mingling a bit in the lobby we all went to our own rooms.

Day 1                       Day 2                         Day 3                      Day 4