Le Petit Train de Nord - a cycling trip: Day 4

Today's route would take us from Val-David to St.-Jerome, back to our cars and the end of our cycling trip. We would cover 42.3 km.

Our breakfast started with fruit smoothies and we had a couple of choices for the main meal. We packed our bags, got our bikes out of a locked shed on the property, and headed on our way. Our pace today was leisurely to start. We had fallen into a comfortable speed.

Not very far out of town we were following a spectacular river. We stopped to take many pictures. We were going to miss all this gorgeous countryside.

Eventually we would be trading the countryside for a more urban feel on the bike path. There were more parking lots for local, urban day cyclists, dog walkers and joggers. There were a lot more streets to cross. We stopped at a Tim Horton's for lunch. I was served by a woman who's second language was French, her first Spanish, so I practiced my Spanish a bit chatting to her. Another server was very happy to have a chance to practice her English with us while we ordered.

We ended up at a picnic table in the parking lot. With all our bikes there, we didn't want to take a chance leaving them out of sight.

After a bite, we continued on the urban portion of our trip and before we knew it, we were at our cars. We were able to pick up our bags there and were on our way. Nat and I made a detour to a large shopping centre on the way home, but neither of us bought anything. 

This was a great introduction to a group bike riding vacation. My companions were awesome, the pace was perfect, the scenery was beautiful. I highly recommend this type of travel. When you're on a bike, rather than sitting in a car, you really get to see where you are travelling!

Now all I need to do is convince Nat to write a trip log of their cycling trip the next year of the Blueberry Route in Quebec!


Overview              Day 1             Day 2              Day 3

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