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

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: Day 1

We all got up fairly early and made it to the restaurant for the breakfast that was included in our room fee. It was a decent breakfast. The cars were packed, the bikes retrieved and off we went to find our way to the parking lot for Mile 0 of the route. It was a bit more downtown, over a bridge, near a university, at the original train station. Easy peasy, right? No. There was a morning rush hour in tiny St.-Jerome. And our googling of the directions beforehand had failed to show us the nest of one-way streets the station was located in. After several failed attempts, we found the parking lot, paid for the required days of parking, got our bikes and bags ready and raced for the shuttle bus.

We needed to buy our shuttle bus tickets inside a caboose, which took a few inquiries to figure out. Meanwhile the shuttle bus was ready and waiting to leave. We just made it. The bus was very comfortable and pretty much full of passengers. It took a couple of hours to make the trip with various stops along the way. The scenery was breathtaking at times as we climbed into the mountains.

The second last stop before the end, a small group got off. The driver went around to unload their bikes from the trailer, the rest of us got off the bus to stretch our legs. One of the cyclists was using a special bike where she would be propelling herself with just her arms. It was humbling to think I was worried about how tough it was going to be for me, being able to use my legs.

Our shuttle bus

The bike trailer the bus pulled

The terminus in Mont Laurier was nice, well set up. It is at KM200. There was a cafe in the train station (a theme throughout the whole park - the use of the old train station buildings), we were all eager to get started so we didn't linger here. I estimate that there were around 20 of us starting from this point. Once we crossed the main highway, people spread out and we were mostly just us four for the day.

The route felt mostly flat, but there were some gradual uphill climbs. It took us all a while to get used to a comfortable pace. The surface for today would be asphalt the whole way.

When we were doing our planning, Munch, appropriately enough, was planning our snacks. How can you go on a cycling trip and gain weight? Just let me tell you. These snacks were amazing, nuts and dried fruit and M&Ms oh my! It wasn't long before we stopped for lunch. We thought the towns might be few and far between, so the first chance we had, we hopped off the trail and went to a corner store (known as depanneurs in La Belle Province) that had a bakery, sandwiches, poutine, french fries, pogos, and snacks. I bought a dozen freshly baked old style doughnuts for us to munch on while waiting for our fries and pogos. 

Poutine is a dish of french fries with cheese curds on them and gravy. Yum! Pogos are also known as corn dogs, battered hot dogs on a stick that are deep fried and usually served with sweet mustard.

One of the things we learned in hindsight after this trip is that we ate way too much, hopped on our bikes way too soon after eating - it made us feel way too sluggish to be riding. Burp.

Gumming up

The rest of the day went well. It wasn't overly hilly, that would be the third day. We arrived in Nominique, the town were our first B&B was located. It was a lovely building, originally a small convent next to the Catholic church. It was up a HUGE hill. Just what you don't want to have to do after several hours of cycling, climb a big hill.


Our B&B was Provincialart and is noted as being at KM121 of the trail. (Although we probably cycled under 60 km this day.) The address is:  2292 Rue du Sacré Coeur, Nominingue, QC http://www.provincialart.ca/accueilEng.html

Our B&B for the night

Our hosts were wonderful. We felt very welcomed. After showering and cleaning up, I went for a little hike to the nearby lake. That evening our dinner was superb. I'll have to ask Nat what we ate. It was her birthday and for dessert our hostess had made Nat a birthday cake that was gluten-free. I have the recipe at home, it was made from hazelnuts.

That evening Nat, Chris and I played Rummikube. There were various board games in the living room and they had never played it before. Munch went off to bed early to read.

Overview              Day 2             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

LT's solo trip - a picture post

Here are some pictures from LT's solo trip he took for Canada Day 2015 (June 28th to July 3rd).

Cedar Lake - not so calm

Ready to start 700M Portage

Narrow Bag Lake

Just arriving at Burntroot Lake

That's a lot of kitchen rocks

Looking south down Burntroot Lake

Burnroot Sunset

Hogan Lake, nice kitchen area

Arrival at Hogan Lake campsite

Departure from Hogan Lake Campsite

Hogans Lake capsite, home for two days due to weather

Starting to get a few scratches, great canoe from Trailhead

Clear skies are nice but a few clouds give some depth and texture

Island campsite on Catfish Lake

Cooking for one

Cedar Lake - verrrrry calm

Trip over :-(

Getting crafty with it!

How to make your own bug hat:

I searched and searched a couple of years ago for the perfect bug hat. I tried on various ones at MEC, LeBaron, Sail, etc. I didn't like any of them. Granted a bug hat is usually not on the cutting edge of fashion. And the bugs would much prefer you show up without one anyways. I was looking for one where the netting didn't touch my face. I decided to make my own and here's how I did it.

You'll need a sewing machine, thread, fabric, scissors, elastic, and a long shoelace. I went to Party City and purchased a witch's hat for about $5. My logic was that the witch's hat would have a very large brim, and it does. One downside is that these hats only come in witch black. I bought a couple of meters of black very tightly woven netted fabric at Fabricland. I also wanted to make a bug shirt with the same fabric.

This project shouldn't take too long. As long as you have all the necessary items, you could probably whip it up in under an hour.

I measured the circumference of the brim of the hat. I cut that amount of fabric plus an inch for seam allowance for the width. I cut it about 24 inches long as well. I had lots of fabric, no need to skimp. 

Because this is not a pretty item, I really didn't make much effort to do pretty seams. Also, I found the fabric tore fairly easy (on a tough trip going through multiple unmaintained portages), so I'd recommend doing a French seam where the fabric meets itself (not needed on the brim).

Here's where you can see what a French seam is: The Wiki Explanation

Once the side seam was sewn, I sewed the fabric onto the brim. Next I created a casing along the bottom of the "veil" where I inserted a shoe lace I had on hand. This allows you to tighten the bottom of the face screening.

Lastly, I sewed some elastic (black of course) on the hat so I could keep the hat on if a breeze blew up. 

Oh, and because paddling down a lake wear a witch's hat might be a tad bit frightening, I turned the hat inside out and tied a knot in the pointed top, which made it look like it has a rounded peak.

Here's a picture of the final product:

For effect, I have been known to cackle as I paddle down the lake wearing this. Or pretend I'm some Victorian widow while I break out in a very bad British accent.

I've taken a small netted bag meant for some other gear that I don't use it for and I'm able to put this hat into it. There is a wire in the brim and if you grab either side of the hat, twist in opposite directions and fold the two sides of your new "figure 8" on top of each other, it packs down quite nicely. It can go in the bag, or just in the side pack of my large backpack, which is where I usually keep it handy when travelling during bug season.

The black fabric works best for vision. However, I am most definitely NOT a vision while wearing this. Warning, the following photo is not a flattering one.

I am also modelling the homemade bug shirt