Author: Greg

Start: Saint-Jean-Port-Joli
End: Riviere du Loup
Mileage/cumulative: 63.05 / 445.42
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 1,696’ / 9,623’ 
Weather: Start – Sunny 43 degrees / Finish – Sunny 52 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0 / 4

We’ve reached Rivière du Loop, our furthest northern point on the eastern shore of the St. Lawrence River. Getting here required riding through yet another day of headwinds, most of them a steady 15-20mph, for the entire 63-mile route. There was no stopping for a boulangerie. There was no stopping for lunch. The only reason to stop was to get a momentary break from the torturous wind before venturing back into it for seemingly endless miles. Bev said that she wouldn’t have stopped even if there had been a herd of baby goats handing out tacos. It was that bad. Oh, and then there were the hills at the end. It was not anyone’s best day on the bike.

Continue reading “Quebec Day Nine”

Start: Quebec City
End: Saint-Jean-Port-Joli
Mileage/cumulative: 60.84 / 382.37
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 1,421’ / 7,927’ 
Weather: Start: Cloudy 54 degrees / Finish: Sunny 55 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 2 / 4

Every cycling trip like this has days where you just want to get from point A to point B. This was one of them.  It wasn’t due to a lack of things to stop and see or because the scenery was terrible. It was because we spent sixty miles riding straight into cold wind… again. It rained overnight in Quebec but stopped just before we rolled out and headed to the ferry terminal. We were grateful for that but we’ve run out of words to describe how much we hate the wind. We spend the next two days continuing northeast along the St. Lawrence before we cross the river again and arrive in Tadoussac, where we’ll reverse direction and head southwest. We’re hoping a change in direction will bring relief from the incessant, soul-sucking, punishing wind.

Continue reading “Quebec Day Eight”

Start: St. Apollinaire
End: Quebec City
Mileage/cumulative: 30.26 / 321.53
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 594’ / 6,506’
Weather: Start – Sunny 53 degrees / Finish – Sunny 55 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 1 / 2

Day Six was, thankfully, a short 30-mile day with the wind at our back for all but the first few miles. Our route took us along the St. Lawrence to Levis, where we took a five-minute ferry ride across the river to Quebec City, one of the oldest cities in North America.

The Algonquian people had originally named the area Kébec, meaning “where the river narrows”, because the Saint Lawrence narrows proximate to what is now Quebec City. Samuel de Champlain founded a French settlement here in 1608, and adopted the Algonquin name. The ramparts surrounding Old Quebec are the only fortified city walls remaining in the Americas north of Mexico. The city has a deep history, reflected in the architecture and if you know what you’re looking for, you can tell which buildings were French and which were British (the Brits are more symmetrical).

Continue reading “Quebec Days Six and Seven”

Start: Becancour
End: St Apollinaire
Mileage/cumulative: 73.60 / 291.27
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 1,650’ / 5,912
Weather: Start – Partly Cloudy 51 degrees / Finish – Mostly Sunny 58 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 1 / 1

Everyone was sporting their cold weather gear for the start of Day Five. Yesterday was windy but warm enough to get by with shorts and jerseys. Today was windy and colder, so the arm warmers, leg warmers, vests, and jackets all came out. Most of the group was happy for cold temperatures. Nobody was happy about the damn wind.

The first 30 miles or so were nothing to write home about. That stretch was more industrial with more cars and trucks than we’ve experienced. None of the route was on dedicated bike paths but we had decent shoulders to ride on and drivers were, for the most part, respectful. With few exceptions, we’ve found drivers extremely polite to cyclists, yielding the right of way to us, stopping for us at trail crossings, and keeping a safe distance when passing us. Today was the first time we’ve encountered rude drivers and there were only a couple of them. Not bad for five days of riding. In America, that would have taken five minutes.

Continue reading “Quebec Day Five”