Category: Cycling

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”

Start: Drummondville
End: Becancour
Mileage/cumulative: 47.66 / 217.67
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 948 / 4,262
Weather: Partly cloudy 66 degrees / Partly cloudy 63 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 1 / 1

The theme today was wind. Relentless headwinds and crosswinds blowing 15-20 mph for 47 miles. There is debate within the group about whether one would prefer rain or wind. Rain is miserable. Wind just makes you work harder. Today’s wind blew in a cold front, bringing an abrupt end to summer and a 20 degree change from just two days ago. Autumn has arrived with a bang.

Today’s route was completely different than the first three days of this trip. We were on country roads, riding past dairy farms, cornfields, and pig farms. We’ve ridden our bikes through farm country in the American Midwest but this was much more beautiful. There were rolling hills dotted with barns and silos, shallow rivers fed by the St. Lawrence, and stunning views that went for miles. Because a portion of the route was on Quebec’s Route Verte bike network, there was even a sparkling clean port-a-potty in the middle of nowhere, complete with a bike rack. This was a cyclist’s paradise.

Continue reading “Quebec Day Four”

Start: Granby
End: Drummondville
Mileage/cumulative: 50.91 / 170.01
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 1,152’ / 3,314
Weather: Cloudy 62 degrees / Cloudy 71 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0 / 0

On multi-day trips like this, when the only mode of transportation is a bicycle, everyone becomes obsessed with weather forecasts. No self-respecting cyclist has only one weather app on their phone and cyclists “in the know” will compare forecasts from various sources. Preparing for rain means having a rain coat, rain pants, shoe covers, and a helmet cover to keep everything dry. When the forecast for Day Three called for rain at some point during our ride, we packed for the worst. So, naturally, it didn’t rain until we reached our hotel. Whew. We got lucky!

The day’s route was 51 miles, all of it on bike paths and with no worries about cars. The vast majority of miles were on crushed gravel through forests and farmland. This region is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, a longitudinal chain of valley lowlands of the Appalachian mountain system that runs from Canada to Alabama. We are spending a few days riding in those lowlands and the scenery is spectacular. We saw our first hint of autumn and the much cooler temperatures in the upcoming days will only accelerate the transition from summer to fall. 

Continue reading “Quebec Day Three”