As we had yet another gorgeous weekend, I hopped on the bike and headed out to explore some more of Quebec. This time, my destination was Montmorency Falls and Ile d’Orleans. While not totally successful, I did manage to have a good time.
Getting to Montmorency Falls was quite simple, and like many of my trips in this area, required only a minimum of on-street riding. All I had to do was go from Vieux Quebec down to the Vieux Port where a cycle path waits. Once on this path I needed only to cross a couple of streets and a couple of railroad crossings but otherwise had only to deal with bikes, pedestrians, rollerbladers, and the occasional stroller-pushing person. Traffic wasn’t bad and I could keep a reasonable pace. Well, as reasonable as I could considering that I was riding into a stiff headwind. And so, after only about 10km, I arrived at the falls.
Okay, so that’s not the falls but a smaller waterfall just before the big falls but for a minute I thought it might be. A few minutes later I did make it to the falls where I had a quick snack and headed over to get a closer look. I didn’t get too close, though, as before too long i was caught up in the mists at the bottom and despite the fact that it was a warm sunny day, I got really chilled.
I headed out, hoping to find my way across to Ile d’Orleans. Unfortunately, I didn’t check my map and headed off down the wrong bike route. It wasn’t a loss, though, as I headed further northeast along the St. Lawrence River through several small towns ending up eventually in Chateau-Richer, about 20 km further down the road where, thinking it was a bit of a long time to wait before finding the bridge to the island, consulted the map. My suspicions had been confirmed, I had just made a 40 km round trip wrong turn out of my way on what I had hoped would be a 60-80 km tour. Still, I managed to see some nice sights along the way.
At that point I turned around and headed back. The headwind that I had fought all day became a tailwind and I made excellent time back towards Quebec City. When I finally did get within sight of the bridge, though (within sight of the falls, ironically), I couldn’t find an easy way across. No worries, though, as my total distance was going to be a moderate 50 km and I was tired from pushing into the wind for much of the way. So I headed back into town but had to stop for a moment to check out the migration of the snow geese in Beauport. While there were a few there when I had haeaded out in the morning, there were tons now, and flocks coming in all the time.
On the way back in I got behind a someone on a racing bike who was making excellent time. I was barely keeping up but it was still being fun. As we rounded a corner we heard a shout that sounded like a warning. All I could understand, though, was the word ‘Eau’. Not sure what he meant, I kept going. It didn’t take long to figure it out, though. The next tunnel was full of water to about knee-level. The guy in front of me just lifted up his legs and coasted through. I tried the same thing, but my wider tires and fenders slowed me almost to a stop nearly immediately and I had to plunge my feet, shoes, pants, and all into the water to pedal my way out.
Today I definitely feel the effects of pushing into the wind all day. Sadly, today’s commute was not that different. The morning wasn’t bad as it was downhill and with a tailwind much of the way. On the way home, though, the wind was in my face and I was pushing against it almost all the way. I’ll be feeling it even more tomorrow.
On the positive side, in my just-under-15km commute home, I saw 53 cyclists. Pulling out of the driveway in the office park where I work, I watched four bikes go by almost one after the other before pulling in behind them all. This significantly beats my commute to work in Toronto.
OK - enough with how much more enjoyable cycling is here in Quebec as compared to Toronto. It is pretty inspiring, though, to see what it could and hopefully will be in a few years. And there still is little that beats cycling down Queen Street on a summer evening or riding with Critical Mass (which happens to be illegal here in Quebec City, I might add).
Enough for one night - I am pretty wiped out. Maybe more tomorrow.











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