Here we go again…. Cycle Eastern Canada 2023 eh?!!

WHERE NOW?? WHY CANADA?

After completing the long dreamed about transcontinental tour of the United States in 2022 (Southern Tier) the main question I received is: “Where are you going next?”

We decided we would like to tour a foreign country. Neither of us had spent any time in eastern Canada and it qualifies as a “foreign” country. Additionally, the first language in Quebec is French, so that adds an additional intrigue to traveling in the otherwise comfortable country of Canada! Quebec (K beck), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are a far cry from our Montana western US style of living. Other than the bilingual aspect of Quebec, there’s the history of the French and Acadians. (My personal Lemire ancestry derives from Trois Rivières, Quebec). Then there’s the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Think lighthouses, ferries, rugged coastlines, highland Scottish dancing and LOBSTERS!! So many interesting towns and cities to visit, countryside homes, farms, churches and industries to see and the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec! There are people to meet, the cultural experiences and the food to taste (poutine).

As we depart mid-August 2023 and cycle for approximately 7 weeks finishing in early October. We will be entering the early fall and the east coast is famous for “fall colors” when the deciduous trees change to vibrant yellows, oranges and reds. To see that by bicycle will be a real treat!

PLANNING THE ROUTE

In our previous tour across the Southern Tier of the US the route we used was established by Adventure Cycling (USA). All the mileage was mapped and included information about each town along the route describing availability of water, food and lodging/camping.

Canada doesn’t have such an organization, so the route mapping took some serious research and mapping by my personal “route” planner, Jim. He spent many hours in the wintery days of February both online and with paperback resources planning our options. Each province has their own “office of tourism” with bicycling route information. These routes are established, signed and mapped. It seems these provinces have quite a bit of interest in dedicated cycling paths ( ie rails to trails), so we will be following many of those getting us off the backroads and highways where we can.

The biggest experience I wanted in this bicycle tour was to have our daily rides be shorter mileage than our cross-country tour. I would prefer to keep the daily rides around 35-50 miles. Allowing time to spend off the bike each day to visit and explore the places we travel through and to. I refer to it as AIS (ass in saddle) time. The intention is to keep our AIS to about 4 hours a day. We tend to average 10-11mph. It will feel like more of a meander through these provinces than a point to point goal. We’ve allowed several weeks… which should be ample. We are fairly flexible with the end date of the ride.

We will be camping, using hotel/motels and AirBnB depending upon location and weather. Canadian provincial parks allow tent camping for cyclists without reservations. That makes it easier to be flexible with distances. At times we will be using buses and ferries to link to another trail. All the buses in these provinces have the ability to carry bicycles!