Sainte Agathe de Monts to St. Jerome
8/22/23. 35 miles. AIS: 3:15. 10.8mph Elev. 357 ft.
Today was the kind of day that I was hoping and wanting this Canadian ride to be. Short mileage with time to enjoy the beauty and interesting places!
Today’s section of trail was noticeably busier than the last 3 days. You name it we saw it. Fast bikes, slow bikes, e-bikes ( so many e-bikes), tandem bikes, roller blades,skateboards, senior single scooters (I don’t know what they’re called but you don’t pedal them). You had to be careful where you stop and where you ride. Passing people was almost like in a car… you had to be careful you had enough room on the left side of traffic was coming. When you enter and exit the trail you needed to pay attention to bikes both directions… mostly watching out for the people using the trail to get their “workout” in! They tended to go very fast… the speed limit is 22kph (about 15 mph) but that’s easy for them to exceed especially going slightly downhill for a long time.
We started the ride out of the campground this morning sans breakfast. We had decided to catch breakfast down the trail at Val David. It was only 6km down the trail. The trail surface switched back to crushed gravel for the remainder of the way. The elevation had a downward trend all day so we didn’t have to work very hard and sometimes coasting for a long way too. We followed a beautiful river called Rivière du Nord (North River). At times it was placid and then would cascade. At one point it went into a deep canyon drop. We couldn’t see it but we could hear it.
Breakfast was at a nice cafe right on the trail. The guy at the table next to us was curious about our bikes, bags and Jim’s little Montana flag. Jim brought it on purpose. Most people have heard of Montana but don’t know exactly where it is located. Canadians are not flocking to move to Montana anytime soon… they prefer warmer climates I’m sure!
Rolling right along we stopped next at the Gare (train station) that had a bicycle shop in it. Smart owners… they were renting e-bikes like crazy and also had trail-a-bikes for little kids to pedal behind you. We hung around for awhile to watch all the comings and goings. The trail was quite busy today. Surprised us for a Tuesday… school starts next week I was told.
At the next Gare we stopped to have a little snack next to the cutest cycling family! The husband (Daniel) had very good English and I think he was excited to have some adult conversation other than his wife as he had 4 children! We spent quite some time chatting with him. Their setup was quite amazing. He had an e-bike pulling a “wee-hoo” with 2 small kids. The oldest two had their own bikes and were carrying gear. The mom was carrying boxes of gear and groceries! They were campjng as well but not traveling very far every day. They were astounded by how lightly we were traveling compared to them. They literally had several pots and pans! I really had to admire them taking on such a camping/bicycle vacation.
After we left the little family we only had a few kilometers to go to the start of the trail. The trail got even busier near a provincial park with spectacular view of the Rivière du Nord. Nice cascade of water. There was also about 6 senior citizens on their little motor scooters. Looked like they were on an outing. Made me smile, especially one older woman smoking her cigarette as she rolled along the path!
The trail ended in St Jerome, where we initially caught the shuttle. Across the street was a nice microbrewery, so naturally we had to check it out. After that we knew the way to the same camp as our first campground…. It’s quiet tonight. Last time it was a Halloween party!
Tomorrow we follow most of the same trail we took out of Montreal back into Montreal. City life for a few days… here we come! Need to do some laundry too!
cinnicrew 