Day 2 - Avoiding Montreal... North Side

I can’t say that I’ve ever purposely tried to avoid Montreal, but this time a lot of effort went into doing just that. We saved about a day of cycling by avoiding the centre of Montreal going up and around the North Side.


View Day 2 - Brownburg to Saint-Sulpice in a larger map

Leslie, Sheila, Meghan, and me (on bikes) and Victor (in the van) left the beautiful Brownsburg-Chatham campground (think quiet, tree-lined campsite with trailers that are nicer than my apartment).

We avoided Montreal because there are limited campgrounds, we wanted to make up kilometers, and because bike paths through cities are often disconnected. (If any urban planners are reading this, please name the bike paths and add signs similar to what is provided for cars.) Our route was far from perfect, and required several map/iphone checks along the way, but was generally safe, following rolling country roads. At one point, Leslie mentioned that the Google map indicated “limited usage road,” but you know, usually this means bikes can get through, right? In this case, “limited usage road” meant riding through a cornfield until suddenly you are surrounded by corn with nowhere left to go and aliens are chasing you (or maybe that’s just me). First detour! The detour actually ended up being a short cut but going through more dangerous roads.

When we actually ended up back on our route, we ended up stopping for lunch at a nice strawberry farm and eating a lunch consisting of strawberries, strawberries, nutella and more strawberries. Don’t worry my dietician friends reading this, carb-loading is happening.

We were pretty pleased to arrive at the campsite in the evening since Day 2 wasn’t supposed to be a scenic, easy day. When we arrived we quickly prepared the best burrito dinner of our lives, trying to beat the incoming thunderstorm that was about to break. The thunderstorm pretty much tested the structural integrity and water-proofing of the 3-man “cottage” tent that Meghan, Leslie and I were sleeping in at one point concaving inwards (how does that happen without wind coming at all sides?). We managed to make light of the situation, looking forward to sunnier days ahead.

The next day (today I guess–blog posts may be delayed by a day or two), the forecast was rain all day. Leslie, Meghan and Sheila–being the champions they are–set out in the rain.

Sheila, Leslie, Meg

The hardcore cyclist from York that was camping next to us, (and I say hardcore, because he had front packs, back packs, side packs, etc... and was cycling from Prince-Rupert, BC), had only taken two rest days from BC and this rain day was his third. He kindly donated to Easter Seals and shared stories about the insights he had gained and the people he had met. One man he met from South Africa was running across Canada... now that is above and beyond hardcore!