The Long Ride East

Either I was really sleepy or the sound and vibration insulation in the hotel was incredible as despite sleeping in an old train station next to a train switching yard, I neither heard nor felt one train in the night. Instead I awoke at about 6:00 refreshed and ready to go. I waited until the restaurant next door had opened and headed over for a simple breakfast of eggs, potatoes, and toast. And of course coffee – we all know what happens when I skip my morning coffee, after all. And once I had finished eating and loaded up my bike, I did as the owner of the hotel said: locked my door then hung my key up behind the counter and let myself out. While the owner was checking me in, I asked him if he knew where the Route Verte was and he confirmed that the path I was looking for was, indeed, the one that followed the train tracks to the east. And so I headed northeast alongside the train tracks.

Day 11 was a good day to remind me about what it means to be a cyclist on the Route Verte. For example, a couple hours into my ride, I came across a full service stop. Does your bike need repairs? No problem! Get them done here and while you wait for your bike to be fixed, grab yourself an ice cream. While I didn’t have a need for any repairs at this point, I certainly did appreciate the ice cream.


I continued further and as luck would have it, I found myself passing through Warwick, where my friend Tino suggested I stop at a fromagerie for lunch. (By the way, Tino took much of the same route I did but then continued back to Montreal along the north side of the St. Lawrence River. He took some fantastic photos along the way.)

I had a delicious lunch at the fromagerie but in addition to the fantastic food, I noticed what a role bicycles played in their business. When I parked my bike, the rack was almost completely full. And then, when I found a seat out on the patio most of those at the tables had bike helmets on themselves. But perhaps the most telling thing was that after I had finished eating and had payed my bill, my waiter caught me as I left and asked me if I needed to fill up my water bottles.

I continued onward to Victoriaville arriving in mid-afternoon My host gave me directions to her home using Victoriaville’s Velogare as a starting point. Again showing how bike-friendly this province is, in addition to the usual washrooms, tourist info, and places to refill your water bottles, you’ll even find showers here.

Not long after I arrived at the Velogare, I found myself at Dave and Anne’s home. And while I’m beginning to feel like a broken record, I’ll say that once again I was welcomed like a old friend. Dave helped me bring my things in and we put my bike in the living room. Before long, I was showered, changed, and enjoying a chat on the back porch while we waited for Anne to arrive.

After Anne arrived, we toured Victoriaville, looking at the nearby lake, driving to the top of the mountain with views of much of the ground I’d covered over the previous days. Finally we ended up at a monastery that was likely seeing its last generation of brothers going through. Once a busy monastery full of monks, now most are in their 60s and 70s and their numbers are dwindling as fewer and fewer people take the vows to join the order. The land that the monastery once had has now been donated to the city and I really enjoyed wandering through the grounds and visiting the gardens that are still kept up by the remaining brothers.

After that we went back to the house and had a fantastic dinner out on the back deck before going into the yard to sit by a campfire and chat for a few hours before heading off to bed where I slept beautifully on my last night. Well, beautifully except for the point where I woke up at about 2:00 AM convinced that I had made a huge mistake by wearing the 2011 Bike Rally jersey the previous day and now as this was my last day on the ride, all 300 riders would be expected to wear their jerseys. I got as far as pulling my jersey out of my bag to see if I could wash it before going back to sleep when I remembered: Yes, I was indeed intending to arrive in Quebec City the next day. However, I was the only rider on this portion of the ride and nobody would have any opinions about what I wore. I curled back up in bed and went to sleep.