Voweled/Fouled Up

Day 71. Cornwall to Montreal. 83 MI. 4469 TTD. 1974 FT elevation. Weather perfect

This was probably one of the best ride days of the entire trip, although so many good days are melding into mental confusion. I was out the door early, hoping to avoid the forecasted rain. Not only did it not rain, but it didn’t even get cloudy. Perhaps I was looking at the weather for the wrong Cornwall. Between the many English towns of Ontario and the French towns of Quebec, I’ve almost booked hotel rooms on the wrong continent multiple times.

The route was immediately beautiful and extremely pleasant on a paved trail that wound along the shoreline next to the town of Cornwall. I had several miles to enjoy the trail beside the water, but eventually, it took me onto a road with minimal traffic and a good shoulder. In fact, as I’ve gotten closer and closer to Quebec, there have been better shoulders and more trails.

Being on back roads, there wasn’t a welcome-to-Quebec sign. However, I quickly realized I was in Quebec because, unlike the rest of Canada, where every sign is in English and French, in Quebec, a sign is just in French. I tried to have Google give me some basic French, like “I’m sorry,” which is “Je suis désolé” if you are male, but if you’re female, it’s “Je suis désolée.” Regardless, for me, it just sounds like a bunch of garbled vowels. There’s only one word in French I’ve seen that wasn’t all voweled-up: “est.” And that one, I actually know what it means.

Enough complaining. The two pictures above of pagodas were typical rest stops on the many miles of trail that I enjoyed today. There were shaded areas. Clean porta-potties were nearby. The orange post is a full tool set. The surrounding landscape is fit for a mansion. I traveled on so many trails today that when I finally stopped to look at how far I’d gone, I was at about 65 mi and not even anxious to finish.

One really interesting segment of the trip was along the shores of Lake Saint Louis. The houses were beautiful mansions with incredibly manicured yards and shrubs. The water could be seen behind them. Most interestingly, the road was shared by pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, and even city buses. This was not a big wide road either. Somehow, everyone cooperated calmly, and it felt quite safe and extremely enjoyable to ride through such a beautiful neighborhood. In Colorado, we can’t even share the road with other cars.

Along the road and the trail today were benches to sit on, picnic tables, and many lovely sandy beaches for swimming. Maybe I’m getting old and wimpy, but I have to admit I really enjoyed the niceties compared to pounding down 80 miles of dirt trail with never a place to even sit.

The last 10 miles or so were city riding. Incredibly, almost all of it was either on good trails separate from the road or these bike paths in the picture above. I even rode several miles through downtown Montreal, with a fair amount of traffic, and never felt unsafe. It’s a marvelous place to ride a bike. Tonight, I’m staying in an apartment that Marriott rents out in downtown Montreal on the 8th floor. It’s kind of a different experience from wandering through the woods.

I may not have a clue what anyone’s saying, but I’ll take Quebec over the other provinces in terms of riding, at least so far. Tomorrow, I head further up the St. Lawrence towards Quebec City.