Sharing the Experience

Before starting the trip, one thing I was hoping to get the chance to do, was being able to ride along with someone else for at least a little while. While I left with the intention to ride alone and spend time with myself, that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be able to have the chance to try riding with someone else and be able to share some experiences with instead of it all just being myself. As I rode through Quebec, my desire to want to find someone to ride with for at least a little while grew to where I was really hoping to be able to find someone going the same way as me. Even though I hadn’t been able to find anyone yet, I have known that for at least a couple days, I’d be able to experience that. This is because Amour decided he would join along for a bit when I offered him before I started the trip. We figured out that he would join me from Toronto where he lived to Waterloo where we both went to university. The plan was to make it to Waterloo in 2 days, that way Amour would get the whole experience of camping as well and we wouldn’t cover too much distance in a day that it should be too hard on him.

With Amour’s bike in riding shape now thanks to Harlan, we were off pretty early in the morning. We weren’t alone though as Yoni met us at Amour’s to join in as well, the only thing though was Yoni didn’t have a bike. Instead Yoni would run with us to start the day before turning back. We rode at Yoni’s pace along the lake front, talking all the way for about an hour before saying goodbye to Yoni as he turned back. We picked up the pace a bit after but not too much as my stomach wasn’t feeling the best. As I usually ride all day, I’m constantly burning calories which leads to me being able to eat a lot of food in a day. However I hadn’t ridden in about a week now with me stopping to see friends in Toronto and I was still eating quite a bit most days. Well the time off had finally caught up with me as now I had managed to eat too much and my stomach wasn’t happy about it. It didn’t cause me any real problems, but I didn’t feel great until later in the day.

Me and Amour slowly continued along a path along Lake Ontario that was quite nice. Along the way I hit a big pothole and something felt off. A few days before we left, I noticed that the bottom legs of my back rack were starting to bend but I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Well now from the weight of everything on the rack thudding down onto it from the impact of the pothole, it got bent even worse to the point that whenever I passed over any sort of bump, the weight would cause the rack to hit my back tire. Obviously this was no good, so we stopped and tried to come up with a solution to fix it. I tried straightening the legs a little and then taped a wrench to each leg in hopes that maybe they would help support the leg so not to bend anymore. During all this it had started to rain. I think because of wanting to avoid the rain, Amour feeling bad about my rack and maybe also because he knew I hadn’t eaten much as I wasn’t trying to upset stomach more, Amour suggested we go to a restaurant nearby and he offered to pay as well. The meal was good and my stomach wasn’t causing a fuss about it either, which was nice. Also the rain stopped too during this and I was able to refocus and not worry about the rack.

Bent back rack

Wrench fix to back rack

Well, after a little while when we were soon about to cut north and leave the GTA, my wrench job proved not to be the solution as the rack was even worse. With the rack loaded, the rack sat purely on the tire now, but with no weight on it, it sat above the tire. I had to get a new rack now. Luckily we were still in the GTA, so there were plenty of bike shops around. I unloaded the bike and Amour stayed behind and watched my stuff as I went to a nearby bike shop. I got a new rack, however when the mechanics there were trying to install it, they found that the spot where you would screw it to the frame was completely stripped (this was another problem I’ve been aware of for quite a while but I had been able to get around it anyways. One mechanic didn’t come up with an idea though to be able to get the rack screwed on though as he added attachments along the axles with eyeholes to screw the rack to. This worked for now and I would try to continue on without getting the old eyehole rethreaded.

I met back up with Amour and we headed off again with no problems. Due to all the time I wasted in the day with the slower pace and my back rack, I picked up the pace to try to make the 2 days roughly equal distances. In doing this I think I really tired Amour out though as he gave his best to keep pace with me the whole time. We would make it Milton and found a park with a little wooded area that we would camp in for the night. As parks seem to be my main go to at this point, he was really getting the average experience that I would have in a day. For my first day getting to travel with someone, it really was enjoyable. It was nice being able to chat with someone all day but also having someone else being able to experience both what it’s like and share with some of the eventfulness of the day. I did find though at the end of the day that my Achilles was creeping again and still a little swole but it was no longer hurting. Having a full week off was just what it needed as it was purely just an overuse problem.

In the morning we readjusted my back rack a little bit as it causing my rear brake issues with how it was aligned from the mechanic. The morning was mostly uphill and we took a couple breaks along the way. Amour told me he understood now why I liked to take breaks semi frequently. Along the way we saw a turkey vulture which was a first for me. I wasn’t even aware that vultures existed in Canada until then. We made it to Cambridge early in the afternoon, marking the end stretch of the ride for Amour. We found King street and rode it through all of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo until we made it to my friend Basel’s place. This was the end of our ride together, but I enjoyed the time I got to spend with a friend and having been able to have someone travel with me. For Amour too, he enjoyed getting the experience of travelling by bike and who knows, may someday join again if I end up doing the whole world.

Me and Amour in Waterloo

Basel was a roommate of mine for a couple years before I went back home to start saving money for the trip, so I was quite happy to see him when he came to let us in his apartment. Both me and Amour got to shower when we got there and I also got to catch up with Basel too. In the evening my other friends who were still in Waterloo came over to Basel’s as well as Basel planned a get together for when I made it to Waterloo. Evergreen, Simran, Shaiir and later Callum all showed up. Basel’s mom had just been in Waterloo with Basel right before I showed up and left him with a bunch of Arabic food that we all got to eat at the gathering. Later in the evening Amour left and grabbed a train back to Toronto, putting an end to his mini trip. The rest of us spent the night chatting and even planned a baking night before I took off again. It was a nice surprise getting to see a bunch of friends again when I hadn’t known that Basel had planned that.

I spent the next few days with Basel. I did quite a bit of resting and just chilling with Basel but did some other stuff too. We walked thru campus and uptown Waterloo, places I’ve seen many times before but they felt quite underwhelming and are places I think I can say I’d be happy not to see again. I also did some responsible stuff like laundry, swapping my chain for a new one, cleaning my bags and sending some stuff back home to lighten the load on my bike a little bit. A couple nights after I got there, Evergreen came back over and we had a baking night. We made a couple of my favourites in banana cream pie and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. That is one thing I miss getting to do while on the road, that being baking. Also during the extra time off, my Achilles went back to normal and fully recovered.

After a few days at Basel’s and getting to eat a bunch of Arabic food, it was time to head off again, but this time, I was quite looking forward to heading off alone. After getting to spend so much time with people I knew lately and regularly thinking about how I had a goal of reaching places to be able to see friends, I now found myself looking forward to being on my own again and having no goal to reach. When I left Basel’s, I knew I was going to head north and Sudbury would kind’ve be the next check point, but had no plan on the route I’d take to get there and instead was going to decide as I went along. I said goodbye to Basel in the morning who I was very thankful to for letting me stay at his place and getting to see him again, and then took off. I didn’t get very far right away though. I had swapped my chain but hadn’t tested the bike at all afterwards. Well turns out my cassette was worn out and now my chain was constantly skipping. I found a bike shop in the city and luckily they were able to replace the cassette right away.

With my new cassette and bike back to functioning properly again, I made it to St. Jacobs where I stopped to soak in the moment. St. Jacobs is the furthest I’ve ever been before. While I haven’t seen everything I’ve gone by so far in the trip, I’ve technically been through or somewhat near those areas before in some capacity. Now everything I was about to see and encounter would be entirely new and unfamiliar to me. After taking in the moment, I continued north and also went somewhat eastern for the rest of the day going back and forth between the road and trails I’d see and want to take. A little before I made it to Elora I got a flat tire. I stopped to fix it off the side of the road on someone’s front lawn. The owner of the place I stopped at (Chester) came over and offered to help but it as an easy fix just being a punctured tube. So Chester instead offered to refill my water bottles with cold water and he also brought me out a couple of cookies with my cold refilled bottles too which was very kind of him. I thanked Chester and continued to Lake Belwood where I stopped for the night. I wanted to camp along the lake but it was full of cottages along the whole thing so I settled for a spot a little ways off the lake.

I started the next morning on a very nice trail with trees overhanging the path. I rode along the road the rest of the day passing through Orangeville, Alliston and a military base in Borden. I made it to Angus to end the day where I briefly checked out a nature reserve before finding a place to setup for the night. I tried sleeping without the outer layer of my tent for the first time and while it was nice seeing out, everything in the tent got soaked from the dew that came overnight. I learned my lesson from that just to keep putting on the outer layer unless I’m fairly certain everything will stay dry.

Very nice trail

The next day continued on the same as the past couple. Deciding where I wanted to go as I went, feeling free and enjoying the ride as I went. I passed through Barrie early in the day where I had a couple of longer conversations, one with a guy named Jason in a library and another with Dennis outside the library (Dennis was quite the character as he travelled around quite a bit in the past as gold mining and related stuff was something he chased after in the past). From there I rode a rail trail up Lake Simcoe where I had a very interesting encounter. 

Nature reserve in Angus

When I stopped to look at a sign on the trail, a baby chickadee hope onto the trail from the side bush. To my surprise, it wasn’t the least bit scared of me and continued to hop towards me. It ended up hopping onto my chain. While I thought this was cute, it couldn’t stay there as if the chain started to move it would’ve got crushed in my gears. I had to get it off while holding my bike up to make sure the chain didn’t start moving. The problem with this was that the chickadee didn’t want to get off with me trying to brush it off. I ended up having to pull it off and it tried its hardest to stay on my chain, not letting go easily. I put it back on the side of the trail thinking its nest must be close as it seemed very young and maybe had just left the nest for the first time.

My chickadee friend

Later on I passed through Rama where I saw Casino Rama. I never actually realized that Casino Rama was a singular place. I thought instead it was either a chain or even just a phrase. I kept going north to Washago with the goal to make it to Gravenhurst. The few days of going about where I felt like were nice but unfortunately they now met there end in this moment. I would have a little leeway in my path a little bit from here but now I had made it far enough north in Ontario where I would mostly have to take highways. The first of which (and the first time on this trip I’ve had to ride a proper highway) was going from Washago to Gravenhurst. While I found myself being able to fly at pretty fast speeds on the highway, it wasn’t an overly fun experience. The shoulder went back and forth between being wide enough for me to feel mostly safe and forcing me to essentially be on the edge of the outer lane. Meanwhile everyone speeds by about as fast as they can, some making enough room to let me feel comfortable while others can’t be bothered to move at all.

As I neared Gravenhurst, I saw cyclist ahead of me, but I couldn’t figure out what to make of them. I saw them pulling a trailer behind them and looked like they had a fishing rod or something attached. My thought was either that this person was a terribly reckless parent with a child in the trailer, putting their child in danger on the highway or that it was someone who went fishing somewhere today and was returning home. I knew there was chance that they may be travelling like me, but I just didn’t get that feeling from what I could see. As we were getting close to the exit for Gravenhurst, I decided to speed up as I wanted to know what the situation was with this mysterious biker. When I caught up, I saw that luckily there wasn’t a child in the trailer. I tried yelling with the other biker to figure out what he was doing (it’s very loud on a highway and quite difficult to here what someone else is saying in case you’ve never tried talking with another biker on the highway). While it was hard to hear much, I was able to establish that he was indeed travelling by bike, was going to stop in Gravenhurst for the night and his name was Abraham. We agreed we’d try to find somewhere together in Gravenhurst and ride into town together.

Me and Abraham (like my tan line?)

Now actually able to hear each other we exchanged stories at the dollar store in town. It really is funny how things work out. I had just rid with Amour and was open to going on my own again and now for the first time, I found someone travelling the same way as me. Our end goals are different as Abraham is heading to Whitehorse but we’re both going west and going to be taking the same route. We decided we’d try travelling together and see how that goes but first had to find somewhere to camp. I found an area on the map that looked promising on Lake Muskoka that we headed to. Not only did it turn out to be promising, it was amazing. It was a drop off of the road to a rocky area above the lake and also continued to a little beach. I immediately hopped in the water for the first time this year and Abraham went to check out some cliffs nearby. There were plenty of people when we got there, so Abraham was able to find out that people used the cliffs there for cliff jumping. Turns out this is one of the things that Abraham loves. I really don’t like heights much but after heading to the cliffs with him and a little convincing on his part, I decided I’d join him. I’m trying to get better at saying yes to things and also trying new things on the trip and I think cliff jumping counts for that. He went before me but I jumped in after he swam out of the way. It felt terrifying and I really had to psych myself up to do it but I managed to do it and was happy I did it after I was in the water. There were 3 levels of cliffs we could jump from and for whatever reason we started with the highest. I jumped a couple more times but from the other levels instead. Later Abraham wanted to go to the pub but I was quite content on the lake so he went on without me and that was the last I’d see of him until the morning. Meanwhile I setup my tent above the lake with a truly amazing view and later talked with a local man named Ken before going to sleep.

My tent over Lake Muskoka

Sunset over Lake Muskoka

Abraham was back in the morning as he was up before me. We agreed on making it to Parry Sound and took off after I got some groceries. This would be the last stretch for both of us where we wouldn’t be primarily travelling along the highway as you can get from Gravenhurst to Parry Sound on quieter roads. The road was good but hilly. Me and Abraham travelled at roughly the same pace on the flats and downs, but uphills I was clearly the faster. This lead to me getting quite a bit ahead of him at times, which I took advantage of and would stop and take a mini break to let him catch up. When we were together and I wasn’t ahead though, it was nice having someone to chat with during the day again. Plus I don’t listen to music as I ride as I don’t have any music to listen to offline (I’m too cheap but also don’t wanna be too distracted so I can just spend time with myself), but Abraham had a speaker so I was able to listen to the mostly French music he played (he’s from Quebec).

We stopped in Bala at a nice spot along a lake. I went to find a spot to fill up my water (it’s easier to use taps and less time consuming then my water filter if I have the option) while Abraham stopped at a farm market stand. Once I got my water filled up I went back to find Abraham was still at the farm market stand to my surprise (I wasn’t fast). He was still there because he got talking to the man running the stand (Ray). Ray was an incredibly nice and kind man and he had given Abraham free corn when I got there. Well after meeting me as well and feeling quite touched by meeting us, he gave us even more. He ended up giving us the corn, blueberries, apples and pepperettes, even though we kept telling him he didn’t have to and he was being too generous. After talking for a while, Ray said a prayer for us before we set off again.

We would make it to Parry Sound later in the day and weren’t sure what we were gonna do for camping. Abraham sleeps in a hammock instead of a tent, so what I need out of a camp spot is different than what he needs. I took off ahead of him and found a place that wasn’t bad and would’ve worked, however I was getting swarmed by mosquitoes so badly (it wasn’t even close to being dark yet) I gave up on it. I decided to checkout the beach after considering how well that turned out the night before and was not let done. I went for a swim and started making my supper when Abraham came and went for a swim too. While I found a decent spot to setup, Abraham found an even better spot up on a rocky section between the beach and a trail that you couldn’t see unless you climbed up where we were. What made this even better was this was a spot for us to leave our tent and hammock up, which mattered as we both planned to take a break and stop. We both wanted the next day off and the day after was supposed to rain so we planned on a two day break.

Abraham’s setup

The next couple days we remained undisturbed other than the chipmunk that was there and by some wild cockroaches. I spent parts of both days in the library working on the blog. Abraham mostly stayed around camp and got caught up on sleep. The second day there we had got a bunch of heavy rain overnight and in the morning but it slacked off by noon allowing us to go about. Another one of the things that Abraham really likes doing is fishing (I was right when I first saw him and thought I saw a fishing rod on his bike). On the second day in the evening I joined him in fishing. He ended up catching a pike that we kept. While he was gutting it, I caught one as well, but it wasn’t quite as big, so we put it back. While there are better tasting fish than pike and we didn’t have much for seasoning, still getting to eat fresh fish was very nice.

Abraham and his pike

After a couple of rest days, it was time to head off again, or at least I thought so. When I got up, I went about my morning like I normally would when I’m gonna ride, but partway through the morning Abraham told me he was gonna stay a bit longer. His hammock had a hole in it and mosquitoes had been getting in at night. He had a friend who would be driving through the area later that day (or the next day, I can’t fully remember) and he would be bringing him a new hammock. I was fully committed to going though and ready to leave Parry Sound. I decided I’d keep going without Abraham and that if our paths crossed again we’d try travelling together again. We said our goodbyes in the morning and I took off without him. Part of me felt quite guilty and bad leaving him behind so soon after we met and planned travelling together. Those feelings would linger throughout the day and a little bit in the days after. At the same time though, I’m on my own trip, want to do things at my own pace and my own way for myself, plus had just reached a point where I was looking forward to being on my own right before meeting him. I’m very happy I met and got to travel with Abraham though. It was a blast getting to travel with him. While it was nice getting to go with Amour too, Abraham is living and travelling the same as me and there’s just something different about doing it with someone in the same situation as you. One other thing was that in planning to go around the world, I knew I would meet people going the same way as me and travel together for parts but I would almost surely always leave them at some point, it just so happened that our splitting up was sooner than I expected.

Leaving Abraham behind, I was now on the stretch to Sudbury. With thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon the next day, I wanted to get most of the way to Sudbury so I could get there and setup my tent before the thunderstorms rolled in. With Sudbury being over 160km away though, I wouldn’t be making it today as the furthest I’ve ever done before in a day was a little over 110km. The first 30km was on side roads before I had to get in the highway. A little before I made it to the highway though, a truck was going past me the same as all other vehicles do. Right after passing me, a deer shot out of the woods as fast as it could and got cleaned by the truck, skidding across to the other side where it quickly died. Considering I was about to be almost permanently on highways with speeding vehicles constantly going by me, this really didn’t give me the best feeling about what I was about to start partaking in.

Once I reached the highway, I flew. With the highway being relatively flat and the pavement very fast to ride on, plus the wind didn’t fight me today, it was perfect for me to just glide on. My goal for the day was to do about 110km so I could get the final 50km done the next day t morning before the thunderstorms. I quickly figured out before noontime that not only would I definitely be able to hit my goal, but also likely do more than that and set a new personal best in distance travelled. It also helped that there wasn’t much for me to stop and see along the highway here as it was mostly just trees the whole way. By the time I stopped and wanted to setup camp, I had done around 140km and was only just starting to tire. I was unable to find anywhere to get water though where I stopped when I originally thought I’d be able to, so I continued another 10km to where I found flowing water. Once I reached here though I said screw it and decided with Sudbury being only another 20km, I’d push on and make it to the city all in one go. While the first 140km was good, I really started to tire in the next 10km as my mind had mentally checked out since I had originally planned to stop. Well the final 20km were an absolute slog as my body didn’t have much to give anymore and my body grew exponentially sluggish the closer I got. In the end I did end up making it to Sudbury and ended up riding just over 170km in the day, absolutely obliterating my previous best in a day. My body felt a type of exhaustion I’ve hardly ever felt before, but man was I ever proud of it managing to accomplish what it had today. Plus I’d be giving it a full days break the next day, both to recover and to avoid the thunderstorms. I ended up finding out that Abraham changed his mind later in the day and started heading towards Sudbury himself.

I moved around Sudbury a little in the morning and my body was still thoroughly wiped out from the previous day. The thunderstorms did end up coming though and they came with some absolute downpours that I was able to avoid. Abraham wasn’t so lucky though as he got drenched on his way to Sudbury. I took cover in Laurentien University for quite a bit of the day and just relaxed while preparing for the next stage of the journey: Northern Ontario.

Distance Biked: 712.5km

Total Distance Biked: 3285.2km

Reuniting With Friends

 One of the things I wanted to do on this trip was see some friends again that I haven’t seen in a while. Going to school in Waterloo I met people from a lot of different places but quite a few are from or have stayed in Ontario. Plus Ontario is becoming more of a popular place for people back home in Nova Scotia to move to now as well. Most people I knew from university, I haven’t seen in a couple years as that’s when I left Waterloo. While I enjoyed my time in Quebec, part of what had been driving me forward lately was knowing that I was very soon going to get to see and spend time with people I know again.

Right away Ontario provided me with the chance to reconnect, as my friend Jasper had gotten me at the end of my time in Quebec after my front tire blew up. We drove back to his place in Ottawa where I would spend the next couple days and reconnected after not seeing each other for a couple years. When we got to his place I got to do my laundry for the first time since I left my sisters in Moncton, which was over 3 weeks ago now. I also got to meet Jaspers girlfriend, Alex, for the first time.

Jasper had won free tickets to a comedy show the night I made it to Ottawa (another reason I gave in to getting a drive for the last stretch to Ottawa). The show was even east coast themed with the comedians all coming from the Atlantics, so it was almost like it was supposed to be made for me. I got to meet some of Jasper and Alex’s friends there as well who were all quite nice. I’d never been to a comedy show before, so this was a new experience for me and trying to say yes and experience new things is something I’m also trying to get better at on this trip. The show was really good and definitely something I would do again in the future.

The next day Jasper and Alex worked so I went and found a bike shop and got a few things including a new tire and a way to hopefully deal with tire problems in the future (at least temporarily I hope). I replaced my front tire and tube and got my bike back in good shape for the next stretch. After Jasper got done working we walked through part of Ottawa and later met up with Alex not too far from where she worked. We went to a Mexican restaurant that they liked to frequent and they said they liked to take other people to regularly. I got a burrito there which was really good and probably the best I’ve had (I haven’t had many burritos before though admittedly).

The next day I planned on going to see my cousin and his wife (Jacob and Alicia). I said goodbye to Alex before she left for work and talked with Jasper for a bit before leaving late in the morning. It was nice getting to see a friend again in Jasper as he was the first friend and non-family member I’d seen on the trip so far. While I had been so looking forward to stopping and seeing people I knew, I found myself this morning having an urge to get back on the road and start exploring again, but I had full intention of seeing my cousin for the first time in a lo my time. Before going to Jacob’s though I wanted to see Parliament Hill and luckily they lived very close to it. I rode along the river by parliament and got to see the main government buildings which were under construction and had protests in front of them when I passed by. It’s cool I can say that I saw them but really Parliament Hill felt quite underwhelming.

Parliament Hill Main Building

After strolling past Parliament Hill I rode a few streets down to Jacob’s, where I got to see Jacob for the Pfirst time since his wedding which was probably a couple years before the pandamic, so it had been a long time since I had seen him. We went up to his apartment where we had a lot of catching up to do and I got to meet his 5 cats. After a while we went for a little walk to meet Alicia and on the way we strolled through Ottawa’s walking street where they sometimes hold festivals, like how ribfest was going on now. I had never gotten to properly talk with Alicia before, so getting to spend time around her and properly meeting her was something I was happy to be able to do now. When we got back to their apartment I found out Jacob was making chili for supper. The only problem was that it had mushrooms in it… and I’m kinda allergic to mushrooms. Jacob didn’t know so we changed plans and ended up taking advantage of the fact that ribfest was going on. At ribfest they gave out pretty big portions so we got a single big meal and shared it. While I’m sure Jacob’s chili would’ve been good, I can’t say I’m sad we got food from ribfest instead, boy was it ever good.

That feeling I had to wanna get back on the road didn’t leave me, so I ended up leaving the next morning but I was happy to get to spend some time with Jacob and Alicia after it had been so long since I last saw them. It started raining basically as soon as I left and I got quite wet early on but luckily it had mostly stopped by noon and by the end of the day I was dry. The best way to dry off, or even drying stuff in general, really is just to ride and either where the wet stuff or just strap it to the outside of my bags. Leaving Ottawa I grabbed the Trans-Canada Trail on a route that was an attempt at about the straightest line I could do from Ottawa to Toronto, although there really aren’t any roads that do that. The trail was pretty good and was about the same as the rail trail I was used to riding at home. I didn’t go overly far for the day and got off the trail at Carleton Place where I stopped for the night. I’m not really sure why, but I’m finding when I leave cities and/or after taking a break day, I tend to not ride quite as far as usual. While in Carleton Place, I met Brian, the head of the cycling club there. I’m fairly certain Brian has been the most excited person to meet me so far, as he wanted to tell everyone in the club about me and quite frankly I think probably would’ve told anyone he saw in the moment all about me. When I stopped for the night and unloaded my bike, I noticed that my one front rack was bent. Earlier in the day when I was trying to get my bike off a bike parking rack, it didn’t wanna come and when I yanked it away there was quite a sound that came when I did (I couldn’t find that anything happened in the moment). Luckily it wasn’t really damaged and I was able to straighten it without any other problems.

I continued on the trail the next day. While it mostly stayed like it was the day before, it was starting to get rougher and less enjoyable to ride at times. Along the way I took a nice break in Perth which was a nice little town if you went into it away from the highway, especially in the little library garden along the brook that runs through the town. Not too much happened throughout the day as I was primarily by myself riding the quiet trail. I did get to stop for the night in the scenic little village of Sharbot Lake and got to camp nearby to the lake.

After I left Ottawa I had started to get sick, which when you consider how I’ve been mostly outside all the time, getting wet quite frequently and that the weather still didn’t want to warm up, is almost a miracle it took this long to get sick (I do like to brag up my immune system for a reason). While the cold I was getting wasn’t bothering me much yet, it did make it so I didn’t get much sleep for my night in Sharbot Lake. Being tired, not feeling overly good and combining that with the fact that it was raining again in the morning, lead me to just hide in my tent all morning until it stopped and wasn’t quite as cold out. The day didn’t get much better from there as the trail stopped becoming enjoyable due to it becoming so bumpy and full of big loose rocks plus big puddles covering the trail at points from swamps/marshes spilling over the trail. It continued like this for about the first 40km to Kaladar where I stopped and tried working on my Achilles which was really starting to hurt again. I considered stopping for the day and just conceding that today wasn’t my day but I decided to continue on. From there things did get better. The trail reverted back to the nice rail trail similar to when I left Ottawa and while my Achilles did hurt the rest of the day it did calm down some. While not too much exciting was happening the past few days riding along the trail which I had all to myself outside of the occasional ATV that would come roaring through, I was getting to see lots of wildlife. I had gotten see turtles, snakes (including one slithering through water which I hadn’t seen before), rabbits, beavers, some big birds that people hunt and I don’t know the name of and even some llamas on a sheep farm that the trail passed by. The improved trail let me make some good progress to end the day and I ended the day in another nice little town being Tweed this time.

Before I could load up my bike the next morning, I noticed that front tire was pretty deflated. I didn’t see any problems with it so I pumped it back up and took off for the day. Only about 30 minutes after leaving I noticed that it was pretty deflated again. I gave it a better inspection and the new tube I had just got in Ottawa was leaking from the valve. I would later ask a bike shop about this and they told me that unfortunately it seemed like I had just gotten a dud of a tube which sucks. I swapped the tube out for another and didn’t encounter any problems for the rest of the day.

I only had a little bit of trail left to do leaving Tweed until I would go back to travelling roads until Toronto, but before I finished with the trail, I encountered Ralph. Ralph was a man in a wheelchair with only one leg, so I was quite surprised when he stopped me and told me that he had cycled across Canada only 10 years prior (with 2 legs at that point however). He was a nice man who told me about his trip and how he had gotten stuff out of the trip that was pretty similar to what I’m hoping to get from mine. I finished up with the trail which went back to sucking again so I was quite happy to switch back to riding paved roads, even if they were hilly it was still much better to ride.

When I made it to Campbellford, I encountered a group of 5 cyclists who were doing a week long tour along the waterways of the area. I stopped to eat in the park there that has the world’s biggest toonie. Also while in the park I had what I consider to be the funniest moment of the trip so far. At this point I was in the runny/stuffy nose part of my cold. Being outside all the time I’ve gotten in the habit of doing stuff like blowing my nose or other potentially ‘unseemly stuff’ whenever I feel like it. So while in the park I blew my nose and with it being stuffy, it really didn’t come out very cleanly. When I did this there was a girl, probably around my age, who was walking in my direction but still not all that close to me. As she approached the picnic table I was at, she ran by me and the area I was at as fast she she could and then continued walking like normal after getting by me. She thought I was so revolting that she had to get past me as fast as she could and I found that absolutely hilarious that I started laughing out loud quite loudly to the point that I’m fairly certain she had to hear me laughing at her. Now while I’m sure some of you find no humour in this, I think it’s hilarious that someone found me that revolting.

Large Toonie of Campbellton

After Campbellford I continued taking very steep hilly side roads until Hastings where I stopped for the night. I wasn’t a fan of how the side roads were very steep hill after very steep hill while on gravel, so I decided the next day to go back along the main road where while hilly, wasn’t full of the steep hills. I was in the runny eyes phase of the cold now and faced headwinds all day (which really I’ve been facing everyday since leaving Montreal as I’m going purely west now) and the day was pretty boring but I was still able to find that I was able to bring myself to enjoy and appreciate the day being able to go along by bike like this. At least the riding was on really good roads, which I have to give Ontario credit for. Ontarios rural roads that are paved are almost all in amazing condition. It’s only really when you get into a town or city where there’s more traffic, that the roads aren’t as good and full of cracks and bumps. I made it to Tyrone to end the day and the roads were starting to get a square/gridlock shape as I was getting to the edge of Toronto now. I did hear a pack of coyotes in the middle of the night that didn’t sound too far away and kept me antsy for the rest of the night but nothing came of that other than some unwarranted anxiety.

When I awoke in the morning, I found the Sun was an orange/red colour. Being on the road I don’t really see the news (which generally is quite nice), so i didn’t know for sure, but was guessing that it must mean there were wildfires somewhere probably causing it. As I entered the GTA, I asked about the Sun and if there were wildfires causing it, to which I found out that unfortunately I was right, as the prairies were on fire and the smoke was being carried all the way to the Toronto area. While the sky was hazy for the day, it wasn’t to the point that it was hampering me from biking, so I continued on.

Riding through the GTA wasn’t particularly fun. There isn’t much designed for bikers there and it’s clear the drivers aren’t used to and/or don’t care about bikers much. Things did improve as I approached the lakeshore and downtown, as there started to be designated bike lanes, which were full of people who were delivering food on their e-bikes. When I did make it to Lake Ontario, this was another milestone moment. While I had made it far enough west to be in line with the Great Lakes at this point, this was the first of what I expected to be a lot of time I’d spend travelling along them. While I was happy making it to a beach along Lake Ontario, it was somewhat disappointing though as the view was nothing but hardtop the smoke and the shore was full of dead fish, I’m assuming from all the pollution in the lake.

My First Encounter of Lake Ontario

Now the reason I’m riding to Toronto instead of just staying north of it is because this is another place where I have some friends. When I made it downtown, I went to Brendan and Mikayla’s, longtime friends from back home, where I would spend the next few days. I spent most of the evening getting caught up with them as I hadn’t seen them in nearly a year, since their wedding. I had arrived at their place in the middle of the week, so they both had to work still. While they worked the day after I arrived, I spent a lot of my day walking around the parts of downtown Toronto I hadn’t seen before, including the lakeshore where I still couldn’t look out over as the sky was still full of smoke. In the evening after Mikayla finished work, we went out to play spike ball with some of her coworkers. I’d only played spike ball a couple times before in gym class over 10 years ago now, so I wasn’t very good but I had a lot of fun playing and Mikayla carried us to a couple wins. I spent most of the next day alone in their apartment working on the blog and getting to bake banana muffins and krinkle cookies, which I was happy to do. Brendan got the barbecue going when he got back from work and I enjoyed the last full day I was going to spend with the both of them. I really enjoyed my time getting to be with Brendan and Mikayla and said my goodbyes in the morning before moving on.

Like Ottawa, I didn’t just have one place I was stopping to see people I knew. Next was Amour who I knew from university/co-op. He also lives downtown so I didn’t have far to go. At Amour’s place at met his fiance, Sabine, for the first time. They were also both working when I got to their place, so I tried not to bother them too much until they got done. Afterwards we got to properly catch up and I got to properly meet Sabine. Not only did I meet Sabine though, for supper we went to Amour’s family, who conveniently live right down the hall. His family was very nice and welcoming to me and quite interested in my trip, especially since Amour was going to join along for a couple days.

CN Tower over the Rogers Centre

The next morning I went out to meet up with the last of my friends that I knew was in Toronto at the time in Yoni, who I also knew from university. We went out for brunch before he showed me around the restaurant that he was the head chef at now. While he wasn’t going to join along Amour when we left Toronto, he decided he’d tag along when we started to leave Toronto in a couple days. After seeing Yoni, me and Amour went for a walk and got some stuff along the way. I decided to get a new tire and replace my back one as it was becoming quite worn out. If I would’ve had to guess which tire was going to blow up first, I would’ve guessed it would’ve been my back one instead of the front as it was far more worn. And quite frankly I don’t think it was too far from the point of having something similar happen like the front did. We also got a chain for Amour as he was planning on using his sister’s bike which hadn’t been touched in quite a while and wasn’t in the best shape. While out we got Chinese food in Chinatown which was really good. In the evening I swapped my back tire for the new and put on Amour’s new chain so we could test it the next day.

Me and Amour went out to play tennis in the morning like we had down many times before when living in the same area. After we also got him a back rack so he could carry some stuff while going with me and also just in general as he wanted to use the bike after this too. Amour was having a lot of trouble shifting and couldn’t get into some of his gears, so I’d take a look at working at that later. Before that though I got to meet a couple of Amour and Sabine’s friends in Harlan and Amanda who they had over for supper. Luckily it turns out that Harlan used to be a bike mechanic as I found that I couldn’t get Amour’s bike shifting like he would need (I’m still very amateurish at bike work). Well turns out I was never gonna get that to shift right as Harlan found that Amour's cables were shot. As we were planning on leaving in the morning and there was no way to get cables before then, Harlan made it so Amour could shift his back derailleur, but had his front one stuck in the middle gear, which would be good enough for the couple days we were planning. And with that, we were ready to take off from Toronto the next day and I’d get to share the experience of travelling by bike with someone for the first time.

I got to see so many friends that I hadn’t for quite a while and I’ll see more yet both in Ontario and along the way. I’ve spent most of my time alone both on the trip and in general the last couple years so getting to spend so much time with others was something I’m really happy to be able to do. I also have to thank everyone for everything they did for me, whether it be letting me stay at their place, making/buying a meal for me or anything else they did, I’m greatly appreciative of everything anyone did. Maybe more than anything for me, it was nice more than anything to not feel as lonely here for at least a little while.

Distance Biked: 493.7km

Total Distance Biked: 2572.7km

Finding My Way

 Since I had left Moncton the weather had been pretty good. It still wasn’t overly warm yet outside of a day or two but it was better than when I left home in Nova Scotia and potentially more importantly, I was avoiding rain. Leaving New Brunswick there was a system coming through that had the potential to bring upwards of 30mm of rain but I was lucky to get just west enough to entirely avoid it. Well I guess I had used up all my luck by the time I made it to Quebec City/Levis.

Streets of Old Quebec City

After checking out Old Quebec I got back across to Levis and setup my tent in a baseball dugout behind a school just before dark. While this wasn’t the sort of area I was looking to camp, it ended up being perfect. There was a bunch of rain coming over the next few days, including the chance for thunderstorms and I didn’t want to ride in it, so I was looking for somewhere to camp for a couple days. Being behind the school (it was on the weekend I was there) and having trees behind the field, it was unlikely I’d be spotted unless someone walked behind the school and even then with a shed and caging around me, I still wouldn’t be easy to spot. Even better, the dugout had a little roof on it that would help give a little cover from the rain too.

It rained the night I got there but I awoke to calm weather in the morning. I took advantage and grabbed some groceries and went to the library before heading back. Not long after getting back, a thunderstorm rolled through and I was quite happy to have the extra cover of the dugout roof. The second day was rain most of the day but only a mix of light rain and drizzle. Even though the next day was still calling for rain, it was only light rain for part of the day. I also wanted to get back on the road so I decided on taking off.

It ended up raining both more and longer than I anticipated (probably more than the previous day that I had just avoided). Not only was it rainier, but also colder and windier than I thought it was going to be as well. The combo of the 3 made it quite cold for me when I took my breaks and was no longer generating heat anymore. By noon time while taking a break, I got cold enough that the thoughts of a hotel were popping up in my head for the first time since before I entered Quebec. There were none nearby unless I wanted to head back towards Levis and I didn't want to be giving in to moments of weakness anymore, especially when I was fairly certain I could make it through it and things would improve as the day went along. While the rain wouldn't stop until the evening, the wind did shift more in my direction as the day passed and I ended up warming up some as I went along. To help keep warm, I mostly tried to keep riding, so the rest of the day was rather mundane, except I did see a wild turkey running around on a field at one point, which was something new I hadn't seen before. I made it to Gentilly for the night and by the time I had made it there, I was actually feeling pretty good. With baseball fields starting to become my best friends, I found one in the town to camp beside with tree cover to blend in.

The wind shift from the previous day continued providing me a good tailwind in my push towards Montreal. If I was to pick a day to try to describe my typical day in Quebec, I'd probably pick this day. The route was good most of the time taking me back and forth between the St. Lawrence and farmland. Along the way I would see plenty of bikers and I had a few encounters with people throughout the day wondering about my journey after seeing my bike and wishing my kind words as we departed. Every 15-20km I'd cross a village or town and probably take a break there wherever the local park could be found.

During the day my sister remembered that she had a friend (Jared, who I was somewhat familiar with from back home) in Montreal and he was willing to let me stay at his place when I made it to Montreal, which I was hoping to do tomorrow. Finding this out gave me more reason to push on with my goal to make it to Montreal from Quebec City in 3 days of riding now that I had a place to stay. I made it to Sorel-Tracy and for the first time in my life, I had ridden 100+ km in back-to-back days. As much as I liked pushing for the longer days, my achilles wasn't liking it too much as it was starting to hurt and swell some. I tried working on it some at night but knew rest would be the way for it to really heal. As I was coming up to a few places with friends I intended to stop and see, I figured it would be able to get the proper rest then and if I pushed it in the meantime, it would be fine.

In the morning I swapped my chain for a new one (I plan on replacing my chain roughly every 1000km) and cleaned the gunk out of my derailleurs before heading off. While I looked forward to making it to Montreal, it was almost bittersweet in a way as it would mean that my time travelling along the St. Lawrence River would be ending. I very much enjoyed my time riding along the St. Lawrence with the routes and scenery it provided me. Not only that but during my time riding along it, I could see how I was growing to get more comfortable with and be enjoying the trip more. As if to reward me for riding along it for so long it provided me with a great final day. I had noticed as I had been going further south along the river, things were quickly becoming greener but today it finally looked, felt and smelled like spring for the first time in the year. The farmland mostly disappeared and in its place were lots of very nice looking properties full of green trees and bushes, fruit trees with flowers on them and lilacs in full bloom. As a final last reward, when I reached Varennes I encountered a bike path in great condition and full of other cyclists that would bring me to Montreal.

Approaching Montreal with Olympic Stadium in the distance

I rode the path into Longueuil across the river from Montreal. The combination of construction, routes not open for the season yet and no signs indicating how to cross into Montreal made me waste hours trying to figure out how to cross but eventually I figured out how to get onto the largest bridge that crosses into Montreal. While I'd been in downtown Montreal before, riding the streets was a whole other experience. I'd say there was probably as many bikes as cars on the road and all streets, no matter the direction, are designed that bikes are allowed to ride them. Some streets look like the cars and bikes are wildly intermingling amongst each other but because drivers are so used to bikes, the low speed limits and the streets being rather crowded it actually felt quite safe to ride there (being a pedestrian is a whole other story as it's somehow more dangerous than Toronto).

While it takes me a while to navigate cities as my map likes to generate routes with lots of turning (I think it does this to keep me on safer roads for a bike), it didn't take long to make it to Jared's as he wasn't far from where I crossed the bridge. Jared happily welcomed me to his apartment and let me, for the first time in over 2 weeks, take a shower. Let me say, getting to shower after 2 weeks of sweating heavily in the cold most days was definitely one of the most enjoyable showers I've ever had. After I was done, my hair had gotten so tangled up during this time that it took 10 minutes just to get it untangled.

When I came out of the shower, Jared had supper made, which was greatly appreciated being able to have a warm meal after a day of cycling while not going through the effort of making it myself. As happy and excited as I was to shower, get a meal and have a warm place to stay, I think Jared was as equally excited to have me there. It turns out that Jared is planning to bike across Canada by himself next year, so getting to encounter someone doing it (that he also kinda knows), was quite exciting in itself for him. The rest of the night, Jared peppered me with questions about my trip and experiences up to that point, wanting to hear and learn as much as he could and I happily indulged.

In the morning we went out for bagels as Jared told me Montreal bagels were on a whole other level (I love bagels) and he was absolutely right. I think these were probably the best bagels I've ever had. Jared had work to do and offered me to stay and rest in his apartment, but the main thing I had wanted to do in Montreal was see the West Island part again, as I had lived there for 8 months in the past on a coop term in university. I set out hoping not to do much cycling with my achilles still bothering me and it potentially raining later. Well it turns out the island of Montreal is much bigger than I realized and I ended up cycling most of the day. Getting to see old spots again, knowing I got there under my own power, was one of those moments where I felt a sense of accomplishment in coming as far as I have. Beyond that, the trip out to the West Island was mostly disappointment. I just didn't like the general area much, part of that is definitely that me and how I view things have changed in a way that I don't care for that type of area much. The other part was just how bike unfriendly the area was (I used public transit there in the past), especially when you compare it to downtown Montreal and most of the rest of Quebec. The chance of some rain I saw, ended up being heavy rain that lasted the whole way back to Jared's and left me drenched. Add in the fact I somehow ended up doing over 70km and my achilles was getting very unhappy the more I rode, it ended up being a nostalgia trip of mostly suck. At least I did have Montreal poutine for the first time to end off the day and that was quite good.

I had only intended to stay at Jared's for 1 day, but considering I rode all day, my stuff was soaked and my achilles hurt quite a bit and both sounded and felt like a creaky door, I decided to stay another day as Jared was willing to let me stay longer. I took a proper break and didn't cycle, plus I also avoided a day of rain in doing so. While I spent part of the day out for groceries (at a place where healthy food was cheaper and junk food more expensive!) and at a library working on writing my blog, I spent a lot of the day talking with Jared. While I hardly knew Jared before getting to his place, I'd like to think that we became pretty good friends during my time at his place. We both have similar views on a lot of things, have somewhat similar experiences that have led us to the current state of life where we both are/intend on doing long bike trips and also have both of our trips that we were easily able to bond over.

The day off let my achilles calm down quite a bit and the rain had passed now too. So after a couple of days at Jared's, I started back off again, heading towards Ottawa now. I even got to leave with some bagels as he let me have what was left of what we hadn't yet eaten. I really enjoyed my time at Jared's and greatly appreciate everything he did for me while I was there, especially considering he hardly knew me beforehand. I navigated my way through the busy streets of Montreal to Laval, where the roads were calmer. Laval took about another hour to get off the island of and I was free from the city type atmosphere for a while again. In leaving Laval I was able to say one last goodbye to the St. Lawrence River.

My final goodbye to the St. Lawrence

Instead of taking a more direct route towards Ottawa, I skewed to staying along the Ottawa River to stay on a bike path and being closer to water. It was another typical Quebec bike path that was well maintained and brought me through nice looking areas. Along the route while I was taking a break around Pointe-Calumet, a local named Frank came over and talked with me about the area. Further on it passed through Oka National Park and with everything being green now, was a beautiful sight to see. Finally, the last of the Quebec bike paths I would get to experience ended in the town of Oka, where I would stop for the day.

 I found a park in Oka where I was about to start making supper when a couple with their baby and dog approached me. They had taken notice of my bike and bags and were curious if I was travelling. When I responded yes, they asked if I had anywhere to stay for the night (I've learned the best thing in these situations is always to say no. The reason being they may suggest/offer something or if they don't want you camping nearby then they probably won't hassle you). So I said I hadn't found a spot yet and they immediately offered me to sleep in their backyard, which I gladly accepted their invitation. They were Anne and Adrian (with baby Louise and dog Amy) and had done some bike touring before, with their main trip being a months long trip of the Alps. They had often liked trying to stay in backyards during their travels, they had told me, so it only felt natural to them to offer the same to me.

We walked back to their place and I dumped my stuff in their backyard. They offered me to come into their house to cook my meal and also to shower if I wanted to, both of which I happily accepted the offers of. I mostly stayed quiet while they ate with Louise, as I didn't want to disturb their time together, but after Louise was put to bed early we got talking. They were both quite curious about my trip, what I had done so far and was still planning to do. I also found out some about their previous trips and some of the more notable experiences they had had during them. Not only that, but they still wanted to do some more trips in the future when Louise was old enough to be brought along. Getting to meet someone doing what they wanted to do again in the future, they told me, got them quite excited to think and plan about being able to do it again. During my time there, Louise couldn't figure out what to make of me, but Amy was more than happy to indulge in getting some extra chest rubs. Before it got dark, I went to the backyard to setup for the night and soon fell asleep in peace afterwards.

Dam/canal along the Ottawa River

I was up plenty early as Anne and Adrian were also offering to let me in in the morning as well, but they had to be off early in the day. I got to make breakfast in their house as well and we talked some more before we both split off early in the morning. While the Ottawa River wasn't quite up to the St. Lawrence, it did still provide its own sites. On the other side of it, I was able to see Ontario and think about soon being back in the English-speaking world, which I was looking forward to. It also had its own nice parks, including one with a big dam that also included a canal next to a ferry crossing. Later in the day I noticed a continuous bumping while I was riding. After a bit I figured out that it was my front tire causing the problem. It was starting to develop a bump/warp from a couple of treads starting to separate from the tire. I didn't see any bike shops on my map between Montreal and Ottawa and I was around half-way between the two of them at this point, so decided my best option was to carry on. I had something similar happen in the past with a tire, but had replaced that one before any issues came of it, so was unsure how long the tire could last like this. I was cautious riding the rest of the day and the tire was alright for the rest of the day, letting me reach Papineauville for the night.

Treads starting to separate from the tire

The next day started off quite nice, with the weather being warm enough for me to ride in shorts and a t-shirt, which I'd hardly been able to do up to this point. The tire still seemed about the same as yesterday and I made it around 20km on it to Thurso where I decided to take a break. I was stopped in Thurso eating while taking a break when all of a sudden, I heard this huge popping sound. It startled me and I wasn't sure what it was at first, but then I looked and saw my front tire was flat. I unloaded my bike and got a better look at it. The tire had completely ripped apart where the treads were separating and blew up my inner tube in the process. Unfortunately, this was not the type of problem I was prepared to deal with and didn't have any immediate solutions to.

A woman who had heard the tire blow up came over and wanted to help. She tried seeing if she could find anything in the area that might help me fix the tire for long enough to get to Gatineau but couldn't come up with any solutions. Shortly after, a couple of bikers who were out for a long distance ride pulled up in front of the Metro I was stopped at. I waved them down and explained the situation to see if they knew any solutions. They suggested we could try to make what's called a tire boot and offered to use one of their spare inner tubes to do it. I didn't feel right sacrificing one of their inner tubes to try to fix the tire when the rip was so large that there was a pretty good chance it might not hold for the 50km I still needed to cycle to reach Gatineau. We also tried asking the local auto shops to see if they would do work on a bike tire to no avail.

My front tire ripped apart

Since I had been anticipating that I was going to make it to Ottawa that day, I had been in touch with my friend in Ottawa (Jasper) beforehand the past few days and also earlier in the day. By chance during the commotion of my tire blowing up and trying to find a fix, Jasper had messaged me asking how my progress was going and when I thought I might make it to Ottawa. When I let him know about the situation, he offered to come get me if I needed it. I didn't accept right away as I wanted to see if I could find a solution and want to avoid relying on vehicles as little as I have to on the trip, but after it appeared I was out of luck and chose not to attempt the tire boot, I asked Jasper if he could get me. He said yes and a couple hours later he was able to leave and get me, for which I was greatly appreciative.

Unfortunately this was how my time in Quebec was ending. After the great time I'd had in Quebec, getting to ride and see it, not cycling the final stretch felt wrong, but getting to see a friend did help ease the feeling. While I did feel some disappointment, I was able to take notice of the growth I'd made mentally. When my sister got me in Moncton, I felt a sense of failure relying on someone to help transport for a stretch of the journey. This time I didn't feel like a failure at all. Sure I was disappointed, but I knew I had given my best to get this far and I had just run out of luck and I was able to take solace in this.

For my time in Quebec, I am thankful. Before Quebec the trip had been a struggle and overwhelming, but during my time here, I was able to grow comfortable with it and even start to enjoy it. Not only that, but clearly in my last moments here, I was able to realize that I had definitely grown mentally in exactly the type of ways that I was hoping for on the trip. 

Distance Biked: 552.6km

Total Distance Biked: 2079km

 

Land of the French

 After spending a bit of time in Campbellton and having a celebratory meal for reaching the end of the Atlantic provinces, I crossed the bridge over the Restogouche River and officially entered Quebec. I spent the rest of the day cycling south to Matapédia, from where I’d start crossing Gaspésie. When I reached Matapédia, I asked if I could stay at a campground for the night with my amazing French skills “Camping? Oui ou non?”, with a thumbs up and down. They knew a little English and told me the campground wasn’t open yet but I’d be fine to camp there for the night.

Officially made it to Quebec

During my time in Quebec so far I’ve been surprised with how many people know some English. Most of the people I’ve interacted with aren’t fluent but know enough to be able to communicate with me and my poor attempt of French back. One person told me the older generation doesn’t know English as much but the younger generations are being taught English and I can say this does seem to be the scenario based on the interactions I’ve had. Even if someone doesn’t know any English I can still convey what I’m doing as people do like to ask when they see my bike loaded full of stuff, and they do like to ask more here than they did in the Atlantic provinces.

The Appalachian mountains extend up to Gaspésie and from my time previously driving through and now biking through Quebec, when you look around the landscape is usually dominated by hills and/or mountains. Matapédia is no different as it and its river are part of a valley I believe in the Chic-Choc mountains. So when I left the next morning I spent the day in the valley going along up the river. Looking back now it was quite the nice place but at the time it was boring after a while as the scenery was essentially the same the whole day. Steep cliff face on the edge of the road on my right, steep drop to into the river on my left with another steep hill/mountain on the other side. Combined with biking uphill all day, a headwind making it harder and about half the traffic going by on the highway being 18-wheelers, I found it difficult to appreciate my surroundings at the time.

Nice water source I found in Matapedia Valley

Later in the day I made it out of my mountainous surroundings where it had calmed to only hills and there were villages again. I ended up stopping in Amqui on the side of a bike path there.

The next day I crossed the other half of Gaspésie to a very different landscape. In this area there would be a small village roughly every 15 kilometers with mostly farmland or abandoned fields in between on the hilly land. I found myself finally starting to take proper breaks and stopping in each village during the day. By the end of the day I reached Mont-Joli, where as I topped the crest of the hill entering the town, I could see the St. Lawrence river in the not so far distance now.

The next morning I grabbed some groceries and then quickly descended downhill to the St. Lawrence. This was another moment that felt like a real triumph as I had been looking forward to travelling along the river. The good vibes would continue as this has easily become my favourite day on the bike so far. Quebec is known for having the best bike routes/paths (Route Verte) in North America and while I had technically been going along the route so far in Quebec, I had reached the point where the route truly becomes friendly to bikers. Crossing Gaspésie where I did the route was nearly all highway due to it not being very populated, but now I would get to ride quieter roads and bike paths/trails with only a few exceptions.

Reaching the foggy St. Lawrence

The new route I was own that took me along the St. Lawrence kept me next to the river the whole way to Rimouski. The places there reminded me of what you would see along the coast of Nova Scotia, specifically the sorts of places nearer to beaches, but here it felt a little different than that. Shortly after making the turn along the St. Lawrence, I even saw bison for the first time as I passed a bison ranch, something I never even thought about being able to see, especially around this area. A bit later while I was taking a break along a beach, I got talking with a local there who had even bike toured the southern part of Nova Scotia, including around where I’m from. The route continued to impress as a little before I made it to Rimouski, I came across a museum at an old lighthouse. What made this interesting however was that it had a submarine perched up out of the water that I assume was used for military purposes in the past as it was quite large. With the day going so well and having the wind at my back, I really felt like continuing to cycle on but I had wanted to check out Rimouski so I decided on cycling around the city for a bit once I got there.

Best photo I could get of the bison

I ended up being happy with my decision to explore Rimouski a bit. Rimouski was the first city I had reached that really was quite cycle friendly. It has a cycle path that goes right along the river that was full of cyclists. The rest of the city also had some paths that went through parts of it and in general the streets felt welcoming to cyclists. This was easily the most cycle friendly place I had visited before, but I would end up finding that in general, this is what larger settlements in Quebec are like. Plenty of cycle paths that are usually pretty maintained and streets with drivers who are used to dealing with cyclists, so they wouldn’t have quite the same ‘fuck you, get out of the road, you don’t belong here’ mentality that I was mostly used to.

After exploring the city I relaxed at the library for a couple hours before setting out to find somewhere to camp. Unfortunately this didn’t go quite as well, as the more forested places I wanted to try were either on hills, wet or just not a place where I’d be able to setup a tent. It got late enough that I said screw it and checked out the main park in the city which was primarily open area. I did end up finding a spot that while technically was out in the open, did have some cover in each direction thanks to hills and some strips of trees, unless of course you walked in the pathway which was quite near to where I setup. Luckily it was fine though and no one had a problem with me being there.

Finding camping spots though is something that is starting to become a bit of a problem for multiple reasons. I find myself feeling more comfortable sleeping near areas with other people than being in the middle of nowhere. This is probably because quite frankly, it’s something I’ve never done as I never camped growing up. Plus I find I like being nearer to places where I can easily get water or have washroom access, especially with the weather still not being particularly warm and dealing with those things in the middle of nowhere when it’s colder just isn’t as fun. Another reason though, especially along the St. Lawrence, is because there really aren’t great options to be found along the route. Most of the land out here is farmland and if it’s not, then it’s housing. If you want to go more inland or if it’s not actually farms/houses, then you’re greeted with hills or mountains that can’t be camped on instead. Technically campgrounds could be an option as there are plenty, however at this point they would be better off labelled as RV parks instead and you have to pay to stay at them, which is not what I’m trying to do on this trip. This all leads to me usually camping in spots where I can be and do get seen some, however I’ve never had anybody care. I’m not sure if this is because they generally don’t care if somewhere is just camping there for a night, if they see the bike and bags and figure I’m probably just travelling along (some definitely do as these people have talked with me some) or the other highly possible option, people think I’m homeless and want nothing to do with me.

Leaving Rimouski, the highway and route I was on merged together and went a bit more inland away from the river. The busy road with speeding traffic combined with seeing pretty much only farmland along the way and a wind that went back forth on deciding if it wanted to try to blow me backwards or into the speeding traffic, lead to a pretty boring day after my amazing introduction to the St. Lawrence. Towards the end of the day I managed to get off on some smaller roads along the river again which was a nice change. They did however come with some very steep hills including the steepest hill I’ve ever encountered (and I was going the direction I had to climb it). I don’t know the gradient on it but I’ve never seen something that just went so straight upwards. I would make it to Trois-Pistoles, grabbed some sandwiches as the day wiped me of my energy to want to make anything and found an area not too far from the highway to pitch my tent.

 I started the next day by continuing to follow the bike route, which did keep me off of the highway. It did however keep me climbing steep hills, to shoot me down the other side right back to another steep climb. After a while of getting worn out by the climbing, I was about ready to say screw it and just go back to the highway, but the route rewarded me for staying on it. It was taking me up a river on a quiet road when it was starting to get noisy ahead. I thought it was probably just some sort of construction building or quarry as it looked like there was something like that ahead. Before I got to the buildings where I thought the noise was coming from, the route got me off the road and onto a trail to cross the river. It kept getting louder though as I went on the trail which surprised me until I got onto the bridge crossing the river. What I ended up finding was a pretty large and very violent waterfall that was making all the noise. The water spewing from it was getting launched in a way that looked like it was flying towards me instead of straight down. On the other side of the bridge, the river again had another waterfall that was smaller and from my view, I could not see very well. For the complaining I’d been doing about where the route was taking me, I completely forgave it for the amazing site it was giving me now.

Surprise waterfall on the trail

I stayed on the route after this. It remained the same for a little while before bringing me to flatter roads full of farmland again. The one benefit of where it had taken me up to this point in the day was that the trails it had primarily been on were sheltered with trees on each side. Now that I was in the open I had no protection from the wind, which was a strong headwind that would blast me for the rest of the day. Soon enough the highway and main road along the St. Lawrence divided again and I was brought back over nearer to the river. After fighting the wind all day I decided to stop in Rivière-du-Loup, where as I was entering I saw a couple of bikers who interested me. I couldn’t tell if they were bike tourers or not as they had more bags than I would expect any regular person to have, but they also didn’t have near enough stuff to travel like I was. I stopped to talk and found out they were indeed bike tourers, the second ones I’ve met and first since early New Brunswick. Unfortunately they were travelling the other direction than me, so I’d still be travelling alone (at this point I quite liked the idea of getting to travel with someone else, at least for a little). They were going from Montreal to Halifax and stopping at campsites along the way, which explained their lighter setup. We went our separate ways as they were heading to the next camping site and I ventured into the town. This was another place where I struggled to find somewhere to camp but did eventually.

The next morning the wind had shifted from a strong headwind to a slight tailwind that was perfect for making quick progress along the road. Although I was able to go along quickly without too much effort, I found myself tiring quite easily throughout the day. Considering I had just done 8 straight days of long distance cycling when I’ve never done anything like that before, I guess it might make sense that at some point I might tire out. Overall it was a nice day however. I saw thousands of geese during the day migrating north in the largest flocks I’ve ever seen. I also saw another bike tourer going the other way, but didn’t get chance to talk with them. I would make it to La Pocatiere where I found a nice spot not far from the bike trail. I also decided during the day I would spend another day here as my body was telling me I needed a break (plus I didn’t wanna cycle in the big headwinds the next day that made a couple days ago seem like a joke).

Typical supper for me, a nice stir fry

The day off was what I needed. My body very much appreciated it and I was able to take some time to reflect on things. I was able to realize that I had gotten to a point now where the trip was no longer overwhelming in the ways it was early on leaving both home and Moncton. I had reached the point where I was getting close to how I envisioned the trip now as I was much more settled and taking things day by day.

Sunset over the St. Lawrence in La Pocatiere

I had much more energy leaving La Pocatiere and felt somewhat revitalized. I had no problem fighting the headwinds the day was presenting to me (and I guess it’s good I get used to them as once I turn west from my southward trajectory, I’ll almost always be facing them). I may have also felt more energetic as this was the first hot day that I was cycling on and the warmth may have perked me up. It also made my breaks more enjoyable, as my sweat drying wasn’t having quite as large of an effect on making me feel as cold as usual when I would stop. Although in shedding my layers and enjoying the warmth of the day, I did let my arms and legs get sunburnt. After the nice warm day of cycling I made it to Montmagny for the night where I was now getting quite near Quebec City. I wasn’t planning on visiting Quebec City but the enjoyment of the day got me in the mood to want to ride around Old Quebec to explore it some.

The next day greeted me with tailwinds that let me quickly make it to Levis not long after noon. While I really liked the bike paths of Rimouski, the paths coming into Levis and Quebec City blew them away. They were in amazing condition, away from the roads and would go through parks, tree covered sections and also along the river. Compared with anywhere I’ve ridden before this really felt like it would be a bike riders paradise. And to be fair, the Quebec/Levis area was full of bikers wherever I went.

Bike path in Levis

The bike path would lead me to the ferry where I crossed the river. I wanted to give myself the most time to explore in the day, so taking the ferry going right to Old Quebec was my best option. On the ferry I met a pair of older women who were also crossing and out for a longer ride for the day. The one of them was very talkative and we talked the whole 15 minutes or so it took to cross and dock. She even told me how she couldn’t do my trip like how I was doing it because she would get bored not having someone to talk to all day. After getting off the ferry we were going the same direction to start which was good as they ended up having to tell me how to get into Old Quebec. All of Old Quebec was up a big hill and being down by the shore was kind’ve like going in circles around it, which I wasn’t able to figure out myself. So I climbed the big hill and they continued on going out separate ways.

Quebec City from the ferry

I had only been in Quebec City once before in the past on the Quebec trip that everyone at my school did when they got to grade 9. Just being taken around and not really knowing where I was then had left me with a bunch of memories but having no idea where I was. Well after climbing the hill it was like being hit with a blast of nostalgia. I recognized quite a few places and had a number of times where an area would look somewhat familiar to spots where I had memories of me and my friends doing something from our trip. While seeing the area was very nice and is an experience in its self just being there, I think I was most satisfied with being able to connect and bring back some memories from my past. I will say I did feel a bit out of place though. Old Quebec is very much a tourist spot and touristy type stuff is not what I’m trying to do and see on this trip. I wanna see places and people for what they really are and quite frankly, tourist destinations are not that. In saying that though, I was quite happy with my decision to cross the river and visit the city.

The large building in Old Quebec up close

A few hours of strolling around was enough for me and I went back down the hill to the cycle paths along the shore. I made my way along the busy cycle path towards the bridge where I had a hard time figuring out how to get on it as my map route lead me to under the bridge instead of on the bridge. I had to backtrack some and climb back up the hill to get on the bridge but did end up finding how to get on it. Right before I made it to the bridge and was pulled of still figuring out where to go, a biker pulled up next to me with a loaded bike like mine. This was Simon (said with a French accent), who’s from France but just finished university in Montreal. He was going from Montreal to Halifax so unfortunately again the opposite way of me. We talked for a little and he warned me crossing with the overstuffed bike wasn’t gonna be fun as he had just done this himself. Well not fun was an understatement. There was only a tiny walkway where 2 normal bikes would have a tough time squeezing by each other. Plus the walkway was full of bikers going both ways and a few pedestrians. I gave up pretty quickly on trying to ride as I couldn’t keep straight with the wind and regular bumps from some sort of bars regularly on the walkway. Most of the riders though clearly must cross regularly as many of them chose to ride it. This meant I had to constantly stop and squeeze me and my bike against the railing for bikers both ways trying to get by me when there was next to no room for them to get by, especially with my bags sticking out. Combined with not liking heights (the bridge is quite high above the river) and the wind being quite strong that day on the bridge, crossing the bridge sucked.

Now across the bridge, I was back in Levis and it was getting later. The next few days were projecting a good amount of rain and I wanted to avoid riding in it as the temperatures weren’t overly high again. So I wanted a good spot to setup where I could stay a few days without hopefully being bothered. I tried checking out the wooded areas I saw on my map but none of them worked as they were too thick to get though or already had water on the ground which probably wouldn’t go well for me considering there was quite a bit more rain coming. With it getting closer to dark I stumbled into a baseball field behind a school and settled on it. It was Friday so I figured it was unlikely that hardly anyone should be around the next couple days, especially with it raining. Plus to make it better, I setup in the dugout which had a roof for a little cover.

With all of this I was off to a good start in Quebec and had a place to hide before heading off south again to finish my time along the St. Lawrence. It most importantly, this trip, whatever it ends up being, was starting to feel manageable to me.

Distance biked: 674.1km

Total distance biked: 1526.4km