Chapter 22: Venturing into Quebec's Eastern Townships

Day 14: Friday, July 7, 2017
37 miles 
Montreal to St. Jean Sur Richelieu

When we woke Friday morning it was raining, so we went back to sleep. Why not? We had no ambitious plans for the day. Eventually the rain ceased and the sky cleared and we retrieved our bikes and headed out of the city. Finding our way out of Montreal was easier than finding our way in and once we got back across the St. Lawrence River we enjoyed riding along the bike trail that was part of the green route. 

This overpass was part of the bike path taking us out of the city. Obviously some money is lavished on bicyclists (and pedestrians) in this part of the world.

By now we had no planned itinerary. We could have gone on to Quebec City but Rob and I both felt that one big city was enough. We decided instead to meander through the Eastern Townships region of Quebec. Without a large selection of public campgrounds to choose from, we decided to try our luck staying with Warm Showers hosts, if we could find any who would have us. 

When I contacted Gaby through the WarmShowers.org website he said that he already had two cyclists staying in his guest room, but we were welcome to sleep in his basement or pitch our tent in his yard. We were fine with that. 

Gaby warned us not to ride on this bike trail that ran along the Chambly Canal. It's not paved and he'd had some guests who had gotten bogged down in mud with all the rain. But once we got on it, we couldn't find a convenient way off, and it turned out to be a lovely ride.

Once we did get off the bike path we couldn't find a grocery store to pick up something for dinner and then we couldn't find Gaby's place. It was a rerun of our trying to get to Montreal. We knew we were close; we just couldn't figure out how to get there. And this time there was no Tim Horton's to pop into and ask for directions. But it all worked out in the end; eventually we arrived at our destination for the night with a rotisserie chicken and several bottles of beer on board.

The other cyclists, Chrissie and Erik, had already arrived. They were a young couple from Germany, finishing a year-long adventure. They had started in New York City in August, 2016, had ridden south into Mexico, then west, then north along the west coast (where it rained every day), into Canada, and finally east. Their final day of riding was the next day into Montreal where they would be catching a plane to go home. Our trip paled in comparison to theirs so we were happy to hear about their adventures as we ate dinner on Gaby's back deck.

The rain began again as we were finishing dinner so we migrated indoors where we sat around the kitchen table sharing stories and ideas for trips. Notice all the maps. That's Gaby in the middle, Chrissi on the right and Rob on the left. 

Gaby was getting ready for his own adventure into the unpopulated northern part of Quebec where towns are few and the roads unpaved. You can read about his journey in my next post.

When we woke up Saturday morning it was raining, again. Pouring. But we didn't go back to sleep. Gaby had somewhere to go at nine o'clock, so we had to get ourselves ready to tackle whatever the weather had to offer. Chrissi and Erik left first, decked out in rain gear that actually would keep them dry. Sadly I didn't write down the name of the brand they had as it would be nice to get some rain gear that actually works. Chrissi said that it was quite pricey but not getting soaked on the bike comes with a cost that we may be willing to pay.

This is us getting ready for another day. Gaby had a well-equipped bike repair shop set up in his garage and graciously helped us check our tire pressure and clean our chains before we took off.