Reseau Blanc Montreal

How to know there is a year round section of bike paths in Montreal? Well, you really need to know about it before even looking for it on the city's website:

http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/TRANSPORT_FR/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/R%C9SEAU%20BLANC%202010.PDF

In fact, you would be hard pressed to notice that Montreal is one of the top cycling cities in North America since there is no mention at all of cycling on the city's 'Transportation and Public Works' page except for a link at the bottom to the Bixi site. Though you will get directed to a link for the city map of bike paths under 'Summer Activities' on the 'Sports and Recreation' page. So much for promoting cycling as an environmentally friendly form of transportation.

However, what I am really wondering is how city decided what routes would be part of the Reseau Blanc? Looking at the map on the above link, I cannot understand why the city did not include all of the Rachel path in order to connect Parc Jeanne Mance to Parc Maissoneuve as well as keeping rue Clark open all the way to the rail path at Van Horne?

Clark at Bernard

Rue Clark is certainly wide enough to have the bike path open all year even with snow clearing. Plus, it is much the safer route, path or no path, than dealing with the traffic on St. Laurent or St. Urbain. Even with the path closed, cyclists still use Clark in both directions. Same applies for the continuation of the North/South path on Boyer.

Boyer at Rosemont

The snow earlier this week had me all set to put the bike away for the next four months, but I have since reconsidered. The only way to demonstrate the utility of keeping more bike paths open year round is to keep our bikes on the road year round. They could even be designated multi-use paths in the winter; for bikes, sleds, skis or snowshoes. A real Reseau Blanc!

Question of this day

How many tickets did the City of Montreal hand out today to automobilists who parked in the bike paths that are still supposed to be open this last official day of the cycling season?

I would hazard to guess none.

I can imagine the glee on the faces of these drivers as they reclaim their rightful territory on the streets for another winter.

Questions of the Day

Why exactly do the bike paths in Montreal close on November 15th?

The city has to remove those green posts most of which they no longer install anyways?

To facilitate snow removal? Why not leave the snow where it lands on the paths so that they can be used for winter cycling or cross-country skiing or snowshoeing?

As a start, why not extend the bike path season to December 15th to coincide with the date that motorists have to install their winter tires?

Travelling to old haunts another way

Our operations in the Great Lakes normally end at the locks at Beauharnois, the boundary between two Coast Guard regions. However, a call to assist Laurentian Region brought us east of the boundary; familiar territory for my biking but less so when navigating the ship. After a quick steam across a calm Lac St. Louis, we enter the South Shore Canal at Kahnawake.

The dyke along the canal is a popular cycling route, but no cyclists were to be seen between Cote Ste Catherine Lock and St. Lambert Lock on this crisp, late October day. A large ship can take 20 to 30 minutes to enter a lock, but we can zip in and under the bridge in about 5 minutes.

Passing clear of the east end of the island of Montreal, the brilliant silver spires of the Basilica at Varennes stand out along the south shore. This is a great day trip cycling destination from Montreal, which can be combined with a trip across the river via the Parc des Iles de Boucherville by the ferry at Bellerive Park and then another ferry from Ile Grosbois to the South shore at Boucherville (http://www.navark.ca/2_navette.htm). Note, there is a limit to the maximum number of persons the ferries can take at a time so you should factor this into your timing on busy weekends. You will also want to get to Varennes before 4pm so you can visit the Basilica and the Shrine of Sainte Marguerite d'Youville before they close (http://en.sanctuaireyouville.ca/the_shrine). Oh, and pack a lunch because there are not many choices for food at Varennes although the waterfront park just down from the Basilica is a nice place for a picnic and there are washroom facilities in the information centre.

Crossing Lac St. Pierre just east of Sorel, we passed some commercial vessels going upbound before we headed towards the elegant Pont Laviolette with Trois Rivieres lying just on the other side.

Our work assignment over the next week and a half involved removing summer light buoys from the navigation channel between Grondines and Sorel; replacing some of them with winter buoys that can within the ice that forms starting in December. Some of the buoys can be stood up on the deck, but the base of some buoys require them to be layed on their side. It makes for a cluttered working area by the end of the day.

We berthed at Trois Rivieres at the end of most work days in order to transit back to Sorel where the CG base is located for unloading of the summer buoys and loading the next batch of winter buoys.

Vieux Trois Rivieres is a very picturesque location to berth for the night, and a popular one for Coast Guard ships.

Just downstream is another Basilica: Notre Dame du Cap (http://www.sanctuaire-ndc.ca/sndc01/index.php?Itemid=152), with its dramatic dual-coloured dome.

Our trip ended in Sorel with a change of crew. It is a small town, but a very busy port for its size.

Next month will see us back in our own region, working over Christmas and New Years to close out the Seaway season and heading west to Lake Erie and another winter of icebreaking on the Lakes.