Wooden ships and steel buoys

Strangely, both are obsolete in this plastic world. 

A Shoulder to lean on

Funny how regions love to tout their biking resources on their websites but when it comes to putting pavement down, the shoulder is not an obligation. 

What's in a name?

Back at work on the ship but it is in for repairs so I will have spent more time on the water on ferries to and from the Magdalens last month than here. 

Still, it gives me a chance to bike in the early morning before work. I can get a couple of hours along County Road 2 that follows the St. Lawrence River heading out just as the sun comes up. 

This road around the Prescott area is part of the much hyped Waterfront Trail that goes from Niagara Falls to the Quebec/Ontario border. 

http://www.waterfronttrail.org/prescott

I've been biking this road for years now, well before it was designated part of the trail. In fact, the only indication that this is supposed to be a trail is a sign every once in a while. 

There has been no other work done on this road over the years since the province divested responsibility for its maintenance to the local counties and towns. 

So, in this area, it is a trail in name only. 

Still, it is a picturesque ride along the river. 

At least until the traffic starts picking up as motorists head to work in Brockville or Ottawa and you realize that the posted 80 kph posted speed limit is basically ignored since I've never once seen a cop patrolling this road over the years. 

I am curious yellow

After five weeks away from Montreal it was nice to see all the work being done to fix the infinite number of potholes throughout the city. 

Well, all the work consisted of someone driving around and painting a yellow circle around what he considered the worst craters in the road. 

I am curious how this is supposed to facilitate the filling of these holes instead of just going out there and doing it. 

Maybe next year... 

Lessons learned from my first big bike trip

Over the many kilometers traveled in Eastern Canada in the last five weeks I pondered some of the lessons/truths I learned along the way.

Traffic

Most motorists don't seem to know how to pass cyclists on the road. 

Two out of ten do it right by gently shifting over to the left so their left wheels are on or just left of the centreline and maintaining their speed or, even better, taking their foot off the gas while passing.

Seven out of ten move too far to the left all the way into the opposing traffic's lane and usually accelerating so that when they find traffic coming the other way they have to wrench their vehicle back over to the right often ending up closer to the cyclist than if they had just stayed in the lane going straight.

One out of ten don't give a shit and just keep driving no matter how close they pass the cyclist.

Trucks, especially dump trucks, can be hard on the nerves just by their size and noise but the drivers are professionals and usually do the right thing. 

Once you get use to the proximity and noise of the trucks, they can actually be a bonus sometimes because the air they draw after them can pull you along for a certain amount of time. I especially appreciated this when bucking a head wind all day.

When riding on the road, a mirror becomes an essential tool to allow you to see if traffic is coming and whether it is moving over for you or whether you have to haul over to the right (if you can) to get out of the way.

I also put on my little bike lights (MEC has these great little lights for $10 that fit on the bike with an integral silicone strap and recharge with a USB plug) in the flashing mode whenever I was on a road to increase my visibility to motorists. I don't know if it made a difference but it made me feel better.

Truck traffic seemed to die off quite a bit on the weekends. I cycled through the Matapedia Valley on a Friday and a Saturday. There was a lot less traffic on the Saturday, which allowed me to enjoy the nice scenery even more.

If you can ride earlier in the morning, you will usually get less traffic, especially on the weekends.

Every town, no matter how small, has a rush hour and people drive like mad at these times. 

Not to stereotype people but my experience was that the biggest assholes tended to be in pickup trucks. Not sure if it is the redneck factor or what but that is what I found on this trip.

But my butt!

There is no way around it, your butt is going to hurt. If you are spending five, six or seven hours on your bike saddle it is going to get painful at times.

I finally got use to my bike saddle after a thousand kilometers and doing some minor adjustments to the positioning. Before the trip, I had even bought another saddle in the hope of finding a more comfortable one. I tried it for one ride and then went back to the original one. Make sure you've tried adjusting your saddle position before expending a lot of needless funds looking for the impossible ideal.

My main suggestion is don't squirm. If you squirm around on your saddle trying to find the best position you are going to be rubbing your butt against the chamois or whatever the material of the shorts you are wearing and the skin is going to get irritated, which is just going to make things worse.

I found the best thing to do is stand up in the pedals briefly and then sit back down to try to find the most comfortable spot on the saddle. If you don't find it the first time, stand up again and reposition. It might take awhile but you'll be giving your butt a break in the mean time and you won't be rubbing the skin across the material.

Make butt cream your friend. I never used a special cream before this trip but I figured I would give it a try. I got some Assos chamois cream off Amazon ($33) and the tub lasted for the whole trip. I don't know if I absolutely needed it but I used it religiously every day and I didn't have any skin irritation problems the whole trip so I'm not sorry I expended the funds.

To cleat or not to cleat, that is the question

Up until last fall I had never used biking shoes with cleats because I was worried about knee pain.

I finally broke down when I bought my Surly and decided to try cleats and SPD pedals. 

It took awhile and I had to play with the positioning of the cleats to get them right but it was the best choice for me to go with the cleats for this trip.

I had read numerous blogs where some had said it wasn't worth it to have special shoes and others had said you absolutely needed to have shoes with cleats.

I did do some short days on the trip with my regular running shoes but I was always glad when I put the cleats back on. For me, the efficiency gained with the shoes cleated in made a world of difference over a long day.

I am a convert.

Take Five

You are going to be riding many hours, day in and day out, so it doesn't make any sense to try and be a martyr by staying on the bike hour after hour. 

I was amazed at how refreshing it was to just stop and get off the bike for five minutes. Take a drink, walk around, stretch. 

Most often, the excuse was to stop and take a picture but the break was the main reason.

Blame it on the Rain

I admit I cheaped out a bit on the rain gear going with a very basic jacket, pants and no gaiters for my shoes.

For my helmet, I used the trick a hotel in St-Jean-sur-Richilieu gave me last year by using a shower cap, which worked perfectly well.

I had to bike through some rain during the trip but nothing torrential. There was only one day when I had to bike through rain the whole day.

In future, I will get a better quality jacket that is also breathable. I will also get some gaiters to protect my shoes as it was awful feeling the water squish through my toes with every pedal stroke.

Personally, I found rain pants to be a waste. I just ended up soaked in my own sweat instead of rain. It was more comfortable just wearing my bike tights without the rain pants.

For my bike panniers, I went with good quality waterproof Arkels that are made in Quebec. They are a bit heavy but worked perfectly for the trip and kept my gear dry.

One suggestion, though, is that it is a good idea to take your stuff out of the bags at the end of the day and let things air out. Chances are that not everything in your bags will be perfectly dry if you've been riding in the rain so the moisture will stay in the bags because they are waterproof. 

I got lazy a couple of days and kept most things in the bike bags in the hotel. Then when I took something out a couple of days later it was a bit funky.

I would suggest keeping a microfibre cloth in your rain jacket. It doesn't weigh anything and I used it each time I stopped to wipe my glasses before starting off again. It seemed to make the rain not so bad just by the fact of having clear glasses for a couple of minutes.

And remember to drink. It seems counter intuitive to drink liquids when you are being pummeled by rain so I had to keep reminding myself to drink on the rainy days. 

The path not taken

Beware of bike paths if you are not sure of their condition. 

My experience over this trip was that bike paths in built up areas tended to be in good condition because they got a fair amount of use by residents. However, the farther you got away from a town or city the more likelihood that a bike path was not going to be well maintained or a poor compromise of rough gravel roads or piggybacked onto a hiking trail or just plain awful unless it was a former rail line converted to a rail trail.

If in doubt, stick with the road.

And don't trust a Route Verte sign or Sentier NB Trail because that isn't a guarantee of a certain standard throughout. Each section is maintained by the respective municipality so is subject to their interest in maintaining the paths. The Confederation Trail on PEI, however, was an exception with a high standard of trail maintenance throughout.

Cool, clear water

Plain water is great but it isn't enough to get you through the whole day. If you are sweating, you need to replace the salts and other minerals you are losing.

I didn't buy any fancy bottles for the trip. I would just use Gatorade bottles for three or four days and then replace them. I bought a can of powdered Gatorade as well for the trip as I find the full strength drink too sweet so I make up my own about half strength once the bottled stuff is gone. 

I had a bottle of plain water and then another of Gatorade to start each day. I was pretty lucky not to run into any issues getting water but it was June and not too hot so I wasn't drinking constantly. Still, every chance I had to top up the bottles I did so because there was the odd time when I expected to find a source of water and none was to be found. Once I had to buy a litre of water from a store as that was the only option.

Maps

I took along paper maps but I also had mapped out the trip with daily routes via a mapping program on my phone. I found it helped to plan out the trip and it also was helpful sometimes on the road to keep me from heading too far in the wrong direction.

I would start the program at the start of the day and then blank the screen to save on the battery. I tried running one day with the screen on all the time but it killed the battery before getting to the destination. Plus, you don't need to refer to the map constantly.

I used MapMyRide, which worked pretty well though you need cell coverage to get all the functions and detail on the maps. One nice feature was that once I uploaded my day's ride to the web anyone who was a friend on the site could see where I had travelled and ended up each day.

I didn't have cell coverage in certain areas of the trip so I also downloaded an OpenStreetMap app that had offline maps. I was able to export my routes from MapMyRide and import them into the OSM app so I would have a backup. In the end, I didn't use the OSM app very much but it was nice to have a backup.

The End

I'm sure there are other things I thought of on the road but I can't remember them now.

I do remember that I was starting to think about my next trip before I had finished this one so I took it as a positive sign this was for me.

Next stop-Quebec

Our last full day onboard the ship started with picking up a pilot at Les Escoumins and transiting past the Saguenay River as the sun rose behind us.

We would get breakfast and lunch on the ship before we arrived at Quebec for our next and final port stop of the voyage. This was bringing me back full circle to the spot where I cycled a month earlier so it seemed appropriate that we should get our bikes out of the car deck and cycle around the city for the afternoon.

We cycled along the shore path out past the Coast Guard base towards the bridges. Sarah had a commission to do while in the city so we parted and then I carried on to Cap Rouge just on the other side of the bridge.

It felt good to be riding again after a couple of days on the water. We met up again and biked over to the Musee des Beaux Arts to take in an interesting exhibit about James Morrice and John Lyman and their connection to Henri Matisse.

Before we knew it, it was time to race back to the ship to get onboard again for the final leg of the voyage to Montreal. This is something they don't tell you about cruises; the stops in port are shorter than they suggest. We were supposed to have a six hour stop in Quebec but it took a half hour to dock the vessel and set up the gangway and then you have to be back onboard an hour before the ship sails so the six hour stop is actually only four and a half hours of real time ashore.

Anyway, we made it back and changed in time for our last supper as we headed under the bridges just west of Quebec. Then, it was another bit of music, which included some of the crew singing for our benefit before off to bed and an early arrival in Montreal harbour and the end of the journey.

Although it was a ship that took us home, we packed our bags onto our bikes on the dock and pedaled the last few kilometers through downtown and the Plateau to home. 

I am happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed after five weeks but I am already dreaming about the next trip with Surly. She was steady and true every inch of the way and I sense she will be a solid companion for the future.

Next stop-Chandler

Early the next morning, the ship stopped briefly at Chandler on the Gaspe Peninsula before carrying on towards the St. Lawrence River.

Life on ship revolves around meals so we started the day with breakfast onboard. We passed on the option of a bus ride to Perce to see the famous rock and chose to visit the historique site at Pabos just down the road from Chandler.

We took the shuttle bus from the ship and then got off at the Atelier d'Art to look at some of the crafts before walking on to the site via the newly created bike path.

Not sure where all the money came from for all this infrastructure but it might have something to do with the paper mill that shut down in 1999 and the piles of money that went into trying to restart it in the intervening years without success.

The town seems to be doing their best to promote what they have with this nice path. There is even a nod to the workers who came from China to build the railroads in the 19th century.

The historic site at Pabos Mills does not have any remnants from the time of Nouvelle France since the British burned it down on their way to conquer Quebec in the 18th Century but there are interesting panels describing the history of the area from the time of Basques fishermen to when there was a Seigneurie to when it was a saw mill.

There is a small fishing shack that has been constructed on the shore of the bay to indicate what the fishermen might have lived in.

Access to the site via the bike path is across a long, aluminum bridge that runs just beside the railway bridge.

Time was running short as we had to get back to the ship an hour before sailing so we recrossed the bridge and made our way towards the harbour.

We watched the ship depart from the stern deck just as it was time for lunch. 

Life on a ship, any ship, revolves around meals and food. The food on the ship was good though not so flavourful (something about cooking for large numbers that seems to inhibit the cooks in the spice department) and the service by the staff was great.

Shortly after lunch, it was the second attraction for the day as the ship was going to pass close to Rocher Perce and Ile Bonaventure.

After that it was relaxing, getting a chance to tour the bridge, watching a documentary on seal hunting in the cinema, and enjoying the view of the Gaspe Peninsula pass by as we waited for supper.

The day ended with listening to a bit of the musical entertainment with an Acadian flavour in the bar before turning in early to the sounds of the engines throbbing beneath us. 

Leaving the islands via Entry Island

After trying for a week we finally got our chance to take the boat excursion to Entry Island on our last day on the Magdalens before getting on the ferry/cruise ship, CTMA Vacancier, to travel back to Montreal. 

There is a small community of Anglophones on the island that survive from fishing and the few tourist dollars that come in. A gentleman was on the dock to greet us who turned out to be the owner of one of the two restaurants on the island (not bad for a population of 60 people). We chatted with him for a minute and then carried on since we had brought a picnic lunch. 

The big attraction on the island is climbing "Big Hill". 

First, we had to check out the grave of Farmer, the locally famous horse who was sold to a person at Grosse Île on the north part of the Magdalens in the 1920's and then galloped and swam back to Entry Island the next spring. 

Next, we carried on to the little museum to add a few dollars to the local economy. There were a lot of photos and information about people from the island who had gone off to fight in the two world wars plus some interesting old photos of residents from the island. 

Finally, it was time for Sarah and I, along with our friends' son who was joining us for the excursion, to tackle Big Hill. Also, joining us for the climb was "Dog" who, according to the man at the museum, attaches herself to a group of people off the boat and stays with them for the time they are on the island. 

Just before we got to the steep part of the hill we stopped to enjoy our picnic lunch, which consisted of some of the smoked mackerel and the wonderful cheese we acquired the day before at Ile du Havre aux Maisons. 'Dog' was hoping to partake in some of the goodies but we didn't have anything meaty to tempt her. Still, she stuck with us as we packed up and made for the steep trail towards the top of Big Hill. 

The grade was just starting to increase as a mist rolled in from the sea enveloping Bill Hill.

The wind started whipping up along with the mist so it didn't make for a pleasant moment to lounge at the summit and enjoy the view so we followed Dog down the easier slope on the other side of Bill Hill back towards the community.

Dog seemed to know exactly how much time we had to spend on the island before we had to get back to the boat and would occasionally come back to encourage us forward if we dawdled too long at any point.

As with most places in the Maritimes, the population of the cemetery outnumbered the living souls on the island. I thought the most interesting item, though, was the bottle of Port wine present in the window at the back of the church where the priest's robes were hanging.

We soon found our way back to the harbour with a short stop in Brian's Restaurant for a beer to leave a few more dollars on the island. It turned out that Dog did have a name, Poco. She lead us all the way down to the dock and wished us well on our return journey back to the main islands while she waited to guide the next group of visitors who might show up.

The return journey to Cap aux Meules was gentler and swifter with the following seas and we passed the ferry 'Ivan Quinn' that is apparently named after Entry Island's most famous and best-loved resident who passed away a few years ago.

Then, it was time to get our bags, say good-bye to our friends who were spending the rest of the summer at their cottage here and then grab a last island beer before boarding the CTMA Vacancier.

We had enough remainders from our picnic on Entry Island to enjoy an evening picnic out on the deck of the ship while watching various other boats preparing to leave the harbour and the sun go down over Cap aux Meules.

So ended a wonderful week on the Magdalen Islands and started the last segment of this long journey that will take us back to our starting point in Montreal, this time on the water rather than cycling beside it.

Les îles - Swiss style

Our hope to get over to île d'Entrée today was, once again, dashed by a lack of people for the boat but we were told by the excursion company that the boat would definitely be going tomorrow so we went with Plan B and decided to head off on the bikes for a tour of île du Havre aux Maisons. 

There was a nice downhill leading out of Cap aux Meules towards the bridge though we realized we would have to come back up it on our return. 

We also passed further evidence that Disco was dead. 

Île du Havre aux Maisons is smaller than Cap aux Meules but it has several distinctive Hills and bluffs that make it quite picturesque. This was also going to be a bit of a gastronomic tour as the island has a smokehouse and a cheese-making farm. The tour, however, started out on a very basic level as our picnic lunch consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with sliced banana, a few carrots and an apple as we tried to deplete our food stocks prior to our departure tomorrow. 

Still, we found a nice, quiet spot off Chemin du Cap Rouge along the Lagoon with a few small boats anchored just offshore and a blue heron to keep us company. 

Now fortified for the ride through the hills, we headed to the northern point of the island where we (I) decided an ice cream might also be required. 

The Bar Laitier was just in front of the Plage de la Dune du Sud so we had a look while digesting our ice cream. 

Unable to find any other excuses to not ride, we embarked on our steeds and looked for the turn for Chemin des Montents. And climb we did, with a bit of wind in our faces to amp up the challenge. But the climbs weren't endless and the days pedaling against the wind had fortified our legs so we got to the top. The view certainly made the effort worthwhile. 

It almost felt like we had travelled over to the Swiss mountains for a moment. 

Another Hill brought us to a lookout with a lighthouse and a view towards île d'Entrée. 

The view from the direction we had come from wasn't bad either. 

The day was getting on so we made our way down to the Fumoir to pick up some smoked mackerel and seal Jerky before taking in the selection of cheeses at the Fromagerie. Two stops on the Chemin de la Pointe Basse that are musts for anyone visiting the islands. 

Stocked up with goodies for our hike on île d'Entrée tomorrow, it was time to head back to Cap aux Meules against the wind and up that hill to get us to our dining spot for the night, Les Pas Perdu. 

The menu looked very good with a lot of dishes using local products. Sarah was more adventurous, going with the salad of smoked scallops and seal meat confit while I went with the old standby, moules et frites. The Crème de Légumes soup we had to start was very tasty as we sat enjoying the ambience and the glass obviously from ISO Verre. 

Great meal; probably rivaled the lunch we had at Café de la Côte for best meal on the islands. Stuffed, we took ourselves across the street to the Butte to step off our meal and get a view of the harbour where our cruise ship was waiting for us for tomorrow. 

Heading back down the steps we spied a good Samaritan trying to rescue a cat. 

He managed to get the cat and himself down in one piece with a hearty Bravo from Sarah, though a jogger running the steps thought the salutation was meant for him and thanked her as he ran for the top. 

We finished the day by taking the bike path, a real one, at the base of the Butte that took us along the shore half way back to the Auberge. 

And so we parked our bikes under the windows of our room at the Auberge du Gros Cap for the last time; lucky number 7 and the nicest room in the place. 

Beachcombing

Arthur was pretty much a non-event on the Magdalens compared to Nova Scotia and PEI. The morning saw the remainder of the strong winds and rain dying out and leaving a very pleasant afternoon. 

We returned to Havre Aubert (after watching Vincenzo Nibali win the second stage of Le Tour) catching a lift from our friends with our bikes on their bike rack. The day was spent around the chalet and then walking along La Plage du Ouest looking for suitable rocks to line a flowerbed at the chalet. 

Although the wind had calmed down considerably, there was still a nice surf along the shore. 

Nature, naturally, can often be the best sculptor. 

With a good amount of rocks weighing down the car we returned to the chalet leaving the beach to the kitists. 

We finished our visit to Havre Aubert by heading over to La Grave to check the shops and partaking of some local brew at Café de La Grave. We accompanied it with L'assiette Grave, which included three spreads; one with lobster, one with smoked mackerel and one with seal liver. Surprisingly, the seal liver one was the tastiest especially with the candied onions layered on top. 

We said goodbye to our hosts, slipped into the public toilet by the wharf and changed into our cycling gear for the ride back to the Auberge. 

As the sun was lowering in the western horizon, we hit the dunes along Route 199. The winds were quite light and just out of the West so we didn't have the brisk tailwind of the previous trip but we arrived back at the Auberge just as the sun was setting behind us. It was a very agreeable ride allowing us to digest our appetizers and beer, and giving us just enough of a hole to fill with some vegetarian couscous on our arrival.