Mont-Tremblant – Day 5 – Guérette to Mont-Laurier

The day began with a flat tire for me, caused by breaking the valve when I tried to pump the tire up. Fortunately, it happened in the apartment and I was able to replace the tube relatively quickly.

After breakfast in the apartment, we picked up lattes at a different café in the village.

Then we drove an hour north to Guérette, where we left off yesterday. The parking lot was a bit hard to spot down a steep hill, but after going past, and then circling back, we found it and parked in a spot which we hoped would be shady by the end of the day, as the weather was forecast to get fairly hot today.

We didn’t need our cycling sleeves this morning as the morning coolness had already passed.

Shortly, after beginning the ride, we saw this gate for snowmobiles – cycling is prohibited on the trail in most sections in the winter because it switches over to skiing and snowmobiling.

We saw quite a few maintenance trucks out on the trail again today. There were quite a few rough spots today and not as much of it. Marked in orange as yesterday.

Unlike yesterday, the trail went right through some villages. This is Val-Barrette where they had, what appeared to be, newly built bathrooms, with an outdoor tap, a bike repair station, and pump, a little library, and picnic benches. There was also a restaurant here right next to the trail but we planned lunch in Mont-Laurier, the terminus of the trail.

The trail was more open today, and there was almost no wind at all, making for lovely reflections on the little lakes we passed.

We also passed more homes and farms, which are more interesting than a tunnel of green trees.

Mont-Laurier is the northern end of the trail. Our planned lunch spot was about a kilometre south of the end, and we decided to stop on the way. Kaffé Krème had good food, a nice atmosphere, and friendly staff.

We saw many small multi-apartment buildings with outdoor staircases as are common in Montreal.

Mont-Laurier is a town of about 14,000 people. There wasn’t a lot of interest, but Place Bilideau-Pellerin was a busy little park, with lots of seating and a few pieces of art scattered around.

The cathedral Notre-Dame-de-Fourvière de Mont-Laurier burned down in 1982 and only the façade was saved. A new cathedral was built behind it.

Next to the cathedral is the Espace Theatre, a modern building.

Across the street was a statue of a log driver entitled Le Draveur. The railway which became the rail trail which we have been cycling, was important for the development of the forestry and tourist industries in this area. It last transported passengers to Mont-Laurier in 1981.

There was a small hydroelectric dam.

Here we are at the end of the P’Tit Train du Nord. We have now cycled the entire length of the trail from Bois-des-Filion, a northern suburb of Montreal, to Mont-Laurier, a distance one way of 233 km, in both directions, plus a few sections around Prévost additional times.

Unfortunately, the train station in Mont-Laurier seems to have been allowed to deteriorate. There was once a restaurant in it, but it is now closed.

While we were taking pictures here, we saw a class of about 20 children riding back-and-forth on their bikes.

There was a large wooden carving of a train at the station.

It got up to 27° and felt quite hot, but it wasn’t humid, and there were many shady sections on the trail. Tomorrow is forecast to be over 30°.

We’re done, and leaving the parking lot to head back to the apartment, feeling accomplished having ridden the entire trail in both directions on our three trips here since October 2021.

Laurie and Bruce gave us a bag of cheese curds that they bought at St Albert Cheese on their way back from Ottawa. We finished the bag in omelets tonight.

We are both feeling less tired tonight and look forward to more adventures over the next few days.