Montreal and Véloroute Gourmande – Day 4

Since we only had 41 km to Ride today, we decided to meet for breakfast half an hour later than the previous mornings. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off my earlier alarm. We walked to Tim Hortons for breakfast, and then back to the hotel to pack up. Packing was easier this morning because there were no decisions to make other than what to wear and pack everything else in the panniers.

Here we are at a great mural on the side of a coffee shop in Farnham. Farnham is divided by the Yamaska River. We rode across a road bridge to see the church, and only then realized we could have used a very long pedestrian and cycling bridge.

It wasn’t long before I realize I had dressed far too warmly. I stopped to shed my coat.

The skies were blue, and the sun was strong, and the riding and infrastructure were delightful. All but the first kilometre and last one were on Active Transportation infrastructure.

We saw many pastoral scenes.

Unlike on Ontario trails, mostly the trails do not have gates at all, and even when they do, they are mostly open.

We spotted the mountains around Bromont, our destination for the night early in the ride. We could see them yesterday afternoon, as well.

We encountered some toilet paper covered tar snakes on the trail today. Funny how I had never seen that before and now I’ve seen it twice in a matter of days.

There are fairly frequent rest stops along the trail. This one had a porta potty so we stopped and then sat at a sheltered table for a snack.

I also took the opportunity to remove the capris I was wearing over my bike shorts because I was still too warm.

The investment they make to get cyclists under major roads is very impressive.

We started seeing a bit more fall foliage today.

Granby is a city in the Eastern Townships, known for its zoo and for being a hub for outdoor activities like cycling and nature exploration. There were a number of public art pieces inspired by the zoo.

We had lunch in Granby at Le Café de la Brûleríe. It was packed with cyclists and we were not able to get a table outside. The food was good, but it might be the most expensive lunch I’ve ever had at $44 with tax and tip.

The Yamaska river widens into Lac Boivin at Granby. Walking and cycling are so popular that they have separated infrastructure for each. There is a very large walking and cycling bridge across the lake.

There was interesting public art scattered along the pathways.

There were numerous intersections of active transportation infrastructure without a road in sight.

Cindy took a picture of me riding today to try to balance out all the ones I post of her from behind.

As we got closer to Bromont, the colours became significantly more intense.

Our accommodation was approximately 4 km off the trail and I was expecting to have to ride on the road. We have been travelling along. Veloroute 1. Veloroute 4 branched off and took us into Bromont, leaving less than a kilometre to travel on the main street, which was marked with sharrows.

There was a protected crossing of the highway. And an underpass to avoid crossing over the ramps. Then a lovely ride though woods roughly adjacent to the main road.

There is an outlet mall in Bromont and Vêloroute 4 goes right through it. Clearly businesses here value cyclists. This, and the bustling main street, remind me of Saint-Sauveur, which Cindy and I visited twice when we were riding P’Tit Train du Nord. They are both ski towns with busy main streets and outlook malls.

Bromont is known for its ski resort and an IBM microelectronics facility.

And this is where we are staying – in a two bedroom second floor very modern apartment. The building was originally constructed as a hotel in 1889.

None of us were terribly hungry, owing to our large, expensive lunch. Many of the restaurants in Bromont had no tables available, or required reservations so we ended up getting Chinese food from a hot table in the local depanneur (convenience store). Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t great, but it filled a hole, and wasn’t very expensive.