Calgary – Day 3

I was a bit sore after yesterday’s ride on the heavy, wide barred, mountain bike and was doing some stretching after breakfast. Cat joined me.

We drove to a bike rental place about a 15 minute drive south of where we are staying. We were both much happier with the bikes we rented today. I really don’t understand the point of the bike I was riding yesterday. It was heavy, and with wide heavily treaded tires didn’t roll particularly well, but I was still bent over somewhat, but with such a wide grip, that I ended up with a sore back. Today’s bike is much more upright and lighter.

We had planned to ride along the Western Headworks Canal Pathway to Chestermere, but when I was looking for a place to park this morning, I began becoming concerned, because it looked like an old industrial canal, which wouldn’t have much tree coverage, and it was a very hot day today.

When we told the employee at Outlaw Bikes where we were planning to ride he made a disgusted face, and confirmed my concerns. He said it wasn’t a nice ride. He suggested another which coincidentally I had planned for another day, and started within a couple kilometres of the store.

He put my bike seat on the rental bike for me. I put my bar bag on the crossbar because it wouldn’t fit on the bars, and we couldn’t fit the quad locks on the bars because their diameter was too small. Patti’s bento box didn’t fit, either.

There was a multiuse trail from the store to the beginning of the trail.

We joined the route at Heritage Park, which is like Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. The LRT runs past the park.

The park has a replica of Calgary’s first train station which has a café in it. It was on a lovely square with trees, so we stopped for coffee, even though we were at the beginning of our ride. It was already very hot in the sun.

The trail went by the Rockyview General Hospital.

As we rounded the corner, a beautiful vista opened up of the Glenmore reservoir. There was a paddle wheeler on it operated by Heritage Park.

With the Bow and Elbow Rivers, Calgary is a city of bridges. And there are many Active Transportation-only bridges. I have to admit to being impressed, so far, with the amount of Cycling infrastructure in the city of oil and gas.

The route was fairly well signed.

After the dam there was a horseshoe bend in the river with a beautiful view over the Calgary Golf and Country Club.

We passed many places where people were swimming in the river.

Riverdale Avenue was a beautiful neighbourhood with trees meeting over the street and many beautiful homes of varying sizes.

The bow river trail is also the TransCanada Trail.

We passed the Saddledome detouring around the grounds, which are now closed in preparation for the stampede next week.

The route that we were following, began and ended at Bike Bike. I went in and thanked him for preparing the route and making it available to the public. He had many interesting bikes available.

As we were leaving the store, we saw this pedal pub.

Then we rode down 9 Avenue SE looking for lunch. It’s impressive how many patios have been set up in places that would normally be used for parking.

This parking lot had an art display. It looks like in the past it was completely given over to non-car parking activities, but now the cars have returned, unfortunately.

We had lunch at the Hose and Hound, a pub in an old firehouse. Just as we were leaving it started to rain. There was a thunderstorm warning in effect, but we decided to go anyway.

The sky got quite dark, and we heard thunder. The rain got heavy enough that I was thinking we would need to seek shelter, but then it tapered off, and the sun came back out.

There was a great view of the skyline just as we turn back onto the river pathway.

I like this piece of public art. This is where the detour was in effect around the stampede grounds.

Patti’s been here a couple times in the last year and is starting to get to know her way around so she was able to suggest a couple short cuts to the route we had used on the way out. This active transportation bridge is on an old train trestle.

Calgary is starting to build curb protectant cycle tracks with protected intersections. They’re very nice to ride with the cars on your left.

We rode across the Glenmore dam, which was beautifully set up for separated walking and biking.

It also had a nice view of the city skyline.

The colour of the water was a beautiful turquoise.

This is another Active Transportation Bridge across the highway.

Back up Heritage Park we had ice cream. The flavour I chose was called barn floor, which was a mix of chocolate and vanilla ice cream with nine different things mixed in. It was creamy and delicious.

Calgary used to have a street railway system, but like most cities in North America, it was dismantled. A small section has been set up at Heritage Park, and an old tram runs here.

We returned the bikes to the store to keep overnight for us, as we don’t have room for them where we are staying. Then we picked up a few groceries and returned to the apartment for dinner.

After dinner we went for a walk through the Mission, a neighbourhood of modest homes.

Then we climbed up about 120 stairs to the Mont Royal neighbourhood.

It had a beautiful idea of downtown.

It was full of very expensive, beautiful homes and gardens.

Calgary – Day 2

We borrowed Patti‘s son’s car today to drive to Canmore, where we rented bikes and rode to Banff.

Once we were on the highway, there were beautiful views of the mountains, all the way.

We reserved the bikes online last night, and chose mountain bikes as they were less expensive than the road bikes, and we weren’t sure about the geometry of the road bikes that they had. We have each replaced the stem on our road bikes with one that elevates the bars somewhat over what is standard.

We were rather shocked to see the size of the tires on the bikes we rented. Mine were 29 inch tires 2.2 inches wide. Patti‘s were 27.5 inches , 2 inches wide. The bars were also extremely wide. I brought my own saddle and installed it. The employee helping us seemed impressed that I had it done by the time he finished helping another group and came over to install it. I also installed our phone holders and my bar bag. Patti brought her bento box that goes on the crossbar.

The ride was 23 km one-way, all on paved multi use path, and almost all uphill.

The sights were beautiful. Sometimes we were within sight of the highway and sometimes riding through trees.

At the 10 km point there was a rest areia where we had a snack. I couldn’t believe how challenging I was finding the ride. The bike is definitely much heavier than I’m used to, but the ascent seemed relatively gradual. We also had a moderate headwind.

We were happy to arrive in Banff, which has many blocks of their main street closed to private motor vehicles for the summer and allows only active transportation and public transit.it was lovely to have so much space making it feel uncrowded, and quiet with the traffic noise.

We stopped at Evelyn’s coffee world for lunch after leaving our bikes with the free bike valet.

The temperature got up to 28°, so we were happy to have a rest and a meal before exploring Banff.

We did a little loop around the town crossing the Bow River on one active transportation bridge, and back on another.

The views were stunning.

There was an art walk, which had some interesting pieces. This one was called The Bear-tage.

We passed the Banff railway station on the way back out of town.

Traffic was relatively light, and there were super sharrows, indicating that we should take the right hand lane.

As we left Banff and started to descend, we were surprised to realize how steep climb had been. We were often able to coast or pedal lazily and generally had the wind at our backs. It was a very pleasant return.

There was an area for a few kilometres where they had electric fences to keep the bears from crossing the highway.

We were able to ride over the mat with a rubber tires, but a bear should get a shock. Although, we saw a cyclist walk her bike over it and not get shocked. Pedestrians were supposed to go through the gate.

The bathroom at the bike rental place had a shower so we were able to quickly rinse off before changing for dinner.

I always wondered why people were riding fat bikes, but now I know for sure I wouldn’t want one. I wouldn’t choose a bike like the one I rode today, again, if there was another choice.

We had dinner at the Iron Goat Pub and Grill. It started raining just as we arrived so we sat inside.

For a few minutes on our drive home there was a tremendous downpour, but it cleared up fairly quickly. When we arrived back at the apartment, the balcony was covered in hail. Apparently it had been a very damaging storm in the city.

We walked around the neighbourhood to survey the damage before coming back to the apartment to write the blog and hopefully get to bed a bit earlier tonight.

Calgary – Day 1

Patti and I are exploring Calgary this week, staying with her son. Our respective husbands dropped us at the airport just before 8am. We were flying Westjet from Terminal 3 which was very quiet with lots of self check-in terminals and baggage drop off lanes available.

Toronto Pearson airport has a new security appointment booking service available for some flights and ours was eligible for it. I booked for 830 which gave us a window for jumping the security line between 815 and 845. Check-in was so quick that we were at security by 810 but they let us go through anyway ahead of the people lined up that hadn’t booked. It worked very well and we were at the gate with coffee before 830.

The flight left on time. The air quality was very poor from forest fire smoke, and it wasn’t long before we were up into smoky clouds and couldn’t see a thing.

The plane flew up the west side of the Bruce Peninsula where the air was clear, and we were able to see Manitoulin island as we flew over it.

Calgary Airport has a complementary passenger transportation system that runs on its own little internal road, and can carry 10 people at a time, and is wheelchair accessible.

We got an Uber from the airport to the apartment, dropped off our stuff, and headed out for a late lunch at the OEB Breakfast Club.

4 St SW, from 17 Ave SW to 26 Ave SW had many restaurants and cafés with patios protected by colourful jersey walls.

It was hard to believe that this view of the elbow River was right in a built-up area of the city.

We picked up some groceries for the next couple breakfasts and dinner tonight.

We are sharing the apartment with this lovely orange cat who is incredibly friendly.

After a dinner of cod and salad, we went for a walk on 17 St SW which was also lined for blocks and blocks with restaurants and patios.

Tompkins Park had moveable tables and chairs, and a band shell where there is entertainment on summer evenings.

There was also a public bathrooms at one end of the park made by a company Exeloo. They are “permanent, self cleaning fixtures with automatic doors, that open and close like an elevator, complete the Star Trek sound effects.”

I’ve already seen a lot of murals, many of them very large, which I always appreciate in a city.

It doesn’t get dark until after 10 o’clock here. We didn’t end up in bed until midnight so have effectively already accounted for the two hours time change.

Tomorrow we plan to ride from Canmore to Banff.

Mont-Tremblant – Day 10

We packed and took it down to the car. Fortunately, we had an elevator to take us down from the 12th floor. It’s always easier to pack to go home – no choices about what to pack and, when you have brought food, if you’ve planned correctly, you have eaten most of it.

We decided to try a local independent coffee shop. I enjoy lattes, and bought a machine several years ago to make them. I’ve become quite good at making them at home, and I’m often disappointed when I purchased them at coffee shops. Even Starbucks, the chain that made the espresso beverage ubiquitous, rarely makes a good one anymore. Figaro Coffee House did a good job and made a delicious apple turnover.

It was short drive to Kanata where we had arranged to ride with Cindy‘s cousin, Mike, and then to have lunch with Mike and his wife Jane, when we returned.

Mike, is a very tall, strong cyclist. He decided to ride his heavy steel touring bike, his slow bike. Cindy and I were on our road bikes.

The destination was Pihney’s point, one of the few public accesses to the Ottawa river in this area. It was a 20 km one-way out and bike ride. Ottawa seems to be pretty good at building active transportation infrastructure over highways and canals. This bridge took us over the 417.

We were on a mix of infrastructure – quiet residential streets, raised, cycle tracks, urban shoulders, rural shoulders, and finally a gravel road down to the point.

It was slightly uphill and against the wind on the way there, but by drafting behind Mike most of the way, we made excellent time.

Hamnet Pinhey was a London importer who in 1820 retired to Canada at 35 to become a landed gentleman. He was granted 1000 acres on the Ottawa River for his service as King’s Messenger during the Napoleonic Wars. Within 10 years, he had built an estate which he named Horaceville after his eldest son. He also became involved in local politics. Horaceville, remained in family hands until 1959 when it was sold to the National Capital Commission.

The views from the upper story of the house are tremendous.

We had a lovely lunch with Mike and Jane, and then based on google maps, and their recommendation, decided to travel home on Highway 7, rather than 417 to the 401. The additional time from the lower speed limit was more than made up by the shorter distance. We did use the 407 from Highway 115, which was more than $30, even on a Sunday afternoon when the tolls are lower, but it cut down the trip from that point to one hour from 90 minutes.

As we approached Peterborough, we started noticing that the sky looked very odd. We haven’t been paying attention to the news and were unaware of the forest fires. This picture was taken on Highway 115 south of Peterborough.

We were so fortunate in our timing on this trip. We had lovely weather and were unaffected by the forest fires which dramatically affected air quality in the places we had just visited in the following days.

It was a wonderful trip, and I highly recommend visiting Ottawa and the Laurentians, and specifically the P’Tit Train du Nord, to my fellow cyclists.

Mont-Tremblant – Day 9 – Ottawa

Apologies dear readers for leaving yesterday’s blog on a cliffhanger and taking a few days to write today’s.

We decided to take a walk before breakfast, to retrace last night’s walk, to try to find Cindy‘s key card. The first place we stopped was the bridge on Laurier Avenue over the canal where I saw this devilish face, which I had missed the night before. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the key card.

We continued on in front of the armory, the Fire Service Memorial, and City Hall, keeping our eyes on the ground, to no avail.

As we walked around the fountain on the far side of City Hall, Cindy gave a shout of success. The card was lying there on the ground where it had fallen. I realized that I had a picture at that exact spot from the night before probably taken just a Cindy dropped her card. She is in between the two fountains at the centre of the picture.

We went to SecondCup for a celebratory coffee before heading back to the residence for breakfast.

We coordinated our clothing with our brand new jerseys today.

Today we are riding the Big Loop, a route I found on the Ottawa Rural Routes Ride with GPS account. There is a new edit feature on Ride with GPS that allows you to easily change the starting point of a ride, which allowed me to quickly have the ride start on campus, rather than in the southwest corner of Ottawa. The route took us to the south end of the campus, where there is an LRT stop and the design is well done for bikes, as well, with a nice wide ramp, that goes under the road, leading to an Active Transportation bridge that crosses the canal.

The bridge was covered in love locks.

We deviated slightly from the route to see the Canadian Fire Services memorial with a much larger than life fireman.

Next we visited the Holocaust Memorial. The architect is Daniel Libeskind’s firm. He was also the architect for the Crystal addition at the Royal Ontario Museum. Edward Burtynsky is the artist who created the large murals on the concrete slabs.

It is very well done with many information panels that explain the holocaust and admit to Canada‘s failure to save Jewish people from the holocaust due to very restrictive immigration policies.

“Immigration to Canada was extremely difficult for those seen as undesirable, including Jews, Chinese, people of African descent and those considered disabled or physically and mentally compromised. Antisemitism contributed to the problems facing Jewish refugees. During an off-the-record discussion with journalists, a high-ranking immigration official was asked how many Jews Canada was prepared to admit; he responded, “None is too many.” These barriers dashed any hopes European Jews had that Canada might be a place of refuge, and Jewish Canadians lacked the political power needed to change government policies.”

At this point, only 5 km into our 30 km ride, it was already midday, and we were close to the Mill Street brewpub, which is in a very pleasant location on the Ottawa river, accessible by the Trans Canada Trail, so we stopped there for lunch.

Shortly after lunch, we came upon the Remic Rapids Balanced Rock Sculpture Project.

“In 1986 John Felice Coprano began creating balanced natural rock sculptures at this site. The sculptures are made entirely by hand, using rock found exclusively at this location. The rocks are heavily fosolized, and have a rich variety of colours, textures and forms that are unique to the region. Every day, the sculptor returns to work, creating sculptures until the fall when the project is dismantled for the winter. The National Capital Commission has provided support for the project since 2000.”

The path along the river was exceptionally busy with cyclists, and had great connections to routes branching to the south.

When we headed south, we continued on a multi-use path. We passed an LRT station. There were a few deviations from the route because of the construction of the extension of the LRT, however, the detours were well marked.

We rode through Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm, an agricultural facility, working farm, and research centre of the Science and Technology Branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

From there, we rode the Hartwells locks, of the Rideau canal, near Carleton University. The Rideau Canal is considered a cultural site of “outstanding universal value,” and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. It is the only continuously operated canal system of its kind in North America.

Only the tulip stems were left from Ottawa’s Tulip Festival, which has beautiful gardens around Dows lake.

When I was here in 2017 with a group of seven from BikeBrampton we were given a bike tour of the city by Heather from BikeOttawa, who told us about a new Active Transportation bridge that was planned across the Rideau Canal. We were able to ride across it today.

In search of ice cream, we had the serendipitous experience of discovering Lansdowne Park. It was originally a venue for agricultural affairs, and during the winter months had one of Ottawa’s earliest skating and hockey ranks. The 1904 Stanley Cup final was played at Lansdowne. It is now a combination of a stadium, playing fields, exhibition buildings, retail, and some residential.

There was an event on today that featured outdoor spin classes and indoor and outdoor yoga sessions, and a market.

The bike racks all over the property were jammed full.

We headed back out to the canal, and then rather than staying on the canal path rode along the parkway, which was closed for active transportation. Ottawa does this every Saturday and Sunday during the warm weather.

Next we went back to the Ottawa Art Gallery to see an exhibition by Norman Takeuchi. As a child, he and his family were forcibly sent to Westwold, British Columbia due to their Japanese heritage. This happened when Canada declared war on Japan in December 1941 and they were not permitted to return to the West Coast until 1949.

Japanese Canadians had their property seized and forcibly sold. This piece represents the 1200 Japanese Canadian fishing boats that were seized.

We returned to the hotel and made ourselves grilled cheese sandwiches and ate the last of our groceries for dinner.

After dinner we went for a walk around campus.

I loved this building – the School of Information Technology, and Engineering. As I walked around, it felt very familiar to me, and reminded me of the William Davis Computer Research Centre at the University of Waterloo, and when I looked up the architect, Ron Keenberg, I discovered that he designed both buildings.

This is the bike ramp and LRT station at night.

Tomorrow we will be a riding with Cindy’s cousin in Kanata followed by lunch and then driving home to Brampton.

Mont-Tremblant – Day 8 – Ottawa

The heat wave was forecast to continue so we planned to do a 14 km ride I found on the “Ottawa Rural Routes” Ride with GPS account, followed by a visit to the air conditioned comfort of the National Gallery of Art.

I love the spiral staircase at Laurier Avenue.

We turned too soon as we rode across Laurier Avenue to get to the east side of the canal where the route was, which meant we ended up at a dead end below Wellington, causing us to carry our bikes up a long staircase, emerging beside the old train station where the Senate is temporarily housed as renovations happen on the Hill. There was a lineup outside, waiting to have a tour.

In front of the Senate is a monument to the suffragettes who were instrumental in getting women the vote.

We crossed Elgin and went back down another long staircase.

We then started to ride down the east side of the locks. When I stopped to take this picture, someone pointed out that there ais a sign at the bottom of the hill, saying that the pathway was closed. We thanked him and decided to give up on the route as I have a reasonable mental map of Ottawa and knew where the things that we wanted to see were located. That path was severely damaged and being repaired the last time I tried to ride it in 2017.

We rode down Spark Street, which has long been pedestrianized, and long been a challenging place to have a business. It seemed that there was a rib festival on, but many of the stores seemed as challenged for business as they have been in the past. We were in search of a coffee, but in several blocks were unable to find a coffee shop, which is ridiculous on a pedestrian street. We found a Tim’s, and McDonald’s, but neither had outdoor seating, and both were busy. Eventually, we ended up at a Starbucks, which had a patio, but after Cindy went in to get our coffee, she came back out and suggested we sit inside to get out of the heat. It wasn’t even 11 o’clock.

We did a loop around the Supreme Court and had a look at the river and views.

We then rode across the Portage Bridge to Gatineau. There’s a bi-directional cyclepath on the bridge.

There’s a lot of construction in Gatineau as you can see in the background of this picture I took of a relief map of the area.

As we were cycling along the riverfront, in the distance I noticed something colourful and suggested we ride there. I love street art.

It is Place Laval and was a parking lot in 2016. In 2018 the murals were painted.

Now the parking lot has been removed (at least for the summer) for a second year with a summer program to attract people to the downtown.

We saw this interesting planter on one of the side streets in the area.

There were a series of information panels with metal sculptures on them along the Gatineau side of the river.

This is the Museum of Canadian history.

We crossed back to Ottawa on the Alexandra bridge, which has a wooden deck for cyclists and pedestrians. It’s a rough ride on our road tires.

We had lunch in the ByWard market at the Blue Cactus Bar and Grill. It was uncomfortably hot, even in the shade.

A short ride later and we were at the National Art Gallery. This giant sculpture is known as Maman, by the artist Louise Bourgeois, who was almost 80 when she created it. It is a recurrent subject for Bourgeois, and she sees the giant spider as “ a nurturing and protective symbol of fertility, shelter, and the home”.

We left our bikes locked up in the bike racks right in front of the gallery and proceeded to explore. Moshe Sardis is the Gallery architect. He also designed Habitat 67 in Montreal.

This piece, Brillo Soap Pads Boxes 1964 (plywood boxes with serigraph and acrylic) by Andy Warhol has a funny story behind it.

“In 1965 thirty Brillo Soap Pads Boxes intended for a Toronto exhibition were held at Canadian customs, as officials questioned their status as art. The officials contacted Charles Comfort, then-director of the National Gallery of Canada who, on examining a photograph, determined the works were not art, but merchandise. Two years later, Brydon Smith, curator at the NGC, together with Jean Sutherland Boggs, the Gallery’s new director, purchased eight Brillo Boxes. For them, the works were indeed art and, more than that, art worthy of the national collection. Purchased 1967”

I quite enjoy a lot of modern art, but I found this wire, strung diagonally across an otherwise empty room to be rather ridiculous. It is by Fred Sandbank and is untitled.

I like this piece and learned something new. It is by Edward Wadsworth and entitled Dazzleships in Dry Dock at Liverpool 1919. Apparently, “during the First World War, battleships were painted with bold geometric patterns as a form of camouflage called “dazzle.” The irregular shapes broke up the ship’s form, making it difficult for enemy submarines to accurately determine its course. Wadsworth depicts a freshly painted vessel in dry dock, towering over the men completing their paintwork.”

In short hallways between the galleries, there were windows to see into the space between the galleries. It was quite interesting.

This is one of my favourite pieces and reminds me of batik fabric. It appeals to the quilter and me. It is by Sam Gilliam.

It also appeals to me when there is humour in art. This is by Thomas Couture and is subtitled, “Every Party has its Consequences”.

The building is quite spectacular and affords views of parliament hill.

I was amused by the fact that many gallery attendees , had put their proof of purchase stickers on this lamppost in front of the gallery.

When the gallery closed at five we went across the street to the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica.

The columns were wood and painted to look like marble.

This public art piece is known as the Tin House. I found out about it on AtlasObscura. The original façade was crafted by Ottawa tinsmith Honoré Foisy to advertise his services. It fell into disrepair, and the building needed to be demolished, but the national capital commission saved and stored the façade which was later restored and placed here in this courtyard, named Tin House Court.

There was another piece of public art called Our Shepherds by Patrick Bérubé. The information plaque reads “Two shepherds stand face-to-face atop two sheep. The figures are notably joined by a long stick that connects their noses. This stick recalls both the long staff carried by shepherds and Pinocchio’s famously growing nose, suggesting an underlying discord between the shepherds role as protectors and the clear evidence of their lies. But what motivates their deceit?”

“The playful blue colour and simple, symmetrical structure of the sculpture act as an enticement to consider deeper meanings. Our Shepherds speaks of those who take power and those who are led, inviting viewers to question who are the shepherds and who are the sheep.”

This war memorial is across the street from the National Art Gallery.

This is the best protected bike lane I have ever seen. No, wait, I’m outside the American Embassy. Once again, it seems to be over the top barricading of the American Embassy, just as I saw in Bratislava, and Prague, compared to all the other national embassies that I saw.

This short bi-directional bike lane that switches sides, partway down Rideau Street, and then turns into sharrows after less than a kilometre was confusing.

We managed to make another dinner from the food we brought from home. Not much food left, but only two days to go.

We went out for a walk at twilight. This is the armoury and City Hall.

This is the Fire Services Memorial in front of City Hall.

I think this is a stylized maple leaf.

This is the aboriginal war veterans memorial. It faces the Lord Elgin hotel.

This is the view from the Laurier Avenue bridge over the canal. When we got to Colonel By Drive and were waiting for the light, Cindy realized that she had dropped her room key card. We were tired, so we decided not to look for it. On my last night in Bratislava, I lost my key card and when I told the front desk, they simply replaced it for me no charge. Cindy reported to the front desk here at the residence that she lost it and we were told that there was a replacement fee of either $30, $40 or $50. The student working the desk seemed uncertain. I thought it was a ridiculous amount of money so I told him we would go back out and look for it tomorrow.

It was a lovely walk and the heat has dissipated. We’re looking forward to a day of riding in more comfortable temperatures tomorrow.

Mont-Tremblant – Day 7 – St-Jovite, Montebello, and Ottawa

We packed everything up, loaded the car, drove to the sister resort to return our keys, and then parked in a the shady spot in Mont-Tremblant Village.

It was already 25° and we were driving to Ottawa today so, we decided to just ride back to St-Jovite for a coffee, and to experience an enjoyable section of the trail, again.

We had only explored the tiny bit of St-Jovite that can be seen from the P’Tit Train du Nord Trail. So we decided to ride a couple extra kilometres to explore the town and get three more Statshunters tiles.

This is City Hall.

It was already baking hot so when we came to the splash pad, Cindy went into the mist, and I took off my jersey, and held it in the stream of water until it was completely soaked, then put it back on. It was dry again within 15 or 20 minutes, but felt fabulous while it was drying.

On the main commercial street of St-Jovite we found one of the most beautiful P’Tit Train du Nord station, we have seen. I’m not sure how the station connected to the main trail we have been riding because it is a couple kilometres away, but it did have an old abandoned rail down the side.

We decided to get ice cream before leaving town.

We are heading back to the car.

We stopped at grocery store next to the parking lot to buy some watermelon, but it looked like it had been cut a couple days ago so we got a litre of chocolate milk to split instead. The heat was absolutely intense.

Neither of us had ever been to Le Château Montebello. It is part of the Fairmont chain of hotels. It is the world’s largest log cabin and has 210 guest rooms and two restaurants. It opened in 1930 and was originally owned by the Canadian pacific railway company. It is considered one of Canada’s grand Railway hotels. It is took 3500 workers only four months to complete the building.

We walked around the three-story lobby centred on a 20 m fireplace. The smell of wood smoke lingered in the air.

We then walked around the grounds.

Adjacent to the main buildings is the Papineau Manor, a national historic site of Canada. It was home to the Papineau family from 1850 to 1929.

There is an oak tree next to the house, which is over 300 years old. Louis Papineau consciously insured, the tree, which was estimated to be over 100 years old at the time of the building of his manor was preserved. He wrote a letter to his wife making this observation, “How wonderful it is to have trees more than a century old close to the house built yesterday in the garden that was designed yesterday.”

Parks Canada has made efforts to try to extend its life and has also planted 80 of its seedlings from its acorns around Canada.

We are staying at a residence of the University of Ottawa. I stayed here along with six other people BikeBrampton on my first cycle tourism trip in 2017. We are in a two bedroom one bathroom, one kitchenette and dining area apartment. I forgot that they don’t have a stove. So we asked if there was a Common Kitchen Area with stoves, and we’re pleased to discover there is, but it isn’t stocked with cutlery, dishes, pots, and pans, and neither are the apartments. Upon closer investigation, we managed to find a left-behind spatula and a couple frying pans so we were able to fry up the package of bacon we had, and make a couple omelets for our dinner.

After dinner, we went out for a walk around the campus and the local area. Here’s a couple images from the campus.

As we’ve left the campus, we spotted this building which wasn’t here five years ago when I was last here. It turned out. It was a municipal art gallery with free entry. We had enough time to explore one floor and will try to make time to go back again.

This was an interesting exhibit for vision, impaired people, which had a picture to touch and an iPad to activate sounds that mimicked this painting.

We left from the other side of the building and down a level. It is part of a larger complex, Arts Court, and LabO Theatre.

The control boxes for traffic lights are all wrapped in art here.

There is a youth hostel in the old jail.

This is the residence. We are staying in on the 12th floor. Fortunately, there is an elevator here.

Mont-Tremblant – Day 6 – St-Jovite, Sentier des Cimes, Centre des villégiature Tremblant

It was already hot by the time we were ready to ride from the apartment this morning. There are two buildings and a swimming pool on the site. The one behind us has outdoor staircases, but ours does not.

We were heading for Sentier des Cimes, a tree top walk in Mont-Tremblant National Park. It is about 20 km south of where we are staying. We realized as we headed out that the last time we rode this section of the trail there had been a detour. That detour is gone so we were able to do a small section of trail, which we haven’t done before.

This is a very nice section of the trail. The asphalt is of good quality and there are lots of views and little villages.

We stopped in St-Jovite for coffee at 83 Nord, named for the fact that it is at the 83rd km from Saint-Jérôme on the P’Tit Train du Nord. The last time we were here we were worried we would get frostbite in our fingers and toes because it was 1°and raining , and we didn’t have our winter cycling gear with us. We recreated the scene.

It’s a lovely café with great coffee beverages and baked goods. It’s also an upscale grocery store. They have an interesting reading material. With only be 40k to ride, we lingered.

There is a nice park adjacent to the trail in St-Jovite wth a playground, splash pad, seating, and shady spots.

We are still trying to figure out what this is. It was by a small weir.

Even when the trail is ascending it is often gentle enough, especially when the pavement is smooth, that we have discussions about whether we are going up or down.

This is such a lovely setting. The chicken coop, which unfortunately I failed to capture, matched the house.

When we rode this section of the trail in fall 2021 we stopped briefly here and read a sign which indicated that this is the Ancienne Pisciculture, but everything was closed. Last fall, days after returning from the P’Tit Train du Nord I was served an ad on Instagram for Sentier des Cimes and was shocked that I could have missed it on the horizon. It is right off the trail.

The first thing I asked when I purchased my ticket was, when was it built, and it transpires that it was after that trip, and it opened last June. I felt better.

The park was built by the federal government during the depression to teach about fish culture. During the 1950s it would host over 150,000 visitors a year. It was downloaded to the provincial government, and then to the upper tier municipality in the late 1990s. It was costing the municipality over $100,000 annually to maintain the property, so two years ago they partnered with the German company AKI, which has many parks like this in multiple European counties. This is the first outside Europe. They pay the municipality to lease the land. Last summer they had up to 3000 visitors a day. Thankfully today, which seems to be the off season, had only a few tens of visitors.

These pictures were displayed in the visitor’s centre.

We were excited to find P’Tit Train du Nord jerseys in the gift shop as the one in Prévost had already closed last fall when we were there.

The entry was $31 for an adult. It seemed reasonable given the major investment to build the treetop walk of over a kilometre and the spiraling viewing structure.

There were fun little diversions along the way.

It was a very robust walkway. We asked them how they do winter maintenance and they replied that they have a snowblower that gets driven along the path and up the spiral.

This lichen is so pretty.

It reminds me of The Vessel at Hudson Yard in New York City, but it is no longer open for climbing due to low railings and several suicides. The railings here were chest height on me.

And up we go. The were only 5 other people in the structure as we climbed. And a few others as we descended.

There was a net, which the daring were able to walk on, over the open space in the centre, 40m off the ground.

It was a fun experience.

The cashier in the cafeteria was lovely and so proud of what had been accomplished here. She is the one who gave us the history of the property.

The food was good but expensive. There were plenty of tables and umbrellas for shade, which we needed, as it got up to 31°.

We stopped again in St-Jovite on the way back , checked out the bike store, and then tried a different coffee shop called 900 Tremblant.

From where I was sitting, I could see the bus stop and recalled that the bus within Mont-Tremblant National Park is free. We had talked about cycling from the village where we are staying to the resort where the ski slope is tomorrow, but when I saw the bus stop, I thought why not bus to the ski resort and then ride back to our apartment today. So we finished our coffee and a few minutes later were sitting on the bus. The bus driver, and one of the passengers, both commented that we were professionals, putting our bikes on the rack.

The ride took about 30 minutes. We toured around the resort which is something we were unable to do last time because of how cold and tired we were by the time we got there. That time, when we got there, while we were having lunch, the waiter told us about the bus. We took the bus back to St-Jovite which meant that Cindy was able to meet her goal of transporting her bike on a bus for the first time. It also cut out a some riding on a long, cold day.

We headed back through the woods in the direction that we rode to the resort last year. After about 10 minutes of riding uphill, we were faced with a fence saying that the bridge was closed and no detour was listed. Two young guys on fat tired E bikes came out from behind the fence and told us we wouldn’t want to go through there with our bikes because it had been damaged in the winter.

We told them where we wanted to go and they lead us right back to where we started and then pointed us off in another direction. We were both doubtful but did end up back along the route about 15 minutes later that we recognized.

This water foundation worked and water the plants in the hollowed out log.

We stopped at the grocery store in town and picked up a couple things and passed the very busy public beach, where there were still crabapple trees blossoming.

We carried our bikes up to the room got into our bathing suits and cannonballed into the pool. It felt amazing.

Once again, we prepared dinner in the apartment, and spent the evening recovering from the heat and our efforts.

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.

Mont-Tremblant – Day 4 – Nominingue to Guérette

We had breakfast in the apartment, then drove to the other resort to check in, then to a coffee shop Mont-Tremblant Village to get lattes to drink while we drove to Nominingue, which is the northernmost point to which we cycled to last fall.

I get the sense that the trail hasn’t officially opened yet. It closed to cycling just after we were here at the beginning of November, for maintenance then for snowmobiling and skiing. The station house at Nominingue is having repairs done today, and the tourist information booth hadn’t opened yet. However, the washrooms and water were available.

This picture frame was near the station and Cindy was a good sport posing with her bike in it.

This group of sheds is partially for markets and partially rented out as accommodation on Airbnb for $26 a night.

There weren’t a lot of sights along the trail today, except when it opened up for small lakes. It was mostly a tunnel of trees.

From time to time we would pass industrial uses along the trail.

This section of the trail had regular outhouses. I used this one and there was no smell, at all. I’m not sure what the pile of bark was for as there was toilet paper provided.

It’s quite unusual, in my experience, to see better cycling infrastructure, than roads.

We passed this couple on the trail several times, and his red jacket made for a nice pop of color.

Here we are at our turnaround point and where we plan to park the car tomorrow.

This is the only road we went under the whole day.

Cindy got a nice chain tattoo because we oiled our chains before heading out this morning after removing all the dust from the gravel roads yesterday.

Many of the roads in this area are gravel, and in some places the asphalt of the trail continues across the gravel road. This suggests to me that the person responsible for this section understands the needs of cyclists. It is safer not to transition from asphalt to gravel, and more comfortable. There was also a lot of orange spray paint indicating many rough spots, which helped us to avoid them some of the time, although there were sections where the rough spot were so numerous they were impossible to avoid, and the orange paint just gave a visual warning of the rough ride you were about to endure. Hopefully repairs will soon follow – we did see several maintenance trucks working.

The trail is paved in its entirety Mont-Tremblant Mont-Laurier, but a lot of the pavement is in poor shape. I read a blog from 2019 sharing the same complaint.

We didn’t identify anywhere convenient to eat along the trail, so we took some hard-boiled eggs, nuts and a protein bar with us.

Neither of us did as much cycling over this past winter as we have over previous ones, and we’ve been finding the days a bit tiring.

Here I’m carrying the bike back up to the apartment, happy to be back. There wasn’t a lot to see it along this section of the trail. I would say it was one of my least favourite although still enjoyable. The weather was absolutely perfect today with a slightly cool starting temperature and pleasantly warm afternoon with almost no wind.

We had a simple, but enjoyable dinner and relaxed in the apartment for the evening.