I had 2 route options to leave Montreal, so I picked the one that went by UdeM, as I don’t know that part of the city that well. It was nice to see parts of the city that were unfamiliar to me, but of course by picking the route through the city instead of at the bottom of the city I had to go up and over the mountain.
It ended up taking me over 2 hours just to get off the island of Montreal, but the bike lanes were heavenly. I forgot how nice it is to cycle in Montreal where you’re so often separated from cars.
There were a few route options to get from Montreal to Quebec, and I choose to take the Chemin du Roy, which follows the north shore of the St. Lawrence. It was the road initially built to connect Montreal to the capital in the early 18th century. Although it typically took 4.5 days in a carriage, apparently it could be traversed in 2 days if galloping. I’m planning on taking 3 days to get to Quebec, so I guess my bike speed is halfway between a horse and carriage and a galloping horse.
Once I finally left Montreal East I went through Repentigny and I learned the opposite lesson of Ontario: ignore googlemaps and follow the signage for the Route Verte. Googlemaps tried to route my through the main street in Repentigny, and then it was so confusing to get back up to the Route Verte once I was off it.
I headed up to L’Assomption which was a cute town that even has a song written about it (https://youtu.be/Zn5Fw0wqlhA)! Following l’Assomption, I headed back down through St. Sulpice and then a couple unmemorable towns on the way to Berthierville. The final stretch in Berthierville I was so tired, and I hadn’t passed anything interesting in a couple hours, so it was pretty hard to stay motivated.
When I had looked up campsites, I couldn’t find any near Berthierville, but I figured I might pass by some small ones that weren’t online, but by the time I got to Berthierville I hadn’t seen any, so I checked into a motel that smelled like cigarettes and only had decaf instant coffee in the room. I was so exhausted at this point, I just showered and flopped down on the bed. I had no energy to go out to get food or groceries, so I made the saddest dinner of instant noodles and was ready to pass out by 8:30.
The Ontario election results were going to start coming in at 9, so I forced myself to stay awake a bit longer and found the English channels on the tv. That wasn’t really worth staying up for, it was just depressing. And now I’m going to be embarrassed everytime I have to tell people I’m from Ontario for the rest of the trip. This must be what it feels like for Americans to go travelling.
On the bright side, I actually made it to my destination on bike today without any motor vehicle assistance. I guess bad things really do come in threes.
Total distance: 105 km
Total elevation: 193 m
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