Path: LE-9

YouTube  l  Panorama LE-9 Legault Stream / Ruisseau Legault August 17, 2002

 

This was one of the better trips simply for the fact that the destination was closer: I did not have to cycle so fast. I could take breaks and explore more. Left Montreal towards Dorval taking the CN Rail shortcut. Soon I was on the lake shore path. I had done this route before with two cyclists in 2001, camping along the Ottawa river, and with Randonnée Aventure. Yet I was still anxious as I was not sure if I could remember the way off of the island.

There are two major bridges and a ferry ride to get to Oka. On one of the bridges I got on, I realized by the traffic flow that I was a major highway. And then I noticed other cyclists on the other side of the bridge. So I backtracked hoping that the drivers could see me, and started over. That is what I am learning. To watch – to spy on other cyclists – and see what they do.

Cycling on the West Island is so relaxing. There is ample space and sometimes there is even a designated path passing through Lachine, Dorval, Pointe-Claire, Beaconsfield, Baie d’Urfé and Sainte-Anne de Bellevue. Much of the West Island is anglophone and so the character of the towns are singular. They remind me of the South Shore in Nova Scotia. There is the whole gamut: big, beautiful mansions or estates, to little bungalows and even cabins by the water. You can smell the fish in the air at some points from what I first considered to be the fleuve Saint-Laurent but is actually called Lac St-Louis. You see a lot of people fishing.

There is a bike path across the first bridge onto L’Île Perrot and another onto the ‘mainland’. Then there is a route along the lake which leads to Hudson where there is a ferry. Again this route reminds me of the Maritimes. There are lots of sailboats and heron, ducks and geese in the water on one side of the road and on the other, bright ochre fields with red barns. The ferry across is quite fascinating. It is actually a barge – with cars and passengers intermixed – that is pulled quite effectively by a boat. There are about four crossings an hour and there are three boats. So there is never a long wait. And the crossing itself is a relaxing twenty minutes of watching the shores and water.

Once in Oka, I cycled past La Trappe. This is where you find the Abbaye Cistercienne d’Oka that sells the famous cheese. I passed this time. Could you imagine what would happen to the said cheese after two days in a sweaty enclosure? I also passed the Parc québécois d’Oka where you can swim and camp. Tempting but my destination was uphill to Oka-sur-la-montagne towards Legault Stream/Ruisseau Legault. This was total countryside, passing cabbage fields, cornfields and even a ‘vignoble’.

The river flowed between Saint-Benoit and Saint-Hermas. I ended up taking pictures of a creek I thought was my waypoint until I came to a bridge a few meters further up. There was a huge tractor that was trimming the weeds in the ditches and so I was rushing so that I was not in this way. We did a little dance where I would pass him and then he would pass me as I took photos and then I would pass him again so that he could pass me again taking the second set of photos. The sunlight was warm and reflecting on the water in a beautiful way.

I then biked to Saint-Placide and passed through Kanesetake (Mohawk territory) where I saw about three vans with the $20 cartons of cigarettes signs that I have been hearing about on the news. I am not sure why, maybe the long stretches of road are attractive: I have never seen so many bikers. I mean motorbikes, traveling in groups of 4 – 6 people. As this is part of Quebec’s Route verte, there was also many pods of cyclists.

Stayed at a B&B in downtown Oka and ate at the Marina which looked out on the boats and the water. Bought a paper and could hardly stay up to read it.

The next day I took the same way back except this time I took the scenic route around Île Perrot, following the lake shore, and stopped to dip my feet in the water. It was a hot humid day with lots of flies. I was hoping it would rain, but the sky only managed to force out a few drops before giving up.

I stopped at the Quinn farm for lunch. Fresh rhubarb pie. This is a farm where you can pick your own berries. I had been there before with Randonnée Aventure. The farm has passed on to Quinns through generations. I chatted with Mr. Quinn outside as I ‘unholstered my horse’ as he put it. Had an interesting conversation about theft.

I also stopped at a yard sale in Sainte-Anne de Bellevue. Got home early and had time to relax before going to work on Monday. This, I decided, was the way to go. The first day was 100 km but the second day was only 70 km so I was not burnt out afterward. Pleasant Sunday stroll.

Day 1 - August 17, 2002

 

Time	Location	Trip Odometer	Moving Time	Stopped	Max Speed	Moving Average
9:15 Stop: 10:15 Stop: 11:05	Waypoint 56th Ave Beaconsfield Legault Street N 45°26'882" W 73°17'252"	9 km 22.5 km
Stop: 12:15 Stop: 1:35 Depart: 3:30 Arrive 5:14	Île Perrot Oka Ferry LE-9 N 45°36'02" W 74°11'20"	33.4 km 46.5 km 73.1 km
Stop: 6:15 Arrive: 6:50 N 45°267'794" W 74°05'213"	St-Placide	88.4 km 101 km	6:50	1:05	50.4/h	14.8/h

 

 

Day 2 - August 18, 2002

 

Time	Location	Trip Odometer	Moving Time	Stopped	Max Speed	Moving Average
10:30 Stop: 11:53	Quinn Farm N 45°21'489" W 73°55'471"	14.5 km	53 min
Depart: 12:45 Arrive: 4:30	Décarie	70.9 km	3:52	47 min	36.2/h	18.3/h

 

Progress: August 17-18, 2002

Traveled to and documented LE-9 Legault Stream. (Mirabel, Laurentians, Quebec, CA)

LE-9 ( map  l  path )
Mirabel, Laurentians, Québec, CA
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Progress: August 10-11, 2002

Traveled to and documented LA-6 Lapalme Stream. (Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton, La Haute Yamaska, Montérégie, Quebec, CA)

LA-6 ( map  l  path )
Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton, La Haute Yamaska, Montérégie, Québec, CA
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Path: LA-6

YouTube  l  Panorama LA-6 Lapalme Stream / Ruisseau Lapalme August 10, 2002

 

I went to Granby on the weekend. Took the Green Route through Longueuil, Brossard, Chambly and Farnham. The trails were so well organized, it was a dream. I can’t believe the ‘country’, the eastern townships are so close. When you leave the city and look back, you see this blue, smoggy blanket of haze, like a bubble-city.

Chambly (where they make the famous Blanche de Chambly beer), is a pretty little town by the water. A good stop-over for cyclists. Half the trails to Chambly are paved. Going to Farnham they are inter-mixed: you follow the river and it is a pleasant trail with many stop-overs with water, picnic tables and bathroom facilities. Farnham to Granby is almost a straight country road going through an innumerable series of fields. I found this one longer with few cyclists.

Counting the few loops I took when I got slightly lost, it was a 100 km ride, not counting the ride to Longueuil in the morning. I took the navette across and highly recommend it. It is $8.00 return and it is a really nice view of the harbour.

I stayed in Granby at a cheap B&B for the night. I was wasted. Not so much from the distance but from the blazing heat. Ate in town and was in bed by 10:00 PM. Gourmet breakfast in the morning. Left early and found Lapalme Stream/Ruisseau Lapalme by 10:00 AM. A little anti-climactic. A small creek in a field. Still I got a good glimpse of the amazing trail system there — l’Estriade. I will have to go back. There is a 58 km loop that goes around the lake. There’s another one that goes to Waterloo. I think these two are fully paved.

I did not want to take the same way back so I decided to take the Route des Champs. I looked for it for about an hour. The beginning of it has not been completed, so it is basically a cruddy trail. I accosted the first people I saw in cycling gear and asked for help. A man named Jacques very generously rode with me to find it. There is a big cycling club in Granby but I am talking hard-core. People who do 200 km a day. No thank-you. My back side was sore already.

This trail is pretty unremarkable, but goes straight to Chambly. Much faster than the one from the day before. I would go on for miles before seeing anybody.

 

 

I slept in the park by the fort at Chambly before setting out again. The heat was so intense, I would apply sunscreen and lip balm every hour. I ‘got lost’ again on the way out losing a lot of time andbecoming very frustrated. It was too hot to think. I could not find the trail I took into the city. I ended up leaving by the highway and finally looping back to the trail later.

Later on, another woman kindly showed me a better way to cycle through Longueuil and I got a good glimpse of some nice communities there. Pretty houses and lots of parks and trails. The trail led me right to the marina.

So I think that is the way to go. Instead of trying to do everything in one day, I will half my commutes and stay at a hostel or B&B. Would like to get a pup tent and go out camping sometimes too. It feels good: four waypoints done… twenty something to go?

I am taking a break from my bike this week. There is a smog warning – a high humidity warning. Thirty-four degrees today. If I have trouble breathing just walking to the metro, can you imagine biking up hills in this heat?

Plus I am still sore. I cycled like a maniac: a woman on a mission. I would have been a pain to cycle with. I hardly took any breaks. I drank probably ten Gatorades. It was too hot to eat, but I would force myself. I found that as long as I kept moving, there was a slight wind. It was worse when I stopped.

Day 1 - August 10, 2005

 

Time	Location	Trip Odometer	Moving Time	Stopped	Max Speed	Moving Average
8:30 Arrive: 9:10 Boat departure: 9:35	Longueuil Marina N 45°30'409" W 73°32'850"	GPS predicted 65 km from Montreal to Granby as the crow flies.
Depart: 9:55 Stop: 12:30 Depart: 1:45 Arrive: 6:30	Chambly N 45°26'882" W 73°17'252"	101 km	6:31	1:23	32.8k/h	15.5/h

 

Day 2 - August 11, 2005

 

Time	Location	Trip Odometer	Moving Time	Stopped	Max Speed	Moving Average
8:30 Stop 9:30	LA-6 N 45°27'48" W 72°43'14"					15.5/h
Depart: 10:00 Stop: 2:00 Depart: 2:30	Chambly   Was lost until 4:20	42.4 km Stopped:	2:31	18 min
Arrive: 7:00	Longueuil Marina

 

Progress: August 3, 2002

Traveled to and documented PA-1 Panache Lake. (Whitefish, Ontario, CA)

PA-1 ( map  l  path )
Whitefish, Ontario, CA
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Path: PA-1

YouTube  l  Panorama PA-1 Panache Lake / Lac Panache August 3, 2002

 

I had made this trip perhaps hundreds of times as a child growing up in the Valley, and then as a young adult living in Sudbury. My cousins and I would spend most of the summer at camp swimming, fishing and basking in the sun. In the winter, there were shorter stays when my uncles would ice fish on the lake. Winter highlights were the night sauna or doing donuts on the lake by riding the tobbogan that was attached to the car.

Yet this was the first time I would cycle to the family cottage — le chalet. On a hot summer day, I borrowed my brother’s mountain bike and made my way down Lorne Street which led to Route 55. My Lac Panache waypoint (PA-1) was about 45 km away.

Passed the municipalities of Lively and in Naughton, noticed the road that leads to the Reserve. I’ve only ever been to the tiny store at the entrance, where cottagers buy cartons of cigarettes. In fact, a significant portion of Panache Lake lies within Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (Whitefish Lake First Nation Reserve), who are descendents of the Ojibway, Algonquin and Odawa Nations.

There was no shoulder on the highway which was pockmarked in areas. Big, lumbering trucks and campers whizzed by. Turned onto Municipal Road 10 (Panache Lake Road) in Whitefish. Lac Panache was another 10 kilometers south. Further West was Espanola and its paper mill as well as Manitoulin Island, the World’s largest island in a freshwater lake (Lake Huron). Manitoulin means spirit island in Anishinaabemowin.

Once on the regional road, there was little traffic and I could absorb my surroundings. Lakes and marshlands, rivers and the occasional dwelling. I kept my eye out for herons. Soon I was on the gravely road that lead to camp with the sweet smell of evergreens and wildflowers in the air.

I took a detour by the marina. Growing up in the 70s, my cousins and I would often venture to Delky and Louis Dozzi’s Penage Bay Marina in the pedal boat, or if we were lucky, with the motorboat. More often we would simply walk. It was a chance to meet other people our age from surrounding cottages and stock up on forbidden items like gum, popsicles and chips.

It is always a little disappointing as an adult to revisit a place that held so much meaning and memories as a child. The marina was empty and the old dog that used to greet me was long gone. I have since found a postcard from that time which seems to reanimate my memories more than having visited the physical location.

I took my photos in the round from the top of the “mountain” that looks onto the lake. From that vantage point, one can see why the name Panache is such an appropriate word to describe the many bays and inlets that look like moose antlers. The Killarney hills can be seen in the distance. Panache is really an incredible lake. I cannot count how many times this lake has surfaced in my dreams; its wide expanses and the deep mystery of its depths.