HavengaBikeRide

   We slept well overnight, except for Jim having to get up because of the linden flower tea. Rain was predicted to start soon after sunrise, but we woke up to almost clear skies so didn’t rush to pack up as quickly. Early morning view from our campsite.    As we continued on toward Quebec City, along with beautiful vistas, we saw 9 high voltage towers all in a row, each supporting a line that was crossing the river. Closer to the city, we saw the huge Montmorency Falls from across the river; these were the falls that we had visited on our our way out to the east coast.      The last part of our trip on the south side of the river was on a paved bike path with an adjacent pedestrian path that was full of bicyclists, walkers, people rollerblading, electric bicycles, and even a few people riding electric carts like those that are available to use at some grocery stores.    We took the ferry to cross over to Quebec City, and it was impressive the number of people

    We were pleased that we woke up about 5:00 and left a little bit before 7:00 as today was supposed to be hotter than yesterday. Amazingly, the guy with the big truck left even earlier and quietly. Thankfully the wind was not strong today, the hills were mild and the day went well. We went about 64 miles which is a bit over a metric century.   We had many beautiful views of the seacoast, farms and small farm fields of hay, oats and other grains. Many of the fields were slightly higher in the middle sloping down to a drainage ditch on each side.          Farm fields along the St. Lawrence Every little village that we passed through had an huge church building in a style similar in appearance to all the others, most with 2 steeples though we did see 3 and even 4 spires on some. The sad thing was that most did not seem to have much activity.     In one village we saw a display that was titled in French, “Fishing Without a Boat,” that included some sort of tra

  We got a late start on a beautiful morning. We usually try to go to church but didn’t find an English service in the town, so we watched our own congregation’s online service from the previous week before leaving.   We followed Route Verte 1 (designated bicycling route) along the St. Lawrence River. Here the river is many miles across, is salty and has tides. We were often very close to the water and had beautiful views of the islands and the shore, farm fields and barns. The houses are all different sizes and in various condition and include some that looked upscale, but didn’t see huge McMansion types.        In a small village, we entered a large Roman Catholic church building, and were awed at the beauty of the sanctuary and the worshipful atmosphere aided by soft music playing, and knelt and prayed for a few minutes.        In another village we spotted a poissonerie which specialized in smoked fish. We got a couple of poke bowls, one with smoked salmon and one with smoked stu

  In the midst of pouring rain from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, we stopped at the owner’s house to see the bicycle. Not very good weather to try one out!  He had the tires all pumped up and ready for us.  Kay was relieved that the style of this recumbent was quite similar to hers as many recumbents are quite different. In the pouring rain off she went around the neighborhood, trying the brakes and shifting the gears but without any hills to try.   The next hurdle, getting the Canadian cash to pay for it.  Had a little struggle at the bank getting enough funds but once that was done we were back in business. 

    After breaking camp, we traveled a short distance and found the designated camping area that, not knowing what to expect, we thought we had reached last night! This small area had several wooden platforms for setting up tents, a pit toilet, picnic tables, and a fee for using it.      Today was pleasant riding, trending more downhill than uphill as we had reached the highest point of the trail and now were heading downward toward the St. Lawrence. Early on, there was construction along Route 185, part of the Trans-Canadian Highway, where they were cutting through the mountains to make another section of new expressway for the route. This construction wiped out a few miles of the old railroad bed and the trail on it. Signs in French had warned about this, and Kay had deciphered enough to know that there was a shuttle service that would carry you around the work area during certain times on certain days of the week and there was a phone number to call and they would be there in 20

  We began slowly this am. Part of challenge was that the clothes that we had hand-washed last night had not dried overnight. We almost got walked in on by housekeeping while still poorly clothed and with no chain lock on the door, as this was a small non-chain motel. We figure they thought we’d already left as there was no car in front of the door. We finally got started about 10 Atlantic time. All we had to do was walk behind the motel, and there was the rail-trail, the Petit Temis Interprovincial Linear Park, which would take us all the way to the St Lawrence Seaway.      A few miles down the trail, there was a beautiful arboretum. The beauty of the flowers with music playing in the background seemed mystical. We stopped for a pit toilet break, and there at the adjoining picnic table under a roof was a family of 6, mom & dad and 4 elementary-aged children. They were cooking up a pot of oatmeal or something similar to eat on a small wood stove. We found out the

   When we checked in at the campground on the St John River gorge last night, we asked if there was any trouble with raccoons, and we were told there wasn’t.  We kept our food in our tent anyway. This morning, Jim found a torn-open bag of chewed-on hot dog buns that came from the campsite of the people staying next to us.    Last night we were worried that we were going to have a noisy night, as there were a number of people in their group occupying 2 adjoining sites and they had a lot of alcoholic beverages, but they talked fairly quietly, then settled down and didn't bother us.   This morning, we talked to somebody from Quebec who had a clever small homemade camper they pull behind their car with a bed inside and a fold-down cooking area on the side.  Everything seemed much more compact than a normal trailer.  They also told us about a bike route that was north and west of Montreal for about 280 km and  very beautiful.   After leaving the campground, we stopped at a Tim Hortons

We were on our way to Halifax, and were to arrive there on the 12th, so we continued on with heavy hearts.  What to do? Go back home with our family and take a ride from there? Buy a new bike in Nova Scotia or Maine? Kay has done a couple of week-long tours on her regular-style bike, but had been training for this trip on her recumbent. But recumbents aren’t as common at bike-shops.  As we traveled eastward, we took a picturesque walk at Chute Provincial Park, with amazing rapids.  We took a short hike with 262 feet vertical climb in La Cloche Mountains by Manitoulin Island which gave us great views of the channels and island. A bonus: there were lots of huckleberries to pick and eat along the trail.  We had been doing some looking to see if Kay's bike showed up on line and our daughter found a used similar style bike for sale in Ottawa, which was on our route. It  worked out with the owner to take a look at it when we passed through and it sounded like it would fit Kay.

   We began the morning with fog and we got mist on our glasses making the way just a little bit hazy as we descended from where we had stayed back down to the St. John River. The fog eventually burned off into a beautiful day with sunshine.      We traveled almost our whole distance on a rail trail today, 52 miles along the Saint John River. The first bit was paved, but most of it had a rougher unpaved surface than many rail trails we have been on. It also allows access to all-terrain vehicles in much of the part we traveled. We did see a few ATVs but didn’t see any other bicycles using it.      Just upriver from a hydroelectric dam was a large floral clock, where we decided to take a break. We began chatting with a man who drove over from the dam in a work truck. He had come to reset the clock has it had the wrong time. First he unlocked a small door in the back of the hill the clock is on so he could turn the mechanism off and adjust the speed slightly. Next he went up onto the

.  Last night when we got the take-out food, we also got a milkshake.  Jim had them put the shake in a couple of our bike water bottles!  This way he could put it in the water bottle cages to keep it from leaking all over.  When we got up, rain was supposed to last for about an hour and then clear up; not sure if we would have left any earlier but wanted to wait till it was done and stay dry. Had spicy ramen noodles and tortillas for breakfast.  Then when we tried to leave, we couldn't get the garage doors to close. After trying multiple things, we found that if we kept the button inside the garage pressed until the door was completely closed it would stay closed.  So our host sent us instructions on how to do the front door code so that it would lock after going out, so we could leave through that door after closing the garage.  We had hoped to go to church but the ones nearby had morning service later in the morning and we didn’t want to wait that long. About 8 miles into our jou

   Today was the end of our stay near Acadia National Park.  We sorted our stuff into what we would take with us on the bikes and the rest packed up to go back with our family members.  By the time they and we were both ready to leave, it was after 10 am and off we went!     As we headed towards Bangor, about 2/3 of our ride was on quieter roads and about 1/3 on busy US 1A.  We thought we would be taking quieter roads parallel to US 1, but where our software program had routed us to cut over to that area went down a gravel road to a small park where people were swimming, and continuing on from there were signs that said, “Private Property” and “Your GPS is wrong!”  So we had to take the US 1A way instead with its heavy recreational traffic—thank goodness for wide shoulders!    Stopped by a guy selling fruit and vegetables out of his vehicle at a corner, and bought and ate 1 pint of raspberries while having an enjoyable chat with him. And then either because we were fun to c

Scrambling on rocks at Acadia    We stayed outside the park across the water from the island it is on, and could look across and see the mountains on the Island. We also saw seals and an eagle and had fun poking around the flotsam and jetsam and marveling how the tide changed the look of the beach.    On our visits to the park, we spent a day hiking around Jordans Pond and up to the summits of both Bubble Mountains. Another day was spent biking the carriage trails, the two of us on our own bikes and the rest on rental bikes. A very pleasant way to enjoy the park. Then the two of us bicycled back to where we were staying. So we did about 27 miles on hard smooth gravel and 13 miles on pavement getting back. Another day, we hiked the north trail up Cadillac Mountain and down the south trail. We then headed for where a shuttle bus would take us back to the visitor center, and one didn’t come and didn’t come…and we figured that would be about the last bus of the day and wo

   On our way through eastern Ontario and Quebec, we saw some beautiful waterfalls, experienced heavy rain and traffic back-ups in Montreal, and stayed at a motel with a huge circular slide into the pool which was a big hit with the grandsons.   Just east of Quebec City is a major waterfall that is higher than Niagara Falls just not as  much volume.  There were hiking trails to near the base of the falls and also to the top which went up many stairs with viewing platforms. At the top there was a pedestrian bridge across the river just above the falls.       We crossed New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia, where we spent a couple of days in Halifax visiting the friends of our daughter and son-in-law.  We went to Peggy's Cove with them and enjoyed the amazing rocks and ocean and a seafood meal.  We had discovered that the lowest gear on the new bike was too high for climbing the hills we would need to go up. So we found a bike shop that was able to charge the ge

Kay’s bike was stolen off the back of the van in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.  The bikes were locked on the rack, but the cable was cut and her recumbent stolen, while Jim’s regular style bike, which he had chosen to use on this trip, was left on the rack.  So before leaving town, a trip to the police station to file a report, helped by a very nice officer.  Then onward down the road with only one bicycle, unsure of what we would do.

  The 2 of us took a 27-mile bike ride to get in a few miles in preparation for our trip. Saw a very large mint chocolate chip ice cream cone along the route.  After our son-in-law’s work was finished, we headed to the Soo, where we saw the locks before crossing into Canada for our Canadian road trip—4 adults and 3 boys in a minivan with 2 bikes on the back. 

On to the U.P!  After crossing the Mackinac Bridge, we stopped at Straits State Park and stopped at the bridge viewing area, then down for a walk along the beach.  Then westward to the family reunion! There were 25 of us in all with only 3 people unable to come.   We had a great time eating, talking, sitting around the campfire, making s’mores, swimming and playing on water toys, kayaking, pontoon boat rides, watercolor painting, and much more.  Jim even took grandsons fishing and taught 2 of them how to clean fish.  A special treat was all of us doing the Pictured Rocks Boat Tour and enjoying God’s creativity in the colors and patterns in the cliffs.