August 3, 2024. Sorel-Tracy to Montreal, Quebec









    At the lower-end motel we stayed at last night, the room looked clean  but when we went to bed we pulled the sheets back and it looked like the inside of the bed was dirty—good thing it had two queen beds and the other looked fine.  

   At first we were riding on  a beautiful, fairly level road with beautiful views of the St Lawrence. We had great fun riding parallel to a large freighter going upstream at just the right speed for us to keep up with it for about 3-4 miles.

   Sailing Through the Cornfields!

     Further north we had a stretch of many large industrial plants.  Then as we got into the more populated areas across the river from Montreal, we were mainly on dedicated bike paths.  We were on a stretch where the river was on the right and a busy expressway on the left, when we came to a a spot where the trail was closed due to construction and the detour was a pedestrian bridge over the autoroute with stairs.  Other bicyclists were tossing their bikes on their shoulders and heading on up, but not very doable for us with our loads and Kay’s recumbent. Then some bicyclists came out of the closed section and stumbling along language-wise it sounded doable with our tires, and so off we went.  We found it very doable, and easier than a number of the sections of the Trans-Canada trail we had ridden in New Brunswick.  

    A couple of our warm showers hosts had recommended crossing to Montreal by crossing on a bridge to  Île Sainte-Hélène, and ride on the pathways there to the end of the island, where a non-vehicle bridge crossed over to Old Montreal.  

When we crossed to the island,  we found tremendous numbers of cars exiting onto the island, a big traffic jam and crowds of people.  When we got away from all that and on a quieter pathway heading to the other bridge, we came across a path to the right that was fenced-off, with security guards at the gate and some port-a-potties.  We asked if we could use them, then asked what was going on.  It turns out a big music festival was happening over several days on the island and we could hear the music from one of the stages as we rode along.  

   There were a lot of warm shower hosts in the Montreal area, and we had contacted about 12 of them ahead of time and none of them worked out.  When checking hotels, found out they were quite expensive (later wondered if some of that was due to the music festival?).  We did find one that was a little lower priced, but was still the most expensive one we have stayed at by far, and didn’t even include breakfast.  To get to it, we rode by the old port and along the waterfront, then turned inland and up along streets in the downtown area lined with small shops and restaurants and bustling with people, then through miles of residential areas.  The amazing part that almost all of this was done on dedicated, separated bike lanes and paths, about 9 miles in all.  The bike lines were very well used, and very busy in the downtown area.  

   

 Bustling Street Crossing and Separated Bike Lane 

(Taken when the bike lane was less busy so had time to stop and take the picture!)

   When we were stopped at a corner, one person asked us where we were traveling to and from.  He told us about trips he had taken, then asked us if we had a place to stay; he said he’d invite us to stay with him if he wasn’t having trouble with bedbugs!  We did ask him about where to get ice cream and he directed us about a block away to a shop with excellent ice cream, where we tried cardamon, melilot & cantaloup, honey, and biscoff.  

  After getting to our motel, we searched for restaurants online, and found the Cafe Milano about a block away, where we had a couple of tasty sub sandwiches, and 2 delicious desserts.