The next morning I headed out of Plattsburgh for the ferry into Vermont. This was the best day or riding, well the morning was good and then it got bad. I rode out of Plattsburgh on a ten foot wide shoulder and then bike path, cool temps, no traffic, perfect. Rode right up to the ferry. The ferry takes you to Grand Isle, VT. From there I got off the highway and followed signs for the Champlain bikeway, a beautiful ride on dirt roads along the lake. Things turned ugly when I got back on Rt. 2/7 into Burlington. Plenty of shoulder but lots of high speed traffic. In the morning I had fully intended to ride on to at least Albany but I would have had to stop somewhere to work. I don’t really know why, whether it was not wanting to work in a hotel all day, or the three long riding days, or the hellish traffic in Burlington that made me decide to rent a car and drive home. Good plan, except I couldn’t find an available car in all of Burlington. Two very fortuitous things happened to get me on the road. First. I was riding down a bike path in Burlington when I asked for directions from a group of guys playing tennis. Turns out that one of the guys is a former RAAM rider, Jim Kelley crank and burn, and very sympathetic to my plight. He loads my bike in his van and shuttles me to Thrifty. Thanks Jim. The second is this. The first guy at Thrifty tells me that they have nothing, so I ride over to the airport and they have nothing so just before setting out to look for a hotel I try Thrifty one more time. This time I talk to Shane and he tells me that there are no cars but says “let me see what I can do”. After about fifteen minutes of listening to Shane turn down at least a dozen people he hands me keys to a Jeep Cherokee and I’m heading south. Turns out he is also a cyclist, mt.biker, and sympathetic to my situation. Thanks Shane. I like biking but it felt good to sit behind the wheel of that thing, turn on the A/C, grab a cup of coffee and go. Can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.
I may be heading back to Burlington in the fall to finish the trip south, cheap flights from BWI. I know not to bring my work and to not do back to back 90 mile days. I came back with a numb pinky and ring finger on my left hand. Thinking this was just temporary numbness which I have experienced before, wrong, seems the Ulnar nerve which runs up that side of the hand has been damaged, traumatized, whatever. A couple weeks later and still numb.
You can see all the pics from the trip here.Quebec pics
Did a short unsupported ride up in Quebec. This was originally planned as a longer trip, open ended depending on work etc. Well, work did come, and though I tried to do some on the road, it just didn’t make sense and so I ended in Burlington, VT. Still a good trip, five days, three of which were 90+ milers. I didn’t plan this thing down to mileage per day or even which route exactly that I would be taking. I learned that camping, or rather finding a place to camp at the end of the day can be difficult. I came across campgrounds but they were well before I planned on quitting for the day. So on the second day I shipped my camping stuff back, the weight of the laptop, wires, tablet, etc. caused the back of the bike to shimmy like mad, it was just too much weight. I think that I’ve also decided that a shower and bed can be worth $100-$150.00 after you’ve ridden 90 miles.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Quebec-Summer 08
Very easy to get up to Canada on Air Canada via BWI. Everything goes through Toronto.
Brought my bike on the plane, taxi to UPS, assembled bike, shipped box home, rode round and round the industrial park for a while. Finally finding the bike path into Quebec City.
The bike paths in Quebec and throughout the province of Quebec are pretty extensive and I can tell you that they are definitely well used. As I was heading west out of Quebec City there were thousands of people out on bikes, roller blades or just walking. I found out later that the Quebecois people take their vacation at the same time, something like 30% of the city is on vacation in July. Note-Head west to east to take advantage of the prevailing winds in Canada. I was heading west-for two days, 90 miles each day.
The bike paths in Quebec are great but do not stray from the bike routes because you will find yourself on some pretty rough roads with gravel shoulders or no shoulders and heavy traffic. I’ve read that roads across Canada leave something to be desired. I have to also say that some of my more difficult and tedious riding was on bike paths, up and down curbs, avoiding pedestrians. My preference is a big wide shoulder which I found when crossing back into NY state. My best stretch was heading to Plattsburgh in the dark with very little traffic and then to the ferry to Vermont on a deserted smooth bike path. Worst was definitely coming out of Quebec with no shoulder, a road that was less a road than a jigsaw puzzle of asphalt, plus high speed traffic whizzing by. Also coming into Burlington on Rt. 2/7 or any of these fast food, strip mall sections that exist everywhere, where bikes are definitely not welcome.
I need to spend a bit more time there. I was sort of disillusioned, thinking it would be like France, which of course it is not. I had a hard time with some people, my limited French not helping much there in Quebec as well as it had in France, but there were so many others who were eager to talk, help with directions, and in one case invite me into their home to sit out a really fierce storm.
On the second day I found myself heading straight into a really nasty thunderstorm. I knew that I needed shelter fast so pulled into this auto shop and met these fine people. I asked if I could just park under the overhang to wait out the storm, but instead I was invited in for coffee. We sat and talked politics, baseball, cars, etc. This is Andre’ and his dad. His mom was there too and the very friendly family dog.
They were in the process of restoring some old vintage “American” cars. American cars are very popular in Quebec. Andre and I hit it off, great people.
I didn’t stay in Montreal too long, spent the morning in the room catching up on e-mail and work. I’ll know next time to try not to combine work, long mileage days, and sightseeing. I would really have liked to spend more time here. I did spend a couple hours riding along the bike paths along the river. This city definitely has it right, bike paths everywhere, and not just recreational. lots of commuters.
I hopped on the ferry out of Montreal, crossing the river and heading south. I rode through Chambly, and St. Jean Sur Richelieu, beautiful towns that I should have stayed in for a while. I traveled south along the Chambly canal towards the U.S. It was just getting dark when I hit the border, nothing but a flea bag motel so I lit the bike up like a Christmas tree and rode another 25 miles to Plattsburgh. Riding in the dark was fun, my only concern really was that a deer or some other animal would jump into the road. I could only see about eight feet in front of me.
