Eastern Townships-Les Cantons

Eastern Townships -- Les Cantons de l’Est

This was my second annual trek to Ottawa for a Hub & Spoke and an opportunity to renew acquaintances with Ottawa riders and the Central Canada terrain. The previous year’s Ottawa tour was close to the St. Lawrence River, and flat. One quickly discovers that the Eastern Townships, 80 east of Montreal, are at the foot of a mountain chain running from Quebec to Tennessee, and that Eastern road-builders of the era did not like to deviate from a straight line. Granny gears were not optional. There were hills.

Unlike the Quebec lands along the St. Lawrence River, with its seigneuries, or long narrow strips of land, the British marked out the lands of the Eastern Townships in squares. Along with English place-names scattered in the small towns, the British efforts to populate Quebec with Loyalists from the Colonies are still evident. The benefit now is rolling country roads ideal for cycling, little traffic, with frequent crossroads and tiny hamlets. Of minor concern was that the country roads were at times in need of repair, but 28mm tires handled the ride well enough.

The well-known and well-funded Route Verte, a dedicated bicycle route thru much of Quebec, also criss-crossed the area, and although our groups split at times, it was easy to spend as much as 50% of the cycling day on a dedicated bicycle path. This was especially true of the winding trails through Mount Orford Park, north of Magog, P.Q.--our “hub”.

While the Montreal newspapers published complaints from visitors and locals about how inconsiderate Montreal drivers are to cyclists, this part of Quebec had well-behaved drivers, from a cyclist’s point of view. Together with the company, the near-perfect weather, and the universally wonderful food of the Quebec countryside, this was a hub and spoke for the hedonist. Naturally, the destination of our Monday warm-up ride, after a loose convoy from the University of Ottawa, was a winery. The bicycles were heavier on their return to Magog, a town of 25,000 with a few motels and—because it is a tourist centre—many B&Bs and good restaurants.

Tuesday of our Monday-thru-Friday adventure gave us a sample of the hilly terrain, but the subsequent rides, according to co-organizer Peter Wood’s GPS gizmo, increased the cumulative elevation Wednesday and again Thursday. The Abbaye Saint-Benoit, a large, modern monastery specializing in cheeses, for example, was our Wednesday morning destination after an hour of sometimes-vigorous hill climbing out of Magog. On return we had some good downhill rides. One computer (not mine) clocked at 68k. On one occasion only, I managed to keep up with our Ottawa-based web editor, Penny Estabrooks, for a few kilometres of paceline with Geoff Kennedy, another participant in the planning of this event, along with official organizers Ed Weber and Peter Wood, who did a universally appreciated job.

A large contingent from British Columbia, together with a representative group of Francophones and bilingual Ottawa residents made this a truly cross-Canada hub and spoke. We quickly adopted the local Anglo (and Franco) words for dépanneur (convenience store) and local foods, attempted to speak French, to the bemusement of some impeccably bilingual natives, and as we approached the hills of Vermont just south of Magog, silently thanked our lucky stars we were Canadians.

James Spears, July 1, 2007.

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Under gazebo

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Bike fence PQ

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Dunham PQ IR

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Abbey Cantons

Sherbrooke south2

Sherbrooke south