6/29 montreal

Cowritten by jon and John.

Split up from the chateau this morning in 3 groups - Formans driving back to Boston (with multiple stops and fruit confiscation), Deb & Serene on early shift to their car (didn't get lost!) and driving back, and John and Jon rolling out around 9am, fully loaded.  Bike paths everywhere in Quebec, and we followed Route Verte 5 onto the island.  Lovely homes along lakeshore Blvd and we had lunch outside at a quaint Boulanger that made one  think of France. The Quebecois have been engaging and charming at every stop and effortlessly move from fluent English to French.

In the afternoon our pace picked up from leisurely to deliberate ( interpret as slow).As we passed through a suburb named Beaconsfield I remembered my family lived in this area when I was 3- 5 years old. In addition I recalled the name of our street was the same as the one  we were biking on as my family home was on the river. We passed hundreds if not a thousand waterfront homes. On one point Frankel and I randomly stopped and for unknown reasons I decided to ride down a short lane in a housing development that flowed to the rivers edge. The lane was only few hundreds yards long and looked nothing like what I remembered, but I thought this might be where my child hood home once stood. I decided to call an older sister who would recall the exact location of the house. She informed that our home burnt down many years ago and gave way to a housing development. In a bizarre twist she informed that our meandering driveway was the exact garrison lane that I had just explored, and my parents had named (dose of reality here - this was like 3-4 acres of prime real estate right on the river.  Now site of about a dozen quite posh homes).  Frankel and I spent some time  touring the development and a flood of memories from child hood came back to me, including the tunnel I used to play in.
Logic cannot explain the evolution from a vague memory of a childhood home to randomly identifying its exact location to the unlocking of a flood of memories I did not even know I still possessed. The mysteries of live are fascinating.  Then a visit to the yacht club, which turned out to have many Jewish members in that time - surprising given family anti-Semitic history. 

Onwards along lakeshore and the lachine canal where we watched some boats go through the locks, to Atwater market for smoothies and to check Sinclairs into alt hotel.  Very modern and right on bike path. Jon went on to his dad's without a problem in growing heat. Meanwhile chodirker-deeners and  injured/half riding weinstock-kemplers driving up to join the adventure.  39 miles.

And an overall observation from John,  who until 3 days before had never ridden more than 30 miles:

To all the weekend middle aged wanna be athletes out there who are interested, but not sure you can complete a bike trip With Jon Frankel can assure you 1) it is a blast 2) you will survive and 3) the journey may reveal some mysteries. 4) account for some sore muscles and a little time to recoup... i just awoke from a 5 hour nap on a casual Friday afternoon.

6/28 Vaudreuil

My bike computer shows altitude.   Today, it only varied between 164ft and 177ft, a totally flat ride.  Left Cornwall along  river path, and then got back onto route 2.  Made good time under cloudy skies, crossing into Quebec before noon.  Stopped at a casse-croute for lunch, likely the first of many over next two weeks.  Afternoon ride along the canal de soulanges, constructed in late 1800s to help ships navigate the rise of the St Lawrence heading west. Cruised east until Jonathan got lost (while we ate ice cream) somewhere along route 338, with 4 miles to go to our very fancy chateau vaudreuil.  58 miles.

6/27 cornwall

The well signed "waterfront trail" we followed today was true to its name - saw the river all day today, although it is often wide enough to look more like a lake.  Rode along good shoulder of route 2 to the unremarkable town of Iroquois.   The town was moved 1 mile back from the river as part of the St Lawrence seaway project in the 1950s - a remarkable engineering effort to make the river navigable from Montreal to lake Ontario.  Now that's infrastructure.  Other history we learned about were the many sites on the war of 1812, when the British repelled the American invaders.   It's so important to protect southern borders from mauraders!  

Afternoon ride was really nice - after a short spell on route 2, and an ice cream-less visit to upper canada village,  we were on bike paths through the woods and along a causeway in the river.  Lovely stretch along Long Sault Parkway,  connecting 11 islands in the river.  More bike trail by the old locks, and rolled into the town of Cornwall by 4pm.  Beat all the rain coming from the west.  Nice dinner with tonight's history presentation on John Cabot.   67 miles. 

6/26 brockville

Every bike trip begins a little differently.  Some on a plane - either with, or without a bike, some on a train,  others right from home (the best!) And this time it started in a truck.   We all met in Montreal, and after a tour of fink's production set, we set off for Kingston where the St Lawrence begins.  After obligatory stops at Timmy's, we finally began biking around 1pm.  15 miles through farmland just north of the river, and a nice late lunch in gananoque (yes, que is pronounced). Then 33 miles on a bike path along the thousand islands parkway right on the river.  Beautiful.   Arrival in brockville, where we stayed in B&B built in 1840.  Dinner up on the patio (that was best part - slow service, meh food) overlooking the harbor, then walked through Canada's first underground railroad tunnel.   A good day.  31 miles (for me, as I drove sag in afternoon), averaging almost 16 mph - a record.  That's cause it's downhill, with a tailwind.