Notre-Dame-du-Laus, QC

July 17, 2018

We went east! Yes, indeed, but it was decided some days ago that would be our plan. We knew our Warmshowers host along the western route was out of town on our day passing through, and the alternate options were either camping in a teepee or staying at a 1950s-era motel way out of town and away from food! Our eastern route Warmshowers host also turned out to be unable to host, but there was a cute B&B, called Gîte B&B, in the heart of town with a room available tonight. And with a restaurant only several blocks away. That sealed the deal. Plus, the eastern route is less mileage and less climbing. And, we thought at the time, probably less rugged than what we actually experienced on at least part of our ride today. But we'll talk about that later!

Today's ride to Notre-Dame-du-Laus.

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We woke to a beautiful morning with sunshine and moderate temperatures. The prediction had been otherwise, but it apparently stormed quite a bit overnight, and the front had cleared by morning. I slept by the open doors leading to our balcony overlooking the falls and didn't hear a thing. This is at least the second time I have slept through a major storm. Jerry must be a light sleeper.

Well, nothing better to start the day than with sunshine and a great breakfast.

We had an interesting day of biking planned — 42 miles and about 2000 feet of climbing. But not a linear grade like the trail. We would be on Canada's road network, and some of the mountains looked formidable. Well, it turned out not to be so bad, and the mountains were the least of it. But first, we took a rather circuitous route out of town. Jerry had asked me about the Mont-Laurier train station, and I had said, "What train station?"

Well, apparently when I arrived in Mont-Laurier on Sunday, I did not complete the P'tit Train du Nord Rail Trail! There was still another kilometer or so to do, and rather than turn left on Québec Route 117, I should have crossed the road and finished the course. So we first circled back and crossed another bridge further upstream and made for the train station, reverse completing the course!

I can't have anyone accusing me of not riding the whole trail, so we doubled back and picked up the lost kilometer.

From there, we recovered Route 117 and headed out of town, but rather than stay on Route 117 through town, we diverted through the centre-ville as the cycling was quieter and there was little or no traffic. Then it was across the Rivière du Lièvre again, up a slight incline, and a left turn onto Québec Route 309, the main north-south route in these parts. If you ride it alone, it would take you to the Ottawa River . . . but not directly to Ottawa.

There was, allegedly, a fine biking shoulder the entire length of the highway, but at first sight it did not look overly promising. But it improved as we went along, and it was only four miles before we exited to take secondary roads for about half of today's ride. That was an immediate pleasure.

Our last sighting of Rivière du Lièvre before our turn.

The view looking ahead on the secondary road we turned onto. Looks great! But there were some hills to climb, with the first one seen in the distance.

Yes, the hills. We almost immediately passed two lakes, Lac Dumouchel on our left and Petit Lac Dumouchel on our right. But the hills kept coming as we were rounding the southern end of Mont-Dumouchel on our right, riding between it and Lac des Îles on our left.

Pretty purple flowers against the blue sky.

The end of Lac des Îles as we rounded the corner.

And the rest of Lac des Îles as we rode along the shoreline.

Riding around the lake felt great, and we tackled the hills with, what seemed to be, little effort. I was a little worried as I felt out of shape, given the knee issue had severely restricted my riding leading up to this trip. But I felt strong today.

More hills to climb, but we conquered them easily.

We haven't seen much wood to date, but being on the trail, that made sense. But now in the country, stacks and stacks for those long, cold Québec winters.

And even an interesting art installation along the way.

Up until the art installation, everything was going perfectly. Quiet roads with little or no traffic and beautiful weather. But my worst fears became reality at MP 16+. A dirt road! Well, unpaved anyway. But well graded. I thought Jerry might reject it out of hand, but he's a "trooper," as he pointed out, so we decided to give it a run, uncertain how long it would last. Well, it lasted a lot longer than we anticipated, and we had our share of difficulties navigating some of it, so that's what backcountry roads are like in Canada. Lesson learned!

Jerry, climbing our first dirt road hill.

And the descent on the far side. We did not go screaming down . . . because we did not want to go down screaming.

In spite of its condition, the road apparently gets a lot of use. We saw more than one shared-use sign seen here on the right, but the churned-up surface should have clued us in a bit more. But not me, always the optimist!

That picture was taken at about MP 18, 1-1/2 miles into it. Things were still somewhat reasonable, but we could tell the road conditions were deteriorating a bit. But then they deteriorated rather rapidly.

And despite the road, there were distractions like this along the way that made one forget, at least briefly . . .

And then the water and the sand . . .

One of our first waterholes. Note the churned-up sand in the foreground. We would run into this often over the next three miles, between "dry" areas where we could actually pedal.

Excuse the finger, but this may give you some sense of the challenge. Even in "dry" areas, there could be lots of churned-up gravel and deep sand where it was either impossible to move forward or the rear wheel would fishtail out of control.

And beyond those physical hardships were the insects. Large biting flies (horse or deer flies), mosquitoes, and who knows what else. If you stopped, you became supper. It was a major irritant, worse than the road conditions. At some point I had blood on my left arm where a fly had sat a bit too long, chewing away no doubt. But you could also feel them biting through your riding shorts. So you really had to keep moving, and even a walk, pushing a loaded bike through sand, was almost sufficient to keep them at bay. Of course, riding at even 5 or 6 mph helped immensely. But that damn sand and those damn hills! And all the water around us, little ponds here and there, which are their natural habitat.

Finally, after three miles, we hit hard pavement again and some real lakes, not ponds full of nasty critters!

Towards the end of the dirt road, when I saw a "real" lake, I figured we were near pavement.

And shortly after that, we are on Route 307, headed for Notre-Dame-du-Laus, only 15 miles away. The hard biking was behind us, and even though there were hills ahead, the grades on Route 307 were more forgiving.

Route 307 on the way to Notre-Dame-du-Laus.

And the scenery continued to be stunning.

And our B&B, Gîte B&B. She also doubles as a home for retirees, but we were strictly separated!

We had the "honeymoon" suite (apparently).

And a nice sitting area out back. The retirees sat out front on the porch.

Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 292 miles (470 km)

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