Adventures in a Teardrop: Oh Canada

We started off our Canadian adventure with a bike ride through the city of Montreal. They have really nice bike trails along the St. Lawrence and around the city. We rode along the river and made a loop around the Lachine Canal. There were some locals surfing the rapids we got to watch and then ate lunch in Parc des Rapides. We finished out our ride through some of the city and a few neighborhoods, which ended up being about 25 miles. The market is right next to the old ports where we started our ride, so we parked the bikes and did some walking. There was peruvian pipe band playing in the square and lots of local artists to watch. We walked to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal...very beautiful inside! We finished out the day by stopping in a little cafe in downtown where we were able to sit outside and have afternoon coffee and fruit crepes with real maple syrup. Delicious!

That night we drove to Parc National de la Mauricie to camp. The next morning we did a canoe and hiking trip. We canoed through 2 different lakes connected by a small stream trail. We arrived at an area with a 5 mile hiking loop where we were able to see a waterfall and a few really pretty overlooks of the park. This was a very popular local activity. We canoed up to the island and there were about 50 other canoes there.

Wednesday evening we drove through the rest of the park to do some sight seeing and then made our way down to Quebec City. The next morning we parked at Parc des Chutes-de-la-Chaudière in Levis where we saw a waterfall and started our bike ride. The city map made it look very easy to get from here to the ferry that would take you into Quebec City, we found out otherwise. We were looking like some lost tourist when a nice older man named Julian rode up and asked where we were going. He was riding in the same direction, so we were able to follow him through some neighborhoods down to the ferry. He stopped along the way to show us some of the sights around Levis. It ended up being about a 10 mile fast paced ride to the ferry, but Julian definitely saved us some time. We rode the ferry over to Old Quebec, would definitely recommend it, it gives you a great view coming into the city. Once in the city, we continued our ride up the big hill. We rode around many of the back city streets and were able to see lots of the landmarks. We stopped at a local restaurant for drinks before riding back down. We rode the ferry back over to Levis and finished up our ride. Only got lost a few times on the way back for a total ride of about 35 miles. From here we were ready to get back into the states and made our way into Maine. Crossing the border was not as difficult this time, still lots of questions, but fast and not quite as scary as going in.