After suffering from a severe case of winter bike envy, I went ahead and bought a dedicated winter bike for myself, too. The bike is nothing special—a mid-range Norco MTB from 2001—but that we the idea: get a cheap used bike, have fun on it for a few months, and then sell it off again. The only modifications I made to the bike where a pair of Schwalbe Ice Spiker tires, swept back handlebars (thanks to Fitz & Follwell for hooking me up with these!) to deal with my inability to ride straight bars without pain, and a pair of pogies, which haven’t arrived yet. ...

I just realized that I never blogged about my Montreal–Toronto tour in spring 2012. Probably a little late now to recall all the details, but I did want to share some pictures from the ride. This was the toughest tour I’ve ever done. Being by myself, I pushed hard and suffered from strong headwinds for most of the ride. On the upside, this was a great way of preparing myself for the 2012 season! ...

< back to day 6 We successfully made it through the night without any further wildlife incidents – or at least none severe enough to wake us up. The final day of our trip had arrived, with almost 100 kilometers left to go back to Montreal. Before hitting the road, however, we were about to switch our mode of transport from pedals to paddles. Packed up and ready to go Bathroom selfie Because it was a weekday, all equipment rentals at the park were half-off, providing us with an opportunity to explore the reservoir by canoe. We picked up the paddles and life vests at the info counter and biked to the beach Never bike without your helm...er...life vest Much to the biketopus's amusement, my paddling skills continue to be, well, a little underdeveloped, but with the help of Captain Biketopus we safely made it out onto the lake and back. Other than one other canoe and the occasional bird, we had the reservoir all to ourselves. The hour passed by swiftly and I was glad to have steady ground under my feet again. It was time to get back home! We followed the Yamaska River downstream to Lac Boivin. On an observation tower we stopped for a second breakfast, bird watching, and looking back towards the mountains that we had ridden over just a few days ago. High above Lac Boivin The ride back to Montreal was rather uneventful. Except for a couple kilometers between Granby and Saint-Cesaire we backtracked the route we had taken on day 1. In Chambly we passed by the preparations for a large beer festival -- unfortunately we were one day too early -- and stopped for ice cream. I also quickly went into the restaurant where I had lost my gloves and lock on day one, but no luck. Route des Champs turning from asphalt to gravel From Chambly, there were only about 30 kilometers left to go, all flat, but our legs and butts were increasingly tired. We made a final stop at the Saint-Lambert locks on the St. Lawrence and at almost exactly 100 km we arrived back home. Hooray! Home in sight! We can do it!

< back to day 5 forward to day 7 > I woke up early to a sunny but misty morning. As it wasn't yet quite a safe time to wake up the biketopus, I spent some time making a fire and watching hectic campground staff cleaning everything thrice in preparation for an upcoming inspection that morning. Over breakfast, we discussed the plan for rest of our trip. It was clear that we were too far behind schedule to do the original route, especially since our legs were still feeling tired. We had offers from two different Warmshowers hosts but one would have been too close, the other too far away. In the end we settled on riding north to Yamaska National Park near Granby today and then have a long but flat day back to Montreal the day after. After a few flat kilometers back into Frelighsburg, we were served a mean hill for breakfast. According to the sign on top, it was a 10 per cent grade, but compared to what we had done on previous days it didn't feel too deadly. The mountains of the Eastern Township were still visible in the distance but our route significantly flattened into gently rolling hills. In Dunham we rode past this lovely looking microbrewery/brewpub. Unfortunately, they were closed and at any rate it still would have been a little early for beer. Instead of beer, we had bread and pastries from a local bakery next door as a second breakfast. I also picked up a paper map and further refined the remaining route to Granby, trying to stay away from busy roads as much as possible. That plan worked out very well and for the rest of day we would encounter only few cars on these pretty country roads. Past Cowansville, we turned east for a bit, following one arm of the Yamaska River (somewhat confusingly, the river consists of several tributaries, all having Yamaska in their name). At the turn-off I had spotted a sign for two covered bridges and I thought they would probably make for a good lunch stop. We were riding along for a bit and I was afraid we might have missed the bridge, but finally we saw the sign and shortly thereafter the bridge, Pont Balthazar. Now I must say that I don't quite understand the North American obsession with covered bridges, but this one's location was stunningly beautiful, right over some rocky rapids. When looking for that perfect lunch spot, I noticed what looked like a turtle in the water below. It was so big, however, that I first couldn't believe it. To a German, turtles are things that live in zoos or on the Galapagos Island, and even while living in the US I had only ever seen modestly sized ones. This one, in contrast was about 40 cm, lazily lying in the water between two rocks. What more can you ask for for a lunch break -- covered bridge, lovely scenery, amazing wildlife. Our route continued on tranquil roads before finally we had completed our loop and met up with the Route Verte where we had been riding on our second day. After passing through Granby again, this time we kept left and headed towards the National Park. Whereas Mont Orford National Park fit the stereotype of a place of untouched nature very well, the park in Yamaska featured landscape clearly shaped by humans. The Yamaska River (yet another tributary) is dammed to form a large freshwater reservoir, surrounded by the park. When entering the park, we saw signs that there currently was a blue-green algae bloom in the reservoir. No swimming for us -- or anyone else. As a consequence, the park was pretty empty. Instead of taking one of the cyclist camping sites we were assigned a regular spot in the woods. Before the sun set we took the opportunity for a short hike through the forest. As we walking along on a narrow trail,  I suddenly spotted a porcupine sitting in a tree. Mr. (or Mrs.?) Porcupine and I were equally startled for a moment -- seeing a porcupine in the wild was another first for me -- and the biketopus was startled by me making a jump to the side and being like "Whoa! Porcupine!" Unfortunately, we weren't quite done yet with our wildlife encounters for the day. After dinner, I took a trip to the bathrooms to clean our dishes and do laundry. The biketopus stayed at our campsite and had an unwanted visitor -- a skunk! We had seen them before but this particular one was clearly more curious than afraid of humans and decided sniff the biketopus's toe. Understandably, she was not too thrilled about that! Fortunately, it all ended well, even though the skunk returned later at night, while we were sleeping in the tent to check out my bike shoes under the tent's fly. Well, what can you say: they're black and white and they sure did smell! < back to day 5 forward to day 7 > ...

Someone in our household has a badass winter bike. And it’s not me. B&M Lumotec IQ Cyo senso plus front light; no-name front basket Schwalbe Ice Spiker Performance 559-54 (26x2.1) Civia Loring with Avid BB5 disc brakes, Shimano Deore LX dynohub, SRAM iMotion 9 IGH Handlebar Booties

Riding to Mont-Tremblant, after my previous, unsuccessful attempt, was still on my bucket list, and what better time to do such a ride than during the colorful fall. I had planned a route with a significant proportion of what I assumed would be gravel roads and this being the Laurentians, there was plenty of climbing. In order to be able to cover the distance, I spent Friday night at the McGill Outdoors Club’s house in Prevost. After only a few hours of sleep I headed out at 6 o’clock. There were a few signs of the nearing dawn but it was still very dark. Given that it was October, it wasn’t too cold – or so I thought. I had expected for the route to start being mostly uphill. I did gain elevation, but only in the form of a constant succession of steep uphills and screaming downhills. The temperatures were also constantly changing, with the dips around the myriad of lakes being a good 5°C colder than the higher parts. So I’d get sweaty on the uphills and freezing on the downhills. Not too pleasant. Fortunately all other aspects of the riding were great: perfectly smooth lakes, a bit of remaining fall foliage, and the sun slowly getting up to and above the horizon. ...

As a quick intermission from the series of posts about our Eastern Township trip, I present you a short ride report with lots of pictures from one of the best rides I’ve done in a long time. As part of the car free week in Montreal, the local transit agencies were giving out free tickets, good for two trips on any of the networks. I almost always start my rides from home, but with the free tickets I decided to take the commuter train to Deux-Montagnes and head out into the Lower Laurentian mountains to get in some hills and the beautiful fall foliage. ...

< back to day 4 > forward to day 6 Jacques and Allison’s hospitality continued the next morning: after waking up we were greeted with a chai latte, yogurt with berries and other breakfast goodies. Breakfast was great, our legs weren't. Yesterday's 95 km and the hills had taken their toll and it was obvious that today would have to be a short day. Our camping guide showed a promising looking campground in Frelighsburg, about 45km from our current location. Jacques told us that Frelighsburg was a very nice little town, and so we said goodbye to our hosts and headed off into the cloudy day. The first 15 kilometers along the Missisquoi River were fortunately flat, but we could still hear our legs complaining. Once again, we had the roads mostly to ourselves and could mentally prepare for the upcoming climb up Route Scenic. On our club's 300 km brevets, Route Scenic is the one big climb. At that point, you've already ridden 160 km and so I wasn't quite sure how bad that hill really was. Well, it was a tough climb because it was long, but it was less steep than what we had encountered on previous days. We made a quick stop to check out the Chapelle Sainte-Agnès, a pseudo-romanesque chapel built by a rich Montreal antique dealer to complement her vineyard. The humidity was once again pretty high, and combined with the sweat we were pretty drenched by the time we reached the top of the climb. The descent into Abercorn was fun, as usual, even though I slowed down a bit more than usual because of the wet roads. In Abercorn we encountered this old schoolhouse that had been completely yarn bombed -- "knit graffiti welcome" Other than that, there wasn't anything in Abercorn and we continued west, now again in unknown territory. Of course, there was more climbing, making the biketopus severely unhappy. Bravely, she ascended the first couple of climbs, but at the bottom of YAFH (yet another f****** hill) we had to stop and only after a force-fed Clif Bar and lots of encouragement could we continue . Fortunately, the steep and hard climbs gradually gave way to more manageable rollers. The whole time we were never more than a few kilometers away from the US border, probably contributing to the emptiness of the landscape. Just before reaching Frelighsburg, we encountered the best downhill so far: dead straight, no intersections, cars, or driveways, and smooth pavement. I bombed down there at a top speed of 75 km/h, and even the usually timid biketopus enjoyed herself at her personal woo-hoo speed. Frelighsburg was just as picturesque as promised. We stopped at Aux 2 Clochers, a restaurant with a great porch above the Rivière-aux-Brochets. Aux 2 Clochers After our late lunch, we walked across the street to a schoolhouse-turned-tourist office/gallery before leaving town again towards our campground. Local artists on display Le Grammar School, in the typical Frelighsburg red brick The campground was about 5km outside of town, only a few hundred meters from the border crossing into Vermont. Camping Écologique was the best campground of the trip: our site was under large trees, right next to a gurgling creek -- pretty much the only sound to be heard there. A bonus feature were the two cute kittens that were hanging out in the common area. One of them followed us all the way to the campsite before jumping on the ATV of the a staff member to be taken back. It wasn't that cold... Having a beer while sitting on a rock in a creek -- what could be better? The lazier of the two kitties After setting up our tent, I quickly rode back into town to buy groceries for the evening. On the way I spotted this guy on the shoulder of the road: It wasn't quite obvious in which direction he was headed and so I didn't carry him across the road. Fortunately, by the time I came back he was no longer there. This wasn't the last wildlife of the day: While we were sitting next to the firepit, dusk slowly surrounding us, I suddenly spotted a skunk! This visitor wasn't exactly welcome and our knowledge of what to do in case of skunk encounter was spotty. I made hissing noises towards it but that scared the biketopus more than the skunk... Fortunately, the skunk seemed to be more interested in insects than us and continued on its way. Quickly we consulted teh Google for skunk advice and were relieved to read that them spraying humans is actually not that common. Nonetheless, after dinner and spotting the skunk in the distance a couple more time we made sure to hang up all our food and other smelly items. As we didn't have anything to hang up the trash, I decided to walk to the trash containers near the campground exit. At this point it was pretty dark and misty. I was happy to have arrived at the container without any further wildlife encounters -- or so I thought. Just as I was about to throw the trash bag into the container, my headlamp reflected back from the eyes of three raccoons who were sitting right in the container, giving me a "What do you want here? This is our trash" look. Well, I decided to just hang my bag on the fence around the containers and quickly retreated to our tent. > forward to day 6

< back to day 3 > forward to day 5 Until now, the weather on our ride had been perfect: sunny but not too hot during, and cool but not cold during the nights. During the night at our motel, however, we could hear the first rain, and when dragged ourselves out of bed it was very gray outside. It wasn’t exactly raining, but the air was oversaturated with water, leaving fine drops on our skin and clothing on the way to breakfast. Lennoxville not only sports a fine brewpub, but also a great coffee roaster. We had spotted the place the previous night and already decided that it looked like a perfect place to have breakfast. ...

< back to day 2 forward to day 4 > The night in the tent was quite a bit warmer than the previous one. We had closed both sides of the rain fly, which probably was a good idea not just for temperature regulation but also for keeping wildlife in check. Campground staff had warned us about a raccoon problem and we had spotted a couple of them before going to bed. Our neighbor, who slept in a hammock, told us in the morning that the ‘coons had kept him awake for a good while when they were fighting over a plastic bag and ran around his bike and hammock. We hadn’t heard any of this, me because of my preventative use of ear plugs, the biketopus because of her ability to sleep through that kind of stuff after a long day on the bike. After my nice evening swim, I definitely wanted to make sure that the biketopus would get to see the lovely lake as well, and so after packing up we headed down to the lake instead of back up to the Route Verte. It was still very empty and quiet at the beach, but we knew that there was a long day ahead of us and we got going again. According to the map, the main park road woul d intersect with the Route Verte after a few kilometers and so we decided to spare ourselves the potential up and down of the trail. The park road was very quiet still and the scenery was really lovely. ...