On Monday morning, we attached our bicycles to the back of our Subaru Cross trek, said adieu to PEI and headed to Cassie Cape, New Brunswick. We had been invited to spend the day and night with valley residents, Mary and David Hoyne, at their summer cottage. Along the way we spotted a gigantic lobster.

The Hoyne’s welcomed us and soon thereafter we were all on their beach, enjoying the sand, the surf and a few beers.  Dinner’s first course was a feast of mussels which were steamed in garlic and wine. We met the Hoyne’s daughter, Sarah, and Mary’s sister, Bernice, and her husband, Gilles. Pat was thrilled to use his French as Gilles is an Acadian, who grew up speaking French. We learned that in New Brunswick, there are separate schools for French speaking children and English speaking children.  After a night time walk around the neighborhood, it was time to catch some sleep.

Pat had estimated we were 13 hours away from Alma, Quebec, where we planned to stay before the beginning of our next cycling journey. I did find us somewhat of a shortcut when I realized if we made it to the ferry across the St. Lawrence River on time, we could drive less and enjoy a break on the river. We crossed the river at Riviere du Loup. This ferry can take multiple vehicles as it can stack them above each other.   The three-mile-wide St. Lawrence River was as smooth as glass.  and we could move about on two levels inside and outside.

An hour later, we were off the ferry and on our way to Alma, to meet up with Dave and Jackie Albrecht, with whom we planned to cycle the Veloroute des Bleuets.  On Wednesday morning, we drove to the welcome center, handed our luggage to a baggage shuttle service and after a group photo, we were on our way.

One right turn and one left turn later we arrived at the dock of a bicycle ferry.  Apparently it is a much faster and more scenic way to begin the tour and we were bubbling over with excitement.  As the ferry captain helped us on and off the ferry, he told us it was free.  We arrived in Ile Maligne and quickly found the route. It is all on pavement and we cycled through forests, parks, and campgrounds, sometimes next to the operating rail line and on some road shoulders.

Our first stop was a fromagerie and bakery.  A young woman provided us with samples of multiple cheeses they produce and after purchasing some, we crossed the driveway to the bakery, that was filled with fresh breads, baguettes and croissants.  It was a foodie paradise  It wasn’t the best of days, weather-wise, but we all had good rainwear.  When we entered the town of Chambord, our destination for the night, the route directed us onto the shoulder of Highway 169, that was filled with logging trucks and cars driving at high speeds.  It was not a pleasant last few miles.

We arrived at the Chalet et Spa Lac St-Jean in the late afternoon at the same time that a group of cyclists with a trailer which read Senior Adventures arrived. We believe they had made reservations several months earlier and thus, had the upstairs rooms.  We were relegated to the basement  (rooms 1-6), which all shared the same bathroom. For an extra charge, we purchased passes to their spa and quickly went for some time in there.  We relaxed in the hot pools and clowned around in the relaxation room hammocks.

Later that evening, after a successful delivery of pizza and beers, orchestrated in French by Pat over the phone, I learned from the innkeeper that the summer holiday season is almost over as school begins next week. The next prime time for guests is in the winter. They do a huge business in the winter because the lake completely freezes over for months and snowmobilers converge.

In the morning, our plan was to cycle a few miles to Val Jalbert, a restored historic pulp mill community, walk about it and then ride on to Roberval for breakfast.  Three hours and no breakfast later, we were still entranced by all the village has to offer the public. The village now takes in hundreds of visitors each day, and one can spend an entire day there, participating in the immersion events, walking through the former homes, post office and school. There is also a telepherique (cable car) that one can ride to the top of the former dam and waterfalls that they used to power the mill to fabricate the pulp. It was a unique spot and we learned the story about how it became a vibrant community with log grinding, and close to a thousand people, which later met its demise, in 1927, when the company decided to shut down the mill and then the buildings stood vacant for years.  They have now been restored into a historic site museum. We walked up and down multiple steps to the waterfall overlooks.  After this, we cycled to Roberval and found the pier where every year the the top 25 male and female swimmers from 12 countries arrive after swimming a distance of 32 kilometers across Lac St-Jean, from Peribonka to Roberval.

We then cycled to Mashteuiatsh Reservation that is situated on the shores of the lake.  The Ilnu people seem to be prospering and have a cultural museum that we took advantage of – walking though the myriad of displays that shared information about how the tribe in years’ past were those who spent their days in the winter hunting and were not interested in agriculture. There is much to see in this museum, more than we had time to focus on.

From there we cycled back on trails next to the railroad, left the lake and cycled through farmland until Pat caught wind of the Perron Cheese sign in St-Prime.  A slight detour off the trail took us to a shop that sold Perron Cheese and chocolate covered blueberries, which between the four of us we decimated.  Our last five miles were far from pleasant as we traveled in bike lanes alongside the highways to the town St-Felicien, a large town and the place where we stayed for the night.

See you on the road ahead.