GNBR East Day 17 - Trois Rivières to Sorel-Tracy

47 miles, 571’ climbing

Sept 8, 2026

Hôtel de la Rive, Sorel-Tracy, Québec 

We left our hotel under sunny skies during what appeared to be the morning rush of kids getting dropped at school and people headed to work. We read that the metro area has 160,000 people. There were lots of neighborhoods of houses with huge grass lawns. It looks like a really nice place to live. Later we saw some icy winter pictures of the city and thought winter would be challenging. It does seem to be a good part of the country for lawn mower salesmen. Even in small towns we’ve seen huge, freshly mown lawns.

After 7 miles, we stopped at a boulangerie for breakfast and coffee, another friendly place. We continues west on the Chemin du Roy / Route Verte 5 that we’ve followed since leaving Quebec City. Up until this morning it followed the St. Lawrence River and there was a large freeway not too far north, so that only local traffic was on our highway. After breakfast we crossed under the freeway which went closer to the river. Our route turned inland but was still flat. 

We stopped for a break at the historic store in Le Brun, a lovingly restored general store with shady outdoor tables. Our route turned off the highway which had a lot of traffic, and we traversed past homes and farms on a small paved road. After 40 miles, we turned south off the Route Verte 5/Chemin du Roy. It continues to Montreal on the north side of the Saint Lawrence. We read that the south side of the Saint Lawrence is a more peaceful ride into the city, roughly following Route Verte 3 per random sources on the internet, so this is what we chose. We headed south to the ferry at Saint Ignace de Loyola which took us to Sorel-Tracy. We were early for check in at our hotel, so we stopped for lunch. Afterwards we made our way thru town to our hotel, another early stopping point.

 

GNBR East Day 16 - Deschambault to Trois

43.7 miles, 522’ climbing

Sept 7, 2026

Hotel-Motel Coconut, Trous Rivières

The morning was cool and sunny, and there was little traffic compared to Sunday afternoon. Our ride started out passing small farms and some historic communities. A lot of the old houses have silver metal roofs which curve downwards. Some look pretty rough, but others have been restored to perfection.

Yesterday mid day we went over our last (small) climb for 130 miles until we enter Montreal. The ground undulates, but it’s a pretty flat, easy ride on the shoulder of the highway. Headends were also light today. For much of the ride we were on top of a ridge about 100’ above the Saint Lawrence River. The grander houses and tiny cottages built at the top of the slope all have a view of the side river and the distant shore.

At one point we were hailed by a cyclist on the side of the road. We stopped, and it turned out to be two guys who were riding across Canada. They met and joined up in Vancouver. One was from France and one from Germany. We talked a little about touring. The German guy had pedaled through China, Nepal, and to Jakarta. Pretty impressive.

Before we entered Trois Rivières, we crossed some small rivers. One was the Saint Anne which flowed through Saint Raymond where we stayed several days ago. The river was quite a bit larger here as it prepared to flow into the Saint Lawrence.

We came through some neighborhoods with a lot of small, modest houses as we made our way into Trois Rivières. We got on a bike path by a park as we approached the Rivière Saint Maurice. It was much larger than when we stayed near it in Matawin. The bridge traversed a small island with a sandy shore. Boats were pulled up on shore and people were on the beach, and we heard music. It sounded fun.

We passed by some very upscale condos near an event space. Spying a restaurant, we stopped for lunch at a terrace restaurant near the rivers.

After lunch we went a few more miles before stopping at the Coconut Motel. Our room is nice, but it may be a place whose best days are behind it. We walked through the local school and neighborhoods to reach a market, and it seemed like a great place to grow up: kids playing sports or riding bikes, adults doing yard work, huge shady trees in front yards, and all very safe.

 

GNBR EastDay 15 - Québec City to Deschambault

48.9 miles, 1752’ climbing

Le Chavigny Motel, Deschambault

Sept 6, 2026

We woke up to sun this morning, a pleasant change. After yesterday’s crazy wind, we were also pleased that almost none was predicted for today. We had a croissant and coffee on Rue Saint-Jean, then packed up and headed west in the direction of  Montreal.

We wound thru neighborhoods to reach a bike path down to the banks of the Saint Lawrence river, making a few detours for the ubiquitous road closures and going through a couple of them. There were a number of cyclists and runners on the multi-use paths. We turned off on some small roads through beautiful residential neighborhoods on tree lined streets, passing parks and some bridges. We proceeded through some construction zones that were unattended on a Sunday morning, following the example of locals. Everything was pretty pleasant.

Most of our ride followed two lane roads or highways. In one area, small farms had fruit and vegetable stands with enticing local products. We picked up a couple of apples at one stand. We had lunch on the deck of a small sandwich shop and later an ice cream. We saw a number of cyclists who appeared to be touring who passed n the other direction, most with huge pannier bags. We saw a number of roadies and people on electric bikes our hybrids. This is a popular cycling area.

We had tried to make a reservation at several small gites and auberges, but they were either full or closed for the season. Ultimately we reserved a room at a hotel about a mile off our route. The room turned out to be spacious and comfortable, and it has an attached restaurant. Nearby is a convenience store for snacks and Gatorade, so we are all set.

GNBR East Days 13-14 - Quebec City

0 miles on bikes

We took two full days to explore Quebec City. We stayed in a hotel just outside of Old Quebec. It was cloudy and a little rainy both days, and on Saturday it was full of tourists in a zany way. It’s the shoulder season, so we guess visitors are mostly here on the weekends in September. On our second day it was extremely windy, the kind of wind you lean into and it blows has off.

While in the city we took two historic walking tours, enjoyed the public art and historic architecture, explored winding streets, took a ferry ride across to Levis for lunch, found excellent food on Rue Saint-Jean, saw a little music and dance going on at the local Fierté festival. We walked around the parliament building and looked at the statues. We walked along the old city walls. Quebec City reminds us of old cities in Europe with lots of cafes that have outdoor tables. We even walked to a local bike shop though we didn’t particularly need anything.

What we didn’t do: visit the Montmorency waterfalls or go whale watching. The waterfall sounds beautiful. We *really* wanted to see the many species of whales that are viewable at this time of year, but it’s 3 hours each way by bus to the place where you get on the boat. We just weren’t up for 6 hours on a bus. Next time!

GNBR East Day 12 - Saint Raymond to Quebec City

45.2 miles, 961’ climbing

Sept 3, 2026

Moose sightings: 0

Hilton Quebec

It rained a couple of centimeters overnight, and it was still coming down in the morning, so we took our time packing up. We had a continental breakfast in our hotel which consisted of toast, banana and coffee. Finally we put on the rain gear and headed out.

Today’s route was supposed to take us on some local singletrack which we were looking forward to. On the other hand, puddles and mud on loaded bikes didn’t sound fun. Finally we made the decision to skip the single track and roll into Quebec City on the rail trail. It continued to rain all morning, sometimes hard, so we probably made the right call for ourselves.

As we pulled onto the rail trail, we saw a plaque describing the 1915 visit of then ex-President Teddy Roosevelt to Saint Raymond. He was pictured with a moose. Today was probably our last chance to see one with the likelihood decreasing as we roll thru more urban areas, but we kept watching. The only wildlife we saw was a soggy and slightly befuddled grouse who was trailside.

After about 7 miles of forest, the rail trail passed beside a large lake. To our left were floating docks, and to our right were beautiful homes with terraced, landscaped paths leading down to the docks and the rail trail. There was more forest, then more and more neighborhoods on the outskirts of Quebec City. We passed a preserved train car from the old railway and afterwards rolled onto the paved path, Chemin des Cheminots, which may be part of the rail trail too. It was cold, and we stopped for lunch at a burger joint adjacent to the path. When we came out, the rain stopped and the sun came out. 

Because our bags and bikes were mud splattered, we made our way to a nearby self-service car wash to spray everything off. We would be on pavement the rest of the way. We didn’t book our hotel until 2 days ago, and the only place we could find we decided would be too nice for mud encrusted bikes.

We wound our way into town, first weaving our way through detours and road closures, then taking paths through parks alongside a canal. The route took us all the way to the waterfront at old Quebec. It turned out that our hotel was on top of the hill blocked by a cliff. We laughed when Google Maps directed us up a very long steep staircase to get there. Instead, we pedaled west and found a steep path up the hill, undoubtedly our biggest elevation gain of the day. At our hotel, we locked our bikes in storage for a few days while we explored the city a bit. The old city is very European looking and somewhat touristy with many shops, restaurants, old buildings, public art, and some old town walls. 

GNBR East Day 11 — Lac aux Sables to Saint Raymond

39.3 miles, 1775’ clmbing

Sept 2, 2026

Pub-Hotel Saint Alexis, Saint Raymond

Moose sightings: 0

Number of plaques describing the high moose population: 1

Our camp site was strangely and wonderfully free of mosquitos. The RV park was quiet when we packed up. It seems like the season is over, and most residents gone except for weekends. We pedaled away on a rolling paved road that slowly climbed. The shoulder was minimal but traffic was light.

After about 17 miles we detoured to a gas station / market for a coffee break. They had a small seating area which we took advantage of. Heading out, we were prepared to share the pavement with large trucks and other traffic. To our surprise and delight, we turned immediately off onto the Jaques Cartier Rail Trail, one of the “routes vertes” cycling paths in Quebec province.  It had a solid gravel surface and rolled through the woods away from roads. Every couple of miles there was a stop with some combination of informational plaques, Adirondack chairs, toilets, garbage receptacles, covered sitting shelters, and camping platforms.  One plaque described the very dense moose population in Quebec. We scanned the wetlands and lake shores, but we saw no moose.

The rail trail took us right to the small town of Saint Raymond where we stayed in a hotel attached to a pub and pizzeria, the only hotel in the small town. It was a bit like a hostel or backpackers lodge. We walked around and had an ice cream in the misting rain before retreating to our hotel. The pizza was good and the people friendly. We appreciated the excellent shower since the hot water at the campground last night hadn’t worked.