GNBR East Day 18 - Sorel-Tracy to Montreal

 53.8 miles, 850’ climbing

September 10, 2026

Hotel 10, Montreal

We pedaled through neighborhoods to reach our route as we left Sorel-Tracy. As usual, there was construction with detours that appeared to want to deposit us on the wrong side of an obstacle (river, construction) to reach our our destination. A local man suggested a way we could go, and we quickly got to our route, a two lane road following the Saint Lawrence River that we followed most of the day. There’s a freeway a ways inland, so our road was pretty quiet with local traffic only and a good shoulder.  It was cloudy and threatening rain. We hoped to reach Montreal before the rain came down.

The road went thru some forest and some small communities but was mostly residential. On the right side of the road, facing the river, were houses. Some were plain, some historic cottages, and many were huge properties set back with an acre or two of grass and huge trees. As we pedaled past on smooth pavement, we looked at the different houses. We made a stop to look at an old restored windmill. 

Around mile 30, our route had us turn down a side road. We had come to an industrial area with some truck traffic, so we were happy to move off the main road, but signs indicated that our road was a cul de sac, so we weren’t confident it would go through. The pavement got rougher, clearly not maintained for years, and then we reached a locked gate. We backtracked to the main road and continued for a couple miles until we left the industrial area and entered a community of homes. 

We turned onto a bike path and continued past beautiful homes along the Saint Lawrence as we came into the outskirts of Montreal. The parks and homes ended after several miles, and we continued on a bike path alongside freeways, the river, and busy road crossing. Our bike path remained separated from traffic, but it was awkward in places including some stairs. Finally we crossed the river into Old Montreal on a pair of bridges that gave us our largest climbs of the day. It was starting to rain, and traffic was loud, but the views were great. We found our way to our hotel and checked in, the end of this bike ride.