GNBR East Final Days — Montreal

0 cycling miles, lots of walking

Sept 10-12, 2026

Hotel 10, Montreal

We had two full days in Montreal to see some sights and to prepare for our flight home. Job 1, after showers, was acquiring bike boxes, packing tape, and a sharpie pen for labeling. Grand Cycle, a nearby bike shop, said they would have boxes on the 12th, and the rest was easy, so we pivoted to sightseeing. 

We took a walking tour of Old Montreal. We’ve used phone apps to take walking tours of many cities. It’s convenient to start and stop at any time, and most have been great, but this tour was only so-so. After the tour we went through the beautiful Notre Dame Basilica which was getting busy at mid day. 

We bought a Canadian army surplus duffel bag for transporting stuff home that won’t fit in our bike boxes. We had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Cadet which featured shared dishes.

The next day we walked through different neighborhoods and up through the Mount Royal Park. Runners and dog walkers were everywhere, and it appears that the lake becomes a skating rink in winter. Passing down through the local universities, we made our way to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where we spent a few hours looking at paintings and decorative arts. In the evening we rode local busses to the Mile End neighborhood where we attended a pop up concert in a park then had dinner. This neighborhood was not touristy at all with a lot of people out in parks, walking and riding bikes in the evening, and there were lots of restaurants.

We spent some time reflecting on 9/11 with lots of stories in our news feeds. September 11, 2001 will always be a day of solemn memories.

Our last morning was relaxed. We had already packed our bikes, and we tucked the last items into our duffel bag and bike boxes for the afternoon flight home, and we taped the boxes shut. We were able to reserve an uber xxl, so it should be a straightforward exercise to get to the airport and get checked in.

 

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. 

 

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!