Le Petit Train du Nord – Day 1

Today I embarked on a two day trip from Mont Laurier to St. Jerome, QC along the Petit Train du Nord (PTN). The PTN used to be a rail line which brought vacationers from Montreal and beyond to the Laurentians. The rail line closed down in the 1980s and was reborn again in the 90s as a linear park for walkers, joggers, cyclists, Nordic skiers and snowmobilers. It’s a great trail, with a distance of 200kms from beginning to end. The old train stations still exist and serve as cafés, tourist information sites and washrooms. Some have more amenities, like bike rentals, etc.

My original plan was to cycle up and down the PTN in 4 days, but things got busy at home, I’m blaming our 14 year old dog Fred, and I didn’t have the time for packing I wanted before heading out. So I went with Plan B; taking the bus up to Mont Laurier and cycling to St. Jerome in 2 days.

The bus from St. Jerome was ok, but it was long, much longer than I anticipated. I was hoping I would be in Mont-Laurier by 10:00 am, and would be on the road…err, path, by 10:30. We ended up at Mont Laurier at 11:30 because we had to pick some people up, and drop some off while we were on our way to Mont Laurier. By the time I loaded up my bike and stopped for a bite to eat, it was more like 1:00 or 1:30 before I was out of Mont Laurier.

The ride was fun, there was a bit of a head wind, the uphills were gradual but long, and the wild life was scarce. I saw a snake, frog and great blue heron. But the scenery was beautiful and for the most part it was quiet, except when the fellow showed up a few times with his wireless speaker dangling from his handlebars playing his favourite music.

Paul kept me company during my ride even though he was in Ottawa, because were testing out the beacon which sets up the map on “Where am I“. Tomorrow we will do some more testing if the beacon and try to recreate a glitch I had with my GPS unit. That’s what these little trips are for; having fun touring and testing out my equipment and the technology.

So I am at a quaint little campground for the night in Quebec called Campground de la Plage. It’s very nice but you should see the hill I have to climb to get out of here. Tomorrow I will have breakfast and head to St. Jerome, a distance of 116kms, it will be my first fondo of the year. I’m pretty excited.

Safe ride

Bill