Le Petit Train du Nord – Day 2

Camping de la Plage

I thought I would start off by mentioning the campground where I stayed Sunday night, Camping de la Plage, near the town of Rivière Rouge. What a wonderful campground and I was situated right on the banks of the Rivière Rouge. I would recommend this campground, the owners are super friendly and keep the place very clean. The owner was fussing over the site beside me when I asked him if the campground was new. I was surprised when he told me it was 20 years old, it’s immaculate. The only problem (as a cyclist) is it’s about 5 kms off the Petit Train du Nord, and for cyclists uncomfortable with cycling on the Trans Canada, maybe this isn’t the place for you. The highway had nice wide shoulders however so I was fine, and whenever a semi drove past the wind from it gives a nice little boost.

My day

Day 2 was a challenging day, but more mentally than physically. The morning started out rainy which meant I didn’t want to leave my tent, and that put me behind schedule before I even started. My journey started with two large hills just to get out of the campground, but I was able to make it up both of them despite the loose gravel and my thin, slick tires. (The campground offers campers the option to stay all season. I think these are actually campers who couldn’t get their trailers up the hills so figured it was easier to just leave them there.) Then there was a 20 minute ride along the Trans Canada to get to back on Le Petit Train du Nord.

Although I did 118 kms Monday, the only physical pain I felt was towards the end of the day when my feet were starting to cramp up. Mentally it was a different story. I spent much of the early part of the day fretting about a long, steep hill I needed to climb just past Tremblant. Also, I had two flats tires, one before Tremblant and one shortly after. I had one spare tube, which I used for the first flat, and a patch kit for the second flat. Unfortunately, the adhesive had dried out in my patch kit, so I resorted to going back to my first tube, because it had a slower leak. For the next 85 kms I would frequently stop to pump up my tire, making me anxious about making it back to the Jeep before dark.

Darkness on an unfamiliar ride is not fun. As the trail was getting darker, a woman who passed me along the trail almost got hit by a deer that darted out in front of her. It was at that time I thought about a skunk that darted out of a bush as I was cycling through the Arboretum in Ottawa one evening last week and ran along side me for about 3 seconds, and then I started fretting about a two hour drive home from St. Jerome smelling of skunk. I really enjoy riding at night, but it does have its risks.

Le Petit Train du Nord

I arrived at my Jeep at 9:17 pm, safe and sound. I wanted to celebrate but with a two hour drive ahead of me, I would settle for a Tim Horton’s coffee. Le Petit Train du Nord was awesome. It goes through various landscapes and towns, along rivers and lakes. From what I could see most people do the ride in 3 or 4 nights and stay in hotels or bed and breakfasts when they are doing the whole length. There were few campers that I could see, and only 3 campgrounds directly or within eyesight of the trail. I saw a few e-bikes, a couple of folding bikes and some bike trailers pulling kids or gear. I saw some wildlife, beautiful scenery and lots of birds (the trail even goes through a migratory bird sanctuary). Would I do it again; absolutely, but with my wife and over a longer period of time to appreciate all it has to offer.

One of a few lessons I am taking away from this trip is having a change of clean clothes waiting for me in my jeep (or destination) when I end these tours. It seems minor but as I was cycling it just came to me how nice it would be to have a clean shirt waiting for me in the Jeep. I recalled camping as a kid. My dad would take down the trailer pretty much by himself, and when he was finished and about to get in the car, my mom would hand him a damp cloth that he would use to cool himself down with and then she would hand him a clean t-shirt. When I arrived back at my Jeep, I dug into my pannier bag and grabbed my dirty shirt which was still damp from the morning, not a great feeling. At the very least, in the future I should hang my shirts over my rear bags to dry while I am riding.

My Team

Finally, with 9 months to go the trip, I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce the team behind Bikes and Baggs.

Sue Kehoe – first and foremost, Sue is my wife. She has some very valid concerns about my trip that I am trying my best to address, so I would say I have her cautious support for my trip across Canada. Sue is a high school English teacher, so it only seems fitting that she is the editor of these blog posts. Apparently her grammar is gooder than mine. If a blog post doesn’t read well, it means I posted it before she had a chance to read it.

Paul McCloskey – I’ve already discussed Paul in a previous blog so I won’t say too much here. Paul is one of my best friends and a great support which he really proved during this trip. Paul is my mentor, webmaster and technical support (when I thought my Garmin ran out of battery power this trip, he researched how to use power more efficiently on the Garmin and sent me the link before my next stop).

Greg Kehoe – Sue’s cousin and in charge of enthusiasm for the trip. Greg is a great guy and has lots of spirit. Greg sent me a message asking me if he could be on the team and said “You need t-shirts”. Who could say no to that.

Safe ride

Bill