Day 68: Pointe Claire to Montreal (29.32)

This morning we found our way to the Pointe Clare Rehab Centre which is unique from those we've visited to date as it's the only one we've seen that is funded completely by donations.

The Quebec Provincial Government is one of the few that does not provide any funding to cardiac rehabilitation programs. This has left Agnes Cartier (shown above) with the difficult and commendable task of collecting funding for the centre through fundraising and sponsorship alone. They run small classes out of the hospital physiotherapy department free of charge. The only other alternative for local residents is a program in downtown Montreal that charges patients approximately $1000.00 for participation in a program.

Whether or not and when these classes run is completely dependent on their sucessfulness in collecting funds. This presents a whole new series of barriers to promoting accessibility and sustainability. We would like to thank Agnes for her wonderful hospitality and for her courageous work for cardiac patients in the Pointe Claire and Montreal area.

After our visit we biked twenty-nine kilometers to downtown Montreal and in comparison to the rough ride into Toronto (or any major city), it was absolutely delightful. As has been the case throughout our ride through Quebec, we were almost entirely on paved trails with beautiful views of the St Lawrence.

Once we arrived we were greeted with a delightful spread of cheeses and a bottle of red wine in our donated room in Le Centre Sheraton. As I write this I'm sitting in bed on the 31st floor, sipping a glass of wine and enjoying some brie and crackers. This is a far cry from our usual campsite. Thank you very much to the Sheraton for giving us a break from our sleeping bags and again to Agnes for arranging this luxurious stay.

Day 67: Daily Photo

Day 67: Lancaster to Pointe-Claire (93km)

Finalement, nous avons arrivé dans la belle province! Ontario seemed to last forever, or at least for half our trip, so we were definitely ready to move on today. We finished the last twenty kilometres of Ontario on the St. Lawrence Recreation Trail, which had resumed as a paved shoulder beyond Cornwall. Our favorite thing about this route is that someone has taken to it with spray paint to draw navigation arrows, bump warnings, and encouraging expressions like, "you are great", or "ice cream 2km." These markings are helpful and uplifting but we are left to wonder who this bike path guardian might be. If you're out there bike path painter, we thank you!

We were delighted to experience the care and diligence Ontario's St. Lawrence Region has directed toward providing safe and accessible bicycle pathways but Quebec has taken us into another realm. The entire province is coated in a vast network of designated bike paths called the "Route Verte." The trails zigzag across the extensive system so unfortunately we will not be able to ride the trails all the way through Quebec but we have already had a taste of their splendor. From the moment we hit the provincial border we were greeted by Route Verte #5, on which we rode for more than 30km on a cyclist and pedestrian only roadway. When the trail cuts back to traffic, it is light and on the other side of a paved shoulder. We've already seen people of all ages and skill levels on the route verte, the protected trails are a wonderful and effective way to make cycling accessible as part of everyday life for all kinds of people and purposes.

As has been our tradition when crossing provincial borders, today we have updated calculations on our granola tally and the results may be a little disturbing. By the time we finished the last inch of Ontario, we had collaboratively eaten 483 granola bars and 17kg of loose granola.

Tonight we have a less gluttonous treat through a hotel stay sponsored by the West Island Cardiac Rehab Program. After nearly 70 days of living primarily outdoors, we very dearly appreciate the indoor space and comfortable bed. Tomorrow we'll have the chance to visit the Cardiac Rehab site here in Pointe Claire before we head into downtown Montreal.

Day 66: Daily photo

Day 66: Brockville to Lancaster (120.65 km)

As you can see from the photo we hit 5000 km today! For our efforts
we were treated to a very uncommon day of cycling for a trip of this
nature. For roughly half of today's ride we coasted comfortably on
some incredibly well maintained bike trails. It's not often that we
get off the highway let alone onto paved trails so you can imagine our
delight to be almost exclusively off-road from Morrisburg to the far
side of Cornwall.

Most of the trails we hit, like the one you see above, are a series of
local trails that have been connected under the Waterfront Trail
Project: a trail system that strives to parallel the waterfront from
St. Catherine's to the Ontario/Quebec border. Around the Toronto
area, Vanessa and I have poked fun at the system in the past. Because
of the density of development on the waterfront, more often than not
the "trail" tends to be a secondary highway or if you're lucky, a
paved shoulder on the stretch from Hamilton to Toronto.

Up here you can really see what they are striving for and the huge
benefit such a trail system can bring. Specifically around Cornwall,
but stretching back to Morrisburg as well, there is an almost unbroken
string of parkland on the water via the St. Lawrence Recreation Trail.
Around Cornwall the trail was packed with runners, commuters,
picnickers and cyclists. After one visit to the trails I'm much more
attracted to the city of Cornwall and I would imagine anyone hoping to
attract staff to the area for new business would be as well.

Tomorrow, at long last we will be leaving the gargantuan province of
Ontario. Tomorrow night we'll be rolling into Montreal and meeting
with at least one staff member of the Point Claire rehab centre and
then enjoying a day of rest with which to work on our French.

Day 65: Daily Photo

Day 65: Kingston to Brockville, ON (96.93km)

Brockville redux. Last August, Alex and I had planned to cycle from Kingston to Quebec City (we had limited holiday time so we opted to take the train to start beyond the Toronto area in order to spend more time in Quebec). We started our trip with friends, Sean and Steph, before starting a gorgeous ride out of Kingston. All day we raved about the light traffic and the bike trail heading out of Gananoque. About 88km into our ride we were still feeling strong but I was brought down by a string. The tie on my front pannier flicked back and was just long enough to catch and lock my pedal. It cranked the wheel to one side and rocketed me to the road on the other. I ended up breaking my collarbone and two ribs, which led to surgery a few weeks later and a lot of painful recovery.

Needless to say, our trip was cancelled, but the people of Brockville stepped up to turn a devastating experience into a beautiful one. My accident happened in front of the house of Francis, who happened to be a retired nurse. She took us in and helped keep me out of shock until the ambulance arrived and then kept the bikes as we went to the hospital. Once we reached Emergency, Alex worked on contacting Sean's fabulous parents, Gail and Rick, who live in Brockville and offered to take us in for the night. His phone call was overheard and another Brockville resident offered to take him back to Francis' for the bikes. While he was gone, two more people offered their homes and assistance. After my diagnosis, a nurse saw us (well, me) struggling to walk and offered to drive us to Gail and Rick. The two took amazing care of us and helped to make the whole ordeal as comfortable as possible.

While today's ride to Brockville was fully under our own power and did not involve any close encounters with the pavement, the most wonderful part was still the people we met along the way. On our way out of Kingston this morning we heard someone call out, "good luck with your trip Alex!"We turned around and met a woman who had been at the TRI event on Thursday and recognized the bikes. It was great to see her again 250km from Toronto!

Then in Gananoque, I think we met our future selves in the form of Erlene and Gunther. The pair cycled from Kingston to St. John's in 2001 and were out for a day ride. They were fun to chat with and they pointed us toward the best brownies in the country. We just wish we had met them a day earlier to have been able to visit at their home in Kingston. Later on, we stopped in to see and thank Francis for all of the help last year, we are still so appreciative!

Other than our chance encounters, and the fact that we finished today's ride in one piece, it was not quite so enjoyable as last year. The humidity is really suffocating so it's hard to push through the heat. We're hoping  it will either break soon or that we will simply ride out of the worst of it as we move further east. In any case we try to stay hydrated and wouldn't trade the opportunity to do this trip regardless of weather conditions.