Getting off the Island

Tuesday started early with a refresh of the blog page to give it a little more character while I had access to a good computer. Next was a complete repack of our dried gear with a mind to shedding weight. In the end we managed to leave Lana's two front panniers behind and my front rack top bag. I don't think we'll miss anything after having lived a week on the road.

With newly lubed drive trains we set out extremely late in the day, (3pm)but couldn't bear the thought of spending another rest day in Montreal, even though it remains my favourite city. The departure was made a little easier with the nice weather.

We spent the afternoon crossing the island on well marked bike paths and shared access roads. The most amazing thing was that we experienced bike traffic/congestion as we approached the core of the city. Bikes everywhere!

After hitting the south side of the island we moved north east along the heavily industrialized ports along the river. We became frustrated with the stop and go traffic that kept us to an abismal 7 km/hr avg.

Our goal for the day was to get off the island and we started to worry about making it when twighlight came and we had a way to go. Our hopes were renewed with a chance encounter with a friendly cyclist on his commute home to Repentigny. He gave us the prefered route and a few hotel options since there were no campsites in the area.

At approx 8:00 pm we had 15km to travel and felt more secure travelling on the sidewalks. Needless to say we had a fun time hoping curbs while towing Quinn and a sleeping Levi. The girls were giddy with relief upon our 10:15pm arrival at the hotel, so were their parents. Colby, who rode solo, fell into bed without pause - something her parents had never witnessed with her nightowl ways.

We think we'll be arriving in Quebec city by Saturday evening if all goes well. My sister and her family will be joining us for a few days on the road around this time. Fun!