Hi Everyone,

I entered Quebec Provinve today and as much as I would like say 
that I am just across the river from Montreal, I don't know where 
the Montreal city limits are but I can say that I am close to Montreal.  
I am in the town of Vandreuil - Dorion which is on one side of the bridge
 that connects to the island just west of Montreal.

First of all I want to give credit to Joe LaPointe and Al Forkosh for 
the help that they have given me. Joe gave me website URL and the 
street address of Velo Quebec where I may be able to buy a Route 
Verte book and Al Forkosh helped me with GoodReader to save and read
 PDF files and last night he found a website of a blog where someone 
did the Toronto to Montreal bike ride and wrote down details of his 
route.  I used it today to go from Morrisburg to Verdreuil - Dorion.  

Today was a day for bike paths.  I used Hwy 2 again to the end at the
 Ontario - Quebec line but I used bike paths in Cornwall because the 
traffic was bad and the bike path ran along the river and thus I could 
see exactly where I was going.  Also Cornwall is several miles in length 
so it was relaxing to get off the road. 

Later highway 2 ended at 401 which is the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way freeway)
 and I was supposed to the service road.  I met a person studying my bike 
and it turns out that he is a local bicyclists and knew my route.  He gave 
me something like 20 instructions on how to get to Vandreuil - Dorion turn 
by turn with street names.  Of course there no way that I could remember all 
that information, but it was the same as the blog on the web. He also gave me
 the name of a bicycle shop on the route tomorrow that should have the bike 
route map of Montreal and may have the Route Verte book.

At the Ontario - Quebec border I met the couple that I met first several 
days ago between Port Hope and Belleville.  Then I followed two local 
cyclists and saw when they rode on the left side of the road.  That was 
the Route Verte #5 that was on the left side of the road.  I talked to 
the two local cyclists and they are from Montreal and drive over to drive
 in this area.

The Route Verte bike path is easy to follow and is well marked.  I was 
confident on the bike path.  It was like Germany where there is little 
confusion of where to go.  Even easier was the Soulanges bike path which 
follows the Soulanges Canal.  

I did find a problem at the of Soulanges bike path.  Going through the town
 and connecting to Hwy 338 was hard because the bridge was out.  Construction 
again!  However a bicycle and pedestrian temporary bridge was available and to 
save costs on the bridge, it was built down in the valley just barely over the
 water.  Would you believe a gravel path down 24% and up 30%. It was hard 
pushing/pulling my bike up that gravel path!

The funny thing about Vandreuil is that all the locals think that I am 
French because they all speak French to me!  

The Statistics:  83.25 miles and 314 feet of climbing.


Steve in Vandreuil - Dorion, Quebec, Canada


Sent from my iPad