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~Stuart~
07-30-07, 09:26 PM
Hi
August 15th I'm leaving on a bike trip from Toronto to Halifax with a cousin. and planning on arriving around 17-20 days later.
We're planning on following up the St. Lawrence (I'm still debating whether the south side or the north side).
so I'm looking for some advice on places to stay (campsites, cheap bed&breakfast, people who'll let me camp on there lawns (no-trace camping of course)), good bike stores, and most of all... smooth-car free-fast roads, to help us on our way. or any advice on places to steer near of for what ever reason
Thanks
Stuart
check out
www.crazyguyonabike.com
lots of info in te journals-north america-canada-ontario section
and more
norco_rider77
08-03-07, 08:19 AM
next u should try for Halifax to Vancouver :D
m42stanle
08-07-07, 10:40 AM
I completed this trip a few years back (by way of PEI) and it was a great experience overall. Mine was more of a lightly loaded 'credit card touring' adventure as I took my road bike and was doing about 100-150 km/day @ around 25-30 km/h with approx 19 lbs of gear in 2x panniers. I was staying in cheap motels along the way, which worked out well as they are scattered pretty densely from here to Halifax with the notable exception of the Edmundston -> Fredericton leg. (ended up thinking I could stop halfway between the two but turned into a nearly 300 km day) You may want to at least plan out some possible stops for this section.
I think you've probably figured out your route by now, but the following are some random thoughts from my memories of the trip:
- Hwy 2 is a great road from Toronto to Montreal overall, and despite how crappy it seems for the first 30-40 km it really quiets down outside the city as most motorists prefer to take the 401 which runs almost parallel. Make sure you have good maps for each day, as it does snake around a bit in places.
- You may want to go *around* Montreal rather than through it, unless you have a specific reason for wanting to see it. I had been there dozens of times before, and while it's a beautiful city to visit in the summer it's really a pretty terrible place to bike through when touring. Looking back it would have been better to skip it. (worst drivers in the country, only time on the trip I almost died at the hands of a gravel truck driver, very challenging to navigate your way both onto and off the island by bike) I'd say if you do want to stop here bring very good low level maps for the city and a route that you are sure will be feasible by bike)
- I stayed North of the St Lawrence in Quebec to Quebec City (A40) then crossed South and followed A20 to Riviere Du Loup then down on 185 to Edmundston, NB. If you leave it much longer than this, you'll be forced to take a ferry over.
- My NB route was Fredericton -> Saint John -> Moncton but that's only because I wanted to see all three and was going to PEI before Halifax. There's probably a better route down to Halifax, most likely the Digby ferry right across to NS from Saint John.
- While the Toronto -> Riviere Du Loup section is mostly flat and makes for easy touring, the NB hills can be quite challenging. (I didn't realize until I looked a bit closer at a map that these are the start of the Northern Appalachians) I was running a road double 53/39 with a 12-23 cassette for the whole trip, and I really could have used a 25 for a lot of those hills and that was with a fairly light bike (19.5 lbs) and only 19 lbs of stuff. If you're more loaded you may want to swap out your cassette for a 12-27 or maybe even something like an SRAM 11-32 or mountain cassette if your RD can handle it.
- NB is a little strange (for an ON cyclist) in that there are some places where you will find yourself being forced to bike on a divided highway very much like the 401. This is a little unsettling at first, but unlike here it's perfectly legal, and is usually only for short distances between the larger towns, for example Hwy 1 between Saint John and Moncton. (The alternative is to try to map out a backroads route, but this can be challenging if you don't know the area and which roads are paved vs. dirt, etc)
- If you decide you want to include PEI in your trip, you can get a free ride over on the bridge from NB (no bikes allowed) and then of course the ferry ride over to NS is free also. (this was about 6-7 yrs back - may want to double check if this is still the case) Riding on the island is beautiful and flat, and everyone there is unbelievably polite and helpful.
- While the trip is only around 2000 km without the PEI leg, I'd suggest that you bring lots of patches, a least 2-3 tubes, and an extra tire or two. It's usually easy to find bike shops along the way in larger towns, but you may want to plan for the worst as you can expect to flat at least a few inopportune times
Good luck - and let us know how the trip turned out!