Kingston to Gaspe
08-26-04, 08:38 AM
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Kingston to Gaspe
Hi all,
I just wanted to share a wonderful biking experience I had a couple of
weeks ago. A friend of mine came to visit me from France with his bike and
we decided to go for a little touring trip. We didn't really plan
anything, we just got train tickets for Kingston and started the ride
there. The idea was to ride all the way to Gaspe and take the train back,
but we were not sure we'd have time to do it (we only had 2 weeks to do
it). The first 350 km between Kingston and Montreal were pretty
uneventful, completely flat, with a nice tailwind, so that was done pretty
fast. At that point the river is still quite narrow and very nice to have
a little swim in in the evening. I had done that part already wehn I rode
from Toronto to Montreal in may. So not too much excitement for me. In
Montreal we went to the "Maison du Cyclisme" and got maps for the rest of
the trip. Gaspe was only at 930 km so at that point we kind of knew we'd
be able to make it. The next 2 days led us to Quebec City, along a very
flat road, still with tailwind, which allowed us to ride 150 km per day at
26 km/h average (with loaded bikes with all the camping equipment!). In
Quebec City we crossed the river on the ferry and kept going on the south
side. We could see the river getting wider and wider, and significantly
colder! By the time we reached Riviere-du-Loup the weather was also much
much cooler, and somewhat more wet. We didn't get to use a lot of
sunnscreen for that part of the trip. At that point we couldn't see the
other side of the river. We finally entered Gaspesie and were expecting
these hills that everybody warned us about. Alas, nothing really serious
yet... Even in Ste Anne-des-Monts we couldn't find any "Monts"! We started
thinking that people underestimate what you can ride up with a bike, and
then we met an old lady at the depanneur in a village called something
like "La Madeleine" who kind of laughed at us when she saw we didn't
believe her warnings. We should have remembered that "La Madeleine" is
also a famous hill in the Alps... 5 mn later we were in a wall rated at
14% on 1 km... And the next 20 km were just a succession of steep ups and
downs... We reached the campsite in Grande Vallee where a lot of people
were admirative when we said where we were coming from. The next day was a
bit the same story: almost no flat parts, a lot of steep bits where I was
happy I had a triple crankset. We reached Forillon National Park that
evening and stayed for a day, saw whales and even a baby bear (now I can
leave Canada...). Gaspe was only 40 km away, so we got there the next day
and hopped on the train back to Toronto.
So if someone is looking for a nice touring trip to do, I can really
recommend that trip. The wind is almost always at your back, there are
many very nice campgrounds along the river, where you can see spectacular
sunsets, and if you don't like hills, it's flat most of the way (only the
last 150 km are a bit difficult). Ask me if you have any questions!
Claire
I just wanted to share a wonderful biking experience I had a couple of
weeks ago. A friend of mine came to visit me from France with his bike and
we decided to go for a little touring trip. We didn't really plan
anything, we just got train tickets for Kingston and started the ride
there. The idea was to ride all the way to Gaspe and take the train back,
but we were not sure we'd have time to do it (we only had 2 weeks to do
it). The first 350 km between Kingston and Montreal were pretty
uneventful, completely flat, with a nice tailwind, so that was done pretty
fast. At that point the river is still quite narrow and very nice to have
a little swim in in the evening. I had done that part already wehn I rode
from Toronto to Montreal in may. So not too much excitement for me. In
Montreal we went to the "Maison du Cyclisme" and got maps for the rest of
the trip. Gaspe was only at 930 km so at that point we kind of knew we'd
be able to make it. The next 2 days led us to Quebec City, along a very
flat road, still with tailwind, which allowed us to ride 150 km per day at
26 km/h average (with loaded bikes with all the camping equipment!). In
Quebec City we crossed the river on the ferry and kept going on the south
side. We could see the river getting wider and wider, and significantly
colder! By the time we reached Riviere-du-Loup the weather was also much
much cooler, and somewhat more wet. We didn't get to use a lot of
sunnscreen for that part of the trip. At that point we couldn't see the
other side of the river. We finally entered Gaspesie and were expecting
these hills that everybody warned us about. Alas, nothing really serious
yet... Even in Ste Anne-des-Monts we couldn't find any "Monts"! We started
thinking that people underestimate what you can ride up with a bike, and
then we met an old lady at the depanneur in a village called something
like "La Madeleine" who kind of laughed at us when she saw we didn't
believe her warnings. We should have remembered that "La Madeleine" is
also a famous hill in the Alps... 5 mn later we were in a wall rated at
14% on 1 km... And the next 20 km were just a succession of steep ups and
downs... We reached the campsite in Grande Vallee where a lot of people
were admirative when we said where we were coming from. The next day was a
bit the same story: almost no flat parts, a lot of steep bits where I was
happy I had a triple crankset. We reached Forillon National Park that
evening and stayed for a day, saw whales and even a baby bear (now I can
leave Canada...). Gaspe was only 40 km away, so we got there the next day
and hopped on the train back to Toronto.
So if someone is looking for a nice touring trip to do, I can really
recommend that trip. The wind is almost always at your back, there are
many very nice campgrounds along the river, where you can see spectacular
sunsets, and if you don't like hills, it's flat most of the way (only the
last 150 km are a bit difficult). Ask me if you have any questions!
Claire
08-26-04, 11:33 AM
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Location: Montréal (Québec)
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Happy to hear you had a great ride. As you have seen, the terrain becomes gently rolling near Montmagny and hillier around Rimouski. One of the good aspects (or bad, depending on POV) of highway improvements is that the road is much easier to ride than it was 15 or 20 years ago.
Another challenging ride you could have done: continue on the North Shore East of Québec, up to Baie-Saint-Paul and La Malbaie. Hills are great and the scenery is spectacular.
Another challenging ride you could have done: continue on the North Shore East of Québec, up to Baie-Saint-Paul and La Malbaie. Hills are great and the scenery is spectacular.
08-29-04, 08:10 AM
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Originally Posted by claire
Gaspe was only 40 km away, so we got there the next day
and hopped on the train back to Toronto.
and hopped on the train back to Toronto.
Thanks
Deej
08-29-04, 05:39 PM
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No, not much planning. I bought the tickets by phone a couple of days before we left (but there was plenty of space). Bikes are not carried in all the trains in Canada, but we got the trains which have a car for luggage. You can either put your bike in a box either in a bag. We went for the bags and everything went fine.
