Day 13

Click the following link to see the video talked about in the Day 6 post about our third night campsite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJRPEnj6s4&feature=youtu.be.

The exhilerating Prescott Russell Trail (just outside Quebec)

En route to montreal via the Prescott Russell Trail. We crossed the Quebec border around 7 pm. We had a new personal best of 120 kms (with headwind all day). We ended up camping just across the street from a campground, because it was closed. We are pretty sure we camped on somebody`s private property. Either way no one bothered us, with the exception of a very hungry raccoon.

When we woke up the next day it was raining and we had to ride in the rain for the first time. Our end goal for the day was montreal so we decided to not take that many breaks and we made it to montreal by 4:00. Will`s mom was in town on business and she was generous enough to get us a hotel room for two nights. The hotel room was a refreshing change of pace after a long day of rain and numb hands. We went out for a night on the town and ran into SAC old boy Raffi. good times.

The following day we had off to run a few errands and enjoy the sights of Montreal. That night we were treated to dinner with Will´s family at a japanese restaraunt with the hockey game playing. One thing that was cool about Montreal and Quebec in general is that no matter how fancy the restaurant is, they will have a tv screen and they will be showing the hockey game. This is Quebec, and the restaurant industry has figured out that the food will taste better when the patrons compare it to the terrible play of the habs.

Leaving Montreal (matching orange jackets because we are ballers)

We left the following day en route to Quebec City (over three days), along the south side of the majestic St. Lawrence river. Every 30 kms or so there would be a small town, and in between it would be farmland and auto repair shops. Tons of auto repair shops. What does that say about the drivers in quebec? Probably that they are very responsible car owners and they take car maintenance very seriously. It was raining the entire day again, so we decided to stay in a motel room in Pierreville.

The next day the weather was beautiful for the first time in a while and we had two days to finish 175kms. We were still biking alongside the St. Lawrence and around 5 pm we had the best view of it so far when we arrived in St. Pierre les Becquets (watch the video at the following link 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJgsH1mJoeI&feature=youtu.be). At the end of the day we made it just outside of Leclercville where we found a hiking trail that we camped on.

Camping just outside of Leclerville

After an incredibly cold night we had about 80 kms to Quebec City and a beautiful day to do it. The biking was relatively uneventful and we arrived in Quebec City at about 3:00. After crossing the bridge we happened to run into Will`s aunt and uncle who we would be staying with on Sunday night. That night, however, we were staying with Alveric, Will`s friend from his trip in Senegal. We also met up with another friend of Will`s, Melina, the inspiration for this trans canada trip as her and her friend had done it a few years earlier.

The next day we saw the famous sights in Quebec City and some of the locations of the Samson family history. Quebec city is really nice. Its not too big and has a lot of history. Harrison`s french has improved dramatically. he can now say complete words like merci and bonjour, a feat most-everyone thought would be impossible for him to accomplish.

walked all the way to quebec city while carrying our bikes

Day 6

After leaving Bowmanville around 10 we headed east. The wind was blowing right in our face all day and it made biking pretty tough. By the end of the day (around 6:00 pm) we made it to Brighton. We got really lucky and one of the locals offered to let us camp in their backyard. Our original goal was to make it to a campground in Carrying Place, with the option of continuing for another 20 kms to get to Belleville. But because of the wind and the offer of a backyard campground we stayed in Brighton for the night.

Will and Harry biking on Highway 2 towards Brighton 

After undershooting our target, we admittedly felt a little discouraged, but the next day we powered through with some tailwind and biked from about 9:30 am to 7:30 pm for a total of just over a hundred kilometers. We went through a few smaller towns and ended up on the Cattaraqui trail which we would stay on for a total of 90 kms. By the end of the day we set up camp in an abandoned lot at the top of a hill, which turned out to be a great idea because of the magnificent thunderstorm that night. There is a great video we took of our campsite but there are some technical difficulties uploading the video so it may be uploaded randomly later.

The next day we followed the Cataraqui trail to Lombardy, just outside of Smiths Falls and stayed with Andy's family. It was our shortest day of biking so far at only 75 kms. We enjoyed the good food and good company (and hot tub), as Mitch and Fred even made the trip up from Brockville to see us. They drove though so its not that impressive.

Will and Harry biking on the Cattaraqui trail

After a good night's sleep in a bed we made our way to Ottawa, a city known for having a tremendous university and an even better hockey team, and will also be remembered as Will's Alma Mater. They have yet to erect a statue in his likeness but rumors and general buzz suggest it's well passed the discussion stage. Stayed with Tanner "Teej" and Breen "Weenman", right in the heart of centretown and enjoyed ourselves a nice evening out, knowing that the next morning we would have the privilege of sleeping in and doing nothing.
The next day we slept in and did nothing.

Will and Harry near a really big clock

Next stop, camping in Vankleek Hill and then off to Montreal.

Highlight of the day: We watched a Terry Fox mini-documentary on our day off, a great way to get pumped up for the road ahead.

kilometers traveled so far: 447
number of times people have honked the hell out of their horn, obviously in order to demonstrate their respect and admiration for us: 2

Day 1

We left today at 10ish to go to Bowmanville for the first leg of our cross-Canada tour.
By 1:30 we had made it to Port Perry for some lunch at a chalet type restaurant where we had some decent sandwich and fries. Will forgot to tip the nice lady.
After lunch we set out for Bowmanville, with make shift google map instructions. As a result we ended up on a dirt/sand road and we had to walk the bikes for about 45 mins until we found a rideable road. When we got off of the dirt road we found out we were on the edge of Oshawa. After some Iphoning from Will we got new directions and set out again for Bowmanville. By this time it was about 3:30 (our original goal to get to Bowmanville by).
This may have been the most difficult part of todays trip because of the amount of incredibly large hills that we were not prepared for, so we ended up taking a few unplanned breaks.
Once we made it to the outskirts of Bowmanville the roads started to get flatter and smoother and we got to our destination pretty quickly. We reached Kim and Rons house at about 6 o'clock, only a few hours behind schedule. Dinner was waiting for us and now we're excited to relax, watch the hockey game and have a good nights sleep.
Thank you again to Kim and Ron for the hospitality, as it was much needed at the end of our first day.
Tomorrow we are biking about 110km to Belleville.
Highlight of the day: Seeing a mailbox that had the following painted on the side of it: NO PAPPERS!

The Plan

We're just days away from starting our journey across Canada, and we've decided to share with you our game-plan.

We'll be leaving from Richmond Hill/Aurora, Ontario on May 1st. We will be heading east until we get to St. John's NewFoundland. We'll then fly over to Victoria, British Columbia, and continue cycling eastward until we arrive back in Richmond Hill/Aurora. 

Here are a few highlights:

May 4th - Kingston

May 6th - Ottawa

May 9th - Montreal

May 13th - Quebec City

May 20th - Dalhousie (or we may go to Fredericton instead)

May 24th - Moncton

May 25th - Charlottetown

May 30th - Cheticamp (considered to have some of the best bike paths in all of Canada)

June 10th - St. John's, New Foundland

June 12th - Victoria, British Columbia

June 16th - Vancouver

June 18th - Squamish

June 26th - Jasper (the trail from Jasper to Banff is an early front-runner for "Highlight of the Trip")

June 30th - Banff

July 2nd - Calgary

July 8th - Saskatoon

July 16th - Winnipeg

July 23rd - Thunder Bay

July 30th - Sault Ste. Marie

August 5th - North Bay

August 7th - Bracebridge

August 9th - Aurora

This is how it has been planned, but we may take a few extra days off at various points in the trip.

We got business cards that have our website's URL, so we hope to be able to continue raising money for the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society while we're cycling from town to town. That URL again is: http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=17127

We've got our bikes, now we just need our camping equipment and to tie a few more loose ends and we'll be good to go.

Harry insisted on holding this blank piece of paper

Getting Ready

We are delighted to announce that we have officially chosen the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada as the charitable organization that we will be fundraising for. Please feel free to visit their website (www.fncfcs.com) to learn more about the cause. In particular, please check out the Seven Ways to Make a Difference and Shannen's Dream, an initiative that we are especially happy to be contributing towards.

To donate, please go through our fundraising website right here. All of the funds will be going directly to the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

We have also set up a twitter account to keep you updated throughout our journey across Canada. Our Twitter handle is @WsdHjBikeCanada.