Favorite northern Lanaudiere bike ride - Now on Bikely

Northern Lanaudiere Hill ride

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We have created a Bikely map (link) of our favorite northern Lanaudiere bike ride. We also have a Google map (link), which has printed directions. But Bikely has a wonderful feature: it gives the ride's elevation profile (OMG!).


100 km of riding, 1000 metres of climbing, 1000 metres descending!

If you like quiet roads, good pavement, nice little villages, trees, forest, farms, hills, valleys, and good up and downhill riding, you should plan a visit here. Northern Lanaudiere is a really great area for cycling, and, doncha know, it's a world class destination for everyone who knows why bikes have gears. (hint: for climbing hills!)

This ride starts at the Louis Cyr Museum and tourist info office in St-Jean de Matha (across the street from the church). Then we pass through St-Emilie de l'Energie, Ste-Beatrix and near Ste-Mélanie. The road is mostly quiet back roads, and the highway parts of the ride have excellent paved shoulders.

If you are not familiar with Lanaudiere, the key to understanding it's location is that northern Lanaudiere is basically the eastern extension of the Laurentian hills. The Lanaudiere tourist region is located directly east from the laurentian tourist region that we are all familiar with. Look at the laurentians on a map. Look to the right, and it's Lanaudiere.

To get to the starting point, drive east on the 40, turn north and pass by Joliette. Soon you leave the plains of the St-Laurence river valley and enter the the mountains, and a bit further you stop and park the car in St-Jean de Matha.

Then you ride 90-100 km, you will arrive back at the car, and you will be happy. Happy happy happy.

I originally came here based on rides I found in the Quebec cycling guidebook "les Petites Escapades." There was one ride in the Ste-Melanie area and another in the St-Jean-de-Matha /Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie area. I combined and modified these rides (removing the St-Gabriel de Brandon and St-Damien sector) to create this circuit.

So if you have blood type V-Velo, then I invite you to try this ride. If you like it, here are some Bikely links for some other Lanaudiere rides. (link)

Here is the elevation chart:

The "Trans Lanaudiere Ride" project

Ask your friends about the Lanaudiere region. what's their answer? That's where the the music festival is? It's Quebec's tobacco farming region? It's the flat lands along the Saint Laurence river? No one answers "it's got some of the best mountainous road cycling in Quebec."

From Montreal, everybody thinks that the land to the north is the Laurentians. These are the laurentian mountains. But, the government one day got involved, and now there's two regions to the north: the Laurentians and the Lanaudiere. These are the same mountains, but there's technically two tourist "regions." Everyone knows the Laurentian region, with Tremblant as the big mountain to the north. But, what's east of Tremblant? Yes, it's the Lanaudiere, and it's also full of hills and mountains. Is it good for cycling? Not just good, it's great for fans of two wheels on the road.

I spent the summer exploring the northern part of Lanaudiere. South of this point is civilized North America. North of here are national parks, forests, preserves and ZEC's, the start of the thousand miles of northern bush until you run out of trees, and then hundreds of roadless miles later, you arrive at the Arctic ocean (ok, technically the Baffin Strait). I set out to explore this last east-west road network at the northern edge of civilization. North of here the bear, fox, moose and other creatures of the northern forest make up the population. Sure there's a few roads heading north, but they are one-destination dead end roads. I had never been here before, would I want to come back once my explorations were finished?

For the typical montrealler, heading north means crossing Laval on the 15 and heading straight up the Laurentian Autoroute, usually no farther than Tremblant. Instead of this now-familiar routine, I headed east to Jolliete and then north. For one thing, the Saint Laurence river heads north-east in direction. So the mountains are a lot closer to the river than further west.

My first destination was home to 19th century circus strongman Louis Cyr, the village of Saint Jean de Matha. I had looked in a bicycle guidebook to Quebec, "les Petits Escapades" which suggested a loop ride circuit around this village. My first visit here was at the end of June, on Saint Jean Baptiste day, Quebec's national holiday (now renamed La Fete Nationale). The scenery was nice, it is here where you enter the mountains. What would it be like on bike? The answer came quickly. I locked the car, crossed the highway onto a quiet country road, and in about four minutes after I started pedalling I was struggling up a 20% climb!

Aieee!

Luckily this was a short hill, but it set the tone for the rest of my Lanaudiere explorations. I had found hills, and I wanted more, more more more! Happily, Lanaudiere delivered these hills no matter where in the region I went, and by the end of the summer I had completed the entire trans-Lanaudiere east-west circuit on assorted saturdays and sundays. It's roughly 150 km across, and depending on how you do it it would make an excellent 200 point-to-point day ride. It has plenty of villages, each with it's own character (this is not a clone-town region like we see in populated areas, with the same megagiantcorp chains infesting every town with Tim's, MacDo, and Couche Tard at every highway intersection. Happily, the mass corporatization of our consumer society hasn't quite reached here yet. What was even better is that between these villages, there are back roads that cross farms, forests, hills, ridges, valleys and best of all, chains of mountains.

Where to start? There's almost too many choices, so I'll list them starting from the west and we'll voyage eastwards.

Tremblant to Lac Superieur

This essentially connects the next section to the populated Lauentian area around Tremblant. You could also start at St-Faustin/Lac Carre. I haven't actually ridden this section yet, but it is the logical choice to connect to the amazing road described next. From Tremblant, follow the road to "the north side" and then in the direction of the "La Diable" entrance to the Parc Tremblant, except be sure to turn for Lac Superieur. A few kilometres after the lake will be a road on leftside going to St-Donat. I a couple of kilometres more this road will transform from a tiny country road into a brand new, just built 30 km through the forest, which sees so little car traffic that it is known as "la chemin cyclist." Before a couple of years ago there was no road here at all, so the usual "cottage country" landscape hasn't yet been built, (it's beginning, but if you hury you'll see everythng in the natural state.

15 km

Lac Superior to Saint Donat

The amazing new road (aka "chemin cycliste") to St-Donat. 4 stars. Really big hills, big scenery, excellent road quality, and no condos! This is one of the best sections of road ever to be built in quebec. Once at eastern end, there are paved shoulders to Saint Donat. If you didn't start at tremblant, it is recommended to start at Saint-Donat. For one thing, it's not tremblant. For another, you're supposed to be discovering Lanaudiere. in Saint Donat park at the municipal tennis court or the park pioneers (swimming).

40 km

Saint Donat to Notre Dame de la Merci

This short section on the Route 125 is still not done, I did the next section as part of a short day which unfortunately left me with short gaps at either end. Doh. Route 125 is major road and busy, but is very scenic. Good halte routiere at Notre Dame de la Merci, which is where I parked for the next section.

15 km

Notre Dame de la Merci to Saint Come

Wow! This is a great road, twisty, hilly, twisty some more, hilly some more. First 8 km has good road surface, but no paved shoulder, after that a paved shoulder all the way to st-Come. The route 347 traverses along side and at one point, through the Foret Ouareau regional park. Excellent scenery. 4 stars ride. Note, this is a very popular motorcycle ride, so riding early in the day will make it a more peaceful experience. It is one of the most scenic road rides of my life. Notre Dame de la Merci has an excellent rest area, I parked (on weekend) at the town hall/library next to the halte routiere. There's also a new beach, kids park, and little nature trail to relax afterwards.

30 km

Saint Come to St-Emilie de L'Energie

I messed up the last ride and didn't get this last ten kilometre. There's a big hill down to St-Emilie (BIG!). St-Emilie has a very nice tourist stop and sawmill history centre but it is a bit hidden. From St-Emilie you can ride south to Saint Jean de matha over some great hills, or ride directly to Saint Gabriel de Brandon.

10 km

Saint Emilie de L'Energie to St-Jean de Matha

Thisis a very nice forested climb, take chemin des feuilles des erables (maple leaf road), this road is located at the very bottom of that BIG hill. After a long descent (there's a rest stop here at the depanneur Lau-Den). At end of this road take the highway (left) to Saint Jean de Matha (good parking at at Musee Louis Cyr behind city hall. Note: The loop ride from Saint-Jean de Matha to east to Saint Gabriel, then west to St-Emilie and back via chemin de feuille d'erable is the first one I did in the region, and is one that I repeated three times since)

20 km?

Saint Jean de la Matha to St-Gabriel de Brandon

Start on street in front of church, cross highway (east) on to quiet country road, with a sharp hill just 4 minutes from town. Don't miss the turn off to St-Gabriel or you return on a loop to St Jean de la Matha. In St-Gabriel you can park at the big parking lot beside the tourist office and across from the Metro grocery store. The nice town beach is north about 1 mile (sign says plage). Eat snacks or supper at the beach. I parked here for the ride to Saint Alexis des Monts/Lac Sacacomie.

20 km

Saint Gabriel de Brandon to St-Alexis des Monts

Take the highway east to St-Didace, then turn left on 349 on a small road to Saint Alexis. Possible improvements to this road are in store for the future. It's forested and quiet. when the town line to Saint Alexis is crossed, the road becomes a bike corridor. Arriving at St-Alexis stop at a dep for a snack, but continue with the snacks to the rest stop beside the church and the lake in the town centre. There's a gigantic trout jumping out of the lake.

Congratulations: you have finished the Trans Lanaudiere!

35 km

Bonus ride: Saint Alexis des Monts to Lac Sacacomie

Officially, you have finished the Lanaudiere, but this last section is the icing on the cake. it is a wicked little ride and deserves to be done if any energy remains at all. (or if you rode from Saint Gabriel and will be returning on a out-and-back ride) Turn left at church to Lac Sacacomie (bad road for 8 km), turn at sign for Auberge Lac Sacacomie/Parking municipal Lac Sacacomie. This road is excellent 4 star quality. Enjoy excellent hills for 6.5 km. The road ends at hotel Lac Sacacomie You can stop here, or if returning, follow this advice: When returning, go down to the lake at the parking municilap de Lac Sacacomie. Then ride back up. You'll love me ort hate me, but you won't forget this hill for a long time. It's one of those the road can't be any steeper than this or it would be impossible to ride. (Yes, I find this sort of thing to be fun!). Once at the top of this, you have one of the best descents in quebec, let it rip! Woohoo! I hit a record maximum speed on this hill. Coasting! SInce the road is only 6.5 km long, you'll be be back at the crappy long before too long, but hope and pray that the long promised repairs are completed. Then it' back in Saint Alexis des Monts and you really are finished with Lanaudiere. Until you come back again!

15 km

Conclusion

When I read in the book les Petits Escapades, I looked at the hill profile and thought to myself, this looks interesting. That was an understatement. I enjoyed my summers' day trips to here, every time I was rewarded with great scenery and hills, and plenty of both. I saw a few dedicated cyclists along the way, but hardle any compared to the Laurentians region. Why the secret? I hope I can encourage more cyclists to come out and enjoys this jewel of a cycling paradide less than 90 minutes from Montreal. See you there!

For more information you can read ride reports from my individual lanaudiere rides on my cycling blog, cycle fun montreal.

"Northest" Northern Lanaudiere Ride

St-Emilie-de-L'Energie to St-Michel-des-Saints

Northern Lanaudiere (eastern Laurentians) - civilization's northern boundary

Plan A: St-Emilie de l'Energie to St-Michel-des-Saints (100km roundtrip)
Optimistic plan B: Continie to entrance for Parc Tremblant (50 km more)

Lanaudiere.

Northern Lanaudiere.

Go North to the most North in Lanaudiere: St-Michel des Saints.

In a previous episode, I rode as far north as St-Emilie de L'Energie.

Tomorrow, head north - to the end of the road!

Then turn around and ride downhill, because this road will go downhill, and downhill, and downhill.

No ride is complete without a longer option, so if things are going good, I will continue to the St-Michel-des-Saints entrance to Parc Tremblant provincial park.

The distance of the first stage is 50 km, and the option is 25 km, so the entire ride will be 100 or 150 km. This is an out and back ride: I will be returning on the same roads as I rode north.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: I had a great 120 km ride. St-Emilie de l'Energie to St-Zenon to St-Michel-des-Saints, and part of the way to the Parc entrance. I turned around when my tire popped off the rim. Ooops. Bang!


The ride along the Rt 131 from St-Emilie de l'Energie to St-Zenon to St-Michel-des-Saints is excellent, with full paved shoulder for 100% of the 50 km distance between these three towns.

St-Zenon - at 500 m it's "La Summit de Lanaudiere"



Rest stop "with-a-view" in St-Zenon


A lighthouse, in the northern laurentians?


Rt 131 often followed rivers and lakes


The first descent of the route north - a good one!

Time for St-Jean-de-Matha hills ride

65km of paradise. Many excellent hills are included at no additional cost.

Check out many photos of our previous Lanaudiere rides here.

Spring hasn't been the greatest in 2010, but today the sky is blue and the temperature is rising.

By now we've ridden every Chateauguay valley road, so it's time to return to another of our favorite destinations: St-Jean-de-Matha in the northern Lanaudiere. Northern Lanaudiere is kind of the eastern Laurentians, but with better roads.

The circuit is St-Jean-de-Matha - warmup loop east of town - little hill north to amazing scenic lookout - downhill to Ste-Emilie de l'Energie - go south up big hill feuille de l'erable to chemin de Belle Montagne - which is a super scenic road all the way to to Ste-Beatrix - to bridge beside big waterfall at Parc Regional des chutes de quelque chose by the back road - highway (with paved shoulders) back to the car. (you can reverse the Belle Montagne road if you want a longer ride here).

Unlike the Chateauguay valley, where almost any road is a great cycling road, in Lanaudiere we stick to this specific ride which we use as a base for a ride with many distance options, but today is the basic ride. This ride is so good, we do it again, and again, and again. It has the all the important essences of a great ride - and it is essential that you go and ride here!

The circuit is only 65 km, but you can add a southern loop to the ride to add 40 or 50 km. You know, for a full afternoon's ride. And by afternoon we mean until the time when we see the sun set as we get back to the car. (actually, this is a good thing.)

Where is Lanaudiere? It starts at the eastern tip of Montreal Island. It's that's close. Not far. No sir. Do it.


Go east on the 40, go north past Joliette. A mere 70 minutes from Montreal.

Where to park? Park behind city hall (across from church). This is the site of the Louis Cyr Museum, and has washrooms. (note: we've heard this museum may move to a new location in the future)

We like our St-Jean-de-Matha / Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie / Ste-Beatrix ride because:

• good distance
• good hills
• The two long hills have good descents after the summit is reached
• good scenery
• good scenic lookouts, one with benches (northbound top of hill to ste-emilie)
• good roads (mostly)
• quiet roads
• 97 km from Mtl car distance, not so far
• undeveloped area (no tims, macDo, other corporate crap)
• the ride is made up of many short sections
• many options exist to increase ride distance
  
• easy to abort - many places you can call it quits and get quickly back to car
• Good descents
• No jerkin' around with flats until the hills finally arrive (first 20% hill
• at 4 minutes into the ride)
• The two highways part of the ride both have paved shoulders.
• There's a raspberry farm at foot of one of the major climbs - Yum!
  
• There's annual repairs/rebuilding to the roads of this ride
• You feel like a tour de france mountain stage survivor by ride's end (and not one of those front-of-the-pack guys)
• You can leave Montreal at 2 pm and still have time for a ride... thanks to summer's late sunsets.
  

Add it up and you see why we think this is one of the best road rides around.

Check out many photos of our previous Lanaudiere rides here.

1 pm... Off to Lanaudiere for hills

La Presse recently had one of their weekly "ten things to see" article feasturing Lanaudiere. Except that they just had 6six items listed. I am sure they just ran out of space, because surely number 9 or 10 would have been the incontournable hilly road cycling in the northern half of Lanaudiere.

It's not at all clear to the public that northen Lanaudiere has another name - because it is actually "the eastern Laurentians." And it's a velo paradise. A cyclist who likes hills and scenery can't go wrong up here. (See my many other posts on Lanaudiere - search with blog search window at the very top of this page )

This means it has all kinds of great scenery an terrain, but much less crowds.

I visit here frequently to get my hills "fix." The last time I had my ride cut short due to mechanical issues, but I'm going back to finish that ride.

And it's looking like it's another crack-of-noon start (1:00 pm and all is well), so I gotta go!

Lanaudiere - continuing explorations in the northeast section

Northern Lanaudiere, hills, forests, farms, chalets, and hills!


Long time readers know our obsession with the excellent scenery, backroads, and hills of the Lanaudiere region northeast of Montreal (think: eastern Laurentians). It's not too far from the city, the road quality is usually very good, and the traffic to come back home is generally trouble-free.

We visited on Sunday for a 90 km ride expanding a bit on our Best-ever-Lanaudiere-ride of last year. Specifically, we explored some backroads between St-Jean de Matha and St-Damien.

The result was excellent! over 1100 metres of climbing, and don't forget our reason for enduring the climbing: there's 1100 metres of descending too!

We touched much of our favorite sections of the region on this ride, and again, they were definitely excellent. There were many other cyclists out on the back roads of this region, in fact more than we have ever seen before!

Although we skipped a potential southern half to this ride, we will return later in the season to combine it all together for a ride that tours all around St-Jean de Matha (our parking spot of choice). This is a route with numerous bail-out points to return to the car in case one has had enough hills for one day!)

Here is the bikely map to this ride. Please note that the western section (Ste-Beatrix) loops south and then north.


Bikely map for this spring hill-climb Lanaudiere ride

Lanaudiere - the fameuse 347

Another week, another weekend, so I returned once more to the north.

This time I went to route 347 in Lanaudiere, a 30 km road through hilly hills from Notre Dame de la Merci to Saint-Come. I discovered along the drive there that there was an autoroute 25, an autoroute I'd never heard of before. It's not all completed, meaning that there's a village that needs to be bypassed, Ste-Julienne. This village had "the small village red light" which was the bottleneck of this fine route.

Anyway, I got to Notre Dame de La Merci and paked the car at the town hall. It was about 120 km from home, and took about two hours, including the red light bottle neck and a bit of minor car troubles. It should be about 90 minutes, which is what it took to come home. The drive up was very scenic, with lots of scenic hills, and they were being covered with scenic fall colours. In other words, very nice! Notre Dame de la Merci is a very small village, and a fair bit of tourism must be 4-wheeler because I saw tons of cars and trucks with empty 4-wheeler trailers parked in the village. I was on bike and got a better parking spot then these guys, in the town hall parking. There was a new "halte routiere" (tourist rest stop) which included a tourist info stand, a separate washrooms building, and a park with a pond with beach, kids play area, and nature trail. I took a swim in the little pond on my way back. It was refreshing because the water wasn't warm anymore!

Anyway, I got the skinny on the road I wanted to take, the 347, from the lady at the tourist stand. She even informed me where the fatalities had occurred. (uh, thanks.). Then I sat on the bike and rode, rode and rode, feeling very fresh in the legs department. It turned out I had a very nice tailwind on the out section of the ride. The scenery was excellent. Sometimes these hilly roads are covered in forest and a view is rarely enjoyed. Not this road, the view and the road are concurrent. And with the aurumn colors, the view was great. There were also rivers and some lakes, and even some cliffs to gawk at. The road passes through the "foret ouareau" which is a protected area with separate trails for hiking, mtn biking, and 4 wheeling. Sometimes when I stopped along the road I'd hear 4-wheelers in the woods. Every body was having fun. There was another group of fun loving rebels I have not yet mentioned: motorcycle riders. It seems that the 347 is a legendary motorcycle road for Quebec riders. Why? For the same reason it attracted me: the road twists and turns and goes up and goes down and never is straight for more than a couple of hundred feet! Woohoo! The motorcycles were a lot more dense on my later-afternoon ride back from the turnaround point of St-Come. I would guess that more than a hundred passed me, possibly much more. I did see six other cyclists during the day.

So the ride wasn't very long, about 30 km each way, but since the terrain wasn't flat it filled up the afternoon. It was hilly and climb-descend, which makes even a shorter ride interesting and keeps the average speed under control. I averaged about 22.7 km'h for the entire ride. I made many stops for scenery, so the ride wasn't as short as its 60 km total distance would indicate.

I was away from home from 10 am to 7 pm. I didn't get a chance to ride one village further to Sainte-Emile de l'Energie, where I have ridden through several times in the summer. This is because I didn't actually read my map when I was in St-Come and the road sign I looked at gave a distance to a different village that was further away and I didn't read the map to see that St-Emilie was quite close. Still, I used up the day light pretty effectively I thought. This did leave a 10 km gap in my trans-lanaudiere exploration, with another 15 km gap between Notre Dame de la Merci and the big town of Saint-Donat. Thiese are the only two gaps left to ride, then next year I'dd ride the whole shooting match from Tremblant in "laurentians toruist zone, to Saint Alexis des Monts in La Mauricie, traversing the complete Lanaudiere region. This will be a big one-way ride so I'll try to recruit Maxi as my car support for this sure-to-be-epic ride.

Riding back towards the west from the turnaround town of St-Come meant I now had a headwind, although it wasn't too fierce. ALso, some hills were steeper on the return leg it seemed. This ride has a greater number of shorter hills and fewer big or super steep hills that some other rides this this year. In fact it was a summer that was chock full of great hill rides, one of the best summers of my life for good road cycling. I really chose well when I decided to explore Lanaudiere late last summer and this year. It was everything I had wanted, hills hills and more hills! Oh, and good pavement and preferably, paved shoulders. You can judge the age of roads by whether the shoulders are paved. I used to not think about this, but now I really notice it, paved shoulders are good things!

Getting back to the car I went for a swim in the little lake, and wondered why I had no towel with me. I swam in my bike shorts and dried off with my cycling shirt and my cottony absorbant gaunch -- meaning I went home commando! (they were clean, I had driven up in bike wardrobe for a quick start once I park the car and they were part of my drive-home normal garb)

The rest stop at Notre Dame de la merci was great. I didn't explore the town very much,. because there wasn't very much town to explore. I am still not sure if there is either a dep or a restauant or hot dog stand. For once I made an effort to be home for supper and we had sushi which is the fastest and closest take out we have. Plus, it was still summer so I don't feel guilty, I really think of sushi as summer food.

Northern Lanaudiere exploration 2008

First Lanaudiere ride of 2008, and third week of new-road explorations too.
The route map of the ride is on Bikely.

Do you have the fever?

The fever to get out and ride?

To get out and ride some place that isn't on Montreal island?

To visit some place you know is great for bicycle riding?

Cycle Fun Montreal knows how you feel. We have the cure too.



Fever cured; and the open road was clean and dry

We headed out to our fav destination, St-Jean-de-Matha in the northern Lanaudiere, about an hour 20 minutes from Montreal, and the site of many of our favorite rides.

First problem, we park the car in a parking lot with fresh snow on the ground. Hmmm. The roads were dry. So, we figure, don't worry be happy. It worked!


Winter had not yet left northern Lanaudiere

So we got on the bikes and rode, and everything turned out ok. There were some dry roads, wet roads, sandy roads, wet and sandy roads, good roads, and lots of hills. And it snowed, but just little flurries, not anything that accumulated or caused us any trouble at all. Just some minor spring-very-early-season adversity.

Our rides here continue to be a source of exploration.

Today's exploration was an over-the hills shortcut to St-Damien. This turned out ok, and it was... extra hilly too. The was expected, and what was hoped was that it was all asphalt, which it was. A nice little option for future rides, we concluded.

We took Lac Mondor -> ch. de Cascade-> Principal to get to St-Damien (de Brandon).



Scenic new roads: spring melt means summer is coming!

Once in St-Damien we headed out to St-Emilie de l'Energie, and then back on Feuille de l'erable/riviere blanche (same road, good climb) and directly back to St-Jean de Matha.

Almost directly, that is, because we were close to St-Jean-de-Matha when we noticed we would not have 60 km of distance. We sould have less than 60 km. Hmmm, our achievement/ambition gland indicated that we had better raise the ride distance to 60 km.


Slightly amused horses watching our extra 8 km descent/climb

Luckily there is a fun little road at the entrance to St-Jean de Matha, it leads down to the Regional Park on the riviere Assomption, so we got one last climb and an extra 8 km of distance. This took our total nicely over 60 km, It doesn't sound like much, but there is significant hillage on rides in this area: this is why we keep returning here!


Louis Cyr welcoming me back to St-Jean-de-la-Matha

Here's the link to the route map of the ride on Bikely.


Returning for a dropped glove... the other one is the little dot 100 feet further.
Spring roads are sometimes not perfect!

Northern Lanaudiere Festi-Force ride

Today's version of our Lanaudiere Nord ride.

This ride's variations on the basic circuit are:

1. L'Assomption river to near St-Alphonse-Rodriguez (avoid: bad road surface)
   
2. short version of the Ste-Beatrix south loop (this is the non-complicated version)
   
3. chemin Pied de la Montagne out-and-back from chemin Belle Montagne (do it!)
   
4. Rang St-Guillaume at end of ride (do not skip this, it's 100% top quality)
   

The ride map is here on Bikely (good luck with incredibly unreliable bikely!)


We did a cycling version of St-Jean-de-Matha's Festi-Force Louis Cyr

Louis Cyr was a legendary Strongman - and this ride requires strong legs that are tested with a dozen steep climbs, which -- we promise -- are also fun.

The upside of uphills are the descents: woohoo!




We powered the ride with summer sunshine in the form of fresh-picked raspberries.

The raspberry farm is Ferme Sarrazin on Rang Ste-Catherine. They also sell various pork products in both raw and transformed forms. This is at the start of the first long hill: the three-step climb up and up and then UP to the Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie townline at the hill's top -- and the excellent Scenic Lookout with benches and a great view.

It is OK to take micro-pauses when climbing this hill. Mainly because you don't want to burn out too soon on this ride, but also because you want to have fun too.




Looking back from the top of the Rang Ste-Catherine hill.

There is new asphalt on the first two climbs up this hill, but this last climb remains very rustic (and hard). It feels really good to crest the top of the climb and look down into the Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie valley.




Hilltop church in St-Jean-de-Matha town.

Yes, the ride finishes at the church up this little hill.




Top of first/last hill of the day. See the church?

Also, see the dog?

That dog ruined our zoom-zoom blast down this last hill of the ride.

Cursed beast!


Spot the church.

Go ahead and click the photo. Yes, that is the St-Jean-de-Matha church.

This view is from St-Joseph near Ste-Beatrix. The view from here shows the upper part of the valley of the L'Assomption river. This river valley has waterfalls and is a regional park that includes the three municipalities that contain the L'Assomption river downriver from Ste-Beatrix to St-Jean-de-Matha and Ste-Melanie.


Parc Regional des Chutes

The ride passes over the L'Assomption river at the Ste-Beatrix entrance (one of the three entrances) to the Parc Regional des Chutes. The St-Jean-de-matha entrance is a good bike ride, but has no scenic view. The Ste-Beatrix entrance has a great view, as you can see in these photos.



Waterfall at the Ste-Beatrix entrance to Parc Regional des Chutes

The photo taken from the road bridge over the falls - no entrance fee for the view from the road bridge.


Downstream view from the road bridge.

This is possibly the other best way to enjoy a heat wave.




Road names like Pretty Mountain and Foot-of-the-Mountain promise scenic riding

Some times road names promise things, these roads deliver on the promises.




The section Belle Montagne & Rang St-Laurent rewards better than winning the loto.

Because the reward occurs every time you play here.




Ste-Beatrix has a scenic little main street


Ste-Beatrix is one of the three villages on this ride. They are each located a nice distance from each other. In Ste-Beatrix there is a park beside the church for rest stop, conveniently located right across from the grocery store.

Speaking of rest stops, Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie has the nicest rest stop. It is located beside a little lake at the Tourist Info building. This is located a very short detour off this bike circuit but is recommended. Directions: when the bike ride arrives in Ste-Emilie the circuit turns left. If you turn right instead and follow the Tourist Info sign you will not be disappointed with the quality of this rest stop. Check out the sawmill model inside the Tourist Info building.


Scenic view from rang Ste-Celine before arriving in Ste-Beatrix.



Refilling water bottles and camelbak with lots and lots of water.

Ice-cold water on a heat-wave day is a good thing.

Good hydration management is required when cycling on a hot day.




Rest&refuel was at "near" St-Alphonse-Rodriguez waterfall

This abandoned dam is easily accessed from beside the Rona. The depanneur is located where the back road meets the highway.

This segment of the ride was an out-and-back deviation from our regular route along the L'Assomption river. Frankly the road surface is pretty bad, but if it gets repaved it'll be great addition to this standard circuit. We love northern Lanaudiere back roads.


We saw only two other riders today.

This dude is arriving into Ste-Emilie-de-l'Energie from Ste-Come direction. It's a big downhill, and he rode the brakes all the way down. Speed control is probably a good idea in busy areas.




It was a perfect day for riding in a cycling utopia.



It is the weekend of St-Jean-de-Matha's Festi-Force Louis Cyr that festivalizes the memory of Quebec strongman Louis Cyr. So we went out and did out own strongman activity: riding the excellent hills of northern Lanaudiere.

Some bike rides, when repeated, are boring, repetitive, or just grindfests, with a distinct lack of fun. Not our northern Lanaudiere circuit, which is fun fun fun.

Which is why we keep returning to the parking lot behind the city hall (across from the hilltop church) and (until 2013) beside the Louis Cyr Museum. We park under the giant maple tree. We take the bike out of the car and 50 feet after crossing the Rt 131 east of town we are in the country, and in another minute, are climbing a short but crazy steep little hill, observed with disapproval by the bovines chewing their cud.

It is a fact that this ride contains a few hills, and this means that for those of us without triples, there will be standing up on the pedals, and for honesty's sake, let's be upfront and say that there are a dozen stiff climbs that will test your fitness and possibly make you see god, or at least be begging her for some assistance. Here's a hint: instead of doing the zigzag up the hill thing, take some micro-pauses on the hill, 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, and then continue. (You can thank me later).

So this ride has quite a concentrated amount of climbing, but what if it is too much, will we need to call a taxi to get back to the car if we max out and enter cramp city? Let us advise you that this ride is shaped in a series of three (or four) loops from St-Jean-de-Matha. So if the first or second loop kills you (ok, we mean satisfies your need to discover your hill climbing ability), you can abort back to the car. We won't jusdge when you've had enough. Many people say 50 km is nothing, there's no way I'd have enough riding in only 50 km, but in fact on this ride 50 km can be quite enough riding for one day. The option to go long is available, as is the option to go short. It's up to you how much fun you want per ride. And if you go short, you can come back latr in the season for the longer ride. We know, we keep coming back!

But what if you are a hill addict, and you want more? And then you still want more? This ride delivers, with extra hills available even when you arrive back in St-Jean-de-Matha with the road down the the Parc Regional Des Chutes' St-Jean-de-Matha entrance (highly recommended!!!)

Let's list the pluses of this ride:

• Quiet roads
• Good asphalt
• lots of hills
• Good and great scenery
• More quiet roads
• More good asphalt
• more good hills

Shadows on Rang Ste-Guillaume

For a change we're here long before sunset!



Tilted barn picture of the day.

We love Rang Ste-Guillaume - don't miss it.

Seriously: make sure to add Rang Ste-Guillaume at the ride's end. Since you have to pass though St-Jean-de-Matha to get to this last segment of the ride, it is very tempting to call it a day and skip Rang St-Guillaume. Don't succumb to this temptation. You want to ride Rang St-Guillaume, and this desire will be rewarded with a fantastic finale to the ride.

The fact that you will find this to be a fantastic finale is in fact a guarantee.



St-Jean-de-Matha roadwork almost finished, and no more bike-unfriendly detour.



The Bertrand is happy to bond at ride's end with its friend the giant maple tree.

What secrets is the bike revealing to the tree?

The surprise of the day was how well we rode in this heatwave.

Saint Alexis des Monts / Lac Sacacomie ride

Lac Sacacomie
Nearing the top of straight-up climb from Municipal dock

The fourth visit of Cycle Fun Montreal to Lanaudiere ended up with us leaving the region of Lanaudiere because we rode so far east that we crossed the invisible line over to region of Quebec called La Mauricie.

We had received a suggestion from the internet to try a ride from St-Gabriel de Brandon east to St-Alexis des Monts. And, it was further suggested, if we were looking for some fun then we should continue north to experience the road to Hotel Lac Sacacomie.

So we loaded the bikes in the car and headed out on the Met eastbound, and from Joliette we drove to our new destination of St-Gabriel de Brandon. New, because so far this year we have always been parking at the central location of St-Jean de Matha. All the rides we did here this summer were based on the first ride we did in this region, from the book Petits Escapades, which takes you to the far western corner of St-Gabriel, but not into the village itself. So today will be the first time we actually enter in to the village (via Rt. 348).

Ok, so the first challenge is always where to park the car and where is the tourist office and where is the route out of town?

We took a cruise through the main street (rue St-Gabriel) through town to the lake (It’s called lac Maskinongé and it’s pretty big). It helps to get our bearings and then we U-turned and returned to the middle of town. We stopped in the big parking lot for the pool/arena/community center, beside the Caisse Pop, the friendly and informative tourist information office, and, it was right beside the route out of town. Jackpot! This is also conveniently across the street from a large and modern Metro supermarket. In fact after the ride I got food at the Metro and ate supper at the lake-side public beach picnic area, located about five minutes north from here.

The ride goes from St-Gabriel de Brandon along the main road of Rt. 348 10 km to the tiny village of St-Didace, where we turned at the Crevier gas station on to the Rt. 349 to go 25 km to Saint Alexis des Monts. There are not a lot of villages to pass through on this ride. There was a new beaver dam beside the road that I stopped to look at. The 349 is a smaller road and is hilly and twisty, and does not have a paved shoulder. With plenty of roadside trees recently cut down, it is possible they are going to be widening it. That would be good news.

Fresh Beaver dam near St-Didace

After a few peaceful miles we crossed the town-line border into St-Alexis. I t was apparent that they liked bicycles: we found ourselves on a designated bike route! This town line was really deep in the middle of nowhere, so seeing the bicycle signalization was a bit of a surprise. I always like to see the effort that some towns make to help the two wheeled set feel at home.

This road gradually became more populated and we were arriving back in civilization at the village of St-Alexis of the Mountains (des Monts). So far the ride had not been very mountainous, just mildly hilly. There were none of the big hills like those to be found south of St-Melanie de l'Energie, for instance.

Since St-Alexis was in the La Mauricie region, I had to go find some new maps. All my this-summer’s maps were Lanaudiere-region-based, now I had to find some Mauricie region maps. Quebec is a big place geographically. This is actually a good thing. I went to the local Dep to get some snacks and see if I could find a local map. I was in luck, after I asked for a local map he took me to a place in the store far away from the “corporate-map-company” display, and I got a local St-Alexis map, for a mere 2 bucks.

It’s always great to be able to get the on-the-ground local map. Bigger maps never have the intimate details of a locally-produced map. This one got me located and as you will see, motivated too. In fact without this map I would have had 80% less fun on this day. Yes, 80%

I didn’t want to eat standing in a dep parking lot, so I rode a little bit further to the town center. Here was the imposing Catholic Church, and to my surprise, beside it is a lake, in the middle of town, with new picnic facilities along side.

Excellent lake-side location for our lunch stop

However, I was nervously noting that there was also a gigantic trout jumping out of the lake. When I say giant, I mean a 20-foot long trout. Trout are supposed to jump out of water and eat mosquitoes. This one was big enough to jump out and eat me.

One big trout

The St-Alexis tourist office was closed (on the weekend?), but the map I had bought at the dep turned out to be perfect for my needs. I had heard that the road to Hotel Lac Sacacomie was "something special" in the hills department. Since the ride so far had left me wanting more hills, I looked at the map to see where this place was. I originally had the impression that it was 50 miles to the west of here, but it turned out to be about 15 km away (i.e. 30 km out and back). That was just perfect to add it to today’s ride. I had mistakenly thought that this hotel’s road was 50 miles to the west of here. So this was a big surprise and a great bonus to the ride. And quite possibly reflective of some pretty slack planning.

I took a look around so I wouldn't get lost on the way back; the landmark was the National Bank (I mean, banque) that was on my road direction home. I really didn't want to get lost and stranded! Then I headed in the direction of Lac Sacacomie. Backing up the map was also a direction sign in the village.

Leaving St-Alexis: some remarkable roadside kitch

The ride now climbed upwards, we were heading into the hills outside of town. One note, the road quality of this section, about ten km, is terrible. Going uphill you are going slow enough to steer around road obstacles, but the descent later was not one of the joys of my life.

Soon we arrived at the turn on to the Lac Sacacomie road. There were some nice surprises. First, the road surface was top quality. Next, I had noticed we were following a river uphill, and were getting higher and higher above the river itself. Turning on to this road meant we were now suddenly confronted with a fast descent down to the river level. The first fast downhill of the day, and it was fast, wicked fast. Well, this was happiness inducing.

At the bottom, at the river level I quickly sobered up: the road continued up the other side and it looked steep. I started climbing and I soon learned that it wasn't just steep, it was steep AND long, and the steepness increased as I rode along. The bottom was actually the gentle bunny-slope area, the middle was steeper and was enjoyably twisting back and forth and still with the hard climbing, and then I arrived at the last section, straight up the hill for 500 metres. Straight up and steeper than below , in fact in an optical trick, it made the below area look like it was the flats! It was a solid, straight up the wall, unrelenting 15% climb.

The "Wall" was later to be one of the fastest descents of my life

Well, Woo-Hoo! Yes, I was still enthusiastic, later today this would be replaced with a kind of oh-my-god-how-slow-can-I-climb-this-and-not-fall-over mentality. But for now, I was happy, because I know that on the other side of every killer uphill is a great downhill speed-fest.

At the top I took a pic of the road sign for the hill behind me: “Danger: 15% hill” it said. Now comes the descent. In one of the quickest kilometers I’ve ever seen on a bike, the sign for the entrance to the municipal parking access area for Lac Sacacomie (some services) flashes by, and I was soon climbing up another big hill as the road winded it way around this hill-lined lake on the way to Auberge Lac Sacomie.

This was really good fun, and when I got to the end at the hotel, I wasn't sorry it was ended, because I knew I had those big descents to climb back up. The fun wasn't over yet.

I had a talk with the Hotel Lac Sacacomie doorman. I learned that maybe there's a possibility that the first part of the road will be repaired in the future. If so, this would be one of the best routes for cycling in Quebec.

I didn't stop for long at the Auberge. I walked from the hotel to the road to soothe my hard-worked leg muscles before tackling the hills again. They were just as steep going back, and when the sign for the Municipal lake parking area came up I turned to see what's up down there. It was a descent back to the water level, and it was almost insanely steep. At the water was a chalet (services) and a public dock and boat launch, I didn't do any off-the-bike exploration, which I regret, but I know I'll be back here again some time.

Before climbing back up I did have a talk with the chalet worker who was outside in the sun. We talked about me going back up the hill; I think she thought I'd have to find a truck to give me a lift back up the hill! No sir, I rode it all the way back to the entrance to here, and back up the main road, which would take me to the ultimate high point on this road: at the top of the steep ride back down to the river-crossing.

Climbing up here I noticed I wasn't the happy dog I was earlier, it was getting hard. The climb is about 100 metres in about a km: a very good hill indeed!

There are only so many 100% efforts anybody is capable of; I had used up my allotment. I know I should have ridden Cam Houde more than once a month!

The climb up had a flat section so I sat up while riding and relaxed, I looked around, and... Got stung by a bee.

%$@%#$%!!!

It wasn’t fatal and I scraped out the stinger, and continued on my way, the sting changing from a red spot, to a loonies sized bump, then later that night to 3 inch wide red circle. I was happy that it didn't hurt too much at all. As you can see, I'll find any excuse I can to be happy!

Bee sting (minor)

A couple of minutes later I was on top of the hill.

15 percent descent - Speed Limit 40 km/m

And a maximum speed of 83.7!

The upper part of the descent: down "the wall"

I was looking forward to the descent to recover some energy, so I coasted all the way down, the top section I let it out, and went under control through the middle-section's turns, and then down the final bit and I was down at the river level again. My smile was big enough to dam the river! I checked out my max speed on the speedometer gizmo and it said 79.4 and this was an all-coasting descent. I was still in a state of jubilant glee, so with no one telling me that this was a really bad idea, I went right back up the hill again to do another descent, this time I would pedal the top section.

Good idea right?

Well..... Yes and no.

I got another great descent, and I got my max speed up to 83.7 KM/H. Nothing bad happened, I got back to the bottom again even happier than before, but the climb had definitely been an extra effort that used up some reserves I would have liked later, because as I got closer to home my speed was not respectable!

But that was later, I rode up the final climb and I was back on the main road at the sign that says Auberge Lac Sacacomie 6.5km. I took a minute to think about what a road this is. My mission this summer was to find and ride some great new hills. This one is on the list!

This road was a descent, but it was a rough road. It was all bumpy and bouncy downhill coasting, until I was soon back at St-Alexis. I made another pitstop at the dep for some mid-ride food supplies. Then I went back to the centre of town to eat beside the lake, in a different and more grassy’n’green location behind the church. There are lots of good spots to eat or picnic here. The bells of the church rang with the celebration of a newly married couple. Life is good, I thought. And, it was.

I still had to ride the 35 km back to St-Gabriel, luckily I knew it wasn't going to be hard riding. I followed the bike path directions back out of town to the Rt. 349. I now got to enjoy this road with the magic light of late afternoon. I stopped in a road-side sand quarry for a little break, away from the road and really, in just a few feet, deep in the woods. Sometimes on the road bike we don't get a real feel for the nature we are speedily riding through. Now, For a few moments, I got very immersed in nature.

When I woke up, I mean, with the short break now over I continued this away-from civilization section until I passed the beaver dam and got to the intersection of the 348 at St-Didace (population 589). I took a few minutes to cross the bridge into the village proper. The church perches high up the hill, there's a dep, and in a few hundred feet there's a dam or weir that maintains the level for the Lake at St-Gabriel de Brandon. I'm guessing this but more and larger boats were floating in the river than I expected to see in such a tiny (but it did have a golf course!) village. There was a park at the dam and you could cross the river on top of the dam. It was worth the stop, and some people (i.e. motorcyclists) were just stopping at the totally unscenic Crevier gas station for a break. You can do better than that; cross into the village itself!

St-Gabriel de Brandon to Lac Sacacomie

Then it was back on the main road, Rt. 348 and back to St-Gabriel de Brandon. From this road there was a pretty good view of the mountains to the north. In a few miles we arrived at eastern end of Lac Maskinonge. We took a short detour ride north on the road to Mandeville (we’re back at civilization: there’s paved bike path shoulder here), because the road aimed straight for these hills and in the setting sun it was irresistibly ultra scenic. I didn't go all the way to Mandeville, I was intent in just getting back home to the start, and home was close (think: supper!!!)

In a mile I was back at the edge of town and intriguingly, there was an alternative bike-path-route through town, avoiding riding along the edge of the highway route of Rt. 348. I took it, and it was interesting, but it was bombed-out road first paved in the 1940s and I don't think ever repaved. Oh well, it was going in the right direction, and I was riding slowly anyhow.

When I reached rue St-Gabriel, the main street of the village, I took one last detour. I went down to the water’s edge to the town beach (Plage). At the late hour I was there, it was free parking, so after seeing that the picnic tables were perfect for eating my supper I went back to the car, finally!

For once I remembered to check the bike computer to see what is the total distance of the ride, it was about 105km for the day.

I got changed, locked the bike in the car, and walked across the street to the Metro store to pick up some picnic-feast type food. Then I drove to the beach and to "the best seat in town” for supper.

I sat a picnic table on the edge of the park that sits elevated about five feet above the beach level. Here I ate my salade avec saumon sauvage d’Alaska salmon. with 7-pepper hummus and whole wheat baguette with jus d’orange and biere Labatt. I was sitting at the picnioc table on the edge of the beach, with not a road or a car in sight, and ate and watched the sun set across the lake and the light leave the sky. This had been an excellent day to ride a bicycle.

Lake-side sunset supper spot: another great location

Labour Day weekend is often considered the symbolic end of summer. If I might indulge in some reminiscences, let me say that I have really enjoyed exploring the Lanaudiere region of Quebec this summer. It has lots of great roads for cyclists seeking scenic settings to cycle some smile-filled miles! Next year I plan to explore the western side of Lanaudiere, where it connects with the Laurentians. Next month I am going to Trois Riviere to ride something, perhaps a loop through the Parc de La Mauricie, which was what my my coworker called “the hardest ride of his life.” Sounds good to me.

For anyone not yet convinced that they should visit Lanaudiere, then let me remind you of this one fact: One hour and 15 minutes from your door in Montreal is St-Jean de Matha. From this village you can ride in any direction and cycling happiness will be obtained.

Don't wait until next year, September is here and the trees are changing from green to the reds, golds, and yellows of the autumn. September and October are great months for biking. And they’re the last two months of cycling until next year. Break out the tights and woolie jersey, and get riding!

For the other Cycle Fun Montreal rides in Lanaudiere

click here for trip # 1 - original Petits Escapades ride in Lanaudiere
click here for trip # 2 - added side trip on chemin belle montagne to Saint Beatrix
click here for trip # 3 - made a great modification to eastern half of the ride


click here for a great Laurentians hill ride, the nearly new Saint-Donat to Mont Tremblant road.