Le P’tit Train du Nord

If you’re looking for a fantastic rails-to-trails bike adventure, le P’tit Train du Nord should definitely be on your list. This path stretches over 200 km and is almost entirely paved, following an old railway line. Since trains never climb steep hills or wind around sharp curves, the trail is blessedly flat and relatively straight, making for an easy, scenic ride. While it doesn’t cut through as many villages as we saw in Europe, there are interesting towns and renovated old train stations that now serve food and drinks along the way.

The trail runs from Mont Laurier in the north to Saint-Jérôme in the south. From Saint-Jérôme, you can connect to additional bike paths that will lead you straight into Montreal (only about a two-hour drive by car from Saint-Jérôme).

Since there aren’t as many villages to explore and post about, and we spend so much time just cycling, these posts will be a little more spaced out than before. Luckily, we spent two weeks in Mont-Tremblant, an area that easily deserves its own story.

Last time I “checked in,” Mike and I had just finished up the PPJ trail and were camped at Shawville’s City Park. While I was typing up my last post, Mike got a bit restless and decided to take the bike out by himself for a ride to the Ottawa River. He had the car and both bikes, while I stayed behind in the RV to write.

Our ebikes fold up to fit inside the car, so they have hinges on the frame and handlebars. While cruising at about 23 km/hr, a tiny 5 mm screw that holds the handlebar hinge pin came loose and fell out. Suddenly, the pin was gone, the handlebar post detached, and Mike and his shoulder hit the ground hard, with his foot twisted in the bike frame and the bike on top of him. Mike managed to find the pin but not the screw, somehow reattached everything, and cycled back to the car.

He came home with a very sore shoulder and ribs that hurt every time he moved wrong or coughed. As for getting him to a hospital for x-rays? Not a chance. He was convinced the doctors couldn’t do much for cracked ribs, and I lost that argument. It’s been three weeks now and he can cough without wincing, but his shoulder is still troublesome, especially at night. Amazingly, none of this has slowed him down. He even managed the “Luge” rides at Mont-Tremblant, which I thought would be a no-go.

A couple of weeks ago, my e-bike developed a bit of a “hiccup.” The motor started cutting in and out, sometimes slowing me down, sometimes giving me a sudden boost. It was completely random. Some days it happened once or twice in a kilometre; other times it was constant. Needless to say, it drove me crazy.

Mike suspected the pedal-assist sensor because the bike ran fine when I used the throttle instead of pedalling. He had me order a new sensor from Amazon, which he installed, but that one didn’t work at all. Thinking it might’ve been a bad install, he ordered a second one. Same story. Thankfully, they were not expensive.

Still not convinced the sensor was to blame, Mike swapped his bike’s sensor onto mine. Sure enough, my bike now runs perfectly – and his has the hiccup! I like this arrangement much better. Mike’s now chasing down replacement parts from the manufacturer.

We kicked off our P’tit Train du Nord adventure with a week parked for free in Mont Laurier, where the trail begins. Then we moved on to Mont-Tremblant and ended up staying two lovely weeks. The path’s official length is over 200 km, and many people complete it in a few days. Mike and I, though, are stretching it out, we’ll be here for more than a month, as we’ll ride close to 500 km by covering the trail in both directions, not by choice, but by necessity. We drive to a starting point, ride half of my self-imposed 40 km limit, then circle back to the car. In Europe, we’d ride the full distance and catch a train home, but that’s not an option here. We’re also tacking on extra rides near the campgrounds and exploring the local towns. If it were up to Mike, he’d be riding daily. I prefer every other day, so we compromise at three rides  (one hopefully smaller) every four days. This works for both of us.

A few days ago, construction forced us off the main trail and onto smaller roads with some surprisingly steep climbs. You definitely wouldn’t encounter those hills on a converted railway line. It certainly made us appreciate the bike trail even more. Mike, now a fan of flat, paved trails, claims we’ve gone soft.

We’ve had a few frosty nights, and the fall colours are great. The trail isn’t crowded which is nice. I suspect it would have been much busier before Labour Day.

The new motorhome’s systems have mostly settled down. There’s still a bit of a learning curve and a few lingering issues to sort out, but we’re getting there. Mike is especially enjoying the heated floors now that the nights are cooler.

Mont-Tremblant is definitely set up for tourists, whether you’re a skier or not, but wow, it’s pricey to eat or have a drink anywhere near the resorts. Over our two weeks in the area, Mike and I rode the cable car to the top of Mont-Tremblant and wandered around soaking up incredible views. Our walk didn’t exactly qualify as hiking. You can see in the photo that the trail ahead got a bit steeper than either of us felt like tackling (especially since this was less than a week after Mike’s fall!). The views were beautiful, and the cafeteria patio up top looked like the perfect spot to have a glass of wine, read my book and and enjoy the views, but the gondola shut down at 4:30 and the return line was long. Skipping the mountain-top relaxation this time around was more a disappointment for me than it was for Mike.

Mont-Tremblant resort also has a “luge” ride, where you take a chairlift up halfway up the mountain, then a speedy sled ride down the mountain. You’ll see a shot of me at the end, getting steered into the slow-down lanes. Most of the route is wide with S-curves snaking down the hill. Apparently experienced riders have been clocked at more than 50 km/hr coming down the mountain on these sleds. Great fun.

This part of Quebec has gone all-in on Halloween and fall décor since Labour Day if not before. At one point I checked the calendar because I thought I’d somehow lost track of the date for Halloween. No – still two months to go. The photo here shows Mike entering what was otherwise a normal Canadian Tire store.

We began camping at the northern end of Le P’tit Train du Nord in Mont-Laurier, then moved to the middle in Mont-Tremblant, and now we’ve just arrived at the southern end in Saint-Jérôme. We may easily stay a while, explore some of the smaller towns along the trail, and maybe even ride the connecting paths toward Montreal. We’ll see how far we get.