Dog days of summer

Today, the girls spent the morning working and pulling fruits and vegetables from the garden. The blueberries have perhaps one more harvest left but the blackberries have come in strong with many more on the way. Their tiny fingers are much more adept at picking berries than are mine. Charlotte is more partial to blueberries […]

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Blueberry picking

With a few hot and rainy days behind us, the blueberry bushes are bursting with ripe fruit. Charlotte and Olivia are keen to help me (and themselves) and Juana harvest this new bounty. It’s early in the morning and there is still a little shade on the bushes. We want to get the picking done […]

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Granddaughter gardening

Arriving home after a long trip, there is lots to do in the garden. Luckily I have my two granddaughters, Charlotte and Olivia, to help me out. The first thing we do is to harvest the snap peas and beans. Juana tried to keep up with the harvest, but there were too many plants growing […]

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Final day

It’s a cold morning at 37 degrees. Not biking weather. But it should warm up to the low 50s by the time we hit the road. After a tough 39 miles on Corridor Aerobique the other day, we decide to alter our trip a bit. We were supposed to bike back the same way, which […]

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Absolute beauty, absolute workout

We start the morning not with breakfast, but with a bike ride as our hotel does not offer this morning meal. Ted discovers a fantastic breakfast place where he has a fish-filled crepe that spans the entire plate and I have a similarly huge omelet. We are fueled and ready for our trip on Corridor […]

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A relaxing pedal

The sun is playing with the clouds as we head south on Le P’tit Train du Nord. It’s an easy pedaling day as the trail will tend to be downhill (mostly) and unless we take detours, our mileage should be around 35. We push hard though a forested grotto, which is cool and damp. A […]

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Hot ride, fancy dinner

It’s a clear sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky. We have nearly 50 miles to ride today. There are no other cyclists on Le P’tit du Train Nord this morning. Within 15 minutes of starting we strip layers next to a beaver den. By the time we get to Rivière-Rouge, we have both […]

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Water, water everywhere

A short ride takes us to the end of the trail at 200 km. Another 1 km takes us to an abandoned and boarded up station house where the trail actually ends. Now we retrace yesterday’s pedaling on yet another cloudy, coolish day. Leaving Mont-Laurier, we come across a cattle field filled with daisies, red […]

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Rain, rain take a hike. . .

. . .grandpa wants a dry bike [ride] It was supposed to stop raining around noon but that never happened. So with 36 miles to finish the complete leg of Le P’tit du Train Nord, we don our rain gear and head off. We are fortunate that the base for the rest of the trail […]

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Groundhog day

Another cool and cloudy day greets us as we start our ride toward Nominingue forcing us to layer up with windbreakers to thwart the chill. It’s an easy coast downhill toward Mont-Tremblant. Few other cyclists are on the trail and we appear to be passing through an alpine-like forest populated mostly with conifers separated by […]

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