Reproduced with permission by the author

Jul. 7, 2005. 01:00 AM

Cycle paths lead to adventure

New routes offer some very special moments
Quebec is expanding its excellent network

KATE HARRIES
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

MONTREAL—Justin VanDitzhuyzen was intent on making it to a party in Toronto — By bike! In three days! — when we met him under a bridge in Ste. Anne de Belleville.

"Where do I go from here?" asked the cyclist, explaining his plan.

Our small group of five Ontario cyclists, kitted out in all the right cycling duds, must have looked knowledgeable to the man who had just cycled from downtown Montreal to this suburb.

We also must have looked like wimps. While our gear was being transported by support vehicle to our next destination along Quebec's amazing labyrinth of bike trails, VanDitzhuyzen had all his necessities packed on his bike.

The McGill student had gotten lost between the Lachine trail that leads out of the city and the Soulanges trail in the Montregie region that borders Ontario. This 13-kilometre gap outside Montreal is a major missing link in the impressive Route Verte, an almost completed 4,300-kilometre network that will soon allow cyclists to travel anywhere in the province. It's a wonderful system connecting off-road trails, designated lanes on roads and paved shoulders along highways.

VanDitzhuyzen could not have stumbled on a more qualified group to put him back on track.

"Well, have you ever lucked out," laughed Vicki Barron, executive director of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Regeneration Trust, responsible for the 650-kilometre Lake Ontario Waterfront cycling trail. She and other trust representatives were on the last leg of a four-day bike ride to launch the integration of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail and the Route Verte.

"The people who can answer your questions will be here soon," she assured VanDitzhuyzen.

Jean-Francois Provonost and Michel Bedard of Velo-Quebec, the non-profit corporation that runs the Route Verte, wheeled in to join us a little later.

They supplied our lost friend with the directions he needed and sent him on his way. We, on the other hand, continued our leisurely 45-kilometre ride into Montreal.

Our trip had started in Brockville and took us along Highway 2, which has no provision for cyclists. Our second day, from Morrisburg to Cornwall, offered some of the best riding. It's only 40 kilometres but we took time out to stop and see the sights, of which there are many. This stretch would make a pleasant outing for a family with children of cycling age — 7 or 8 years and up.

Just east of Morrisburg is Upper Canada Village, created in 1958 as a place to relocate some of the historic buildings from the villages that were submerged by the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Cycling past the costumed interpreters who work in the village's farm, mills and businesses, we followed the trail through a migratory bird sanctuary, a spectacularly beautiful area where the deer are tame.

Just before Upper Canada Village, by the small airport, is a public golf course that is one of the best in Ontario, or so says Mike Lalonde, manager of a local tourism group who rode with us for a day.

There's a museum devoted to the lost villages east of Long Sault, and then a lovely ride on the Long Sault Parkway, a causeway that links 11 islands created by the flooding.

The Seaway replaced several canals that were closed off and in some areas filled in, from the Galop Canal near Cardinal to the Lachine Canal near Montreal. Only now are communities beginning to realize what a boon these placid waterways can be, especially for cyclists. Our Velo-Quebec escorts took us along the Lachine Canal trail which until recently ran through an industrial area they described as a dump. In 1998, a massive revitalization project began, sparking an explosion of investment in what is now a major recreational area.

We cycled past bustling Montreal streets with signs everywhere of renovation, then down to the Old Port and up to the city's Plateau district to get to Velo-Quebec's headquarters, the Maison des Cyclistes.

That was the toughest hill of the trip.

But we'd made it.

As for VanDitzhuyzen?

We later learned that at 3.a.m. the following morning, his bike broke down in Kingston, some 300 kilometres down the trail. But all ended well because family members came to pick him up and got him to Toronto in time for the party.

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Kate Harries is an Elmvale-based freelance writer.