Inglorious Beginnings : Montreal to Laval

In 2018 when two relatively naïve persons had the slightly crazy notion of hiking the entire Trans Canada Trail / Sentier Transcanadien it seemed a simple proposition of walking from East to West for a few years and then from South to North.  Certainly there would be tough days, rough weather at times, and challenges, but despite everything that could arise we would simply need to follow the sun and walk – one step at a time – from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic. 

By October of 2019, nearing the conclusion of our first year on the Great Trail and having completed all of the maritime provinces we thought we had everything figured out.  We had gone through snow blizzards and tropical storms in Newfoundland, flooded pathways in Cape Breton, a Hurricane landfall in Nova Scotia, navigated trail repairs across PEI, and overcome the very tough Fundy Footpath in New Brunswick.  Yet as we ventured into our 5^th province, Quebec the seasons turned and winter pushed us to stop for the year.   

And so after, walking 145 km along the beautiful Petit Temis from New Brunswick to the shores of the St. Lawrence Seaway we were confident that a few months later with the arrival of spring we would be back to continue westward...in Quebec. 

“If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan – but never the goal!”

Then in early 2020 Covid arrived, and everything changed.  When Quebec sealed its borders and prohibited inter-provincial travel our hopes of venturing from the Atlantic to the Pacific faced its largest logistical challenge.  The result being that Quebec stands as the only province not hiked consecutively from east to west, but has instead taken us five attempts, led us to trek the province in every season and type of weather condition to complete.  Even now the logistics of arranging and reserving a hike through the 125 km of the Charlevoix region eludes us.  Once again we are in the wrong season, all possibilities have long been reserved and the costs are prohibitive.   And so our plans, by necessity,  continue to evolve to suit the circumstances of the moment while moving us forward. 

In 2020, with Covid restrictions at their height we waited before continuing on across Ontario and Manitoba intent upon returning to La Belle Provence.  Our attempt to return to Quebec in 2021 ultimately put us at the beginning of yet another wave of Covid, and so after going through 15 days of quarantine we had to leave the province once again without taking a single step on Sentier Transcanadien.  The result would be another round of quarantine in Ontario upon our return and a delayed decision to continue westward from Winnipeg - were we enjoyed our third round of quarantine.  It would in fact be not until late 2021 - when this time Alberta declared a state of emergency from another wave of Covid – that we would be able return to Quebec and venture 605 km from north of Baie Saint Paul, along the Sentier des Cap, through Quebec City and along the amazing and extensive Route Verte to Montreal.  Here exhaustion and winter once again caught up with us leaving the western portion of Quebec unfinished. 

And so now in 2022 just over 6 months after leaving the trail we are - for the fifth time back and hiking across Quebec beginning in Montreal – at our point of departure and heading northward! Our trek in la belle Provence over the next 20 days will lead us more than 500 km through Laval north along the popular P’tit Train du Nord to Mont-Tremblant, Mont-Laurier and Grand-Remouse before turning south towards Gatineau, Hull and back into Ontario!  Once in Ontario we plan to celebrate the long awaited completion of Quebec and trek to the office of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society which is itself on a spur of the Trans Canada Trail!

Day 431 on the Trans Canada Trail

Today we kicked off the 4th season of our #hike4birds across Canada on the Trans Canada Trail in Montreal, QC.  We arrived in Quebec's populous city last night, and were treated to a delicious dinner at a trendy vegan restaurant by Daniel Baylis - poet, author of 'Wild Birds' and 'The Traveller', friend, and all-around wonderful human.   We were feeling the love, and set off full of optimism and enthusiasm.  However, despite the many blessings we've received, today turned out to be a rather inglorious beginning to our journey.  

We needed to replace some gear before setting out, including Sean's long damaged camera lens, so we had a bit of a late start.  We indulged in a breakfast of gigantic omelettes and coffee while waiting for the shops to open, and then set off into an impressive downpour to do our errands.  A few very expensive hours later our mission was accomplished, and we were ready to get underway. 

We were determined to begin where we left off, at the offices of the Trans Canada Trail.  We stood on the treed promenade opposite the trail association's office in the pouring rain.  Despite the wet weather, several groups of sodden but still enthusiastic school children were gathered nearby, clearly enjoying being out of the classroom and on a field trip.

We followed the pedestrian walkway along the waterfront for a few blocks and soon arrived at the Vieux-Port de Montreal (Old Port) were we located our first Sentier Transcanadien sign for the year!  Despite the weather and our increasingly sodden shoes we stopped to take a quick picture of ourselves with the sign before turning inland. 

With two possibilities for trekking the city, we had chosen to leave Montreal on the branch of the Trans Canada Trail that goes through Laval, and for the rest of the day we wove our way through city streets, following the paved bicycle lanes and the signs for the Route Verte bicycle path which primarily followed av. Christophe Coloumb.

Although it wasn't an unpleasant walk, weaving through cities, where we essentially have to walk continuously looking at the trail App to make sure we're staying on course, is never our favourite kind of hiking.  To make matters worse, it rained hard all day long, and we were pretty much drenched to the skin within the first hour.

Early on we walked through some older neighbourhoods, the streets lined with 2-3 brownstone brick homes and shaded by huge old trees. Long staircases led down to the sidewalk, and many homes had beautiful flower gardens out front.  We were intrigued to notice that a lot of the colourful and sweet smelling flowers were closed up tight in the rain.

The trail took us alongside Parc La Fontaine, a large and beautifully landscaped green-space with an ornamental lake in the middle.  It would have been a lovely place to explore if we'd had better weather.  We spotted several pairs of Mallards swimming in the waters of the lake, and a particular highlight was seeing several albino Grey Squirrels chasing each other among the huge, old trees.  We also enjoyed seeing the functional art display, which consisted of several metal chairs arranged in an arc, each of which had a different brass object underneath, including a soccer ball, a pair of shoes, and a set of binoculars. 

We followed tree lined streets to Sir Wilfred Laurier Park, a smaller green-space with an outdoor pool, two baseball diamonds, and a basketball court.  Although it was raining too hard to stop and sit down, we could really appreciate a route that took us through parks and treed spaces where it would have been possible to stop.  One of the most difficult parts of city walking is often that there is nowhere to take a break – yet Montreal has done a really great job of maintaining parks throughout the city.

Around 11 am we came across the Miche Dourée Boulangerie, and decided to step inside to shelter from the rain for a few minutes.   We enjoyed two delicious European style coffees and croissants, and the very kind owners let us sit for a bit and try to dry off a little.

The rain didn't let up at all as we made our way steadily northwest towards the Rivière des Prairies, or the Black River, in English.  This wide, deep, fast flowing river is a delta channel of the Ottawa River, and it separates the island of Montreal and the city of Laval.  When we reached its shore we were greeted by a family of Canada Geese, the adults keeping careful watch as a large group of fuzzy yellow goslings crossed the trail ahead of us.

We took another break at the picnic tables under the roofed enclosure of the Pavilion d'accueil du Parcours Gouin. This riverside park looked like another lovely place to explore if it hadn't been pouring.  As it was, we contented ourselves with sitting in the shelter, enjoying the sweet smell of the nearby lilac bushes whose light purple blossoms made huge mounds next to us.

After crossing the river we followed the bicycle lanes along a very busy and unaesthetic road lined with pawn shops, variety stores, dodgy looking stores selling odds and ends, and abandoned buildings.  Walking out of cities is rarely an uplifting experience, but this was a pretty depressing and seemingly unending stretch.  We made it for another 5 km or so in the rain and then took another break in a fortuitously located Tim Horton's.

By this point our feet were really hurting from walking in soaking wet shoes and carrying our full pack weight for the first time in nearly 6 months.  During our training our backpacks were only 30-40 pounds, yet back on the Trans Canada Trail each is between 50 and 60 lbs which are bodies are not yet accustomed to. As such, we decided to stop for the day in a nearby motel, which we were shocked to realize was actually the only establishment within about 50 km of our current position that had a room available for the night that was less than $240/night before taxes.  We knew Montreal was busy and more expensive on the weekends, but we had no idea just exactly how much more.

Perhaps more people are travelling because it is the long weekend, and we are all ready to get out into the world again after two years of Covid travel restrictions.  Perhaps it is the result of Montreal holding a number of conferences and concerts again after so long.  Or perhaps it was the result of the huge number of power outages throughout the region.  Whatever the reason however, it made us realize how much of a cost barrier there is to travel right now, even when you don't take gas prices into consideration things are certainly very costly.  It seems like a better time than ever to focus on exploring and learning about the natural spaces within our own local communities.

In any event, we clearly weren't able to walk out of the greater Montreal area to a place where we could camp in the pouring rain, and the only motel we could afford had a very unique clientele, consisting of a wedding party, several ‘ladies of the night’, groups of amorous teenagers, and a selection of other travellers.  Checked in and with our cloths hung to dry we walked to the grocery store to buy bread, cheese, and salad for dinner and made it back just in time for the power to go out.  We have everything we need, and everything worked out well, but as we sit here in the dark eating dinner in a motel in Laval we can't help but feel this is an inglorious beginning to our fourth year on the Trans Canada Trail. What a day it has been.

See you on the trail!

Remember to follow our entire adventure here : www.comewalkwithus.online