Biking the St. Lawrence River

Hi Blog!

Having spent the day yesterday walking around Old Quebec, we thought it might be interesting to see the city from the other side of the St. Lawrence River today. We did a little Googling and discovered a bike path that runs from Levis all the way up and past Quebec. We started our ride just west of the City of Levis. We stopped to admire their City Hall.

The traffic was extremely heavy and we were faced with wave after wave of pedestrian traffic. It was only after we crossed town that we learned that today was the Levis Half Marathon! Folks from all over the region had poured into Levis to participate in the race as it is the kick-off race for the running season. Over 4,100 runners pre-registered for the event. The lineup for the shuttle bus to the parking lot was really long!

Lucky for us, the race had just ended and they started opening up the trail for bike riders. Our bike trail is known as The Parcours des Anses and it was built on an old railway right-of-way that runs along the St. Lawrence River. This was the first of several old railroad bridges.

The trail took us through a tunnel was was artfully decorated!

With all the recent rain and snow melt, the streams leading into the St. Lawrence are running full force.

The Saint Lawrence River begins at the outflow of Lake Ontario and flows through Gananoque, Brockville, Morristown, Ogdensburg, Massena, Cornwall, Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec City before draining into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The river becomes tidal around Quebec City. Here the snow geese enjoy foraging in the tidal flats.

The Quai Ultramar/Valéro Refinery sits on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The holding tanks are painted with pictures of the far side of the river. This way, local residence won't miss out on the view!

There were pocket parks all along the bike path. We stopped at Parc de la Jetée-d'Ultramar to get a good look down the St. Lawrence.

There were also a number of historic sites located along the path. We stopped to visit the birthplace of Louis Fréchette. A man of letters and a politician, the character of Louis-Honoré Fréchette is closely linked to the history of the region and Quebec. Born in Lévis, he lived his childhood in this pretty house on the Rue Saint-Laurent, built by his father around 1839.

Louis Fréchette is the author of nearly 400 poems, in addition to stories, plays, portraits and articles. In turn lawyer, journalist, translator, he was deputy for Lévis from 1874 to 1878. He is the first Canadian poet to have been crowned by the French Academy.

“Niagara Falls”

Majestic waters gently flow;

Then, abruptly quitting that deceitful calm,

Furious, and sounding stunning echoes,

Into the bottomless abyss the vast river collapses.

Behold the falls! Its thunderous roar strikes fear

Even into the roving birds, who wheel away in flocks

From the enormous gulf where the rainbow unfurls

His fiery scarf on a vaporous bed.

All trembles; in an instant this enormous avalanche

Of green water transforms into mountains of white foam,

Savage, frantic, leaping, roaring…

And yet, O God, this flood which you unleash

That shatters the rocks, pulverizes the oaks,

Preserves the wisp of straw it bears away!

As we continued our journey, we came across the Parc Nautique Lévy. This marina has become the home port of many boaters and a stopover sought by visitors. Boaters can dock here and then take a ferry over to visit Quebec.

There were a number of sail boats in dry dock. We were particularly impressed by the Esprit de Corps. This ship could have been an Americas Cup contender.

We were planning to bike about 10 miles before stopping for lunch, but once we saw this park with its views of downtown Quebec, we just had to stop. We happened to notice that two cruise ships were in port. We counted ourselves lucky they weren't there yesterday when we were walking around the Quartier Petit-Champlain.

We found a couple of recliners and kicked back and enjoyed our lunch as a steady stream of Sunday walkers paraded by. It's hard to believe we hiked all the way to the top of that hill yesterday.

We continued downstream for several more miles, watching kids looking for snails and skipping stones from the tidal flats:

We took some time to admire the architecture around the old Saint Joseph's Parish.

By the 8 mile mark, the bike trail turned inland away from the river. We decided to make this our turn-around point. We didn't have near as many photo stops on the way back. However, this particular tree was just calling to be photographed.

We totally enjoyed our day out along the St. Lawrence River. We look forward to moving downstream to the Gaspe! Stay tuned.