Day 49. Joliette to Laurier Station. June 15. 137 km.

Lots to report on today. I'll start with the report from the Government of Canada that the vaccine mandates will be eliminated as of June 20. They have finally started to accept reality and are moving in the right direction, not that they came up with the idea on their own but in response to requests from voters. For me, it means another option for getting back from Newfoundland at the end of our bike ride.

Today we chose a route through the back streets of Joliette, which saved backtracking to the highway - probably about 10km. That put us in good shape to have breakfast in Berthierville. We started out with a significant headwind, which made me wonder if we would get across the St Lawrence River today. Then the wind let up and we were in Trois Rivieres shortly after noon. It wasn't clear how to ride our bikes across the bridge so we took the automobile route and played it by ear. On the approach, I looked for any signs saying that bikes were not allowed and not seeing any decided that we should keep going and use whatever lane was available. It turned out that the bridge is part of autoroute 55 and out of bounds for bikes. With nowhere to go, we hugged the right side and kept on riding. That brought lots of horn sounds and curses from drivers but we made it across just in time to be accosted by the police. After scolding us, they took our information and said that we would receive traffic tickets for riding on the freeway. I think that I should contest any ticket that we might receive because a post-incident review on Google maps did not reveal any no bicycle signs.

After our meeting with the police, we headed along Hwy 132 northeastward toward Levis. The most direct route would have been via a bit of Hwy 30, which definitely had a sign barring pedestrians and bicyclists. Had we not just had the experience with the police, I might have taken the route. We detoured around the no cyclists sign and stopped at the first motel, where they told us that all the accommodation on south shore was taken between Trois Rivieres and Levis. I did some searching and then booked a room in the closest motel, which was in Laurier-Station some 67 km away. We didn't have much choice so we started riding. Gramie found the going very tough at the end of day and suggested asking a local person for help. I found people along the road working by a pickup and approached them. The gentleman agreed to take us to the motel and we were off.  It was a longish drive so we were generous in giving him gas money. So that's how we made it so far and recorded only 137 km of riding. In all it was an eventful day.

Today's pictures show the bike bridge on our way out of Joliette and a bit of the bridge across the St Lawrence River.

 

Bike path out of Joliette 

 

Limited view of bridge across the St Lawrence at Trois Riviere.