CYCLOTOURING
IN THE QUÉBEC APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
The
Québec Appalachian region, south of Québec City, is not well known
by cyclists. Nevertheless, in the Québec City region, it is my
favourite playground. We are now preparing a rather challenging
two week bicycle trip for September 2004.
The
roads you will find in these mountains will take you to an altitude
of approximately 600 metres. Those of you who are familiar with
the Alps or the Pyrénées might think that’s not much. Wait until
you get there. The roads often go straight uphill, only to go
down so you can start all over again. Thus, in some parts of these
hills, when you’re not going up, you’re going down. No monotony
here. So if you like to climb, welcome. Descending at 70, 80 kph,
sometimes more, just don’t touch the brakes. Cyclists who came
there with me loved it. All of them.
Of
course you will see forests there, but also farms and a good number
of villages. This is not a huge Siberian uninhabited region, but
rather Québec mountains along the Canada-U.S. border. They are not
touristic-type mountains where you will find plenty of rich city
dwellers looking for cool air in the summer. You will meet genuine
and welcoming Québec people who work the land and the forests.
I’ve
been criss-crossing these asphalt and gravel roads since 1989.
The road network is dense, a variety of north-south and east-west
axes where the busiest roads are easily identifiable. That is
why there is plenty of quiet roads left for us to explore. On
many of these, you will meet one car every 5 or 10 minutes. In
order to enjoy as much as possible the quieter roads (which usually
are the most picturesque), it is better to use a bicycle that
will be at ease on gravel roads. And these are usually in a very
good condition, with a hard surface that is sometimes less damaged
by spring thaw than asphalt roads. Make your choice, you can go
there with a fast-riding cyclo-cross bike, a touring (trekking)
bike, hybrid or even a mountain bike. The latter doesn’t need
the fat tires around 2 inches because they are not difficult trails;
even a 26x1.25 tire will be enough for an average skill cyclist.
My first personal choice would be a cyclocross bike equipped with
typical cyclocross tires with a 700x28 size. You might prefer
a wider tire that won’t be quite as fast but will be more stable
going down or in the less civilized roads. A triple crankset is
not mandatory if you are not loaded (this is a supported tour),
but those of you that are used to it will probably appreciate
it when the sky seems to be the next destination…
Additional
details will be available as the organization of the trip goes
forward. You can expect a series of one-day or two-day rides of
around 150 kilometers per day in terrain that will vary from moderately
to very hilly. The percentage of gravel roads will be important,
thus those who would want to ride a racing/training bicycle with
20 or 23 mm width tires will soon feel they are not appropriately
equipped. The planned routes have definitely not been planned
for that kind of bike. At the other end of the spectrum, those,
perhaps too prudent, who would come with a suspended mountain
bike with very aggressive, wide and knobby tires are likely to
feel overequipped. The group (around 20 people) will be accompanied
by a guide and a support vehicle will be following in case anyone
needs it for some reason.
The
planned routes have been chosen in order to give you familiarity
with an area situated between Québec City, St-Georges-de-Beauce,
St-Pamphile and lake Aylmer, while giving priority to roads that
take you away from St-Lawrence river. The goal being that we want
to offer a good challenge to cyclists able to tackle repeated
climbing in a non-monotonous context. When you come riding with
us, you will understand why I have put so much effort in exploring
this region all those years. An adequate preparation will be necessary
because a beginning-of-the-season shape would be insufficient
to go through these two weeks.But those who arrive with a good
preparation and appropriate equipment will be able to satisfy
themselves with good efforts and constantly changing scenery as
days go by.
If
you are in the Québec City region in September but you cannot
ride for two weeks every day, you can still come with us. Contact
us and we will discuss the different possibilities available to
you.
Furthermore,
we plan to offer to those who would like it, the alternative on
rainy days of touristic visits in Québec City, or elsewhere.
Paul
Trépanier
 top
of the page
|
