Montreal Island Road Trip

After a few days of traveling by train exploring in the downtown  Montreal and in the community of Laval I was feeling brave. I shucked the idea of traveling by train again, it was fun while it lasted. But now it was time to do some serious long distance research, get down and dirty and do some beach worshiping in outlying areas of Montreal. Looking at my maps, I figured I could avoid the traffic of the downtown by sticking to the outlying coastal road. That gave me nerve to go in.. lock and load as they say.

My confidence of driving in the big cities is very good, to defend myself. But I just do not like nor enjoy the experience. There is just to much speed coming from all angles. Too many bumpers in front of and behind mine. Exits everywhere. Cars honking and sirens blaring. Can you tell that this is all coming from a two lane highway-gravel road type guy. My humble travel beginnings.

I wish I could say my decision to drive into Montreal was because of bravado.. but I would be lying. The reality is that Montreal is on an island and most of the parks are on the coastline. Parks need access roads. And there just happens to be a road which follows, almost entirely, along the coastline with my name on it.

I was over the bridge and in my first park by 7:30 AM. I did not get back in Laval until 8:30 PM. It was a tad bit longer of an adventure than I thought. Good thing it did not take longer because a 1/2 hour later the rain and thunder closed in on me. This time the winds decided to jion the party. It was a triple whollop of weather.  The Travel Pod was rocking back and forth from the gusts of wind. It sounded like bullets hittting the Pod not rain. And.. every once in awhile, the dark skies would light up with lightning. I was almost wishing I had seatbelts installed.

Before the winds decided to start playing pinball with my Pod, I enjoyed a full day in the sun cruising the coastline. I popped into one park and then onto another. I was fortunate to visit with many parks like the Bois de Liesse, Bizard Parc, Saint Jaques Parc, Anse a Lorme Parc, Rene Levesque Parc, Jean Drapeau Parc, Bellerive Parc, Pointe aux Prairies and some others. Many of the parks connect to the excellent network of biking trails on the region.

The Pointe aux Prairies Park was one of my favorites because of the trail system, the grass fields, the orchards and the lack of people. In some of the parks in Montreal, on the weekends, you are lucky to find any alone time at any given time on the trails. The Pointe aux Prairies is on the northern tip of Montreal Island so it is a ways from the downtown core. The park which provided my eyes with a change of scenery was the Anse a Lorme Parc. Entering I did not really know what to expect. I was surprised to find the park was a gathering spot for kite surfers. There were kites flying in the air, dipping and diving like a fish on a hook. There were kites being assembled on the lawns, surfboards scattered about.

Driving around the island provided some unexpected scenic opportunties as well. Along the west side of the island are a long string of waterfront villages like Dorval, Lachine and Pointe Claire. Each with waterfront sandy beaches, gift stores and boutiques and bike lanes. One of my unexpected stops was in Pointe Claire where I snapped a photo of Lac St. Louise and a bay of sailboats. On the east side of the island is more remote. The road winds around corners. There are views of the water and traffic is almost nil.