White Birch and Blueberries

     I've been around half of Quebec Province's Lake Saint-Jean and have biked on many of their bike trails called veloroutes which are solely for bicycles and pedestrians. One word comes to mind so far, "Amazing!"

     My campsite for two nights in Dolbeau Mistassini is directly on this bike route and a large grocery store is one-half mile away. How lucky can a bicyclist get!? My van is parked at the bottom of this bike path, facing the waterfalls . . . .

Here's a short movie clip of how close I am to the waterfalls; it zooms to where my van is parked.

     Since my sister and brother-in-law are at another town, we decided to each go our own way for a couple days. It's nice to be solo now and then. 

     I crossed over the Mistassini River on a bridge and saw these folks playing on a sandbar. And at another sandbar on the river, there were about 60 or so sunbathers and waders in the river. Folks here seem to appreciate being outdoors. I've noticed many restaurants even on busy streets with outdoor dining, including the second floor of restaurants, many balconies for outside diners.

On my way through town I stopped at a pavilion and a squirrel scurried out to greet me.  I reached into my sack and got a corn nut for it. It ate it. Then I gave it a second corn nut; instead of eating it, the squirrel stashed it behind a bench seat, and approached me for a third corn nut. Smart squirrel; it already knows how to work the system!

After a short time sharing a path with cars in town, I was on this 10-mile designated bike path. What's not to like about this path!

The predominant views on this path were the plantations of white birch . . .

and the blueberry fields.

 And a wonderful rest stop with a sign describing the vegetation and plantations in that area, a covered picnic table (with two bird nests on the rafters), a bench, a bike stand, and a short distance away (see red arrow) a toilet that is vented and doesn't stink. The Canadians think of everything!

     I saw a man and woman (about my age, early 60s) leaving this homestead, which has a good supply of firewood, in a 4-wheeler and wagon, traveling across the road to a field. Next to this lovely round home was a travel trailer.

 

     They were working hard on this crop. It's times like this, I regret not knowing French. I would most certainly ask about their lifestyle. My guess? Perhaps they live and farm from Spring to Fall, and with money earned from their crops, hook up their trailer, shut-down their round home for the Winter and go to Florida.

I saw this wall hanging at a store and thought to myself "how appropriate!" This area of Lake Saint-Jean is all about white birch and blueberries.

Vous Etes Ici - You Are Here

     We biked a trail yesterday that was probably once a logging road, but is now a bicyclist's road; no motors, no horses, and no dog walkers were allowed on this hard sand-packed excellent road.  And of course, great signage in French.

      Our 30-mile loop began and ended at our cabin in Albanel, Quebec on the far west side of Lake Saint Jean. The western side of Lake Saint-Jean is very windy with rolling farmland, pine and tree plantations, and thousands of acres of "wild blueberries". But the first part of this trail is a wonderful forest with dwarf-dogwood lining both sides of the trail.

 

Mostly pines but some birch . . .

     My sister's manual bike usually puts her last on the trail while my brother-in-law and I slow down our electric bikes so we don't lose her. But when my sister saw this on the trail . . . .

. . . she passed us and kept up an almost 20 mph pace without stopping! Most disturbing to her, when I finally caught up with her, was "it was fresh!"

     With my sister in the fast-paced lead, it didn't take long to reach the Mistassini River, where there was a cabin and toilet for a wonderful rest stop. The waterfalls were thunderous and furious of course; there's a tremendous amount of water in Quebec.

And these smooth shoreline boulders were also interesting.

My sister and brother-in-law celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary at the Mistassini River yesterday. Still as doting as two newlyweds!

 The trail strangely changed to a wide-open expanse of blueberry fields. But these blueberries are the lowbush variety in Quebec resembling the wild blueberry, a very tiny fruit harvested in August.

The berry is very small and turns almost black when ripe.

There are bike tours in August to the blueberry fields which turn a wonderful yellowish color during harvest.

We passed two beehive collections. Both were well-protected by fencing to keep bears out. My sister's comment, "There ARE bears here!"

   My brother-in-law's bike battery died before we arrived in Girardville, and when he saw this hill, he told us he needed an ice cream cone.

So my sister and I continued on to Albanel without him. The last eight miles were a seldom-used rural road which was peacefully scenic with farms, cows, hay fields and bales, and old barns.

     When we arrived at our cabin, she retrieved her husband's already charged back-up battery, got in their van and met her Sweety on the rural road with a kiss and a fresh battery. True love!