Eastern Townships by zipline

Adventure of the Week:

The Eastern Townships of Quebec are a prime bicycle touring location. It's easy to see why.  There is a large network of dedicated bicycle trails. For the most part, the terrain is flat, passing through fields and forest, past or around small lakes, usually with a view of mountains.  The distances between towns is not that large, making the logistics and the pedaling quite easy.  During our 6 days in the Eastern townships we were able to visit Bromont, St Benoit du Lac, Magog, Sutton, Waterloo, and Lac D'argent.

The price for a self guided cycling tour in the region is usually very pricey, quite a bit more than most European tours of the same length actually.  So we were super happy to create our own cycling tour and to find a campground in Bromont that offered a fall special of $15/night for mid week camping in October.

A heat wave hit Southern Quebec in late September and we were a bit worried that we were going to miss the fall leaves.  But in the end it all worked out and we saw lots and of bright red maple leaves.  Every morning we would find maple leaves on the grass, the picnic table, our bikes, and the truck.  

Here are my favorite pictures from the week:

Misadventure of the Week:  Apparently camping and leaf peeping in the Eastern Townships are very popular activities on Thanksgiving weekend in Quebec.  Who knew?  I thought Thanksgiving was all about the turkey and pumpkin pie. That $15 campsite?  Sold out at full price for the long weekend.  So were about 6 other campgrounds in the area.  The one place where I thought to myself, "Surely we won't need camping reservations in October..."

So it was back to Montreal for us.  A fun sort of "incovenience," shall we say.  More bagels, another show at the planetarium, more rides on the metro.  Plus, we got to see the Montreal Alouettes football practice, and diver's practicing their dives in the Olympic pool.

This officially ends our grand tour of the Maritimes and Quebec. Tomorrow we are off for Ottawa to celebrate Thanksgiving in the proper way with family and Turkey and Pumpkin Pie, and to pack up and get ready for Costa Rica.  Our daughter still holds that PEI was the best destination thus far, while our son's favorite were the whales in Tadoussac.