Bicycling the Nun's Island bike trail

After last weeks enjoyable ride to the Lachine rapids via Verdun, I decided to head in the other direction at the waterfront, in order to scout some new fishing spots to hit by bike later this spring and summer. As Nun's island is a bit closer and surround by the waters of the St Lawrence river, it seemed like a good choice.

Never having been to Nun's Island by bike, I did a bit of preliminary research on Google maps. Figured out that much of nun's island is surrounded by a bike trail that runs close to the waterfront in many areas, and my original plan was to bike out onto the pedestrian bridge (escalade) that run along the west side of the Champlain bridge.

Headed down to the Verdun Auditorium, via De l'Eglise & Galt. Turned left to head towards the Champlain Bridge, it's first segment has a dedicated bike / pedestrian lane that leads to Nun's Island. Stopped for a few pics on the bridge.

View of the waterway West of the bridge.

On the East side, you have downtown Montreal to the North.

To the South side is Nun's Island, and the Bell building, which I was using as my navigational landmark.

Once on Nun's Island, I switched trails to head to the North of the island. This trail goes under the Champlain bridge, and along the waterfront. Unfortunately, the trail was closed off at one end, and heading the other way, I ended up at the other end of the trail.

Veering off the trail a bit, I made my way around to the "Escalade". To my dismay, it is currently closed off as well.

Heading back towards Montreal, I veered off towards another section of waterfront, and discovered "La Rotonde". Small area with built in wooded lounges overlooking the St Lawrence River. Stopped to stretch, and get a selfie with the Champlain bridge in the background.

Seems that this spot was some sort of farm back in the day.

The St Lawrence river is alive with construction these days, with construction of new Champlain bridge well underway.

Form this spot, you can see the Victoria bridge off the the East as well.

After my stretch, I headed back towards Montreal through Verdun. The Aqueduc is starting to thaw.

Nearby, the Lachine canal has dropped about 10 feet lower than last week, and much of the ice is
gone.

Heading towards the mountain though St Henri, I ride past one of the rougher areas in town, as mentioned in a previous post. Old abandoned building near Welcome Mission has been taken over by squatters.

Often see many young people, high and drunk well before noon. Typically covered in tattoos and colored hair, very likely to be homeless, squatters, or simply unemployed and bored. These days, many of them turn to begging at street lights nearby, or "squeegeeing" motorists windshields.

At least he's working. Not trying to be judgemental, just reflecting on what I'm seeing along my bike rides.

The train bridge at Decarie is the start of the last uphill segment of my ride home.

From there, it's a few minutes though N.D.G., and the into Cote Des Neiges where I live.

Stay tuned for some more bike ride updates as spring kicks in.

Cycling to the Lachine rapids via Verdun / Lasalle

With me babysitting all week as my wife was out of town on a ski trip, and the roads still covered in snow and slush from the last storm, I've been stuck working out indoors all week. Finally, roads were clear and dry with a crisp cold front this morning, probably last one of the season where we'll hit negative double digits.

With some more snow in forecast for the weekend, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather to try a new ride to the Verdun waterfront while the roads are still dry. Started off riding down on my my paths to the Lachine Canal. Decarie Boulevard, to St Jaques, To St Remi, To St Ambroise, To Cote St Paul, then crossing the Canal into Verdun on St Eglise under the highway 15 bridge.

Canal still frozen solid above Cote St Paul lock, water level about 4-6 feet low.

From there, it's a few minutes ride down St Eglise to the waterfront, behind the Verdun Auditorium.

The trail to the waterfront behind the Verdun Auditorium is still covered in hard packed snow and some ice, but made it down for a quick stretch, and selfie.

The ride went easily enough, despite my having done an indoor ride and my stationary recumbent bike the previous day. Instead of heading back home, I decided to extend my ride. Headed West on Boulevard Lasalle, though the rest of Verdun, and into Ville Lasalle.

Passed the Natatorium on the way.

Eventually hit my final destination, the Parc des Rapides and the Lachine rapids. The parc is a bird sanctuary, which attracts many avid bird watchers throughout the year. Their high powered cameras with huge zoom lenses make my little digital camera look like kids stuff.

Still was able to get close enough for some shots of Canada Geese.

As none of the supervisors were around, I broke park rules and biked out onto the path that leads into the rapids. Had one of the bird watchers take my picture.

Shot some video footage as well, the roaring water is always impressive.

Headed back home via Verdun Avenue, total ride was close to 30 KM, which I did in about 2 hours, as I took my time and stopped often.

Think I'll sleep well tonight.

Home workout videos

Decided to shoot some footage of my home workout sessions. Training at home has many benefits:

1) I can train whenever I want to, no competition or line ups for machine or training equipment.

2) No yuck factor of others sweating all over the equipment before I use it.

3) I can play the music that I enjoy, at the decibel levels that suit me right.

4) I control the temperature I enjoy working out at, which is somewhere in the 10 degree Celsius  range.

5) Best of all, no outrageous gym fees.

The downside is that I have no trainer or partner. Though I have no problems with motivation at all, I do have some issues with no one correcting improper form. Due to my office layout, I can't have any mirrored walls, so the video clips I filmed were very informative as to the incorrect form I'm using for certain exercises.

Take these videos with a grain of salt (or tablespoon). I'm not trying to achieve muscle mass, nor any extreme level of fitness. Just trying to stay in basic shape for someone my age, doing circuits that I put together. Figured I'd share my workout session videos, which I\ll break down into the warmup, a couple circuits, and the cooldown session.

The warmup session in this clip is my basic warmup before any workout.

The next clip is one set from my mixed bodyweight and dumbell circuit home workout. I typically do 3 sets of this one twice a week. Varied mix of core, abs and upper body workout.

Here is a short clip of some isometric exercises I do as part of one of my circuits, will be adding a few more and uploading an updated version of this clip.

Here is a circuit that works agility, balance, and endurance. All body weight exercises, still build up a nice sweat towards end.

Finally, the cool down / stretch session is not to be neglected. It helps maintain muscle flexibility, and resets the body after a strenuous workout.

Hope you find the videos informative, feel free to comment on them as well.

St Henri bike ride

Another one of my regular rides is down to the Lachine canal. As an avid angler, I often combine my love for cycling with my passion for fishing. With minimal gear, water,  and a good bike lock in my backpack, I make my way over the mountain, heading South towards the water.

For this ride, I didn't take along any fishing gear, as most of the canal is frozen solid, and a good 6 feet lower than it's normal summer levels. I choose between 2 rides to hit the canal, this one goes over Mount Royal, through Westmount, and then into Ville St Henri.

Important to wear layers of fleece in winter. The steep downhill ride in winter makes for wicked wind chill factors, below -25 C, from a ground temp of -8.

The big contrast within a few minutes bike ride, it the obvious difference between the "haves" and "have nots" of society in Montreal. Within a few blocks, you go from the City's richest neighborhood and most affluent shops, to dire poverty. Blunty put, and quite literally, the proverbial "wrong side of the tracks". Welcomed by the mission.

From their, it's a few blocks to the bike trail along the Lachine Canal, which I'll detail in subsequent updates to this post. The canal was frozen solid in most spots, with some open water near the St Paul Lock.

The old sugar refinery stands out do to it's imposing size. Must have been quite the operation back in it's heyday. 

Making my way around to St Ambroise at the St Paul lock, I pass the brewery. Looks like they were in progress of micro brewing some good beer.

Always tempting when I pass by this place later when the terrasse is open once warm weather arrives.

Then past the front of the old refinery.

From There, St Remi is the straight ticket out of St Henri. There is a small "town" of abandoned buildings, covered in graffitti, and often inhabited by squatters. I tend to stay away from those alleyways, though I've gone through there before. Always find that contrast in society to be interesting to observe, but as my bike is sort of upscale for that area, I tend to pedal out of there at workout speed. 

With this cold spell, I took the time to admire the artwork, which are typically some sort of expressions of that society. Again, will post more interesting ones I run across in future updates to the post, but couldn't resist posting this one.

I keep riding up to St Jaques, which is the first leg of my uphill ride back home. At the top of that run, stands the Superhospital. 

From there, it's up over the mountain and back down towards my home via Decarie Boulevard.

Stay tuned for future updates.

Biking Mount Royal in Winter

After the pic heavy post from a couple weeks ago, decided to bike to the other lookouts on the mountain over the past week, as they are more accessible from main roads free of ice or snow.

First ride was during a cold front. Minus 11 with clear blue skies and crisp clean air made it a fun ride, though I must admit that I was wearing a few layers of fleece. Not much problem staying warm going up hill, but the way down will feel more like  minus 30 or colder depending on your speed.

As it was Sunday, my typical route through the cemetery is closed at the Camillien Houde entrance, so stayed on Cote Des Neiges. Rode straight from there to the  lookout on other on the other side of the mountain, overlooking the Olympic stadium an Eastern Montreal.

Followed up with another ride 3 days later, this time to the Belvedere summit via Summit Circle. This ride stays off the main section of Mount Royal park.

The to the top of Westmount's peak is shorter, but considerably steeper. Though I dressed lighter, I was quite sweated up by the time I hit the top. I had completed a 1 hour dumbell training circuit right before deciding to take advantage of nice weather, and get another ride in before the next snow storm predicted for next week. Enjoyable ride in late morning with almost no traffic is ideal, less than 20 minutes to the lookout from my place.

Hope to get in some more good rides on Mount Royal this season.