On escaping the Island

It has been nearly a month since I returned to the Island of Montreal. In that time, I hadn't left it. For that matter, I had barely left my arrondissement. However, today was a warm day, so I decided to explore a possible escape route for future reference, viz the new bike path on the Samuel-de-Champlain Bridge a.k.a. the New Champlain Bridge.

This took a surprising amount of tracking down. It was not that the Bridge is not easy to find. The problem is that Nun's Island hasn't quite got around to posting proper signage to help cyclists find the bike path. Furthermore, the bike path and therefore access to it, is on the downriver side of the bridge which is on the far side of the bridges (old and new) from where most of Nun's Island's bike paths are. Also, I don't think anyone has told Google Maps about the bike path. It wanted me to take the Ice Breaker Bridge, which is closed.

The Bridge Bike Path once found was unsurprisingly busy and home to any number of blackflies or something similar. It ended on the South Shore end with a long swooping curve that led back to a bike path on the shores of the river back over Highway 132/Autoroute 15. This seemed rather daft as it seems rather hard for people living right beside the Bridge to use it by bike. I would have put a bike bridge over the road around about where the big white pylon is. As if to prove my point, I saw someone heave his bike over a fence and then follow suit just about there. Currently, the bike paths seem more aimed at pleasure riders rather than at commuters.

 

The site is still under construction and the grey weather did not help make it look very attractive.

 

On a riverside surprise

I took Victor von Fleddermoose out to Lachine this afternoon. I came back along the River. The weather was a bit grey and the trees were bare so it was a bit drab. However, at one point there were signs indicating a migratory bird sanctuary. There were the usual Canada geese cropping the grass. However, on the edge of a small flock of them, there was a snow goose!!!

I had seen snow geese flying on migration from time to time, but this was the first time I had seen one so close. I thought it was very neat. I am not sure if the location was normal for snow geese. However, snow geese have been known to get very lost, and Montreal isn't that far off the normal route for migrating snow geese.

Less agreeable was the fact that the pedestrian and bike bridge over the Lachine Canal at the Atwater Market is now closed on account of Covid-19. I am not surprised as the bridge is only about 3 m wide and gets a lot of traffic. The Charlebois Bridge a 100 m or so down the canal was closed to vehicular traffic to allow bikes and pedestrians to cross the Canal.

On a good first day of the regimen

Today was cool and sunny. It was also a day when I had to prepare a batch of beef stew. This meant I meant I did the active preparation at lunchtime and put the pot in the oven to slowly cook while I worked until 5:30. At that point, I took Victor von Fleddermoose out for a "whee" jaunt to Lachine and back. I got home, took the lid off the stew and warmed up some nan bread in a frying pan, then served myself a well-earned portion of stew. It may not be PC to say it, but I do enjoy a good beef stew.

I also am satisfied with my performance on the bike. I also had a certain pleasure when during a phone call with the director of the library, she asked me what my schedule for the rest of the day was as she might have come by with books for me to deal with. With a certain mix of emotions, I said that I would be at home working until 5:30, but then I wanted get in a ride on the bike as it was a sunny day. A cyclist herself, she accepted that as reasonable.

On going full "whee" with Victor von Fleddermoose

Thanks to the Quebec government making bike shops an essential service, I was able to acquire some SPD clipless pedals at one of my local bikeshops as well as some more spare inner tubes. I installed the new pedals on Victor von Fleddermoose along with a bottle cage and some narrower tires (700x28) which had been first acquired for Floria die Fleddermoose and have since seen service on Leonardo and were unsuccessfully installed on Justin.

Victor von Fleddermoose is so named for several reasons. The basic reason is that many of his components came from Floria die Fleddermoose. I wanted evoke Victor von Frankenstein, which might have lead to "Victor von Frankenmoose" if I didn't like the "Fleddermoose" logo that Margaret came up with a number of years ago, particularly as there is now a vinyl sticker cutter at work which allowed me to make proper sticker of it. (The sticker was made prior to the shut-down.)

Yesterday was gorgeously sunny, so I took Victor out for a full-on Mamil, "whee" ride along the Lachine canal. Probably because of the pandemic, there were many other people out including many other cyclists of varying breeds. Unfortunately, the Lachine Canal is undergoing repairs which means a fair portion of the bike path proper is closed. While Saint-Patrick Street (which parallels the Canal) is open, the road surface is poor. However, I was able to work up a sweat for the first time in a month so calories were expended. I am going to have to make it a rule that I go for an hour's ride every sunny day.