Our family adventure this summer is a bicycle trip in Quebec! The P’tit Train du Nord is a 200+ km rail trail that runs northwest of Montreal and we’re excited to travel along it under our own power.

We started our journey on Susannah’s birthday with a stop in Burlington VT, one of our favorite cities. After lunch at the Skinny Pancake (of course!) we took an excursion on the Burlington bikeway along the causeway into Lake Champlain. Good to take a test ride before we launch into the longer P’tit Train du Nord portion!

We were in good company with many other Burlingtonians along the path when the rain started. No problem – great chance to try out our pack covers and experience biking in the rain (there’s some wet weather forecast for later in the week too.) We were pretty drenched by the time we reached the causeway but then the skies cleared and we were rewarded with a gorgeous rainbow across the lake!

The causeway has a 200-foot gap in it to allow boat access, but there is a local ferry available to bring cyclists across. We biked up to the ferry landing but decided to head back to Burlington after seeing lightning in the distance. The headwinds were very strong on the return trip – it felt as though we were biking up a steep hill despite the causeway’s flat terrain.

After showering off all the dirt at our friends’ house (thanks, ReutterMacs!) we headed into town for a fancy dinner at Hen of the Woods. Absolutely delicious food – if you get a chance to visit, try the Hen of the Wood mushroom toast and any of their rabbit dishes. We were just finishing up our main courses when the power went out and we were asked to evacuate the building. Apparently there was a chimney fire in the hotel above and we could see smoke and flames surging from the roof. Firefighters arrived in droves and we had to clear the area.

Luckily our friends had dessert on hand and then joined us in board games to round out the night. Today was quite a memorable start to our adventures!