Today marked the first leg of our journey following le P’tit Train du Nord. We’re going only one way (west to east) so the first order of business was to get ourselves and our gear to the other end of the trail. Enter the kind folks at Autobus P’tit Train du Nord, who strapped our bikes onto their enormous double-decker bike trailer and brought us to the town of Mont Laurier, 200 km away. Of course, we had to pose by the first of many distance markers along the trail!

Arriving around noon, we didn’t make it far before stopping for lunch, so we had a picnic at a conveniently located IGA supermarket.

This end of the trail runs through open forests and past lakes and marshes, taking a fairly level path through the surrounding mountains. Given the spacing of towns, the first two days are our longest, at about 60 km each. The scenery is striking and the trail amenities are fantastic (including regularly spaced rest areas with picnic tables, shelters, and even public bike repair stations – oh, and the all-important outhouses!) We started biking all together, but partway through split into two groups, with Nick and Ben going faster so Ben had time for his training run before dinner. Susannah and Rowan followed at a more leisurely pace, enjoying the scenery and telling stories of the rivalry between outhouse trolls and bog trolls. 🙂

The weather here seems to be tricky to predict. The morning forecasts made all sorts of ominous threats of rain but we experienced only a short sprinkle this afternoon and even had quite a bit of sun. As luck would have it, the skies opened up scant minutes after we had all finished with biking and running and safely stored in the shed. (Two other people staying at the hotel arrived just 15 minutes later but got completely soaked.)

Our first trail B&B is the Auberge Chez Ignace, along the lake in Nominigue. The owners are very welcoming and also amazing cooks, serving us a delicious 5-course dinner. After dinner, we checked out the lake and caught the sunset in panorama.