A Bike Adventure

Manon has written before about Montréal’s Bixi bike program. I’m a newcomer to the program this year, and have lots of not-especially-well-organized thoughts about it.

Today, I set out on a small expedition, starting at one of our nearby Bixi stands. I’ve had some trouble on my past few trips finding a stand where there were available bikes, but this morning, there were plenty.

But plenty of bikes doesn’t guarantee a ride! Some aren’t in good shape.

And the app that unlocks the bikes sometimes seems to hate me.

Eventually, though, I was able to check out a working bike and get going!

The Bixi app provides a map of the bike paths and roads, and even has routing capability. But you can’t really mount your phone as a guidance system on one of these bikes, and the directions sometimes require you know the secret turnoff that’s a bit before the place where you think you want to make a turn. For all of that, the bike infrastructure in Montréal is fantastic. There are clearly marked bike lanes, with signage for both bikes and cars, and lots of areas with physically isolated bike lanes along the roads.

What’s not visible in these pictures is the fact that automobile drivers treat bicycles with respect here. They assume that bikes won’t stop at stop-signs and will wait for the cyclists to pass. If you’re on a bike and approaching a red traffic light with too much enthusiasm, many drivers will stop to let you run the light (which is frankly a little disconcerting). They make room when passing, and I see people being very careful before opening car doors. Of course, it’s nothing’s perfect, but it’s a far cry from the streets of Los Angeles where I experience frequent near-misses as a pedestrian, and usually get flipped off by the drivers if they even bother to acknowledge the situation. In my 20km on bikes today, I only felt unsafe once, when a driver blew through a stop sign and passed closer than I thought was safe (playing on my prejudices, the car was a Tesla with New Hampshire plates).

On my ride, I passed through the Parc Frédéric-Back. This was once a rock quarry and landfill, and in recent years is being converted into a huge park and ecological preserve. It’s got a big recycling center, miles of bike/walking trails, a skate-park, the TOHU Cité des Arts du Cirque circus complex (and just outside the park, Cirque-du-Soleil has what I believe is their HQ, dorms, and fabrication facilities). There’s also a big biogas facility, that converts the off-gassing of the landfill into electricity, and the landscape is dotted with sci-fi spherical covers for the wells.

My destination was Parc-nature de l’Île-de-la-Visitation (Visitation Island Nature Park). This park is along the northern-edge of the island in the Prairies River, and it has a lot going on. There’s a historic mill site, a historic site of cider presses, nature trails, a dam/hydroelectric complex on the Prairie river, picnic grounds, lookouts, and more.

On one large lawn, I passed a big group of people doing some kind of aerobic cross-fit thing, on the next big lawn, I carefully avoided a flock of Canadian Geese. I tried to walk slowly and stealthily along some of the more wild nature trails, but didn’t see any wildlife other than one frog, a duck, and a few birds that flitted by quickly.

While sitting on a bench (with my camera still out), an older gentleman came by on the trail carrying two pairs of binoculars, a monopod, and two Canon cameras with enormous white lenses. He addressed me, and after I gave my usual apology (“Désolé, mon français est horrible, chu nouveau ici…”), he switched to English and asked conspiratorially “So, what did you get?”

I figured he was a birder, and said that sadly, I had only seen a duck. What kind of a duck, he wanted to know: wood duck, mallard duck, teal, bufflehead, scaup, merganser, or maybe an eider? Fortunately I was able to identify it as an ordinary run-of-the-mill mallard. It’s like fishing, he told me. Some days you get lucky, and others? Nothing! Rien! He gave a huge grin and a gallic shrug, wished me bon journée, and headed off to try his luck. It was a very charming encounter.

The park has some very nice, cool woods. It’s very green and quiet (in between the joggers and birders). The trees are all full of seeds. It’s different than trees I’m accustomed to, but many species of deciduous trees here flower and produce seeds even before they leaf out in the spring. Another thing I’m not entirely accustomed to is a plant that is related to one that’s all over California. The color and layout of the leaves triggered a semiconscious fear response. Looking closer, I understood why: poison ivy!

I failed to photograph the old mill or other historic relics at the park. I didn’t photograph the bridges or community gardens or the restaurant at the old mill. Instead, I wandered around on the various trails, and emerged a few times into pleasant little neighborhoods. I admired the spring flowers. But after a few hours, it was time to return home. So I found the Bixi bike stand (which was completely full of bikes!), and pedaled my way back.

In all, a nice outing!