Mountains and Motorcycles

For the last 13 years, Tanker and I have buggered off for a week every year on our motorcycles - we sport along some camping gear, I bring some running kit, and we go explore fun places. For basically the third year in a row, our travels have brought us through Quebec.

We set off on Sunday, riding out to the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary to spend a night camping on the St. Lawrence River. I also got to run a spectacular section of the Waterfront Trail, though I did get thoroughly swarmed and bitten by deer flies in the process.

There's a small span with water on both sides, and I hit it at the golden hour.
Just stunning.

To say we camped right on the beach would be rather an understatement..

It was hot and sunny all day, and (thanks to some expired sunscreen) I was rather sunburned. We also discovered that our 10-year-old tent was not in the best of shape: when pitching it on Sunday evening, the seam tape came snowing out of the fly in tiny pieces. I'd already re-sealed it once, a few years ago, and thought it would do us one more season. I was much less confident now.

Though we had perfectly clear, dry weather at the Sanctuary, including this gorgeous sunrise on Monday morning.

After a solid breakfast, we packed up and got on our bikes (with some fresher SPF60 on), and started our day by riding the Long Sault Parkway.

Between Fraser Island and Hoople Island, looking out into the open river

Looking north from the same spot - beautiful, sheltered bays for paddling!

From the end of the Parkway, we struck north through Vankleek Hill (the gingerbread capital of Ontario!) and after some interminable, sweaty waits under the hot sun for single-lane construction flagmen to wave us through, rode the Long Sault Bridge (which seemed only appropriate) across the Ottawa River and into Quebec at Grenville.

The 50 being under construction (TRAVEAUX) as well, we ended up on the 148 riding east to Lachute, where we turned onto the 327 for the ride up to Mont Tremblant. This road is part wet dream and part nightmare for motorcyclists - it twists and curves as it climbs into the Laurentian mountains, which is incredibly fun...but the pavement between Lachute and Arundel leaves a lot to be desired. Potholes, frost heaves, and endless, bumpy patches of hot top; it was almost custom designed to make the pile of gear on my rear fender bodycheck me every few moments. People coming the other way cheating over the centre line in blind curves didn't help, either! But, we made it up to the town of Mont Tremblant, then stopped for some essential supplies.

Stopped in town to check some directions, as clouds start to build in.

First stop was the factory outlet mall on 117 (who knew there was such a thing?) to hit Altitude Sports. I've been ordering from these folks for years, and knew they'd be our best bet for trying to find a new tent that would be full-featured and durable enough for our needs. They had been predicting massive thunderstorms from Monday night through Tuesday morning for a week or more (possibly the tail end of a tropical storm system - maybe Hurricane Chris?), and we had no faith in the old tent to keep us dry. We also needed to fill a couple of gaps in our packing: I was roasting in the sun in short sleeves, but my only longsleeve shirt was black wool - not ideal on a hot day. Tanker had also failed to pack anything but cooling shirts, and we had plans that would likely involve a range of temperatures without the ability to change, so I wanted him to have a merino t-shirt (plus his original one from many years ago has gone into holes, and should probably be retired). We managed to find a white long-sleeve moisture-wicking shirt for me (with sleeves long enough I could pull them down inside my gloves, covering the burnt spot on the back of my right hand), a wool shirt for Tank, and a new tent that seemed like it would be just the ticket (plus the footprint for it), all for a fair price. With our new purchases stowed and a quick stop for groceries, it was time to ride the last half-hour of twisting mountain roads to La Secteur Diable of Parc National du Mont-Tremblant.

Having used Sépaq's amazing online pre-check-in system to print our permits (then cover them with packing tape for some ghetto lamination to protect them from weather), we were able to ride straight to our campsite and get set up in La Grenouille campground.

We set up the old tent - just fly and footprint - as a gear shed, with the new tent behind.

There wasn't room under our tarp for much more than the picnic table.

After a trip to the Lac Monroe Service Centre where we got a wonderful Parcs Quebec employee to agree to drop off some slings of firewood at our site for us (very difficult to transport loose wood with the bikes!) and then walking back up to get ice (as they'd been out and awaiting a delivery when we arrived), it was far too late for me to think about running. Instead, after our campsite was fully set up, I made us dinner and started a fire.

When we tour and camp, I cook breakfast and dinner, and lunch is whatever we can find on the road.
With my food allergies, that usually means a bit of gas station fruit and a handfuls of trail mix that we bring with us.

Fortunately, the weather was kind enough to let us enjoy a wonderful evening at our site before starting to rain as soon as we turned in for the night, just past midnight. Very quickly, though, the rain progressed from a sprinkle...to a solid shower...to a positive torrent hammering down on the un-tested tent above our heads! I don't think we've experienced rain that intense since we camped in the tail end of Hurricane Harvey in September of 2017; you couldn't distinguish individual drops on the fly of the tent, it was just a deafening pounding that seemed to hit everywhere at once. Of course, that meant I wasn't getting any sleep - while the storm raged outside, I tried to hold our tent and campsite in general fast by sheer will alone. When it tapered off a bit after 2am I was able to catch some Zs, but then awoke at 4:30am needing to pee...and actually scared to flick my headlamp on outside the tent, as I feared the damage that might have been done by the fierceness of the weather. I halfway expected to see our tarp flapping loose from a single remaining line, and the old tent/gear shed flattened by the heavy downpour.

Fortunately, everything was rock solid. Breathing a huge sigh of relief (especially after going for that pee..), I rolled back into our snug, dry tent and napped until the alarm went off around 6:30am. The rain had seemingly stopped, though the trees still dripped in the breeze and everything was distinctly soggy. 

Tanker makes his amazing camp coffee under the sodden tarp at our nice, dry picnic table.

The important part, though, was that the thunderstorms had stopped. They were the only things that would stand in the way of our plans for the day, which happened to be my 39th birthday. I toasted us a cinnamon raisin bagel and spread it thickly with cashew butter, and made up a pot of oatmeal with honey and more cashew butter stirred in. Packing snacks and full nalgenes into the daypack we bring along with us, we dressed with care, threw on our motorcycle rain jackets, then hopped on our bikes by just after 8am to ride to the Secteur La Diable gatehouse to start the adventure we'd booked months beforehand.

Of course, it wasn't all roses getting there - we caught a few sprinkles of rain along the way, and my bike started acting up. I think some fuel splashed up into the cap when I rode over a speedbump, blocking the venting - the red fuel injection light came on, and the neutral light started staying on in every gear. It stalled on me, and was reluctant to re-start. I tried pulling the gas cap to see if it would release the venting (as I'd heard about this problem before), but to no avail. When I finally got it going, I just did my best to ride steadily to the visitor centre; it went ok, but I was deeply concerned for the whole 10km trip there. I hoped it was just a result of the overnight rain and would self-resolve when things dried out.

For now, though, I had bigger concerns.

Like a mountain to climb, even though half of it was invisible in cloud.

Back in 2016, Tanker and I had climbed a via ferrata route at Parc National des Grands-Jardins. It was one of the most exhilarating, terrifying, and wholly satisfying experiences of my entire life. That had been an intermediate level route - the one we would be trying today was graded as advanced, and I hoped like hell I'd be up to the task. I certainly have much more climbing experience in the last 6 months than I had when we ventured up Mont du Lac des Cygnes 2 years ago, but I didn't know how well pulling on plastic would translate to being several hundred feet up a wet rock face.

We met our guide, Jordan, and got our harnesses and helmets sorted out, then headed out to start the hike up to the parcours. After a few minutes' flat trail walk, we were thrown right into the breach.

Climb the ladder, clipping into the loops along the right side.

Then walk the wet wood planks of this bridge over Rivière Diable

Tank on the bridge, which snakes back and forth somewhat alarmingly.

Now climb down, because apparently you have to climb via ferrata in order to get to the via ferrata training wall.

I'm so happy that we had prior experience (as did the other couple in our departure), so everything went smoothly. After some extremely technical hiking, we got to the practice wall and went through the safety procedures. 

I went first.

After the training wall, we got down to business...or rather, up.

WAY up.

It sounds funny to say it, but there was a lot more climbing than we expected - the other route we had done was more of a traverse than a climb, as we hiked up to almost the level of the parcours, aside from the trip up to the summit. This particular route also had a lot more variety to it - forested, hiking sections, different kinds of bridges across gaps in the rock (beams, plank bridges, Nepalese bridges and monkey bridges). The shelter of the trees was nice when the sun came out and the day warmed up, as make no mistake - via ferrata may be less dangerous than traditional climbing, but it's still a lot of work!

Not without its rewards, though.

Tank and Jordan following me up

There were many places along the parcours where there was no hardware to grab - you're not actually supposed to use the cable to which you clip your harness to hold on to - so you had to use the natural rock. That had given me some trouble back in 2016, but I found I was much more confident moving along the more hardware-free sections, using cracks, roots, and sometimes even just the texture to grip while progressing.

Example of a more trail-like section along a ledge on the side of the mountain.
Still clipped in but you could just walk along.

This crack was a really cool feature.

Tank chilling and enjoying the view

..which admittedly was breathtaking.

Sooner or later, though, we would always find ourselves back on a face of exposed rock...usually climbing up it.

Tank and Jordan chasing my shadow

With Mont Tremblant Massif directly behind me.

Th biggest feature of the via ferrata routes at Mont Tremblant is the Passerelle de la Cascade - a 27m long plank bridge that passes...well, a trickle of water down the rock face. Due to the overnight rain, there were actually some other parts of the parcours that were wetter than "la cascade", but the bridge is rather impressive regardless.

Tanker starting the bridge crossing.

Map of the various parcours - we did "Le Grand Virée / The Great Escape" advanced route.
It includes the green beginner route and the orange intermediate, plus another beam, a monkey bridge, and a Nepalese bridge.

We stopped along the parcours to eat and drink water at various times, as it's just as important when climbing as when running - the route was predicted to take 5.5hrs from the time of departure, including the long hike back down the mountain. Progressing past the beginner and intermediate sections, the parcours became more and more intense - fewer manufactured holds, more climbing, and more exposed sections where your feet had nothing but a bit of steel and a great deal of fresh air beneath them.

No big deal - just walking along the side of a mountain.

A "monkey bridge" - clip to & hold onto the top cable while you walk across the bottom one.

The Nepalese bridge.
Clip to a cable in the middle, hold on to the ones on either side, and walk along the one below.

We had been on the parcours itself for more than 3 hours by the time we finally came to the final climb, and were quite tired. Compare this to the maximum of about 2hrs or so that we usually spend at the climbing gym! There is 220m total of ascent on the route, with 880m of traverse across a peak called La Vache Noire - that's one big black cow!

One more fight against gravity

Tanker reaches the end of the cable.

It was somewhat disappointing that the end of the parcours isn't really at a tangible summit - we unclipped from the cable in a rocky stand of trees rather than in the impressive vista we'd had at Parc des Grands-Jardins.

Pretty, but still..

The view was pretty spectacular, but much less open than we'd expected.

Now a pause for another snack and to drink some water before beginning the descent. Our guide took the lead now - rather than being in the middle of the group as he had been while we were climbing - and warned us to be careful as more people are hurt on the trip down than the way up by twisting knees or ankles on the highly technical trail.

There was also the small matter of having to do a couple of sections of downclimbing on via ferrata to reach the final hike down, too. Lest you believe that it's easier than climbing up or traversing, let me clarify: it's much more difficult to see the holds below you than above or beside you (having to look past your feet), you're already exhausted from several hours of exertion, and you're using almost entirely eccentric muscle contractions. 

It's not easy, is what I'm trying to say.

Once we reached the Passerelle de la Cascade, we had to do one final, major downclimb from the end of the bridge.

Jordan let Tank and I go ahead again - they're about 2/3 of the way down here.

The other couple beginning their descent from the bridge.

Tanker at the final anchor.

Once we unclipped for the last time, we still had another 30min hike down very steep, technical trail ahead of us.

Which our guide took on like a freakin' mountain goat.
It's almost like he's done this once or twice before..

 Reaching the bottom, we then had to climb back up a bit - we still had to cross the original plank bridge across La Rivière Diable to get back to the visitor centre!

This time in sunshine, with Jordan leading and DRY wood planks!

Down the ladder on the other side, then we finally slung our carabiners on our harnesses for the last time and walked the flat rail trail back to the visitor centre to return our equipment. We had done it, and with a reasonable amount of confidence!

Happy birthday to me!

Back to our campsite, unfortunately with my bike still showing the FI warning light and my neutral light staying on, we had some lunch and relaxed after a thoroughly exhausting but incredible morning (it was about 3pm by then; the whole event had taken us just under 4.75hrs from start to finish). FUN FACT: I'd learn - much later - that I was actually 4 weeks pregnant at this point, so being a little wiped out was more than understandable! When we regained some energy, we took a walk to the Discovery Centre, finally getting to look at Lac Monroe in real sunlight.

The pale spot up the far peak is a viewing platform on a trail I'd hoped to run, but there wasn't time or energy.

Such a beautiful place.

Happy punks!

Back to our site afterward, I made us a solid dinner and started another campfire, toasting us a couple of maple marshmallows as my "birthday cake" to end an amazing day.

Perfection.

We awoke to beautiful sunshine the next morning, and cooler temperatures for our departure from the park. While we were sad to be leaving, we had more places to explore!

Everything is nice and dry to pack up!

The "no pants before coffee" rule was strictly observed throughout the trip.

With our bikes loaded once more and me telling Tank it was going to be a good day (despite knowing we had a very ambitious trip ahead), we headed east from the park to St-Donat, stopping for fuel before turning southeast to wind our way down through more twisting, technical mountain roads through beautiful Saint-Côme and Saint-Gabriel. My bike was performing flawlessly, pulling strong up the mountain passes, but the red FI light was still on and my neutral light would still flicker or stay on in every gear...then go out for awhile...then come back on when I'd hit a bump (and there were many - frost heaves and potholes and crap pavement, oh my!). I blew a turn at the latter after we stopped at a powersports dealer to pick up a new bungee cargo net (as our 14-year-old one was looking worse for wear, and is an integral part of packing all the gear onto my bike), and instead of taking the overland route through Shawinigan, St-Raymond & past Valcartier, we ended up intersecting with the 40 at Berthierville.

This proved to be a blessing in disguise. It was already 3pm when we stopped - having been on the road for several hours - to get a snack and check directions. With another 236km via the fastest route, we knew our best bet for arriving at our next campsite before dark was just to rock the 40 at high speed to get in as much mileage as quickly as possible, rather than traveling through small towns that would reduce us to 50kph or less every half hour. We also would need to stop for fuel again (our range is only about 300km per tank), and needed groceries for dinner and breakfasts for the next 2 days.

All of our problems were solved 135km later in Donnacona. We stopped for gas just off the highway, and my gas cap was a real problem to get off the tank - the vent really was blocked and the high speed riding (plus depleting the tank of fuel) had cause a vacuum to develop. After fueling, though, the FI and neutral light problems went away, never to return! We hit a grocery store for supplies, got back on the 40 into Québec, then hit the 73 and 175 back up into the Laurentians.

The ride into Parc National de la Jacques-Cartier was mindblowing. We were tired, sure, from a long day on the road...but riding the pristine pavement through sweeping curves along the Rivière Jacques-Cartier under the shadow of Les Laurentides made me unsure whether to laugh or cry, and I actually did some of each as we wound our way to the visitor centre at km10.

I could do this all day.

We already had our permits (thank you again, online registration!), but we stopped to get ice and asked if someone could deliver firewood, but were told we'd have to pick it up ourselves. I figured we might have to use the fly from the old tent to wrap it up to lash it to my bike, but in a first they actually had BAGS of firewood instead of the usual fill-your-own slings! We quickly rode to our campsite - just 1km away - dropped everything off my fender, then rode back to load it up again.

And maybe admire the view.

My poor old girl, being used as a pack mule.

We got our site set up before dark, which was pretty simple considering we decided not to put up the tarp or gear shed - there was only a 10% chance of precipitation the whole time we'd be in the park and there was plenty of natural shade from the full tree coverage, so we thought we'd risk it.

Home sweet home.

Dinner on, then a fire lit against the chilly evening - it was predicted to go down to 7c overnight, and we'd mostly packed for hot weather, so we were wearing basically everything we owned and huddled around our fire for warmth.

In the funny little fireboxes they have there - like a barbecue, but only a foot off the ground.

In spite of a bit of adversity, though, it had been the good day I'd said it would be. When Thursday morning dawned with more beautiful sunshine and the outline of the mountains visible through the trees behind our tent, I knew it would be another one!

Paradise.

Morning fire and a hot breakfast, then back on the bikes with the backpack on my back again - we rode down through Québec and out the east end to Parc de la Chute Montmorency. We had another via ferrata route to climb!

This one was much more relaxed than any we had done before, and used a different system - rather than a pair of locking carabiners (plus the rest carabiner) attached to the harness, there was a single carabiner with a slot that was fixed in width and a rest carabiner only.

Mine pictured on the cable here.

Instead of clipping your way along, you slide the slot over a steel plate at the start of the parcours, then over more steel plates in between cable sections. It is not possible to un-clip from the cable once you have begun the route, which means everyone must stay in the same order once you commence, and you're in it until the end. I assume this system is used here because Montmorency is a much more accessible and popular tourist destination than Mont Tremblant, and this has the least risk of fatality.

Our route in blue - there is one other intermediate that starts with a zipline (seen in red at the bottom) and connects with Le Torrent, plus the beginner route that shares the same start as our parcours but climbs back up the red portion in the middle.

Honestly, though, we barely needed the cable - despite being rated as "intermediate", Le Torrent was more heavily populated by hardware holds than any parcours we'd seen so far, and the slabby, angular rock forms themselves seemed purpose-made for climbing. Tanker and I both found ourselves eschewing the steel holds in favour of finding our own, more natural hand and foot placements on the face as we started with a long, slanting downclimb.

Much easier to downclimb at the beginning!

Making our way across

Tanker having fun!

It was another hot, sunny day, and we were grateful to emerge into the breeze and some of the spray from the enormous waterfall we could hear thundering past the rock face.

Looking out to the bay, with a bit of spray visible.

Through the traverse (and a beam), we came in view of the small ribbon fall on the far side of the main chute, and began our ascent up the face.

You can see the observation deck at the far side of the bridge at the top right.

There was quite a long, exposed climb up the rock face beside the main chute to a wooden observation deck where our guide, Mathieu (who was behind myself, Tank, and another girl who was experienced at via ferrata, roped together with another participant - we're not sure why - with what seemed to be the tied-in fellow's girlfriend bringing up the rear), had asked us to stop and wait for everyone to catch up.

A bit of perspective on the climb - Tank behind me, one girl finishing crossing a beam, with the 3 others further back.

Having fun!

Reaching the observation deck was a treat - the view was spectacular, despite not having the greatest angle on the falls.

The bay is beautiful, and it was a perfect day.

Not to say you can't see la chute at all!

If you're so inclined, there is also a 200m zipline across the face of the falls you can take...but with the extra expense (via ferrata isn't cheap!) and the huge lineup, we were happy just to climb.

Some zipliners over the falls.

Good times!

We had plenty of time to rest, drink water and take photos while we waited for the rest of our group to arrive.

Take your time - we don't mind.

Departing the observation deck, there was one more vertical climb to the top, finishing with a ladder up to another wooden platform right at the top of the falls.

It's a long way down - those "matchsticks" below are full sized trees that have washed downriver & over the falls!

Killer view from the top of the parcours.

We weren't quite off the cable yet, though - there was one last rocky scramble up some natural steps that required a bit of tricky maneuvering.

Hands and knees for a bit, here.

Up and off the cable, we returned our equipment and thanked our guide, then headed back across the suspension bridge over the falls to find a shady picnic table and have a snack. The whole thing had taken less than 1.75hrs - a stark difference to the other routes we'd done - and was much easier overall, but it was still tiring on a hot, sunny day.

The falls treated us to a rainbow as we walked overtop, though!

After refreshing ourselves, we climbed back on our bikes for the beautiful ride back up to our campsite, stopping along the way to take glamour shots of the park.

The park gates - only thing we didn't like was riding over the cattle grates!

Views like this for the whole 10km through the park.

Absolutely beside myself with joy.

We actually managed to have dinner before dark (mon dieu!), sitting by a fire on a less-cold-but-still-cool evening and turning in for an early night.

After a whole lot of this.

11c overnight and a bunch of wood we were simply too tired to burn off, so another morning fire while Tank made coffee and I made us scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast.

Still no pants, but 11c warrants socks with sandals.

Sad to be leaving such a beautiful place.

There was one last thing I wanted to do in Parc National de la Jacques-Cartier before we moved on - I had read about a trail called "Les Cascades" that followed Bearse Creek, and I wanted to get a trail run in. We packed up camp as breakfast digested, I changed into run kit and hosed myself with bug spray (though they hadn't been bad at either of the mountain parks), then I set off.

Coming from Les Alluvions campground, I hooked up with Le Draveur trail that runs through most of the park along the river, and crossed a huge, beautiful footbridge.

Loved this.

Le Draveur is crushed stone rail trail, but is very hilly in places. It was lovely in the trees; the day was heating up quickly as it approached noon, so the shade was welcome.

Gorgeous.

I reached a lookout point where the trail crossed Bearse Creek, found a side trail beside it, and sat down on a rock by the creek to enjoy the peace and solitude.

Could sit here for hours, listening to the water swirl past.

Turning onto Sentier Les Cascades, though, suddenly I was in trailrunner heaven!

Roots and rocks galore!

Little sketchy side trails to beautiful views

So pretty!

It climbed up and up, following the creek and then crossing a bridge over it. I figured - since the trail is a loop - that I must start coming down at some point, but no - it continued to climb!

Up, up, and away.

Hmm - I may have reached the top.

Yep. Totally worth it.

After a steep, technical descent, the trail ended back at Le Draveur and I began to head back to our campsite.

One last look at the mountain beyond the visitor centre.

My last handful of trail mix, change into my riding gear, finish loading up the bikes and time to jam out of here!

The pile of gear is tall enough that Tanker can only see the very top of my helmet.

Back down gorgeous 175 and 73 south across the Pierre Laporte Bridge, crossing Fleuve Saint-Laurent and the beautiful rapids of Rivière Chaudiere.

Wikipedia photo, with the Quebec Bridge behind.

We rocked west across the 20 on the south side with only one stop in Drummondville for some fuel, then lunch and supplies at a grocery store. The 20 took us to the exit for the incredible Jacques-Cartier bridge into Montreal - such a spectacle of engineering and ornamentation!

Another Wikipedia photo.

Arriving at our hotel on Le Plateau, we checked in and were offered secure parking for our motorcycles under the watchful eye of a security camera...on the patio.

We've done more riding on the sidewalks of Montreal than everywhere else combined.

A quick shower each (hallelujah!), then we got ourselves all sweaty again climbing the surprisingly technical trails of Mont Royal on a hot, summer evening.

Amazing trails in the middle of the city!

Our payoff was reaching the top just as the sun was setting, giving us a magnificent view.

Olympic stadium and the St. Lawrence in the distance.

We also made it in time for cold beverages on a wooden swing for 2 at Café Suspendu!

Cold brew coffee for me, and a cold brew for Tank.

This alone would have been worth the climb.

Finishing our drinks, we hiked back down the mountain, then across to St-Laurent to stuff ourselves to bursting with hot smoked brisket from Schwartz's.

SO GOOD

Back to our hotel again to turn in for the night, as it had been quite a long day. We got up the next morning, I trotted across the street to get us coffee from the gas station (as our pared-down hotel did not provide any), and we packed up the bikes for the last time...gratefully untouched on the safety of the patio.

We had one more stop before we left town, though.

Tradition!

Spanel is an amazing crêperie run by chef who is straight from Breton and creates the most delicious crêpes and galettes. We always stop for brunch before leaving Montreal, and the chef even remembered us from our visits the last 3 years! Fueled up and ready to head home, we struck west...and hit such horrible traffic on the 20 due to a lane closure that it took us 2hrs to reach the Ontario border, forced to do the clutch-brake dance in first gear under the sweltering sun. 

2.5hrs after we left Spanel we had only made it 135km to Ingleside, where we stopped to fuel the bikes and drink some water. Another 2.5hr hop brought us with horribly sore bums to Trenton, where we had a bite to eat and I put on some extra clothing. From a very hot day it had cooled, and it looked like we might hit rain any moment. I had also calculated that we would be racing the sunset to reach home, so it would only get cooler.

Last stop - no sleep til Cambridge!

We ran into our friend Clay on his bike at the service centre before we headed out for one last, butt-breaking push for home. We caught a 20min rain shower and the street lights were just coming on as we hit our exit off the 401, so tired and sore by the time we rolled up the driveway that we couldn't be bothered to back the bikes into the garage.

Or unpack them until the next day.
Always nice to get home on Saturday to have a day to regroup before going back to work.

2,200km almost on the nose, 6 nights (5 of them spent camping), 2 via ferrata routes, 2 trail runs, a hike up a mountain, a million bug bites and two butts that never wanted to see a bike seat again, we were home.

With enough leftover Schwartz's for a half sandwich each, plus some meat to eat plain.
No, we did not get food poisoning from unrefrigerated meat, but it was probably a near thing.
Still worth it.

So, that does it for this year's motorcycle tour. We've rested up by hitting a concert last night (Thursday night), then I have a little thing going on this Saturday night, and I'm crafting meal plans and packing lists for our canoe tour in a week and a half.

No rest for the wicked!