Montreal Bicycle Club Scrapbook
.Mr Jenkins, travelled by High Wheel bicycle from Ottawa to Matane, starting the trip Aug 9, 1884. The portion from Sorel to Quebec City was by boat, and Cacouna to Trois-Pistoles was on the Intercolonial Railway. Presumably he returned by rail.
Map showing route described by two different documents below, click on upper right corner for full window view
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10,000 miles on a bicycle version
From Karl Kron's 10,000 miles on a Bicycle published 1887: Extracted portion from CWA Guide Book, and slightly modified the ending of the 1884 trip, addition of the 1885 trip and details of the CWA booklet, |
CWA guide book version
From CWA Guide Book, published 1887 Describes a High Wheel trip taken by Mr Jenkins Ottawa Bicycle Club from Ottawa to Matane, Quebec in 1884 |
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This was the route taken by Mr. Jenkins (b. July 6, 1859; weight, 145 lbs. ; Premier 54 in.), whose report I now append :
" I left Ottawa with a tricycling companion on the afternoon of Aug. 9, '84, and we rode to Clarence, 25 m., that evening ; next to Caledonia Springs, 25 m. ; third forenoon to Hawkesbury, 15 m., whence I proceeded alone in afternoon to Rigaud, 19 m. Leaving at 10 a. m. of Tuesday, I dined and spent 4he afternoon at St. Anne's, 21 m., and rode into Montreal, 20 m., in the cool of the evening, taking tea en route at Lachine. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ At Matane, the hotel, kept by Mr. Fraser, the Norwegian vice consul, will be found satisfactory. M. is literally the get off place of this route. So I got off and made it the terminus of my tour. The road is said to struggle on for a few parishes further and then is lost in the mountains. Good bathing and fishing are the recreations offered by the village , which is refreshingly isolated, 30 m. from the nearest r.r. It might make the finish of a fine straightaway century, starting from Trois Pistoles ; for there are 70 m. of beautiful wheeling, and the other 30 are by no means bad. The 4 or 5 unridable hills are steep rather than long, and would not cause much delay ; while Bic, Rimouski and Little Metis could be depended on for good, hearty fare. This whole route along the Lower St. Lawrence I cannot too highly commend ; for,besides the scenic attractions which I 've only hinted at, it has a peculiar social interest, in that it introduces the wheelman to a region where the old Feudal System still exists. Though modified into some semblance of consistency with modem ideas of equity, the change is a recent one, and has really been effected on paper only, the original customs still obtaining to a degree that gives a distinct character to these people. Distances are reckoned by leagues, half leagues and acres ; superstitions of a past age are cherished ; and quaint little customs of ' the long-ago ' surprise us at every turn. In short, the trip offers a refreshing dive into a past century ; and I'm already arranging to repeat it next year, when I hope also to penetrate into New Brunswick. As for this '85 trip, it extended only from Quebec to Little Metis, and was taken by three members of the Ottawa B. C. : Jenkins, Roy, and Harrison. The beach roads, having been injured by the spring floods, were not as good as in '84. A September paragraph says: " Alphonse Hamel and Colin Hetherington, amateur oarsmen, rode from Quebec to Riviére du Loup, 122 m. in 24 h., Aug. i, '85.'* In Aug., '83, H. Roy, above named, " took the n. shore from Quebec to Montmorency Falls, 7 m., and Chateau Richer, 8 m., finding splendid mac and magnificent coasting. The next 6 m. , to St. Anne, was so poor that he crossed to the s. shore and continued on to Cacouna, finding everything delightful, ' except the ham and eggs,three times a day.' " The route from Q. to C. is thus given by W. N. Campbell (109 St. Peter St., Quebec) : ** Cross river to Point Levi; then a 10 m. mac. to Beaumont ; 9 m. sand and loam to St. Valier (good hotel) ; 7 m. loam to Berthier ; 7 m. gravel to St. Thomas (splendid, except first m.) ; 18 m. loam and gravel to L'Islet (fair hotel) ; 9 m. to St. Jean Port Joli, good level loam and gravel ; fair then for 9 m. to St. Roch, and 9 m. to St. Anne ; ridable but difficult clay thence to Riviére Quelle ; then hilly but good for 12 m. to Kamouraska ; clay and loam to St. Andre, 9 m. ; loam and gravel to Notre Dame du Portage, 8 m.; gravel to Riviére du Loup, 6 m., and loam to Cacouna, 5 m. Even a little rain makes these roads bad; much makes them unridable." By contrast, the 16 m. from Q. to Chateau Richer b called " excellent at all seasons and in all weathers; average time, ij h." Likewise the w. road from Q. to St. Foy, 5 m., and Cap Rouge, 4 m., "is always ridable and none the worse for a considerable rain. Good mac. also stretches n. w. from Q. to Charlesbourg, 3 m., and St. Pierre, 5 m. ; whence Stoneham, 7 m., may be reached on rather poor road of sand and loam. Hills of ^ m. and | m. are to be met before reaching St. P. A three days' run from Point Levi to Cacouna, as reported by C. M. Douglass {Outing, Dec, '84, p. 177), is called " the first one along that road, though happening a year after Mr. Roy's ride from St. A. to C. ; and he says : A splendid 5 m. run, near Riviére du Loup, on excellent gravel, just by the water's edge, was an exceptional luxury ; for parts of the route were decidedly bad ; and often a baked, lumpy, clay road forced us either to get off and walk, or else be seriously jolted.'* . As the main roads of the Dominion show a better average excellence than those of the Union, there is a certain appropriateness in the fact that the earliest-printed of American road books should be the work of Dominion wheelmen. Indeed, the first trail made on this continent by the rubber tire of a modem bicycle is accredited to A. T. Lane, one of the founders of the Montreal B. C, who imported thither a 50 in. Coventry in season to take his first ride July 1, 1874 ; while H. S. Tibbs, captain of the same club, took a 300-m. tour in England that same year.Importing thence a Challenge bicycle he took his first ride on it in M., Aug. 15, '77; and he won a medal for 2 m. at the first bicycle race ever held in Canada, June 7, '79. As for the little volume, from which I 've already made many extracts, its title-page reads thus : ** The C. W. A. Guide Book, containing descriptions of Canadian roads, hotels, consuls, etc. , with the constitution and by-laws of the Association (organized, Sept., 1882). Published by order of the board of officers, April, 1884. H. B. Donly, W. G. Eakins, J. S. Brierley, editors." It has 128 pp. (including 20 pp. of advertisements), 6 by 4 in. in size, bound in flexible cloth covers ; is 1/2 in. thick and weighs 3 oz. It is mailed for 50 c by H. B. Donly, Secretary of the Canadian Wheelmen's ...... |
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