Véloroute des Bleuets — Attraction in Alma

A mishmash network of separate bicycle paths and paved highway shoulders and everything in between around the Lake Saint-Jean. The infrastructure of the separated bicycle paths and signaling is good. After that, it start to deteriorate. Once you are on the traffic-calmed streets, the signaling gets a bit weaker and you can easily get lost. If you have a map you can find your way back otherwise you will just end up with a few more kilometers, riding around in circles until you find back the route. The minute you find yourself cycling on the paved shoulder of the provincial highway, because the cycling infrastructure ran out of budget, every vehicle that also using that road will try to pass you as close as possible at the highest speed permitted. Especially pick-up trucks. And there are many pick-up trucks in this part of the province. Although the driver of a vehicle is required to allow a safe space of 1,5 meters, I have not seen one driver even slow down a little bit or provide for a safe passing distance during my whole tour of the lake. Especially when you get to a bridge, where there is no space for a shoulder, you better squeeze the handlebars a little tighter because space to share the road is very limited. In a matter of fact, there is nothing more to share here, apart from the white line covered with sand and road debris. Once your nerves have calmed down there are many places where you can stay for the night, although many campings require you to reserve for a minimum of at least two nights. Most campings are near the bicycle network and the...

We spend 3 days biking on the route. Started in Alma and finish in St-Feliciens. With all the hype that I had read, I was a little disapointed in the information signs along the biking route. We missed a few places we wanted to stop and visit because there was no indication on the bike path of those places. Orignally we had plan to bike 3 days staight and leaving our vehicle at the sarting point. We quickly realize after day 1 that this was not feasible as we could not really visit the small town attractions without biking an extras few KM of the main bike trail. You are better to arrive in each town and bike around those areas for the day which gives you more time to visit the really great local merchants. Alma area is really nice with the bike trail giving you a beautiful ride in the back woods seeing the dams. Get inform before you go and...

officially 269 km of bicycle riding in mostly flat and beautiful setting, but you will log more than that by discovering a lot of different areas and vistas along the way. The route weaves a little bit in order to keep the cyclists in a lower car traffic areas, but is a lot more secure than some roads without shoulders(route 373, st felicien to Dolbeau). Make sure you have a good amount of snacks, as stores can be scarce in certain places. water seems to be fairly available in public fountains and camping grounds. I did the tour in 3 days(100,100,70km per day) but will do it in 4 days and take more...