I can't believe that I lost track of time and my limited brain power and never looked back at this forum.

Oldbikah? Are you there? Did you ever succeed in recruiting biking buddies?

To answer your question, we took six days to go around the lake. We took the train up from Montreal and as it only runs every other day, we planned accordingly. WHEN we go back we're going to take a few more days and stay an extra day here and there. The only "extra" day we took was at the Pointe de Taillon national park. We'll do that again, as well as a few other places we especially loved.

The park was actually the only place we made reservations ahead. We were camping and in looking at the website it seemed like the campgrounds were spaced out evenly enough that we would be able to find something pretty easily. But that national park would be, I figured, very popular and as we had a particular campsite in mind from THEIR website, we decided to reserve it in advance. Little did we know that the website was completely misleading and the campsite we reserved so carefully was the absolute worst spot on the entire trip! The national park website leads one to believe that (a) the campgrounds at either "end" of the park via the trail were car accessible and close to "amenities"; and (b) the campsites at the far end of the park were therefore more private and would provide access to the water for swimming, sunbathing and relaxing.

In reality, the entire park is off limits to cars! It's absolutely amazing. Once you arrive, you get on a bike (your own or one you rent from the concessionaire) and ride it (along with, perhaps, your rented trailer full of gear) to one of the campgrounds. We arrived late the first of our two nights and were able to snag a spot at one of the campsites closest to the parking lot. It was still about a mile in from the parking lot, right on the lake and positively gorgeous. Unfortunately, we had to vacate it because it was already reserved the second night. No matter, we thought. We will just ride on up the island to our already reserved perfect site. Ick.

It was high above the water on the inland side of the peninsula, and so mosquito-infested that we could barely leave the tent. At dark, some kind of party started in the town directly across the river and it went on all night! As it turns out, it was the annual swim across the lake by a lot of absolutely insane people. They're up all night drinking and then they plunge into the freezing cold water the next day and swim 28 miles. I don't get it, certainly.

Anyway, now we know.

Neither my husband nor I speak French and I was really worried about that. I will say that most people up there do NOT speak English but I was able to commmunicate reasonably well when it came to getting the night's campsite and foraging for food. It became kind of a game--can I get in and out of the grocery store without the clerk ever realizing that I didn't understand a WORD? "Merci," I'd smile. And if I got caught, "Pardon, je suis American" and scurry out the door. In the post office in Mashteuiash, the clerk and I had a wonderful game of charades so I could buy stamps!

The one and only meal we ate in a restaurant was pretty much a disaster because of the language barrier and we just decided from that moment on that we could live quite nicely on fresh fruit, warm baguettes, cheddar cheese and ... blueberries. Blueberries. Blueberries.

Do this trip, folks. Really. There are some hills and I did some whining but I don't think I remember any vacation I've ever taken anywhere with as much real fondness as this one!