Cycling around the West Island

Not long ago my lil sister Jazz showed us her neighbourhood, which is situated in Outremont. Outremont is a borough of Montréal and as such, is an urban cityscape. When we think of the Island of Montréal, we always think of the city and suburbs but this is not really true. The West Island, aptly named, is the western part of the island of Montréal. Although there are suburban cities, there is also a lot of green space, not just parks but farms, woods. (See Google Map)

Pretty much all of the northwest part is, as you can see, green space. Developers are gradually encroaching upon this rural setting but for the moment it is still very green.
As some of you might know, I am an avid cyclist and I thought that I would take you around my neighbourhood on my bike.

As you can see, I'm not going very fast since it is hard to ride a bike and take a picture at the same time without breaking your neck. ;o)

This is a typical street in Kirkland, a typical suburb. So now we ride toward Gouin Boulevard one of the oldest roads on the island.

This road leads down to Gouin Boulevard and as you can see, it is pretty much a country road. The condition of the road is also pretty much country being, in places, more patch than road.

There are also quite a few wild animals in the West Island, there are deer, foxes (I saw one as I was riding but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture.), raccoons, skunks and various other critters.
One of my favourite places to go to is the Cap St-Jacques Park. (On the map it is the big headland sticking out of the northern shore of the island.) It is the biggest park on the island and includes a ecological farm that employs troubled city youth as part of a rehabilitation program. In the summer there are walking trails and in the winter these become cross country skiing trails. Since it is only a few kilometres from my home it is an ideal way of relaxing. Some of the following pictures have already been posted since I often bring my camera with me to take pictures there.

Once we have left the park we ride down Gouin Boulevard until it becomes Senneville Road. Now Senneville is really the rich enclave of the West Island. When Montreal was still a young city, the rich and famous had summer homes along the shores of the Lac des Deux Montagnes, even today the biggest and richest homes are still all along the lakefront.

This is Senneville road. There are many huge mansions but also some working farms as strange as this may seem. It is probably the greenest past of the West Island and runs along the northern shore of the island.

One of the old farm buildings with an old truck.

Here are some of the mansions along the shore. Some of these domains are huge and I wouldn't want to be the person paying the property taxes.

This is an example, usually they are set so far back from the road that it is impossible to take a picture through the gates. The garage of this mansion is bigger than my whole house...

When I first saw this house I figured that it was a nice tutor house of reasonable size, then I realized that it wasn't the owner's house, it was just a house for the gate keeper. Behind the house is an apple orchard that leads down to the main house that we can't see form the road. Obviously some peole are richer than I am. :o)
This brings us to the village of Ste-Anne de Bellevue and the villages of the West Island, which we will look at in my next post.