With 600 kilometers of bike trails (that’s about 370 miles for us metric-impaired Americans) Montreal is a tremendously bike friendly city. They’ve even imported Europe’s Bixi bike rental system, which is a great and inexpensive way to get around town. So it’s not surprising that some of our best biking thus far took place just a few kilometers from central Montreal on Îles-de-Boucherville.

The national park is comprised of five small islands in the Saint Lawrence River. A free ferry and several short bridges connect a 10 km gravel bike route that circles the island. Several other paths and slightly more rugged hiking trails branch out in various directions. Although just minutes from the city, the island feels remote, with spectacular water views and oceans of golden rod on either side of the trail.