Sign at the Lachine Line
Roger Kenner
Montreal, Qc,
Canada 2003
| Welcome to Dorval: Sign at the Lachine Line |
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At the Dorval Line, bikers lose the protected bike path of Lachine and must share Lakeshore Road with the cars. Lost, as well, is any view of the water, as the road curves inland across the point. There are a few short blocks of house, and then the road cuts through a large park.
Recently, as a lead up to amalgamation, this park was groomed and redone. One could get to the water by leaving the road and making a detour.
| Dorval: ?? park near Lachine line |
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| Dorval: ?? creek along Lakeshore Rd |
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Just past the park, Lakeshore Road crosses a small creek, a relic of country days, whose path has been narrowly confined.
The road takes a gentle rise from there and continues through several blocks of residential housing before coming into the commercial section of Old Dorval.
| Dorval: Lakeshore Road in Old Dorval | Dorval: Old gas station bites the dust |
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| Dorval: Historic Church |
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The somewhat quaint, older commercial artery continues over several blocks. Before the building of the new shopping centres along Dorval Avenue, this must have been the centre of the town's activity. Just up one of the streets is the famous old Church of Dorval.
The old fades away. An old gas station is to be razed, to make room for another of the same species of condo weed that has been sprouting up all over the city.
The old meets the new at the foot of Dorval Avenue, where it ends at Lakeshore Road in the latter's only traffic light. Looking northward up Dorval Avenue, one can see the wide boulevard leading the way to massive, suburban shopping centres. In the distance is the Hwy 20 interchange and Dorval Airport.
In this section is a cluster of large apartment buildings, the only ones along the Dorval route. They are several stories high.
On the river side is Dorval Island and the small ferry terminal leading out to it.
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Westward from Dorval Avenue, one soon plunges once again into residential neighbourhoods. To the right, one passes the Dorval Yacht Club while to the left is a large park, where Dorval's sport complex is to be found.
Eventually, one returns to the river at Pine Beach Park. At one time, Pine Beach was a separate, and popular, resort town. There is still a Pine Beach station along the commuter rail line.
| Dorval: Lakeside Park at Pine Beach |
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Past Pine Beach Park, Lakeshore Road heads inland once again, through the upper-middle class homes, to cross the next point. On the other side it passes next to yet another small, but rocky, beach before approaching the final point.
| Dorval: Small Beach, looking east towards point |
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Across the last point on Lakeshore Road one briefly loses sight of the water as one passes by a few more houses. Typically I have breezed by this section. Only recently did I explore 'Whitehead Terrace', the street that leads out to the end of the point. I discovered one vacant lot remaining (for a while, I guess), at which one can get right down to the water and one has a great view.
| Dorval: Pte Claire, seen looking across final point in foreground |
Dorval: Old Tree on Lakeside vacant lot |
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| Dorval: Park along Eastern Shore of Valois Bay | Dorval: Western Town Line |
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| Dorval: Point Claire across Valois Bay |
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After having been out of sight of water for most of the way across Dorval, it is a pleasure to be treated to the vastness of the magnificent panorama of Valois Bay and one comes out from the last point. Far across the bay, one can see the steeple of the Pointe Claire church, still many minutes away. For at Valois Bay, the road curves far inland, almost touching Highway 20, before coming back out beyond.
Along Valois Bay in Dorval is a waterfront park where they have installed vast networks of bird houses as a natural way to combat flying insects. The landward side is faced with older houses of character.
One reaches the Dorval/Pointe Claire line a short was into the bay. It is here that I exited, for a while, to take Sources Road across the Island. The nice houses vanish on the Pointe Claire side and the park becomes just a narrow strip of land beneath a small cliff.
It seems that I always seem to reach the eastern side of Valois Bay at just about sunset. It has happened this way more times than not on rides returning from points west.
| Dorval: Sunset on Valois Bay - Looking West | |
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