Author: Paul Rito (Page 16 of 27)

68.4 miles, 4556 ft of climbing. Whew. It was our first day of serious climbing. The main climb was 3.5 miles and much of that at 13%. But it was a good prep for what’s to come. We’re tired, but it was a glorious ride.

We left Samantha’s (oh yeah, she’s also a classical pianist!) at about 9 am as the rain ended earlier than expected. We had a big day to Grand Vallée and the best part was that was the end of the rain for today and tomorrow.

The first half of the ride was a mix of dense fog and clear skies with sun. We had a tailwind, up until we got to a town and a cove. Getting out of the cove was always into a headwind, but that was much shorter compared to the stretch between towns with that lovely tailwind.

Nice quiet rest after gorging ourselves on a half of an IGA roasted chicken each, potato salad, and Pilsner, and donuts for dessert. A nice touring side benefit: calories don’t need to be counted, only consumed. It’s a lot of work hauling your own butt and the bike and bags. I’ve already lost 10 lbs and will probably lose 20 before I’m done.

We got up at 4:45 to take advantage of both the early sunrises here and to get to Sainte-Anne-des-Mont (yes, finally a woman saint!) before the rains we’re to hit. We were on the road by 6 am. 57 miles today and 2700 ft of climbing with a light headwind that got stronger as the day went on. 3 pm was the projected time for the thunderstorms to hit, but its 4:17 now and no rain yet.

Before we went to bed last night we asked Tristan if it would be possible to stay another day if the promised thunderstorms materialized and he said, “Sure!” They did materialize and we woke up at 6:00 to check the radar and see if we had a chance of moving on today. We had a window from 8 to 11 and decided that we’d head to the next town where we would re-evaluate.

No wi-fi service last night, so this is a little late getting posted.

Rimouski, (which is a First Nation word for “many moose”, not Polish) to Baie-des-Sables (Bay of Sand) with our Warm Showers host, Tristan. 42 miles, 806 ft of climbing.

Today was a glorious cycling day. Clear and sunny, not too hot, and a mix of tail- and head-winds and great scenery made for pleasant riding. It was another morning of rain storms, but they were over by 8:45 and it was mostly dry by 9:30 when we left Phillipe’s. We had a lot of side roads to use today and they were welcome as the traffic has picked up along the main route 132 which is the only road on the perimeter of the Gaspé peninsula. It’s summer vacation time and there are a lot of RV’s and campers to add to the normal truck traffic, so any side roads were much quieter and almost traffic free, including 3 miles on a gravel road.

49.5 miles and 2,521 ft up and 5 hours in the saddle. Good, hard day. We left Trois Pistoles around 9 in a light fog. Cool enough to require jackets but it did warm up as the day went on. Or should I say that we warmed the day up with our exertions. Lots of climbing some pretty steep grades but a beautiful area including a provincial park so it was worth it. We are now at Phillip’s house for the night, a very genial warm showers host who served us a hearty dinner of roasted bratwurst, sweet potatoes, and roasted red peppers. We shared dinner and a beer and heard about his travels in Tasmania and New Zealand and an upcoming trip from Venice to Munich, and shared ours, too.

A wonderful ride today. 77.3 miles and 1631 ft of climbing, but we averaged almost 1.5 mph faster than we have been doing thanks to a strong tailwind most of the way between Joe’s house in La Pocatiere to Alex’s & Gabrielle’s house in Trois Pistoles.

We said goodbye to Joe around 8 and got on the road. We skipped a few Route Vert deviations that would have added a lot of miles on gravel roads, and neither John nor I wanted to tackle gravel in addition to the long enough day already. The weather was clear and sunny and my, that tailwind. A few times we turned around to face the wind and realized it might be a harder road back if the winds keep up through August.

Short post mid-day 7 because I didn’t have any wifi service last night.

Hostel stay was great. It rained hard all night and we slept in till almost 8:00. We had breakfast at the hostel and started the day off @ 9 am with just a misty fog which developed into a somewhat steady rain.

We were wet for for 30 mi, but then the sun came out and dried us off. Original goal for the day was to get to 40 miles to Montmagny. We had a great IGA lunch (poke bowl for John and potato salad and chicken salad sandwich for me) and as the sun was shining we decided to ride on to La Pocetiere where John had a warm showers host set up.

The forecast was for steady rain all day, but by the time we headed out from Eugénie’s and Christian’s place, the rain was just a drizzle. We actually saw the sun peek out once, but not for very long. We made it to our hostel in Levis in about 2 hours, but were way early for check-in. The hostel did let us leave our panniers though and John went off to find lunch and I went shopping for a couple loose ends.

Things were a little wet from the overnight rain, but not too bad. A good shaking and packed up mostly dry. We initially headed for McD’s, but their lobby didn’t open until 11, so we returned to Theo’s and it was open. Though we had another server who did speak some English, the woman who served us the night before came out of the kitchen with an apron on. I asked if she had ever left, and she replied “I am the owner. I’m here to close and here to open.” And to cook, obviously. She wished us well on our trip and we had a hearty breakfast and headed out.

Today’s ride was 75 miles and about the same amount of elevation as yesterday. We both were pretty tired by the end of the day when we ended up at Christian and Eugénie house in St. Antoine de Tilly, with their 3 kids, Clemenc, Antoine, and Samuelle, and dog Sonny. When we got here they were hauling their kayaks from the river back to the house. They made room for us in their house and space in the garage for the bikes and we’re about to go down for the night.

Early day today, but we slept in until 5:30. We were on the road at 7 and we were pretty sure we were going to go for the 96 mile destination. Weather was good and there wasn’t any chance of rain until mid-afternoon. Turns out it never did rain, and the riding was flat! Something only cyclists will understand, but 603 feet in 80 miles is pretty flat. Not western Ohio flat, but flat! The last 20 miles to our warm showers host in Nicolet was a little more rolling and we ended up with 95.5 miles and 1,373 ft of “climbing.” I was pretty tired, but John said it was all he could do to draft me, so I was happy I wasn’t a slouch! He’s been on the road since April from Albuquerque and I was worried about not having enough miles under me.