Category: Gaspe Peninsula (Page 2 of 5)

A little late getting caught up, but I’ll get there in the next day or so. For good reasons, too: Well cared for and recovering in Potsdam.

25.6 miles, 651 ft of climbing (most of that was on a spiral cycle path over a bridge.

Both Lilie and Vincent left Saturday morning and left the apartment to us, again not an unusual experience in the Warm Showers network. Saturday was my Opthalmologist appointment I described earlier. That evening, John and I roamed the Verdun pedestrian mall and decided to eat Korean at Moa Moa (Moe-Moe). Great meal, and great sleep.

Shingles! Maybe in addition to Orbital Cellulitis, but doc yesterday didn’t think so. I have an appointment with an Ophthalmologist and hope to get an “everything’s OK” from him or her. I’m continually hopeful, but yesterday was a slog.

To back up a little, we left Lino’s on Wed evening and rode to the Jonquière train station. Our train was on time and we left at 10:50 pm. The train was comfortable enough itself and we had two seats that kind of made a bed, but the track network was pretty bumpy and lots of swaying. I didn’t have a good sleeping night (John, did. Jealous that he can sleep anywhere through just about anything!).

I gave in to prudence (and getting connected with some health insurance) and am boarding a train this evening to go to Montreal. Though I asked him to carry on, John is coming along, and I’m grateful for that change in his plans. He had designs on a rail trail north of Montreal and would have ended up there anyway. He flies out the 16th for Switzerland to continue touring, ending up with a sailing trip in Greece. I am hoping to be able to ride back home. I’m also hoping to get a followup tomorrow in Montreal and get a firm diagnosis. Orbital cellulitis is suspected, but the ER visit did stave off the worst symptoms of that. I can still see fine today and some of the swelling has lessened.

So, stay tuned for updates from Montreal tomorrow or Saturday. I have a Warm Showers outside of Montreal, and my friend Doris W. has arranged for lodging for me in Potsdam NY, her hometown. It’s a short drive from the border and her friend Jim has offered to pick me up in Massena after I cross over at Cornwall, ON. There are angels everywhere and I owe a debt to more than a few on this trip.

12.4 miles from Lino’s to the Jonquière train station, 751 ft of climbing.

0 miles, 0 ft of climbing. Errrr.

Well, prudence won out over the desire to press on. It’s a beautiful day here in Chicoutimi* and I’m writing this on Lino’s backyard porch after enjoying a handful of raspberries and gooseberries fresh from the bushes. Lino offered for us to stay here “as long as you need to.” He even drove me to the less-than-a-mile-away pharmacy today to pick up my prescriptions. Jean Coutu is the Quebecois equivalent of CVS and the people in the two I’ve been to have been very helpful and patient. The pharmacists and clerks spoke English and provided me with a walk-through of the meds; amoxicillin and clavulanate potassium orally and topical erythromycin for my eye.

Well, other than it being my grandchild Luka’s 16th birthday, and the weather being great and the ride being great and having a reprise at our Warm Showers host in Saguenay, the rest of the day? Not so much. I spent the day and evening after arriving going to a drugstore, three closed clinics, an optometrist (“We don’t do complicated”), and finally the hospital ER. Humble pied by not looking into travel and health insurance before I left, I got a whopping big surprise $ wise, but I did get treated and got an IV antibiotic to start me getting rid of this infection, and a prescription for oral antibiotics.

I will save you the grisly pics of my face right now, but there is a resemblance to Lon Cheny in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” The infection continued to spread today and even from a pic I took at 3 until I finally saw a doc at 8, it had grown considerably. They wanted to do a CT scan but I said, no, let’s just do the antibiotics for now (or it would have been half again as much). I promised to have it checked out when I get back to the US if things don’t return to normal. I’m pretty confident it will be OK.

I’m fine, just temporarily disfigured. I can actually see fine and got a lot of reading of “The Overstory” done while I was in the waiting room. Maybe more on the ER experience later, or maybe that will have to be over a beer when I get back.

Unless something drastically changes, 40-60 miles tomorrow on our way to St. Simeon to catch the ferry back across the St. Lawrence on Thursday.

No pics today, but it was as beautiful as ever. Crossed 1,500 miles today!

Short note today and no pics since I can’t get to WiFi on my phone. Will update tomorrow.

Albanel to Parc National de Pointe Taillon

48 miles, 558 ft of climbing. Started off with a clear sky and sun, but chilly at 51 degrees. Easy ride today included a short, pontoon boat ferry ride to the national park. We’re camping tonight and it promises to be a chilly one.

Métabetchouan–Albanel, 60.6 miles, 1723 ft of climbing.

Early morning again trying to beat rain. (Foreshadowing: It didn’t work! Oh, I guess foreshadowing is supposed to be more subtle than that.) Up at 5:30, snoozed once but the crows wouldn’t have it, so I started breaking camp and then went in to use the bathroom. Patrick made coffee for us and we made some toast from his homemade bread, finished packing and hit the road about 6:45.

The only way to describe it was that it was a beautiful morning. A bit on the cool side so we both had on jackets, and I even used my fancy-dancy gloves (see pics). That lasted for 45 or so miles, as did the nice, mostly flat Veloroute des Bleuets (Blueberry Bicycle Route). We did hit 3 patches of rain where we scrambled to put our phones away and don our rain jackets, but all-in-all, it wasn’t that bad. We stopped at our favorite food source, an IGA, had lunch and stocked up for dinner and breakfast, and waited for the next break in the weather. The last five miles to our next warm showers host, Stephanie, was all sunny again.

Saguenay to Métabetchouan, 52.2 miles, 2265 ft. of climbing.

We slept in today. It was glorious. Well rested and ready to go at 9 am. We rode out of Saquenay on a bike path that provided a wonderful look back at the city and the river. We are on La Route Verte 8 now and have been since Wednesday.

It was a dry but gray day, much cooler than the past three weeks. The wind is coming out of the northwest now and it brought along the drop in temps. Unrelated to the temps, my thighs were telling me in no uncertain terms that they were tired from yesterday, and every time we stopped and started up again they screamed at me. I shut my ears and carried on!

The camp site was beautiful. The bugs were not. Black flies that landed and bit causing very visible (and itchy) red marks in seconds. Small, but nasty. We missed the mosquitoes at night because we were in our tents by dusk. That wasn’t the case at 4:30 this morning when we got up. I ate in the tent again, and resisted opening the “hatch” because of those darn flies. But this morning it was the ‘skeeters. I went out with my first round of packed stuff and by the time I got back to the tent, there were at least six flying around. I have magic potion stickers that Sally S. gave to us last year, but they were packed away on the bike and by the time I found them, I would’ve had twenty more bites. Best defense is to get on the bike and hightail it faster than a mosquito can fly (about 1-1.5 mph. That doesn’t work for the ones you run into!)

8:50 pm. Just some pics for the moment. Wifi connection not very good. On our campground on the Saguenay fjord is beautiful. Heading for the town of Saguenay tomorrow. More when we get there Friday afternoon.

Update July 28, 1:05 pm: We slept in until 7 today since we didn’t have to leave for the ferry until 9. We had ridden to the ferry office yesterday afternoon to make reservations, so we just had to show up. It rained overnight — the best rain to have, and was still cloudy and a passing shower at 7:15 made sure everything the wind had dried was damp again for packing.