total km: 6276.0
We can already tell that we are nearing the Atlantic. It feels like winter. We were so cold all day that we needed to wear our fleeces, even though a lot of the km covered were uphill. We didn’t even take that many breaks today, because whenever we stopped we chilled instantly. On the positive side, we made it to Rimouski in pretty good time, despite our loss of the beautiful tail wind that we had for the previous two days. Today’s wind still came mostly from behind, but every so often a fierce cross wind would attack us, causing us to wobble and veer and fight to ride in a straight line.
Most of today was spent viewing farmlands, as highway 132 led us through a beautiful valley that wound amongst rolling hills checkered with golden wheat and green pototoe crops. Every so often we’d catch a glimpse of the St. Lawrence, now so wide that its opposite shore is a misty shadow. It only seems to grow more and more beautiful as it races to meet the salty waters of the Atlantic.
Shivering uncontrollably as we descended into Rimouski, all we could think of was finding a place to stay fast. The first campground, though enticing and well equipped, required a 10km detour to the nearest grocery store. Like any cycle tourist knows, you never backtrack. Our next plan was to visit the tourist info center to locate the next nearest campground. This plan too fell through, when we arrived to find the neon “ferme” glowing in the window. Plan c was to stay at the local college residence, but a quick phone call determined that there were no rooms available. At this point we were plum out of plans, and the sun had almost set. We decided to start riding east and hope for the best. A few very chilly (but pretty) km later,
and we discovered that behind a closed “Dejardins” credit union was a perfect sheltered spot camp. Finally we are getting our moneys worth for all of their $2 transaction fees.
B&K
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