total km: 6648.6
Leaving our windy campground.
The view from our campground.
Only the newest of flags have not been frayed by the wind.Today was hard, absolutely exhausting. Next to the days spent tackling Blueberry Paulson and Allison Pass in BC this was our hardest day on the whole trip. The hills were long, numerous and, most troubling, steep. We have no idea what the Quebecois road planners were thinking when they were planning how best to get over the many mountains found during this segment of the Peninsula, but it was not ease of ascent. All of the hills just went straight up and were between 10 and 15% grade! Katie couldn’t even bike up some of them, but was forced to push her bike up. When it came time to descend the hills it was absolute madness. We both broke our previous speed records. Katie was going 70 km/h and Brandon got up to 77 km/h!!! Seeing as how the speed limit was maximum 70 km/h, Brandon was actually speeding.
See those jagged teeth like mountains in the background? We went over straight over those.
We were shocked by this...
........until we found this (note the changing leaves - a sign that we better get to Newfoundland fast).
Katie making her way up an 11% grade hill.
The other side of that hill was this long 10% descent where we set our speed records. The first few hours of biking offered spectacular seaside and mountaintop views that made the pain worth it. For the remainder of the day the inland highway gave very little in the way of distraction from the pain. To boot the heat from the previous night carried over into today. We wouldn’t minded having one of the cool days that we’ve getting used to. There were some wintering moments though. Every so often we would ride through an extremely localized microclimate, and we would hit and ride through a wall of cool air with a width of 20m or so. So odd, so refreshing.
We took lunch in Grande Valee,
our hoped for stop for the day before, and dined on the usual PB^2 sandwhichs dipped in the last of that amazing maple syrup, choosing to save our left over pasta for a later snack. This was an unwise manouvre. We should have switched our order, for our second lunch had a slightly tangy, vinegary flavour created by the unusual heat of the day that powered the fermentation of our tomato sauce. Clearly not enough tang to keep us from indulging though. Just for the record there was no ensuing food poisoning. 
Pretty Riviere au Renaud. A couple days withought showering combined with our full day of climbing lent us our own distinct bouquets, as they say in wine country. Not particularly foul bouquets, but just ones that had something to say, and that warranted a splurge in RV land. The campground actually turned out to be a happening place. The army of RV pilots were gathered in the common room enjoying, what we were told, was essentially their annual hoe-down. When we first passed by to do our laundry we witnessed a boisterous scene of wine, fondue and guitar sing-alongs. When we passed by a second time at 11:20pm though, we witnessed a chaotic mess, where the guitar was almost completely drowned out by the yee-haws, stomping and clapping. Thankfully, our campsite was safely positioned under some trees on the opposite side of the campground where an adjacent babbling river lulled us to sleep.
B&K
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