The mightly St. Lawrence.
Who could pass this up for a morning tea?? Beautiful view of the St. Lawrence from the back.
Our front row seats for the beautiful sunset on the St. Lawrence.
And here it is!!!The day started out very cool and there was not a spot of dew on the tents or flies. It was great to pack up in these conditions. It didn't warm up very much today with only a high of about 15C recording on my thermometer. Had to stop and put on layers today and kept them on most of the day. The sun shone but did not provide enough warmth. The worst however was the headwind we dealt with all day. Someone thought it was about 25 km/hr. It required a lot of leg work and determination not to let it get to you. It helped that it was only 117 km today. The last time we had this wind that kept our average speed down to 17.5 was through the Qu'Appelle Valley. The difference today was that the temperature was lower.
Most of our riding was on Route 132 which is a nice secondary highway with good shoulders and not too busy. Our cue sheet took us off the route a couple of times, we suspect for scenery reasons. The road bed was in such horrible shape you could not take in the scenery the way you would have liked because one had to keep a close eye on ruts, holes and bumps. Those on regular upright bikes find it is harder on the behind. They also feel every bump in their arms and shoulders. For me, the recumbent is such a long wheel base, there is a couple of seconds between the front tire going over something and them the rear tire. Yesterday Terri commented that it looked like I was riding a horse. I literally came off my seat on two occasions because of the bumps. Believe me even with watching closely, they can catch you off guard.
The scenery today was along the ever expanding St. Lawrence for much of the morning. We stopped at a nice "Auberge"(hotel/B&B) at about 24 km. We couldn't resist the spot, the building was so pretty and it overlooked the water. A woman stopped us inside and asked about our riding and she said the area is always windy as it is situated in a long valley (just like the Qu'Appelle Valley). She was there to teach painting. She likes touring by bicycle as well but has long since lost the notion to bring her bike to the Kamouraska area because of the wind. After a nice hot tea and toast we were off again to fight the wind.
Our lunch stop was a Tim's in Riviere-du-Loup. At that point when the cue sheet took us off 132 for a few km, we opted to avoid those side trips in favour of a better surface. We did witness lots of farm country and quaint areas and decided other side trips would only repeat what we saw. The mileage was the same either way. Our bikes are really getting jolted around. I have lost, but since replaced, a small screw from my shifter. Others have found racks loose and it is hard to say how many flats these rough roads have caused.
After being beaten up by the wind and the terrible road conditions we decided that even though a very good bakery was only 13km from camp we decided we deserved the stop. Unfortunately the cue sheet was off and the bakery was not where it said it was. Instead of it being on one side of the bridge it was on the other and also on the other side of a very busy highway. Those few who went said it was great but we opted to push on to camp.
We are camped by the beautiful St. Lawrence seaway. Terri and I had front row seats for the sunset. It was not quite as spectacular as last night but still wonderful. It has cooled off significantly. When we arrived at camp the sun was warm and the wind had died right down. One of the fellows from the states (California) swam ten strokes. He said he had a goal to swim in the Atlantic. He predicted that by the time he got to NFLD it would be too cold, so he took the opportunity today.
Our route tomorrow will take us along Route 132 again but we are expecting less of a wind and in our favour. We are looking forward to that.
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