Wednesday, August 26, 2009

St-Damase to Atholville Day 60

The mist on the lake when we got up in St. Damase.

A family of ducks shared our site. They were very brave, even goingup to the doors of the tents.

Such a beautiful site, fly fishing.

The water seems too shallow for boats. Apparently the boats they use are crafted in New Brunswick specifically for this area. Not sure if this is the type but we saw a few of this design all along the Matapedia River.

We just could not take our eyes off the scenery.

We saw a business that advertised Matapedia River adventures. This is likely one of them.

When we crossed the Restigouche Brunswick River this is the only sign we saw for New Brunswick so we thought we should capture it.

And then we saw this. Quite a bit nicer entrance than we had going into Quebec. Coming into NB also meant a time change, we lost an hour and it will be darker in the morning but light later in the evening.

We woke up to an extremely heavy dew this morning. So heavy that I refused to pack my fly with the rest of my tent gear knowing that everything would be wet when I opened it up at our next camp. There was steam coming off the lake and for the first 10 km or so we had to deal with a lot of land fog. If the ride into camp wasn't hilly enough the night before, we had more of the same going out of camp, for about 15km. That is tough on cold muscles. Not to mention the road surface was far less than perfect.

Our cue sheet had us mostly on Route 132 with a lot of little side trips through small towns. Basd on yesterday's ride and the poor conditions of the roads we decided to opt for the busier road but better surface. We were not disappointed at all as we had plenty of nice scenery and a great stop at McDonald's for coffee. Unfortunately there was a bus load of tourists as well so it took a bit of time to get what we wanted. I took a few minutes to connect with my sister and I am looking forward to seeing her on rest day. She promised us corn, steak and burgers. Knowing her we will be spoiled.

The most spectacular scenery today was on a 40 km stretch of Route 132 from St. Florence to the New Brunswick border. The weather was beautiful with sunny skies and about 25 C with a breeze. It actually felt a bit like fall weather but I found it excellent for riding. One of those days that could have gone n forever. I had to cook tonight so there a was a bit of time pressure. The Matapedia River is known for fly fishing and we did find a few fellows out there. The sun glistening on the shallow water made it look like the water was dancing over the rocks. We would like to have watched until they caught a salmon.

We crossed the border into New Brunswick this afternoon about 4:00 pm as we went from Route 132 across the Restigouche River and then onto Route 11 into the Campbelton area. Terri welcomed NB with a super butter pecan ice cream cone. A great reward for a good days ride. It feels great to be in the province where I was born and raised. Over the next few days I will be travelling through parts I have never seen before.

We are camped at Sugarloaf Mountain Parc and as I write this at 10:30 pm it has just started to rain. We have been blessed with several days of dry weather. I hope the shower is only just that. We road 145km today and have two more cycling days in this leg of the tour. We are all counting down now to the last 11 days before the end of the tour. People are starting to ask about plans when they return home. While riding today, it seemed unreal that we have come this far and that we will actually be able to say "I rode my bike across Canada"! WOW!!

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