Author: bikeral2000

A really nice ride today.  I left early to beat the heat and headwinds.  Right out of town we had a long, steep hill but I did it no sweat.  Went down the other side and right back up another long, steep hill.  I felt pretty good and the next 15 miles were fairly easy although the following two signs were a little intimidating.

I never could find a sign on the other side to see how steep it was that we climbed.

After 20 miles of nice riding, a head wind came up that really taxed my knees.  About 35 miles out, my knee started sending out some really excruciating pains.  This is the knee that has a total knee replacement.  It just about brought tears to my eyes.  I geared way down but every so often, a pain would shoot through that scared me.  I’ve never had that happen before.

So I  rode almost 65km (or 38 miles)  and called the sag wagon.  I kept on riding and the last big hill I did with one leg pushing down and pulling up.  My bad knee just went along for the ride.  Boy was that tough.  Wasn’t sure I could do it but I did.  I wasn’t sitting by the side of the road waiting to be picked up so kept persevering.

Only had 27 km left to go so I was really bummed.  Passed this little guy on the way into town.

Once in town, I went to the pharmacy and got an ace bandage.  Will try that tomorrow.  It better work cause I’m not quitting.

41.1 miles today.  2832.2 total

It was a beautiful clear blue sky today and we had to have another rest day.  Now the forecast is for rain the next five days.  Can’t win them all.

I read one whole book and half of another today.  Tomorrow’s ride starts with a very long and somewhat steep hill right from the motel.  No warm-up at all.  So I laid low all day.

Most riders on this trip are not what I’d call early birds and I am.  So it is a little frustrating for me to always have to wait til later to eat breakfast or get in the gear van.  However, I seemed to convince a few tomorrow to at least let me start early so I can beat the heat with the hills.  I plan to be on the road at 6:30.  Waiting til eight or later just drives me nuts.  But, it is a fun group and we laugh a lot and have a good time.

A very uneventful day.  Highlight was breakfast at a bakery.  Mid morning several of us walked down to a point on the St. Lawrence River to watch the whales.  After two hours, we didn’t see anything so walked back, stopping at the grocery store on the way for lunch goodies.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a very good book which I finished tonite.  And that was the excitement of the day.

We have another rest day tomorrow which will probably be a repeat of today.  Even though this is a tourist town, there really isn’t a lot to do here  except take a river cruise (too expensive) and eat.  Will just rest up for the next eight days of riding.

A very interesting day.  Locals said the road was dangerous with lots of trucks, shoulders that came and went, extreme hills of 19%.  None of that happened.  I hate it when locals blow things out of proportion.  Only four riders, Bill, Karen, Michael and Dave dicided to ride the whole thing.  Katherine and I decided to ride part of it, but, unfortunately, we rode the hardest part.  I was so bummed.  We stopped right before a huge hill but after that, the road was a gentle downhill.  So, unfortunately, we missed the best part.  We did get out of the sag wagon towards the end but by them, there was a headwind instead of the beautiful tail wind in the part we missed.  Oh, well, can’t win them all.

The scenery was awesome.  The one and only road went through forests of heavily forested evergreens with lakes and rock outcropppings. So beautiful.

One of the signs we saw along the way and it was a big downhill.  I dislike long steep downhills almost more than the long uphills, although I do complain about both.

Bill and Karen on the ride.

Janice on the left who totally cracks me up.  Her Australian accent is so funny and I can hardly understand her half the time.  But we laugh and laugh.

We had a very nice dinner cooked by fellow bikers and it was so good.  Hamb, pork chops, salads, and drinks.  We snarfed like a bunch of hungry bikers.

I rode with Katherine today.  We had a good time.

44.5 miles today.   2791.1 total

I missed a really good riding day according to the gang.  I was the co-pilot today and once we got to ‘camp’, our hotel was in the middle of a big town and I didn’t want to fight the traffic.  So the driver and I went to a laundromat and did our laundry and then came back and laid around.  Maggie went swimming and soaked in the hot tub while I soaked up a few rays.

Before we left camp, Dave came back to retrieve laundry one of the ridets left behind.   Then this afternoon when all but three riders got in, they called to say they were lost and Dave hopped on his bike to go find them.  Such a cool guy.

Maggie and I also went on an information retrieving expedition this afternoon and I say that because the dumb GPS had no clue where we wanted to go.  At one point, according to the GPS, we weren’t even on a road.  We found the center in spite of that stupid device.

So tomorrow is supposed to be a very expert type road riding with 19% grade hills ( I can’t even imagine) with come and go shoulders, lots of curves and heavy traffic.  2/3 of us are going to be ferried by van past the hairy parts and some will go all the way to the next camp. I plan to ride once past the huge hills.  Not even sure I could ride 19% but I don’t want to stress my bad knee so will be woosy.  Please don’t think poorly of me.  I still have three months of riding to do and don’t want to jeopardize that by wrecking my knee.

This is the group before take off this morning.

Last nite we stayed in a hostel that was built back in 1929 as a bakery.  The pipes you see were installed when the building was remodeled into a hostel.  Apparently the hot water heater was upstairs and all these pipes had to be installed to get hot water downstairs.  They were all over the ceiling and actually looked pretty cool.  Also, the big oven has been enclosed in a wall.  That’s a bummer.  It probably would have been a great conversation piece.  It was supposedly unsafe to use.

The bathrooms and showers had a wood sliding door on tracks and last nite, the door to my stall was acting funny.  I couldn’t get it to latch and when I was ready to come out, the door would not budge.  It was off the track at the top and outside the track at the bottom.  I yelled for Bill and Michael across the hall to,come rescue me.  Embarrassing.

A great day’s ride, first through a national park and then on a bike path the rest of the way.  Pictures will tell the story better.

One of the bridges we had to cross today.

Waiting for the ferry.

Janice fell into this chair at the hostel and had a heck of a time getting out.

Sign at the back door of the hostel.  Now who are they talking to?   None of us fit that description.  However, when I first started teaching in Driggs in the 80’s, I was accused of being a hippie.  Why I’ll never know.  I was never a hippie even though I could never convince anyone.

Two of our riders cooked dinner today at the hostel and it was great.  Tomorrow I get to be the co-pilot so I won’t ride.

47.3 miles today .  2746.6 total

A little bit about this part of my ride.  Janice organized this ride and asked me if I’d like to join.  Since I was headed to Ottawa about the time this ride started, I decided to add it to my cross country ride.  This ride started in Alma, Quebec and we are riding the Blueberry route around lac St. Jean and then heading easterly to ride part of all the maritime provinces.

Janice knows everyone and all of us know one or more of the riders.  I rode the 2008 Orient express ride with Bill, Janice, and Karen.  Some rode am African route together and others rode from Russia to Italy.  So we are all connected by one ride or another.  Janice is the only one who knows all of us.

There will be a couple others join us at a later date and some will leave early, but some of us will do the entire route ( me included).  So far we have three Americans, four Aussies, four Canadians and one German.  We are very congenial and get along great so far.

Rooming accommodations change every day and we just laugh and go with the flow.

This trip will end in St John”s New Foundland on Aug 24th when I will fly back to Ohio for two weeks before embarking on Adventure Cycling’s route 66 ride from Chicago to Santa Monica which ends on Oct 29th.

Today’s ride was another beautiful ride on bike paths, the first of which meandered through a wooded area.  Lots of twists and turns and little rolling hills.  I loved it.  The last 10 miles ran right along the highway but was either on a wide shoulder or bike path.  Rain threatened but we only got sprinkles.

Photo of Michael, our beloved mechanic, from yesterday.

A front yard we passed today on our ride.  Nice blueberry theme.

Bill, playing an organ across the street from our hostel.  The hostel owner had the keys to the church and let us in to see it and so Bill could play the organ.  Fun time.

34 miles today.   2699.3 total

A great day of riding around the West end of lac St. Jean.  I rode with Bill and Michael.  We were the first ones out, is that surprising?  Those of us who are early birds just can’t hang around til mid morning.  Michael left us before the end so he could get to the hotel and watch the World Cup .

Outside the hotel were two lions guarding the door.  Someone had put blood inside one of the jaws so Bill tho’t it would be funny to have his picture taken beside it.  Silly guy.

Bill and I had planned to add extra miles and do a bike path off through the woods but we never found the beginning or the end.  So we rode into town and scoped out restaurants for this evening.  By the time we got to the hotel, it was getting hot so I was glad we hadn’t done the extra miles.

On this trip, we have a rented van that carries all our gear, two bikes for the driver and co-pilot, and acts as an emergency vehicle if needed.  Today Janice’s chain broke and she needed to be hauled in so it is good we have it.

Another two riders joined us late last nite, Wallu and Katherine.  They drove so we have another car with us.

Tonite the 12 of us minus Dave were ferried to town to a restaurant where, of course, they only speak French and the menu is in French.  Fortunately, there was a fellow there who could help interpret and we talked to him while he relayed our order to the waitress.

We weren’t really sure if we were going to get what we tho’t we had ordered but it was 100 % correct.  And really good.  I was impressed.

When we got back to the hotel, Michael from Germany who is a bike mechanic, helped three of us with our bike issues.  My bike fell over today and bent the gear shifter-brake lever, Janice needed her chain fixed and Maggie wanted her handle bars adjusted.

36.4 miles today.   2665.3 total

Met up with all the riders late last nite.  Their train didn’t even make it all the way to the destination.  They were let off at a town 30 miles from us and bussed to where they would have been let off. Our van had to go pick them up.  My train ride wasn’t so bad compared to theirs.

We woke up this morning to thunder and pouring down rain.  General consensus was to wait til 9 o’clock when the weather was supposed to clear and then start our ride.  Almost right on the appointed hour, the rain quit so we took off.  Unreal.  Only misted on us and an hour later we had to shed all our rain gear.

Some of the group likes to stop for morning tea, lunch, ice cream and any other excuse they come up with.  I, personally, like to ride straight through and eat when I get to my destination.  Just before lunch, Dave and I decided to go on and we actually got in 1 1/2 hours before the rest of them.  And some of them got caught in the afternoon thunderstorm.  So to each his own.  Whatever works for each of us is what we have to do.

This is after mid morn tea break.  Maureen, Janice, Dave, Karen, Des, Michael, and Kendy.  The van driver for the day was Maggie and co-pilot, Bill. 

Today’s ride was on highways with good shoulders and great bike paths on what is called the Blueberry route around lac St. Jean.  A nice ride, some wind but very pleasant over all.

57.6 miles today.   2629.9 total

Woke up early to heavy dew.  Had to make a bathroom run but came back and rested til the sun came up at 7:30.  Once that sun is up, you have to get out of the tent or fry.

Had to dry out everything so took an extra hour to pack up.  No biggy.  Not in a hurry to go anywhere.  This was a laid back day, doing more errands while waiting for the train to come in with the rest of the riders.

I stopped at a bike shop and got a new chain.  After 2500 miles, it was starting to stretch.  Then I went to the library to make some copies. I was really nervous about leaving my bike outside, locked up but out of sight.  So I asked the one young lady who spoke English if I could leave it in the foyer and she didn’t even hesitate and said yes.  I was so relieved.  I know bike locks aren’t fool proof, especially if they are unattended for very long.

Then I rode to our designated hotel for tonite and they let me check in early.  A couple hours later, two more riders showed up.  They had flown in and took a taxi to the hotel.  After putting their bikes together, we decided to ride to the train station to meet the others.  Bill had ridden from New Jersey to here and was at the station waiting for the others.  We found out that the train was going to be two hours late so we all rode back to the hotel.  No sense hanging around.  Once back, two more had shown up so we all decided to go to dinner.  It is 8:30 and the train people still aren’t here. I’m beginning to think all Canada trains are always late.

It is clouding up tonite and tomorrow has a 90% chance of thunderstorms.  Our first day of riding and I have to deal with that?  At least I won’t be alone.

32.7 miles today.   2571.3 total