Today’s short description is: sunny and hilly.
We got a later start today: noonish. I slept in until 9:00 or 9:30 because I slept in a bed last night. Our WarmShowers host was incredibly kind and made us breakfast before we left. He’s done a few bike tours before: the West Coast of the US, northern Florida, different places in Canada.
He let us use his pump to refill tires and bid us “Bonne voyage!”
Turns out the road out of Amqui is just as (upward) hilly as the road in. The first 15-ish miles between Amqui and Matane were filled with “stoppers”: the name I’ve given those hills that I know I’ll have to take breaks on. I told Jon what I’m really doing is looking for moose every 50 m up those hills. Haven’t seen any yet.
I’ve come to peace with those breaks. They are necessary. If I didn’t do them I’d drop the bike or start rolling backward. I still make it up the hill, just slowly. It gives me time to appreciate where I am. Though I still couldn’t tell you why I’m doing this. Particularly when I’m halfway up a “stopper.”
The hills became less extreme the latter 2/3 of the trip. Some rolling hills with a lot of flat in between.
I’ve preemptively decided I like riding the flats while admiring the hills from afar.
There are a lot more hills in my life in the near future.
The Matane River joined us for this latter portion of the journey. At one point we stopped at a rest area for a snack and this was our view.
Eventually the turnoff for our campsite came. We were faced with a hill that was very nearly 45 degrees. It looked terrible. We had just rode 37 miles with ~1400 ft of elevation change. It definitely was a “stopper.” The only problem was I didn’t think I could get back on it to keep going.
Jon figured out there was another entrance three miles up the road. I figured the detour was worth. It would probably take me just as long, and more stress, to get up that overly steep hill.
Seriously! How do the people who live here get up a hill like that in winter?!
Anyway, we were still faced with a hill. A “stopper” even. But doable. We rolled into the campground that so graciously let us camp here even though they don’t open until 06/08.
We set camp, I got a little fire going, we had some dinner. That’s pretty much it.
Tomorrow we’re off to Bord de la Mer. Forty-eight miles with 2,000+ feet of elevation day.
It’s going to be a hilly day. I just hope the sun joins us.