We left Matane at 9:30. It was inthe low 40s and soon after returning to the main road a headwind greeted us.
That headwind was the theme for the first 2/3 of the trip.
Our goal was to ride 48 miles to Cap-Chat. We averaged 6.5 miles per hour in those early miles.
It felt like we were going nowhere fast.
But the hills felt better. More rolling hills, but not so steep as the previous day, though there were still les arrêtons.
Approximately 15 miles in we stopped at a café/crêperie right on the St. Lawrence River.
We met a man traveling by kayak. I received a call saying my bag is waiting for me in Portland. We enjoyed warm drinks and crêpes before moving on. Grey clouds loomed, threatening a wet afternoon.
We kept rolling and stayed ahead of those clouds for awhile, but they caught up with us not too much later. It rained pretty hard and steadily for 30 minutes or so. It felt much longer. There was nowhere to go so we rode through it.
Soon after the rain let up we happened upon a restaurant and decided to warm up there. We ordered hot drinks and pizza. It was a damn good pizza! Pepperoni covered the entire crust. The proprietor brought butter out with the pizza. We didn’t quite know what to do with it, so we put it on our crusts. Délicièux!
The proprietor said I was brave for doing the trip. I responded, “Or stupid. That’s how I felt riding uphill in the rain!”
She insisted it was a brave voyage. I thanked her.
We started rolling again, but we still had nearly 30 miles to reach our goal. We talked during dinner about stopping a town early and recouping the ten miles during the remainder of the trip. We decided to play it by ear when we got there.
Stopping early won. We found a bed and breakfast along the way, 10 miles from our original planned destination. We’re the only occupants.
It’s supposed to rain all night, so staying at the B&B saves us from breaking a wet camp tomorrow. The plan is to wake up early and try to make up those “lost” miles.
The sun rises at 4:30, so waking up early is pretty easy to do.
Tomorrow the wind is supposed to be at our back. Fingers crossed!