Today started easy and ended hard.
After leaving the Parc et Mer campsite, we rode 8 miles almost without thinking. We rode right along the coast, mostly flat with some rolling hills.
My front derailleur was being wiggy. I made a mental note to fix it before the next big hill.
In the back of my mind I knew we were going to have to pay for all of that consecutive flat mileage at some point.
We stopped for lunch at La Capitainerie in Rivière-la-Madeleine next to a marina. There were no boats, nor any other customers until the end of our meal. La soupe de poissons et fruits de mer was trés délicieux!
After lunch we kept riding and faced a great hill. A seemingly never-ending hill that kept going. And going. And going for a 400 ft ascent. After finishing Jon and I paused for a break and congratulated ourselves on getting through our most challenging hill yet.
We should have held that thought.
Later we ascended a hill (mountain?) that rose nearly 1,000 feet.
I probably don’t have to mention that these were arrêtons. It took me 30 minutes to get up the majority of that first 400 ft ascent. I didn’t time the rest. I had to “look for moose” every 10-25 meters during the steep parts. If I could make it 50 meters I was doing really well. I was slightly validated when Jon had an arrêtons too!
But the funny thing about going up is you eventually have to go down. Closer to our campsite that’s exactly what we did. We cruised down 9 to 14% grades. Jon got up to 40 mph. I was a chicken and only got up to 30 mph.
Thirty miles per hour! I don’t think of bikes going so fast!
Finally, after many more hills, we rolled into Grande-Vallée. We stopped at the market and got a nice piece of trout, blackberries, broccoli, and chocolate-y desserts for dinner.
More hills followed for the 1.5 mile trip to the campsite.
But we made it! Thirty-three ish miles. At least 1,700 feet of ascent.
I cooked the fish, and it turned out just right. Jon cooked the broccoli. We munched on fruit and other leftovers. We polished off a bottle of wine.
Now to bed. We’ve got a lot of elevation to cover tomorrow, but not so many miles.