Days 9 & 10-Rest and Percé

Day 9 of the Canada bike trip, we rested in Gaspé. Day 10 we rode flat, rolling, and steep hills to Percé.

We started our day of rest, 12 juin, in Gaspé at Café des Artistes with a lovely breakfast. After, I went and took care of some shopping: a cycling cap, electrical tape, food for dinner. I took pictures along the way.

Le Baie Gaspé is quite scenic, though the town felt … touristy. Strip malls. A McDonald’s.

Though we stayed longer in Gaspé, I realized there was no real need to do so. Shoulders on the road were often crappy or nonexistent. Drivers were faster and more aggressive than we’d thus seen in the Gaspésie. Hotel prices were high, though the extra deep bath tub made it partially worth it.

When it was time to leave I wasn’t regretful. It was nice to give my muscles and mind a break, but that could have been accomplished anywhere.

So on Day 10, juin 13, we made for Percé. Finally the weather was lovely. Low 60s, sunny. After days of cold, wind, and sometimes rain it was oh, so welcome.

There were still plenty of “les arrêtons” but they were accompanied by the flats along the coast

We had beautiful views along the coast. We could see Percé Rock from the road.

The Route Verte took us on a cyclist detour that ended up being gravelly and broken. It looked like a storm had partially destroyed the bike path. But not so much we couldn’t get through!

“Le fin de colline de la doom”, what I’ve started calling the final, challenging hill(s) that accompany the end of a day’s ride, were quite steep today. We cruised down a 17% incline. Think roller coaster steep. I ended up cruising down that hill at nearly 34 mph.

And, of course if we cruised down something that steep, you know we crawled up it first.

But finally we arrived in Percé. A cute town in the making. Many things are under construction, but they are trying to make a pedestrian paradise. Had we known we would have planned our downtime here instead.

So we camped at the Géoparc Percé instead. We were greeted by the local welcome wagon: a cutey groundhog (I think).

We set camp, went to take pictures, and then grabbed dinner and beverages.

Later, when returning to camp after using the facilities, I saw movement by a bush. I thought it was moths, but when I turned on my light I discovered beetles instead. Junebugs molting and flying about. Cool stuff.

 

 

And then sleeping bag sleepy time happened.