Tomorrow our 20 pound chunk of grumpy feline love Frank is going to be down. His kidneys have failed. It is very sad. No more frank bombs for me (he would sometimes climb on my chest in the night for attention). 🙁
Yesterday I spent 12 hours on a train to Sainte Foy to start the ride. It was an hour bike ride on trails to a cheap but nice motel in Levis from the station.
The basic idea of the ride is https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MvUNoRSGCtdzoMqdqWOX9KH8-QD_MWQv&usp=sharing. It is subject to reality.
Today was a ride that should not have happened. Originally I was to get off the train at Riviere Du Loup, but it turns out I could NOT get my bike off at that stop. Seriously. So I had to get off 200 km sooner and start in Quebec City.
The ride was almost all on the shoulder of a not super busy highway (132). It was not bad as far as shoulders go. Clean, wide enough and mostly smooth.
As part of Quebec’s route verte cycling infrastructure it had several diversions off the highway, usually 5 to 10 km long. While it was nice to do some side roads, mostly I can’t figure out the point of them. They were no more scenic than the highway, nor did they have much in the way of services. Kind of odd. And often hilly.
There were parts of the ride that were really nice. The st Lawrence was usually visible and when close it was beautiful (Pic 1). It rained intermittently which was actually really nice. A few of towns were very old québécois, big churches, stone houses, etc. I got excellent poutine (pic 2) and kit Kat ice cream.
Tonight I have a cyclists specific campsite… about 30 feet from the damn highway I spent all day on. The trails start tomorrow.
Today’s distance was 160 km. I’m beat!