8/8/09: Segements 79 and then of segment: Rt 134 south on the coast of New Brunswick to Bathurst, and then Rt 11 south along the Acadian Peninsula
http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment79.html Belledune, New Brunswick to Caraquet, New Brunswick: 74 miles.
Check out Barney’s blog on http://www.nwpassage2.blogspot.com/
Tired puppy this morning that’s for sure. And again, this is about the only real thing that I’m dragging at……is getting out of the tent. It’s not like I don’t feel like riding. I still love riding every day, but it’s just so much harder now to get up in the morning, put on my disgusting cycling kit, and then get it going. My first hour on the road is usually a lot of work, with heavy breathing, totally wasted legs and a cloudy head. And I was thinking about this this morning once I got going on the bike, that there’s not been a single day on this trip where I woke up and thought: “damn, I just do NOT want to ride, I’m sick of this!” Hasn’t happened at all. Now I have woke up and thought to myself: “damn, too early, I need to just sleep for 3 more hours before I get back on the bike.” That’s happened a lot lately. And we’ve woke up to rain, and said: “Great day for an off-dat!” But never: “I just do not want to do this.”
And such was the case this morning with my trouble getting up, where Barney had to call me out. And I’ve told him and Ryan both, that if they’re up, and it’s past 7am, call me out. Well, Barney called me out at 7:15 this morning. And I was like dead to the world. So I raced through my little procedure. And this is what it’s like every morning from Hotel Hillie……Get the front panniers loaded with gear, and then change out of sleep cloths into disgusting, stinking cycling gear, pack sleeping bag, pack thermarest, wipe down condensation that’s formed under virtually everything in the tent, put on shoes, put front panniers on bike, put handlebar bag on gike, pull all the gear out of the tent, wipe off floor of grass, sand and dirt, wipe dew off of the inside of tent fly and vestibules, tear down tent, pack all the tent, bag, therma, and gear – including hiking shoes - into yak dry bag, fit dry bag onto yak, arrange computer and camera cases onto of dry bag, strap down the camera and computer cases with 3 bungee cords, pull mesh over everything and load extra tires back on, put ground cloth under mesh, put backpacking cover over yak, hook up yak………Done! That usually takes me an hour to do. That’s getting ready for a day in the office!
So Barney had the coffee jones this morning like I had yesterday morning, so he took off before I was done packing to find a restaurant. I probably got going 15 min later. And this was a lonely stretch of highway, with very little traffic this morn, and nothing in the way of a restaurant to stop at. It went on this way for a good 30 min. Then I passed a slew of small camping areas on the ocean, further down in Belledune and in Point-Verte. But there were just no amenities out there. So I kept riding. And then I started to pass a few grocery stores, and looked hard to see if Barney may have stopped there. Nope, so I just kept it going. And we had this very nice tailwind today, so I was soft pedaling at about 16 mph, which took the sting off of what is otherwise a hard first hour of riding for me. Then I rolled into the town of Petit-Rocher, where there was a lot more in the way of amenities. But the big restaurant was closed, so I kepy it rolling. Then, up ahead I see Barney with his tell-tale yellow panniers. He crossed the road off to the ocean side on my left.
He signals me, and then tells me that a trucker had just told him about a restaurant in the back, down by the ocean. So we ride down there and sure enough there’s the Blue Anchor Restaurant. Now we may be in New Brunswick, but there’s still a WHOLE lot of French being spoken here, especially with respect to our proximity to the Acadian Peninsula. Now most all of these folks are bi-lingual, so it’s no hassle for me. Barney still uses French on occasion to order or ask for directions. But New Brunswick is a kind of transitional area with respect to the French language speaking up here. So we look for the usual Grand Slam on the menu. Not there. We’re used to having a whole smorgasbord of selection in our Grand Slams. But here, you got home fries with one thing, but not another. Plus, no pate and no tortea. So we make our own Grand Slam, kind of like yesterday, and we both order the 2-egg special with home fires and toast, and we also order the pancakes. Two big plates for two very hungry cyclists! Plus, Barney orders this Blood Pudding. And I’ve read about the stuff, and it does indeed have blood in it. Matter of fact, and I’ll try not to be too graphic here, it kind of resembles the morning constitutional after having eaten a whole bowel of beats the day before!! So Barney gets that on the side, and said I could have a taste. And I did, as much as the though of eating blood makes my nails curl. It was …….well………interesting. But I don’t think I’d be on that one like a shrimp crepe!
We had already gone 20 miles just to get to the breakfast spot, and when done with “Brekky” we were happy to already have some miles in the bank. With the tailwind we made it into Bathurst in 30 min. Then we kind of looked around for a right road to take us up along the Acadian Pen. We had decided at breakfast that we go that route rather than just cut it off and go due south on Rt 8. So this is off segment for the next day if you’re checking my route maps. Plus, there’s this big “World Acadian Conference” up here for two weeks, and it could make for some interesting sights and sounds. So we go through Bathurst, which is actually a nice little city, and head up along the Baie des Chaleurs. It’s kind of like riding through the forest for a while, with no coast in view. Again, it’s very much like riding the back roads back home.
And then we see this bridge off to our right, and it looks like a bike trail. So we stopped to investigate, and it was indeed a bike trial, or rather a snowmobile/ATC trail, and it went all the way to where we were headed today. I looked like good crushed lime, and it was off the road. So we thought we’d give it a go. Well, I think I wanted to ride on it more so than Barney, but he was good natured enough to humor me and give it a whirl. So we take pics of this and all and then get going…….and it’s not easy, and it’s slow, and the trail starts to get rocky, and then real rocky and then a total rocky mess. I did a complete about face, as my ass is getting giggled so bad that my alimentary canal was half way up my throat, and my yak felt like it was going to bounce right off the bike. I conceded right then and there and asked Barney if he’d like to get the FREAK off of that! He was cool with it, so then we tried to short cut through this ATC trail instead of just turning around and retracing our steps. Mess number two Pete got us in. This trail turned into a muddy cyclocross track that was going to make pushing our bikes through the sand several days ago look like child’s play. Total and complet mess.
But I couldn’t turn my bike and yak around – not enough room. So Barney had to pick the back yak wheel up several times to move me. Sometimes with a yak you feel very limited, especially with respect to parking and taking sharp turns. So we got me turned around, went back up the trail, go off the gravel, back on the asphalt, and ………..heaven. WHAT was I thinking? And just up the road, not more than 5 min from our trail fiasco, we hit the ocean, and it was just beautiful, a deep blue with the waves just churning from the strong wind. This is where today’s ride really got world class. From here on up to Caraquet, the riding on the coast was just phenomenal. The coastlind gradually turned from sand beaches to these cliffs that rose some 30-100 feet out of the water. And all along the way it was just this beautiful farming country, with little houses just pearched atop these cliffs along the ocean. And across the bay, off in the distance to the north was the mountains of the Gaspe Peninsula, where we’d ridden days and days before. It was quite a sight indeed.
About this time Barney stopped at a little service station for cola and candy, and I just kept it rolling still feeling the Belly Buster in my guy digesting. So I rode about an 1:15 hrs by myself, along this amazing stretch of highway along the ocean, with the tailwind just zipping me along at 16-20 mph soft pedaling. I made several stops for pics, and then after a bit stopped at a little grocery to get my cola and candy. Went in and they spoke French, so I just did my Bonsure and Merci and got a liter of Pesi and a candy bar. Perfect! I just leaned against the wall of the outside of the store, drank my cola, ate my chocolate, and waited for Barney. He rolled in about 10 min later. We decided to roll up to the city of Caraquet and bag it there for the day, having got about 70-75 in for the day at that spot. So we rode this mighty tailwind for another 15 K, soft pedaling at times at 22 mph.
During this ocean stretch the traffic had really picked up, and most everyone was coming in for the Acadian Conference, and were sporting the Acadian flags on their cars and tooting the horns at us as a kind of greeting. It was fun. And you’d go through a town or village and everyone was decked out with the flags and colors. I mean this thing is big. We rolled into Caraquet within a half hour, and checked out the two campgrounds, both slightly outside of town. The first we passed had internet, and was along the ocean, so Barney suggested that we check the second one, the closer of the two to town. Did than and decided to go for it. They have internet, and fixed us up with 200 feet of extension cord so that we could get a non-electrical site next to the office where the internet was the strongest. So look out my tent and you see this cord snaking all the way across a yard and into the office outdoor outlet.
They did hit us up for 30 bucks for two tents and an additional 2 bucks for the electric. But the wifi here is just the BOMB. I already skyped and it’s strong as hell. So I’m in Hotel Hillie finishing this blog, emailing, and just chilling. Barney also turned my onto the Randy Backman Vinyl Tap program on the net http://www.cbc.ca/vinyltap/ so now I’m blogging in my tent and listening to vinyl tap. Wow, I just love this new technology!!
I’m sure we’re going to get some beer in a few, and find some very tasty Cajun food around here. Then there’s supposed to be this light and fireworks show later in the evening in the downtown. So I’ll pull the plug on this today, and get you caught up on the rest of the night tomorrow. That’s it……….Pete
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