7/28/09: Off segment. Rt 132 east on the south side of the St. Lawrence River. Saint Jean Port Joli, Quebec to L’Isle-Verte, Quebec; 80 miles.
Just a standout day to be sure. This one will go down in the memory banks as a four-star ride in my life. Ok, now to start from the start. Unfortunately Barney is an early riser as is Ryan. Two peas in a pod here. Both up at 6am. And I hear them, and just roll over in disgust. This morning I just wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep. But there they were, outside talking and fiddling with stuff. So I hit my imaginary snooze alarm and conked out for another half hour. Finally rousted myself at 6:30am, packed my gear inside my tent, and went for coffee and breakfast. The guys were apparently way down on the other side of town because the places next to our camp area were not open until 7am.
So I hit our dinner venue from last night and got a nice little breakfast of eggs, toast, hash browns, coffee, and fruit, out on the patio in the front of the building, for 5 bucks. By the time I was done the guys got back and we began tearing down the tents. We were all packed and on the road by 8:30am. We must have done something right because the wind was out of the west, and we had an awesome tailwind. From the start it was just a joy to ride with such an easy pedal stroke, basically soft pedaling the whole time and being able to do about 18-19mph. But the really cool thing was the fact that Barney has this cycling guide to the peninsula, and it is very detailed. So we use this as our guide. It has the bike go off on little side trips into the hamlets and along the St. Lawrence River instead of just following Rt 132 the whole way. Our first sidetrip was onto a crushed limestone bike and hike trail right along the river, and it was amazingly beautiful. I shot while we were riding, and just had a ball. We just didn’t want this section to end. It’s no wonder that this area is noted as a premier cycling destination in all of Canada.
By this time you could smell the sea in the river, and Ryan confirmed that with his keen sense of ocean experience. There is even a very considerable tide at this point here in the St Lawrence River, with tidal flats and the whole bit. We ebbed and flowed on and off of Rt 132 east. Our second stint off of Rt 132 was pure ecstasy as we got on a little road that was along the river and went through a very small village. It was stunning, and I just wanted it to last forever. I’ll tell you this, had it just been Ryan and I, we would have been blowing by these places as we did our “Run & Gun” all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Very nice to have Barney add this sense of discovery to such a wonderful place in Canada. We needed this, and Barney had added a real attribute to this trip for sure. I look forward to traveling with him, hopefully all the way to Cape Spear!
After we exited that wonderful little stint along the river, Ryan wanted to stop and get a bite, so we targeted the next town for our lunch stop. So it was Kamouraska for lunch. We did a nice little big ring climb to get into this town, and then it leveled out and we went by oodles of restaurants an and shops before we stopped in front of a fish store and a small grocery. And just as I pulled in, Barney rolled in and yelled “stop.” This was a store that sells smoked fish. And I was right with him on that, hoping to try some new foods here on the Gaspe. We go in and are overwhelmed by the selection in this small little store. They have So many things I’d like to try. Barney had his heart set on the smoked Sturgeon from the get-go. So I was on board with that. Then he asked the fishman about this other thing next to the Sturgeon, and the man replied in French that it was smoked eel. And I just piped up that I’ll have that to, in addition to the sturgeon. And then I pointed to a little sandwich which was filled with smoked sturgeon, and said “un” and I had that to. So add these pups up and I had a 21 dollar lunch of smoked sturgeon and eel, and a smoked sturgeon sandwich. Visa my man! And done.
Barney and I got the same stuff, verbatim. So I go out and attack my eel first, and it’s great. No kidding, this stuff was just like chicken……….er fish. Yea, it was like fish, and tasted great. Then I set my sights on the smoked sturgeon. And this stuff was off of the charts good. It had the consistency of red meat, but was a white fish. I could have eaten a pound of this stuff. A small piece of it cost me nearly 9 bucks. How about a damned whole fish? So I darned near buzzed through all of eel and sturgeon before Barney was even able to exit the fish shop. Next up…….smoked sturgeon sandwich. Again, a home run. I just love trying these new foods, especially when I cycle all day long and can eat just about anything under the sun, all day long. Barney went through the eel and the sturgeon sandwich, and saved the piece of smoked sturgeon for this eve.
Finished with a coke. I mean think about it…….just ate all this smoked fish, and then I chase it with a damned coke! But I need the sugar to get me back on the bike and riding well. So fish and coke it was……burp. Ryan…..that nut ate a bag of Doritos and a sandwich. A whole freaking bag of Doritos, by himself. We’re all pieces of work. And Barney is well on the way to becoming foodaholics just like we are. We finally get going again, and set our sights on getting through Riviere-du-Loop and then hunting for a camping area. So with the awesome tailwind, we get it ripping at a solid 20mph for quite a while, and hit Riviere in short order. Then we road a short bike trail up to the city’s boat marina. It was very reminiscent of the Bay of Fundy in that the boats were left low and dry in the mud as it was low tide. The River De-Loop, which flows into the St Lawrence, was a river amidst a sea of mud as it went out into the St. Lawrence. We hung for a bit and then got back on the road, looking for Cacouma as our possible camp stop. But once there, and that after a pretty good roller coaster big ring climb, we found nothing in the way of camping, so just moved on to the next town – L-Ilse Verte.
Now here we had a very flat, almost straight shot into town. And it was about 10 miles. So I got the old freight train rolling, and we were moving along at 45K/hour, just scorching down the road for a solid 10 K or so. It is so much fun riding a tailwind like that when you want to get somewhere fast. Got into town in notime, and checked with the information. Just one campground in town, and it was 3K out of town, right by this information place. So we decided to go into town and do some internet at the municipal building – for one dollar/hr – and then get dinner. We were all done within an hour, and then hit a grocery, Ryan for dinner, me for “pre dinner” and Barney for a couple of juices.
Next stop was a restaurant for dinner no. two. We hit a small café, but no go there. The gentleman directed us to another place on 132. So we ended up at this little pub/restaurant. I was skeptical, but hell, no other choices here. And I was especially not into it due to this derelict outside roaming around by our bike. But we hit it nonetheless. I ordered up two “du gross beirs” – two big beers, for Barney and I. They’re selection was bad, but the beer was ice cold, and I was in heaven. I ended up with two cheeseburgers and a order of fries – for a mere 8 bucks. Barney got a pasta dish. Ryan……water. Got a second gross beir, and then a third. I got that third because they didn’t charge me for the second, and it rained briefly, so what the heck.
Then rode back to the campground, set up, got in hotel Hellie, and began to blog. My aircard works, so I can post this tonight. Turns out that the camping is 18 bucks/person. THAT is why Ryan and I started asking people if we could camp in backyards etc a long time ago. That’s just rip-off plain and simple. I want to go up and turn the hot water on in the shower tonight and then just let it run all freaking night long. That’s how irritated this makes me. We bloody CAMPING, one site, three tents! I’m still steaming over that.
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