Day 74

8/4/09: Segements 75 and 76: Rt 132 west on the south shore of the Gaspe Peninsula http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment75.html

http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment76.html

Gaspe, Quebec to Pabos, Quebec: 67 miles.

Our “Ryanless” portion of the trip began today, though I did hear him sneak out of the appt. at about 3am. I quickly fell back to sleep, and didn’t roust until 6:30am. It was so strange to see only Barney’s bike out in the hallway. Stellar morning this morning, with some clouds in the sky, and a quite warm day beginning. We decided to get packed and then walk down to the wifi café for breakfast. Had a nice starter for the day with the croissant and ham with a nice big bran muffin and great java. Then back to the appt for the final pack. Now I have to tell you, that the microbrews we had last night…..well…….they had quite an effect on both of us this morn. It was the equivalent of a “cleansing” of sorts, and we probably wore out the linoleum going to and from the toidy for 2 hours. I must have lost 8 lbs!!

Ok, enough of the details there. Then off we went along the Route Verte, and it was quite wonderful as we rode a brand new bike and hike asphalt trail along the railway for 10K. Then we hit some gravel, and the gravel went from 2 lane to 1 lane and then it just kind of died out in a parking area. And we were behind this guy who was also riding, and he heard Barney and I wondering if we’d made a wrong turn. He spoke up in English and told us that we had taken a wrong turn but that this was a short cut. And he explained that we go up onto the RR tracks and walk our bikes to the Rt 132. But we had to go up this major embankment, steeper than hell. Then he offered to help us push our bikes up this little monster. It took him, me and Barney to push my monster up this thing. Then him and Barney pushed Barney’s bike. We got up and began walking the tracks. Now this gentleman told us that no trains were running today, and believe you me, that was good because we were up on this elevated railway track, and there was virtually nowhere to go if a train DID happen to go “off schedule.”

Then we hit this trestle over a river, and the tracks have no ballast between ties, and every 20 feet the spacing between ties is like nearly 3 feet wide. And we’re bouncing bikes over the ties, until we come to these big 3-foot spaced ties, and my bike wheels barely covers this wide space. But my yak wheel – now way, as it drops down into the space in a flash. So Barney has to lift my yak wheel on every one of these wide spaces. There’s over 30 wide spaces on this long trestle. This felt like it took forever. But we finally got across, bouncing our way over a half mile of RR ties. And then I saw a chance to get off of the RR tracks and onto the ground, albeit sandy ground, but I was willing to take the chance. So we exited down a mild embankment and onto this jeep trail in the sand. OUCH. For those of you who have never ridden in the sand, it can be treacherous. And I wasn’t even riding, specifically because of having my wheels wash out on me. So I pushed my bike and yak. But the weight was so great on the front and rear wheels, that they were still washing out. So it was like pushing the bike sideways at times, and I was digging like hell with my feet in the sand to get good traction, so it was doubly difficult.

Finally, after bouncing down tracks and sliding along on the sand, we hit gravel road, and it was a total joy to get back on the bike again. Despite all of the walking and pushing, we still saved some time with the shortcut, and we avoided a big climb and construction on Rt 132. So off we go again on the road to Perce. We’d been told by some folks at the train station yesterday who had ridden bikes from Perce to Gaspe, that this stretch of road was really hard. So I was expecting this to be as brutal as was our ride on Sunday to Gaspe. But the climbs were pretty mellow, and we had nice long flat and rolling sections. Barney had told me that the Route Verte takes off of Rt 132 to avoid this massive climb into Perce, so we needed to keep our eyes out for this turn. And I rode up ahead, and kept looking for the Route Verte signs, but just didn’t see anything. And I kept going and going and going, and nothing. So I kept riding ahead waiting for this turn, where I planned to stop and wait for Barney.

After a while I was convinced that I had missed the turn, and would be climbing this killer climb we were trying to avoid. And as luck would have it, that’s exactly what happened. So I realized that I was going to be climbing the Big Kahuna, and just got it in my head that that was my destiny. So I’m looking off into the distance and I saw this massive rock face in the distance, and a ribbon of road stretching up into the mountains alongside of it. It looked like a real killer for sure. And then I hit the first part of the climb, and it was this sharp little pitch up that immediately had me in the little cookie and the easiest cog right off the bat, and this thing was a switchback, so I was expecting the worse. But I got up the steep section, and went around the turn only to be treated with a gradual descent and then a gradual climb up again. So I went through two of these things, hitting a very steep pitch, only to be followed by a gradual. Finally, I got to an observation point just off of the road, and just under this massive cliff face, and it was like, damn, I’m almost there. And sure enough there was just one more steep switchback and the climb was over.

The descent was 17%, and so bloody steep I just about had to vise grip my hydraulic brakes to get them to grab so I could stop a third of the way down to take a picture. It was crazy steep going down into the town of Perce. Now I’d forgotten to mention that I’d broke a spoke in the morning on the bike trial portion of the ride, and I have this wobble to the wheel now. Well, on a 17% descent that wobble was magnified by 10, which make me brake way more than I wanted to. It was very much analogous to my situation back on the North Shore of Lake Superior when I had the cracked rim. You just don’t want to get the harmonic distortion going on big descents. Made it down in good order and then waited for Barney. He showed up and we hit a local grocery for lunch. I’m still on the sea food kick so it was cooked shrimp and a seafood salad and Pepsi.

Barney hit the lookout to take pics of Perce Rock, and then we were off again. Now from Perce west, I recollected that the climbing would die down considerably, and it did, with just long graduals to deal with rather than 10, 12, and 15% grades. BUT we were graced with a headwind out of the west. Good thing was that the Atlantic Ocean was on our left hand shoulder and just a sight to see, with the blue waters shimmering with diamonds from the sun off in the western sky. This stretch of Oceanside riding was pretty spectacular – despite the headwind. Went through about 13 miles of this and then waited again for Barney to pull even. The we settled on riding to a place with a campground listed on the map. With Chandler, our original choice not having any campgrounds around it, we had to settle for the town of Pabos, where the map showed a camping area. Again, very nice Oceanside riding.

We made Pabos by 5pm, and checked with the local gas station to see if there were any other camping areas in the vicinity, as this one was off of the ocean, and about 1K to the north. NOPE. So down the road to this campground/golf area. Yup, it has a practice driving range, putting area, and put-put golf – just what I want at the end of a 5.5 hour day in the saddle! Good news was that there’s wifi here and the price was ok. So we set up, and as we’re doing this a group of motorcycle folks pull in and set up next to us. They’re a very nice group of Canadians, some of whom are doing the Trans Can on their bikes. So we all get to talking, and we’re talking for about an hour, and Barney and I still have not eaten. They’re totally interested in our riding, our bikes, the tents, everything we’re doing is pretty fascinating to them. So we all are having a few beers, trading stories etc. And finally they ask us if we want a ride up to the restaurant with them. And it’s like 7:15 pm already, and we gladly accept.

So two of the fellows cram back in the back of the minivan and have Barney and I sit in the passenger area behind driver and shotgun. We all hit the restaurant, and these folks are all of French Canadian ancestry, so they’re pretty good at speaking French. We all order, eat our dinner, and one of the guys comes back and tells us he just got our dinners for us. Again – the karma and great people here in Canada just blow me away. So we came back here to camp, and we’ve been sitting in the little pavilion for a while talking with another French Canadian, a fireman, who is drying his cloths, and who speaks great English. Our Canadian motorbiking friends brought in some beers, so we were drinking a few beers, and doing some blogging – not in any certain order. We’ve talked about sports, touring on bicycles and motorcycles, Canada. You name it. Party finally broke up about 15 min ago. Now it’s just Barney and I trying to get these bloody blogs done, and the fireman still waiting for a load of cloths to dry.

It’s 11:30pm. I’m beat. Going to hit the hay now…………..Pete

Ryan Adds:

Its 415am and I am on the bus. I am the only one. Not a lot of people awake at this hour. Its quiet. I just passed over a river and I can see the lights reflecting off the water. I like this time of day. no one around. time to think and reflect. It has not sunk in yet what I actually just accomplished. I just rode my bike across not only a country, but a continent. It feels weird leaving the trip when it is not complete, but that’s how it goes when you are divorced. I made a commitment to take my little girl camping and surfing in California and I plan on keeping that commitment. Quinn asked me to bring her some Canadian money. I brought her a $5, 2$, $1, 25 cent, 5 cent, and 1 cent piece. I also brought her a bracelet and toy gift from a little girl names Sylvia who was 8. I met Sylvia and her parents and I told them I had a little girl named Quinn. They told me to give Quinn this little toy that plays music.
The sun is starting to rise. The sky is a soft orange color fading into a dark blue form the night still. Beautiful. IT is hard to write on the bus because eit hurts my eyes from all the moving. Wil try again later.
So I was supposed to have 4 tranfers today on my bus ride. The 1st ride I had at 415am this morning the bus driver never gave me my ticket back. The 2nd bus driver was a complete asshole. After shoing him my credit card receipt verifying the amount, the handwritten note from desk clerk describing the bus schedule to Moncton from the guy I got the bus ticket from, and showing him my baggage claim ticket for my bike he still was a dick. Right when I got off the bus I the guy threw my stuff on the ground. I immediately went to the next bus driver and started to plead my case. they were talking back and forth in French. I could tell the 2nd bus driver had it in for me. I wanted to tell this guy to fuck off so bad but I bit my tongue. The 2 bus drivers got in a full on argument over th whole thing which made the 2nd bus driver even more pissed at me. They decided to call their supervisor. This took 15 minutes and now the bus line was long and people were impatient because we were now late. It was a total melt down. After another 10 minutes on the phone the supervisor ruled to let me on. This sent the 2nd bus driver threw the roof! He was super pissed! Inside I was stoked and wanted to taunt him by saying bye bye frenchy! The 3rd bus driver was upset to but I thought it was because of the 2nd guys effect on him. What a lame situation. This entire trip has been amazing and this is the 1st dude I have met that was this lame to me. I wanted to hand him a joint and a surfboard and tell him to get out a little more but oh well.
I had a weird experience today. After riding my bike so much over 2.5 months I have found the bus ride exhilarating. Usually I just fall aslepp when driving long distances. Today I have been eamazed at how fast everything moves when you are in a car and how far you go so quickly. It is amazing!
Unbelieveable. The bus driver came and told me to get off the bus. WTF! I went in and spoke to the most reasonable person I have met today. He was a man working in the bus terminal. He made the bus wait and reissued me a new ticket on the spot. He went and spoke to the bus driver who just kicked me off and made him put my stuff back in the bus and showed him my new ticket! I told the guy that I was a business owner in the US and I have traveled to over 25 countries and I have never been treated this poorly. He agreed and got me on the bus!
I finally made it to Moncton about 5pm. I got off real quick and got my stuff. I had my bike out of the box and put together in 5 minutes. I was off down the road to the airport with visions of getting my flight switched so I could get home to see Quinn. I rode fast and got to the airport in about 20 minutes. Now all I needed to do was see if I could get my flight changed and then find somewhere to store my bike. Easy enough right? After all I just crossed the whole fricken country on my bike. I quickly prayed for 1 more miracle. That would add to the endless list of miracles I have seen already on this trip. I walk into the airport and found out the flights were running late from Toronto because of a thunderstorm and I could actually catch the last flight at 7:55pm for $75 more. Done. Miracle #1 finished.
Now. What do I do with my bike and trailer. I decided to grab a quick pastry or something and then head to the restroom. On the way to the bathroom I asked 2 guys who worked in Airport security if they knew of any places where I could store my bike and trailer for 2 weeks until I got back. These guys we really cool and were stoked on my trip(they even invited me to the ACDC concert in Moncton Thursday night) They offered to keep my stuff at their house until I returned. The airline employee told me to bring my stuff over to his truck, gave me his phone number and email. He told me to call or email him the day before I was coming back and he would have it waiting for me. Miracle #2 done. Just like that.
I am now on an airplane going to Toronto. From there I have a 6 hour bus ride to Cleveland. Can’t wait to see Quinn and my family.