Well - today is when we hit the start of the hills - and apparently my nervousness about them is obvious...Bas has known me for less then 24 hours and says it's pretty obvious. But, I'm glad I've got someone to talk me through them - and besides - they can't be THAT bad, can they?
Wow - so, we got into Riviere du Loup - not a very far bike ride, and after checking email, we turn onto the main street out of town and there is a wall in front of us. Honestly - it looked like it went straight up - regular cars were labouring a little to get up it. And, I'm barely awake yet. Well - here goes nothing...I made it up - it was so steep even in my lowest gear I was standing the whole way, and had to pull off onto side streets twice for a recovery spin...but, I did make it. Bas estimates the hill was probably a 16/17% grade.
Luckily, the hill was not a sign of things to come. We found Le Route Vert again - at this point, it's the old railway trail - with small gravel, for the most part packed down. This is the first time on gravel since my big bail back home (got some nice scars left from that one!), and I was a little nervous on the trail. But, because it was rail - the grade isn't as steep. After 3.5 hours of slow uphill pedaling (in Holland apparently they call it "Fake Flats" - cause it looks flat, but you're moving about 5 km an hour slower while working harder), we started on the downhill and it was mostly coasting for the second half of the day. By the end, I was even comfy with clipping in on the downhills - back used to gravel as long as I'm not going too quick.
In Cabano, the grocery store was on strike - so we did our shopping at dollarama - canned ham and spaghetti...mmmmm, dinner of champions!
Cabano is a neat little tourist town with a strip right on the lake...our campsite was on the beach, but TINY - and they charged us extra for two tents. Not impressed!
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