Days 99-100 Levis-L’Islet sur Mer-Saint Andre

The ride out of Levis was great but quickly turned interesting with a hefty climb out of town coupled with a nice 15km headwind. The sun was out so not too bad of a day.

My hopes were dashed early on in the day when Mother Nature made it very clear that the strong headwind was going to stick around all day long. Now I don’t necessarily mind the wind but when it doubles the time it takes to ride a distance it makes for a long, grumpy day.

I did have a nice conversation at a rest stop with some guys from Saskatoon who are headed to Halifax, a nice bunch of guys with the right attitude about this type of endeavor.

My goal was to make it to Saint Jean Port Joli to camp but as I was riding through the cool little village of L’Islet I saw that had a municipal campground and decided to break there instead of the 20km down the road. I was glad I did, the camp was very well maintained and was right on the water and with the added bonus of a free metal concert at the community center next door, sweet \m/

I also ran into the guys from Saskatoon, as well as the tourer Lenny from Phili who I thought quick and headed south. Props to him for sticking it out.

The Quebec Maritime Museum was right next to the camp on the other side, lots to see…

Today started early hitting the road at 7:30 thinking it would be an easy day to my stop 80km down the road. However the weather had a different idea, the crazy headwind from yesterday was quick to greet me and let me know it’ll stay by my side all day (Thanks wind!). Not to be stuck escorting my by itself, wind invited its cousin rain to come with so I was lucky to not only have a slow grueling ride but with a constant barrage of water. Surprisingly it was not a bad ride as most of it was spent along side the Saint Lawrence. It is pretty amazing to see this small river turn into a large river as I get closer to the coast, the gulf of Lawrence and the vast Atlantic Ocean.

Saw this awesome van outside the grocery store pimped out with Eddie the mascot for Iron Maiden, One of my top 5 bands.

I asked these guys to get up a pose for me but apparently only one of them spoke English. Too bad my french is nonexistent or this would be a good picture, Le sigh…

Despite all that awesomeness I was very happy to see my little town and stop some into view and give my knees a rest.

I not sure where I’ll end up tomorrow hoping for a short day as my legs are shot after all that wind. Luckily the forecast is for sun and no wind, I’ll take it!