Cycle Canada, Day 53, June 26/06

June 26/06, Monday                                                                             Day 53           5192 Kms

De La Pointe Municipal Campground, Rivier-du-Loup, PQ                                     91 Km                       ~ 5:30 Hrs

Don't let the low miles fool you, this was a tough day. Aiming for the 16:30 ferry we allowed 6 hours for the trip. We planned to leave the motel at 10:30 but it was more like 10:42. My fault. "No problem," thinks I. "It's only 80 K's along the coast. Nice and flat. We could push it and do this in three and a half hours saddle time."

We took highway 362. I should have checked it on Google Earth first. I'm sure the first hill was 300M at 7% or so. We then spent the next five hours climbing and diving, sea level to 200 or 300M over & over again, some slopes at least 15% (18%), coasting to speeds of 72 Km/Hr then working hard to make 6.

Where the 2 highways met back up we checked time and distance and said, "OK. Let's try to make it." We had about 2 hours and 33 Kms to cover. Very do-able if the terrain flattened out.

No such luck.

With about 40 minutes left we swooped passed a sign that said, "St. Simeon 16Km." At the bottom of the next climb we agreed that we weren't going to make it. Loped up the hill to find a sign that said, "St. Simeon 8Km" and 20 minutes left. There must have been a long, slow slope to the final plunge because I started riding and pushing the pedals like I could make it. Speeds seldom dropped below 20 and riding at 28 or 30 common. We made the final plunge into town and powered to the ferry dock in time to see the last cars of the north bound trip coming off. Made it! I was so tired I almost couldn't get off the bike.

We grabbed the second campsite off the south end. The first was too far from the depanneur.

See a quick video http://www.youtube.com/user/snottyvar#p/u/3/qtqQrY_Yzfc