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October 13 Thursday Bicycle touring from 42 km before Perce Rock Quebec to Pabos Quebec Brrr!! There is frost on the grass when we wake up in the morning and glance out our little bicycle touring tent's door. There is ice on the tent poles. I have my wool socks on. I take a picture of morning light on the rock with our tent in the foreground. As we are breaking our wild bicycle camping spot, a pickup pulls into the driveway of a house opposite us. I am ready to get on my bike and head off down the road when Howard calls to us, and comes over to chat. He is a boilermaker; he tells us he has worked in Vancouver BC and Ft McMurray, Alberta. This is his retirement home he is working on. We saw a white whale's hump in the bay this morning. Beluga? It was there for a long time, going around and around. There are tour boats in Percé that go on sightseeing tours to see them. It took a long time to cycle to Percé. All that glass finally got us. Sharon's front bicycle tire became enamored with the shiny stuff. As Rod Stewart would say, "The first cut's the deepest." Sharon got two flat in two kilometres of cycling. Plus there is construction and some steep hills to grind up on our fully loaded touring bicycles. The hill before Percé is 17 percent. Fortunately, it was downhill. I stopped part-way down to take a picture of the rock and it took me a long time to bring my fully loaded touring bicycle to a stop. After the photo, I get back on my touring bike and zoom down the rest of the hill. I think I could have set a new personal land-speed record if I had let 'er rip, but the road goes directly into main street. At 55 mph I hauled my runaway touring bicycle in as I didn't think it would be too smart with pedestrians and cars turning onto the street. I could imagine my mean bicycle touring machine becoming a two-wheeled human rocket launcher. I saw a shop with postcards and parked my touring bicycle against the side of the building before dashing inside to make a quick purchase ... we haven't eaten anything yet and our stomach's are protesting. An hour later we managed to escape from the owner of the store, Frances Biard. She kept telling us how worried she was about us. She gave us her address so we could notify her that we had safely made if home. After cycling to the grocery store and stocking up on food item, we cycled to Ile-de Bonaventure Park, but it was far too windy to enjoy lunch. At low tide we leaned our fully loaded touring bicycles on a rock, and walked out to Percé Rock along a shale sandbar. I had to touch the rock. I felt an incredible power pulling me toward it. It feels like a sacred place. From a distance it looks so bold and majestic with the sunlight striking its surface. Up close it looks old with many cracks in it and pieces of shale about ready to fall off. As I put my hand out and touched it, the rock whispered to me that it was old, tired, and fragile. What a surprise! "So am I, my friend ... so am I," I whispered back. We left the rock and returned to the mainland to finish eating our sub sandwiches along with humungous bowls of Metro hot chocolate that we dunked chocolate cookies into. I glanced at my watch It was already 3 o'clock. These days are short. We got back on our fully loaded touring bicycles and headed toward Chandler. We are 180 miles from Campbellton, New Brunswick. This part of the Gaspe Peninsula is flatter than what we had come through on the north side to get here. A headwind hampers our forward progress. There is more population in the towns on this side of the peninsula. I hope its because it is calmer on this side. We cycle into Pabos and I spot a sign for a gym. Maybe we can get showers there? I ask the French only speaking attendant if we can have a shower. She has no idea what I'm saying. Yes, it is true, I actually forced myself to say the D word -9 douche 9- I can hardly believe it myself. But it did get immediate results. It was dark by the time we finished, but I felt like a nouveau homme. We cycled a short distance to set up camp behind a school. |
