This classic movie needs a
remake and after today I should get the main role in it.
Started the day at Tim
Horton (where else) and in fact there is no better way to start it.
It’s foggy and I am glad
I put a fleece and over-pants on, at least for the first couple of miles.
George and I start North on 389
knowing that we won’t be making any turns for the next couple of days.
The fog cleared quickly and
the first surprise of the day is the twisty road, I was afraid this could turn
out to be a mileage crunching tour with boringly long straight stretches - far from boring in many ways.
I usually live by the rules
of “PPPPPPP – Proper Prior Preparation Prevents P… Poor Performance” when it
comes to trips like this, however I have missed out on a couple of details this time.
First stop in bright
sunshine In Manic 3 – getting rid of fleece and over-pants and off to Manic 5. Those
are impressive Hydropower plants on the Manicouagan River
operated by Hydro Quebec.
This is where the fun of
riding gravel roads started and I almost lost the bike hitting
a freshly graded piece of the road. There are rock solid stretches which I
wouldn’t want to ride in rain, gravel stretches that feel like riding on
marbles on a glass floor and the oncoming trucks leave you in a cloud of dust that
creeps into all nooks and crannies. With the Adrenalin level still in the red
zone I realize quickly that there is no room for mistakes – “better learn quick
dude or this is not going to end well”.
After 60 miles I kiss the
asphalt and promise to never take it for granted again.
After a brake at Relais
Gabriel the sky turns dark, some hefty gusts announce another downpour – back
to rain-gear!
How could this trip end
without some good old gravel road? Another 40 miles standing on the foot pegs,
but finally we are rewarded with a “Welcome to the Big Land”.
Losing an hour after
crossing from Quebec into Newfoundland Labrador I am done for the day, late dinner,
downloading videos from the GoPro, writing up some of this – I am exhausted,
everything hurts….
Odometer reading
Today: 363.1 miles
Total: 1019.7 miles
Thomas
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