Day 12 – Rustic Campsite to Saint-Germain
It got quite cold over night. It might have been because we are slightly above in our elevation, but it is probably more to do with the fact we are near the Gaspe peninsula. They say it’s cold most of the year around here!
We started cycling and 20 minutes into the day, we ran into Katherine’s aunt and uncle again (what are the chances!). They somehow spotted our yellow panniers from the highway (even though this section of the trail runs mostly away from the highway with trees in between most of the time). We had a great little chat and some plans made for later in the week to meet up in Quebec city. About 5 min later, Katherine’s back fender broke and we had to remove it as it wouldn’t stay in place anymore (our trip really tests the quality of the components..). We could have rigged it with some tie-wraps but Katherine decided to throw it away since she didn’t think she needed a rear fender. We’ll later learn that it covers the person following her in mud and rain… so we will probably pick up a sturdier one somewhere soon for the sake of the person following behind (ie me). 🙂
We continued towards Riviere-du-Loup on the superb bike trail. You may have noticed in the fancy charts from our GPS that we had quite a climb the day before. Interesting thing is, the incline was not noticeable at all because the grade never goes above 4%. Why is that you ask? Because it’s where the old railway used to run and if they made it any steeper the trains would not have been able to make it up with a full load. Even though it’s a beautiful trail now, it seems like terrible waste to have removed the old railroad. What beautiful scenery the conductor would have had back then!
These bike trails in Quebec are like cyclist heaven. Today was almost all downhill from start to finish, which made the cycling even easier. We stopped at the Wal-Mart in Rivere-du-Loup to stock up on fuel and other essentials, and luckily avoided the down pour that soon followed. This was a nice city to cycle in with bike routes all over the place. I guess if the rest of Canada was like this it would make our trip way too easy right?
Now following the scenic St Lawrence river and with a strong tail wind from the North East, we made it to St. Andre, where we were to meet with Michelle and Gilles who we had met a couple days earlier. They were incredibly nice to us and let us stay at Michelle’s place. After leaving our panniers at Michelle’s, Gilles toured us on his bike between St. Andre and St. Germain, showing us all the most beautiful and quiet hidden spots in the area. They enjoy kayaking as well and they told us of the whales they encounter from time to time.
Gilles went into the water a little bit, and said it wasn’t too bad (I think it was freezing). We then hiked to a top of a small hill by the water. There was an old abandoned house built right on the water. He told us the story about the person who used to live there before. Apparently the person had no electricity, so he had a gas stove. Eventually the mice chewed through the gas line, and then one day there was a large explosion. I am not sure how he knows the details but obviously all the locals find out the story somehow.
We had dinner at Gilles’s place in St. Germain, where it started to rain. It was nice to be indoors since it was a very cold and wet night. They both lived beside the magnificent Catholic churches in their respective towns, so I guess you can say they live right ‘downtown’. Needless to say, the bank in St. Germain is only open for 2.5 hours everyday, and that is actually the only business that is in town! Both Michelle and Gilles are now retired and they seem to really enjoy living in their towns, which are in a beautiful and very quiet area. (Michelle grew up in the area and Gilles worked in Montreal). I thought it was really neat when Gilles called into the Environment Canada’s automated phone message number to find out the weather forecast. Very cool!
Although the preparation for Gilles’s ‘quick’ spaghetti recipe took what felt like 2 to 3 hours (we are always hungry after all..), we had a great time chatting and the food was delicious. The bike trip they recently went on to Grand Sault, NB, was actually their first bike tour trip. Their gear was very quickly put together so they were really interested in what kind of gear we had and how we were going for so many days. I think we were quite inspirational to them, and they said they were going to continue with their bike touring adventures in the area, and maybe head up to the Gaspe peninsula next.
We drove back to Michelle’s in the pouring rain, and although they wanted to stay up a bit later and chat to us, we promptly passed out in our bed.
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Trip Around The World 
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