Posted on by Greg

Quebec Day Eight


Start: Quebec City
End: Saint-Jean-Port-Joli
Mileage/cumulative: 60.84 / 382.37
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 1,421’ / 7,927’ 
Weather: Start: Cloudy 54 degrees / Finish: Sunny 55 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 2 / 4

Every cycling trip like this has days where you just want to get from point A to point B. This was one of them.  It wasn’t due to a lack of things to stop and see or because the scenery was terrible. It was because we spent sixty miles riding straight into cold wind… again. It rained overnight in Quebec but stopped just before we rolled out and headed to the ferry terminal. We were grateful for that but we’ve run out of words to describe how much we hate the wind. We spend the next two days continuing northeast along the St. Lawrence before we cross the river again and arrive in Tadoussac, where we’ll reverse direction and head southwest. We’re hoping a change in direction will bring relief from the incessant, soul-sucking, punishing wind.

One portion of today’s route took us to a jetty on the St. Lawrence River, where we saw two intrepid windsurfers, one far off in the distance and one launching from the shore. These were perfect conditions for them, less so for us. It was still a beautiful day and we came across a nice boulangerie, a farmer on his bike checking on his baby cows, and, oddly, a British man who asked about our trip and told us that our route for the next couple of days includes some nice bike paths. Day Nine is another long one. We’ll just put our heads down and keep rolling.

The best time to explore Quebec City is in the early morning before everyone else wakes up.
And the early bird always gets the best pastries!
This boulangerie was on the river and milled its own flour on site. It was an oasis at mile fourteen.
Bob T. and Bob L. taking a load off at the boulangerie.
Of course we had to stop to see this cute one. The rancher/owner was on an old school steel frame Peugeot bicycle that any one of us would love to have!

A brave windsurfer launching into the very, very cold St. Lawrence River.

We’re back in farmland!
This was a random sight in the middle of nowhere.
The locals take their gardening very seriously.
There aren’t many towns but every one of them has a church, most of them with two steeples. Apparently, one is not enough.
Another good ending to a long day.

 

4 Replies to “Quebec Day Eight”

  1. The video of the Bev at the water’s edge, with the wind and the whitecaps makes it very real for me. That is definitely brutal wind. You guys are amazing riding in that for multiple days. Sure hope the tailwinds come soon! Thank you for all the history and photos Greg. I don’t know how you find the time to do this on a road trip – but I sure do love reading about your adventure! OXOX

  2. You guys must be exhausted by the end of the day! I don’t know how you get up and do it again the next day. You guys are hard core!! Go Team Pea!

  4. The video of the soul sucking punishing wind was an eye opener. Definitely not for the weak of heart!

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