Quebec Day 13

Start: La Malbaie
End: Baie Saint Paul
Mileage/cumulative: 27.36 / 547.36
Elevation Ascended/cumulative: 3,264’ / 19,262’ 
Weather:  Partly Cloudy 45 degrees / Sunny 54 degrees
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0 / 4

Looking for extreme, historic, freakish weather events? All you need to do is follow this group on a multi-day cycling trip. When we rode from Chicago to New York City in 2019, we encountered a bomb cyclone on the approach to Philadelphia. For our current trip, we have drawn a hurricane toward Quebec. Hurricane Fiona is not in our direct path but she’s bringing some crazy wind that makes it a little more adventurous on a bicycle. A meteorologist with Environment Canada has said that “though Hurricane Fiona will no longer be categorized as a tropical storm by the time it reaches Quebec, some sites are still quite vulnerable to this ‘historic’ storm. There might also be some outdoor furniture flying around, so people should be careful”. Great. We could be taken out by a flying Adirondack chair.

A couple of interesting notes about our route today. We passed a bee farm along the St. Lawrence shore, named “La Miellerie du cratere de Charlevoix” and, according to their website, “the choice of name is not insignificant: the company is located precisely at the location of the point of impact of the meteorite that struck the region about 400 million years ago, at the same time forging its relief. The name of the company thus pays tribute to the Charlevoix region and its distinctive terroir.”

Our final destination for the day was Baie St. Paul, the home of Cirque du Soleil. In the 1980s, this tiny village had a small troupe of street performers known as Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul (The Stiltwalkers of Baie-Saint-Paul), who had an eclectic show that included jugglers, dancers, fire breathers, and musicians. This group eventually formed the core of what would grow into Cirque du Soleil.

There were lots of hills with eye popping autumn scenery and the St. Lawrence became noticeably narrower as we slowly moved south toward Quebec City. We have one more day of serious climbing before things begin to flatten out a little more. And, there could be flying furniture.