Monday, 21 August 2006

Portneuf to Louiseville (Quebec)

I had hoped to stop early enough in the day yesterday to do some work on the bike, and indeed I did, but the rain spoiled the plans I had to swap the front and rear tyres around (the rear tyre wears out much quicker) and service the brakes. I really needed to service the front brakes, so I did that in the morning, and they now work so well that they make the rear brakes seem really lame, so I'll have to service them tonight.

With all the rain the ground was sodden, and much of this seemed to get into the tent through the groundsheet. Very annoying. Not impressed with 'The North Face'. By the time I'd packed up it was 8:30 am. I stopped to have a look at the restaurant in the campsite as they served 'dejeuner' but it looked dark and dismal, so I decided to set off and see if I could find somewhere else. 5 km along the Chemin du Roy was Deschambault; everywhere seemed closed but then I found Cafe-Resto Chez Zephirin on the way out of town. It was a lovely little place.They didn't do the usual 'fry-up' so I had an unusual breakfast of a half bagel with cream cheese, a slice of toast with cheese and a poached egg on, a slice of cake and a bowl of fruit. And a proper big pot of tea. Oh, and the homemade strawberry preserve is the best I've ever tasted.

By the time I emerged the cloud was starting to break up and there was even some sun. The road from Deschambault ran close to the St. Lawrence, which was looking less moody that yesterday, and I had done about 20 km when yet another spoke broke on the rear wheel. How tedious. This one didn't go with the familiar ping - I thought I had run over something in the road, but a quick glance down at the rear wheel was enough to see the familiar distortion. I carried on for a few more kilometres until I came to a picnic stop just outside Sainte-Anne de la Pérade. I stoned four birds. I spread out the tent to dry, replaced the broken spoke, swapped the front and rear tyres, and service the back brake too.

I certainly not out in 'the sticks' anymore; even Sainte-Anne had a SUBWAY where I stopped for a quick lunch. By the afternoon the wind was back around to the south-west, but it was fairly light and just a mild annoyance. The north-east wind with its cargo of rain had obviously been stopped in its tracks yesterday evening, and was now being pushed into retreat by the prevailing wind having lasted only one day.

The afternoon was warm and sunny, and the ride was easy and pleasant if not exciting, being either by the St. Lawrence or passing through agricultural land. Trois-Rivieres was much bigger than I was expecting - cycling maps are often very misleading as they don't have any detail other than the route. Certainly not urban sprawl. 'La Route verte' took an arcane route through the outskirts of Trois-Rivieres through some tedious residential areas - I guess just to avoid the main road. In fact the cycle route seemed to bypass the centre of town altogether, so I followed the Chemin du Roy into the centre, to find the library - closed on Mondays, and then out of town. The ride out of town was pretty tedious too, being on rough footpaths or on busy roads with lots of junctions. All the way to Yamachiche the road was quite busy but then the 'Chemin du Roy' and 'La Route verte', now reunited, left the 138 road and went on a quiet country road to Louiseville. The Marina campground was actually a few kilometres further on outside of town and I was the only person there with a tent - and at $24.50 I'm not surprised. I guess I'm going to have to get used to higher prices now I'm back in 'civilization'. The mosquitoes were numerous here too so I was feeling like a pin-cushion for the first time in ages.

Distance: 118.5 km
Cycling time: 6:11
Total distance: 6534.8 km