I am going to change things up today instead of simply describing the day I am going to walk you through what happened and what my thoughts were while it happened. I woke up and heard a pitter patter on my tent. I thought to myself “crap this is the first morning take down in the rain”. Hearing that it was fairly light I was cautious in bringing out all of my rain gear. After using the washroom I came out to see that it is still rainng lightly. At this point I though “perfect weather for my lighter jacket”. I also though that because it was light rain I would cook outside the tent so that I could multi task and take down my camp at the same time.
As I started to cook the clouds opened up. I had already commited to cooking outside so I had no option but that stay there. This was the hardest rain I have every been outside to experience. All of the water that they needed came in about a 3 hour span. Taking down my tent was not exciting to say the least. The second I took the poles out it filled with water. All I could think is “this is going to suck to put up”. All this time I am getting pelted with rain. My waterproof gear is now soaking through and I have not even started to ride yet.
I was about 3km down the road and I was everything was wet except my face, which I was pretty happy about. As I was thinking about how dry my face was a truck passes by and because it an old road with grooves in it a huge puddle splashes me gets roughly a litre of water on my face and down into my gear.
The next 2 hours were brutal. The rain did not stop and I was forced to climb 3 9-10% grade hills that seemed to go on forever. I could not get any speed at all. In two hours I covered 30km. I very quickly had to readjust my goals.
As soon as the rain stopped I pulled out my chamois and started to wipe all of my clothing down and strip it off. I was half naked on the side of the road trying to strap what I could to the bike so that my waterproof bags don’t have to get wet clothing in them.
I was starting to dry off and was not as miserable when the winds started to pick up. For the rest of the day I had a head wind that ranged from moderate to just silly. I was thinking about my blog last night and how I said that I could deal with nature and how I regret saying that.
My rest stop came at 50km and it was grocery time. This was also a chance to take out all of the wet gear I packed and re-pack it the correct way. My usual 15min stop very quickly became 45min. It was worth it though because I got a lot of stuff done in that very short time. When I yanked out my tent a puddle very quickly formed. When I pulled out the poles the same thing happened. Everyone who passed me simply looked shocked that I was living in conditions like this. Never before have I needed chocolate milk to calm my soul more.
My goal of 190km was simply not doable. Even the 150km to matapedia was not going to happen. This meant that my lunch stop was also going to get pushed back to a little town called Anqui. Here is where my day turned around… a little. I looked at the forecast for the next two days and it was not promising rain for 2 days straight. Why then did my day turn around? Because I ate the best pizza I have ever tasted. If ever you are in Quebec stop at this place its on the main drag in anqui. They make the dough in house. They use local cheese, and even bake the pizzas in a wood over for everyone to see. It was really something. It also made me think back to the whole fate thing. I would not have even stopped or looked here if it had not have been for the whether.
At this time I came to a sort of peace with the conditions. Yes I still had a head wind. Yes it was still super slow. And yes it sucked for the most part. But it is the little things that cheered me up. For example on the radio as a dark cloud was overhead they played it’s a beautiful day. As a side note they really pump guru josh here. The three times I have turned on the radio so far it has been playing. This is a good thing because it reminds me of my friends back home. In particular mia who for the span of about a month would constantly ask me for the name and artist of that particular song.
When set-up time came I was not stoked in the least bit. It actually went surprisingly smooth all things considered. I am officially the biggest endorser of hilliberg tents in the world. Even though the outer tent pooled with water when I went to set up and check the inside other then a few spot it was almost dry. Even in overcast conditions it was all set-up and semi dry in about 40mins. As for the clothing, thank god they have laundry. As for my sanity, thank god it’s gone. I think the point I will look back on today and laugh on is when it was pouring rain and I was climbing up the third steep hill I started to laugh frantically. It was as if the spirit of Helen Keller came over me.
Trip Distance: 112km
Ride Time: 6:11hr
Avg. Speed: 18.15km/h
Total Distance: 6003km
Total Ride Time: 277hr
Destination; St. Florence, Quebec
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