Day 7: Rest Day in Fredericton

What an unusual Canada Day filled with very little activity! Leanne arrived around 10am as per scheduled but unfortunately her bike didn’t arrive on the same flight from Montreal. Our plans to check out the Canada Day festivities in town were scrapped and instead we spent the day chilling around Tom’s property eating lots of food and having conversations about all sorts of topics while waiting for her bike to show up. It was a real test of patience and letting go of situations that we can’t control and frankly we weren’t very good at it. Finally the delivery came 12 hours at 10pm! We started putting her bike together right away and can’t wait to finally get out on the road tomorrow!

Day 6: Woodstock to Fredericton

Distance: 114.9km

Total distance: 566.4km

Average speed: 21.6km/h

Weather: cloudy with sunny breaks

I have made it from one capital city to another!

This morning, I woke up at the super late hour of 8am, likely because I decided to join the kids at the outdoor movie event next door in the park last night. 

After parting ways with the other cycle tourist Gero, I stayed on this side of the river on what used to be he old Trans Canada Highway and ended up doing almost 60km without stopping! It was almost perfect conditions for cycling, the temperature was just right and the wind was blowing the right direction again. This section of New Brunswick is fairly remote, houses were sparse and it was mainly just me with the trees and river.

I stopped at Kings Landing, an open air museum/historical village set in the 1800s in a place called Prince William, and had one of the best muffins, before continuing on. 

In Fredericton, I stopped at Savage Cycles, apparently the oldest bike shop in Canada, and finally fixed my fenders (which had been held by duct tape for hundreds of kilometres), got a new pair of bike shoes (because one of my shoes were completely falling apart, also held by duct tape), and a new water bottle (because I somehow lost one along the way today).  Afterwards, I headed towards my host Tom’s home in Maryville. Tom had the most beautiful property by the river and I couldn’t be luckier to call this home for the next two days.

Day 5: Grand Falls to Woodstock

Distance: 120km

Total distance: 451.5km

Average speed: 19.6km/h

Weather: Sunny

In the morning, I parted ways with Julie and Gaston (the cycle tourists from Montreal) as they headed north and me south on the 105. Right away I felt the headwind which was the opposite of the day before but became the theme of today. The terrain was mildly undulating, a bit hillier than days prior, and I felt like I was in a children’s drawing of green hills and a windy blue river.

Turns out that Grand Falls was the last French speaking town in New Brunswick, which was honestly nice because I could finally have deeper conversations with people again! I have always been told about the great hospitality of the people in the Maritimes and time and time again today it proved to be true. In the 5-10min that I stopped on the side of the road to adjust my fenders, 3 different cars stopped to ask if I was okay. 

Today I was basically powered by dairy products and very little else. In Perth-Andover, I got a Swiss cheese which I carried for about 40km before consuming it all. And then in Florence-Bristol, I finally caved in after not drinking any coffee for the past 4 days and had a coffee milkshake from a road side stand. 

Rural New Brunswick was a lot of ornate houses, huge acerages, churches and cemeteries. In Hartland, there was the longest coveted bridge of the world.

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It got hot again in the afternoon (but luckily not as hot as the first day in Quebec) and I had to dig deeper to ride the last 40km. 

At Connell Park Campground in Woodstock, I met another bike tourist who had actually left from Vancouver and was going towards Halifax. The campground host had set up a giant canopy tent and was kind enough to let us hunker down there for the night. 

Day 4: Temiscouata Sur Le Lac to Grand Falls

Distance: 122.7km

Total distance: 331.5km

Average speed: 22.2km/h

Weather: Sunny with some clouds

I made it to New Brunswick, which means I’m officially in the Maritime provinces, the whole point of this trip! To be fair, this part of New Brunswick seems just like Quebec and everyone speaks French still so it isn’t that different yet.

The perks of camping in a bivy sac: being woken up by the most glorious sunrise over the lake. Going out of Temiscouata Sur Le Lac, I stayed along the side roads by the lake and the view was like a dream at times. 

It was rolling terrain filled with lots of green hills until Degelis where I took a short break. The before I knew it, I had passed the border of Quebec and New Brunswick. The sign was on the main highway so I didn’t even realize I had crossed until my phone changed times.

Unlike the first trip, I feel like my appetite actually decreased since starting cycling 4 days ago. In Edmundston I had to force myself to eat a small potato salad for lunch. People always talk about the grandeur of bike touring but few mention about the mind games that goes on behind the scenes. Despite it being perfect weather for cycling today, I spent a great part of the afternoon playing mind games with myself to try to cover the distance because my body for some reason didn’t have the energy.

I hugged the St John River closely and eventually rolled into the town of Grand Falls, where I stopped to admire the waterfalls that the town is named after, before heading to my host Isabelle’s home. Isabelle wasn’t actually home but there were two other bike tourists cycling from Halifax to Montreal staying there as well. We traded stories of cycling before tucking in for the night.

Day 3: La Pocatiere to Temiscouata Sur le Lac

Distance: 130.8km

Total distance: 280.8km

Average speed: 20.3km/h

Weather: A mixed bag

It didn’t take long for the rain to find me even on the East Coast, at least it was a lot cooler today! After sleeping for what felt like 10 hours, I left La Pocatiere, returning onto the 132 and continued following the St Laurence. Houses were far more stretched out along this route and it felt like the prairies being surrounded by fields upon fields, except there were “mountains”!

In the cute and colourful town of Kamouraska, I managed to wait out a brief period of heavy rain underneath a gazebo by a church, but my streak of luck didn’t last long. The skies really opened up for the next 20-30km and I ended up pedaling through small rivers for most of the way to Rivere du Loup, the visibility was so poor I couldn’t even see the St Laurence most of the time. I found another covered picnic shelter in a park by the Rivere du Loup visitor centre for lunch and finally this time the rain seemed to end for good!

In the afternoon, I turned inland and said goodbye to La Route Verte 1 and the St Laurence for the last time. La Route Verte 8 which connected Rivere Du Loup to the New Brunswick border would have been perfect except that it was mostly unpaved, so I wasn’t too sure of the route to take for this stretch. I tried to stay on side roads as much as possible but that wasn’t possible for one section so I still ended up on the A85/185 highway for 20km or so which was slightly dicey especially since there was construction everywhere. Near the exit of Saint Louis du Ha! Ha! (what a name for a town!), a highway patrol van stopped me to say that I wasn’t allowed to bike on the highway (good thing I had already biked most of it haha) and sent me out to the exit. 

I cruised down to the beautiful town of Temiscouata Sur Le Lac, aptly named for being situated at the edge of Lake Temiscouata National Park, and stumbled upon Cantine Chez Raymonde. It wouldn’t be Tour de Poutine without a meal of (Gauvalde) poutine!

Post-poutine coma, I found a home for the night at a sweet campground filled with mostly extravagant RVs by the lake called Temilac. 

Day 2: Quebec City to La Pocatiere

Distance: 135.5km

Total distance: 150km

Average speed: 21.5km/h

Weather: Sunny

I think today marks the first time I have biked over 100km in a day since the 2014 bike trip, glad to know I’ve still got it in me!

I left Maud & Gail’s house just after 8:30am in the morning and headed towards the terminal for the ferry to Levis. Of course I get lost enroute, but end up going through the streets of Vieux Quebec, which is always nice and brings back many memories.

I watched Chateau Frontenac get smaller and smaller as I said goodbye to Quebec City and crossed over to the southern side of the St Laurence River, a landmark that I shall follow for these two days. There were many other cyclists both on the ferry and on the roads in Levis, and I joined them on a beautiful bike path for about 5km on the other side. 

Eventually I found my way onto Route 132 and pedaled into rural Quebec. It never felt super remote though; the towns blended into each other such that there was always a house or farm on the side of the road. And I saw cyclists in both directions the whole day! For my first century ride in a long time the terrain was very forgiving, it was essentially flat with some very gentle rolling hills. However, I was definitely not acclimized to the heat. 

I had lunch in a park in the bigger city of Montmagny with many other picnickers, and from then onwards the temperature got hotter and hotter into the low 30s. I filled up my water bottles with ice and took lots of breaks, stopping at the Maritime Museum in L’Islet and many churches  (mostly because they were cool inside 😅). The St Laurence widened more and more and looked like the ocean!

Around 6pm I arrived at my host Philippe’s home in La Pocatiere, a small town of around 4000 people. Getting to dip in their backyard pool was the perfect way to cap off a long day in the saddle!

Day 1: Quebec City Deja Vu

Distance: 14.5km

Speed: 16.5km/h

Weather: Sunny

In true Sherry fashion, the adventure starts before the real adventure even begins. When all of the below happens on the same day, it makes you wonder if biking to Quebec City again would have been the easier way.

1) 15min before I was suppose to board my first flight to Montreal, an announcement comes on that our flight is overbooked and asks for volunteers to give up their seats. I have only ever heard of this so it’s the first time it’s happening to me in real life. I have a minor panic that I’m going to get bumped off because I’m travelling alone, but luckily eventually I get on the plane.

2) Upon arrival in Montreal, our entire flight gets locked out of the Montreal Airport for 20min because there was no airport agent to clear us (again another first!) There were so many other passengers with proximate connecting flights that I’m pretty there was going to be riot if we had to wait one more minute. 

3) When I finally get inside YUL, I run like a madwoman to my gate because there was only 2min left before my boarding time, only to find out that my connecting flight was delayed by 3 hours because there was a shortage of pilots??!! 

4) A 3 hour airport nap later (which was actually much needed; red eye flights are only good in theory and never good in reality, despite that I always book them in my quest to save time anyways) and after finally flying the last 45min to Quebec City, I end up taking a public bus with my bike because no taxi or Uber wanted to take my bike box. I look on Google Maps for the closest bike shop and the bus got me within 550m of it. As I get off to walk the last stretch, an old man who thought I was crazy for trying to lug my bike box offers me a 2min ride in his truck.

5) I get to the Primeau Velo and all seems to be well with reassembling my bike. The guys there even let me use their bike stand and tools! Until we realize the elastics that hold my fenders to the fork weren’t there for some reason. They were such a small thing but so critical. I take up way too much of the bike shop guys’ time but after 1.5 hours they finally found some time elastics in the back and I’m at last on my way.
Here’s the only picture I took of the whole day, stumbling accidentally onto the Laval University campus was a full circle moment right there.


Unfortunately because of all of the above, I wasn’t able to join my Warmshowers hosts Maud & Gail & their son to visit an art exhibit in Vieux Quebec in the early afternoon. The rest of the evening was a lot more smooth sailing. Maud & Gail have bike toured with their kids across Europe and the USA and it was super inspirational to hear their stories!

In other news, the French I learned 8 years ago is definitely buried very deep. But maybe it will resurface in these next few days. 

Day 0: Tour de Poutine 2.0

Through repeated life experiences, I have come up with the theory that awesome things usually happen on sunny days.  

On this first day of 2022 that finally feels like proper summer in Vancouver, I am at the airport waiting to board a plane (my first time flying since the pandemic), waiting to finish biking across Canada, waiting to finally realize a dream that has been 8 years in the making since the first time around. 

I would say that my theory held true today 😊