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.
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