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.
Hey Sherry, great that you continued your trip. Yesterday I read a report of somebody who used a glucose monitor to determine when food intake is necessary, I found this quite interesting, I think I spent a lot more time eating and maybe ate too much most of the time, at least I spent 26 hours more eating/sleeping/faffing than this guy, while the cycling time was almost identical (66 vs 67 hours): https://thegasmanonabike.wordpress.com/london-edinburgh-london-1500km-audax/ Oh, and this was the most difficult mind game I have done so far, telling the body to pedal every stroke and not just roll or stop.
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