Saturday, July 2, 2022

Day 8: Fredericton to Moncton

Distance: 182.6km
Total distance: 749km
Average speed: 22.9km/h
Weather: Rainy turned to cloudy and partly sunny 

My watch says we rode 182km but I would say we did closer to 190km because I accidentally stopped it for a few kilometres. Needless to say, a big day! 

After leaving Tom’s house at 7:45ish, we went to Radical Edge bike shop in town to get Leanne’s bike assembled and checked properly. In the meantime, I also checked out the Fredericton Boyce Farmer’s Market and got some goodies that fueled us throughout the day! By the time we left Fredericton, it was almost 11am, super late for a big riding day but we weren’t too worried. 
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1x6EJR4LL-qwtaSbK7-Vp93OmWzIbjxDm
At the suggestion of the bike mechanic, we took the 105 and stayed on the north side of the St Johns River. The rain stayed with us for first 60km or so but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the downpour on my way to Rivere du Loup. Leanne got a flat 5km enroute to Jemseg but we managed to fix it on the road!

At Jemseg, we stopped at a gas station/road side restaurant for a hearty breakfast (even though it was past lunch time) before continuing on. We got back on the 105 before joining with the 102 for the biggest and most remote riding section of the day! The weather cleared up and we got beautiful glimpses of the Grand Lake! Somehow we only had to ride about 5km of the Trans Canada Highway today and the rest were all on quiet rural roads.

After many many kilometres of nothing but trees and lots of breaks, we finally made it to Salisbury, the village on the outskirts of Moncton! We stopped by the grocery store and ended up cooking dinner on a bench right outside, in true bike touring style! At the same time we also booked a place to stay in Moncton for the night, which turned out to be super fancy self-catering unit in a beautiful house! The last 23km was done mostly after sunset, which was a first for me in bike touring!

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