Once there was finally a small break in the rain, I seized my chance and ran into the indoor rec room/kitchen of the campground. I made some breakfast and coffee there and then went back out to pack up my tent. It was already drizzling again by the time I left, but at least I was on the road.
The next town over was Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies, and just in the outskirts of it was the bakery that Suzanne’s friends owned. Even though I had only been going for 15.6 km by the time I reached it, I decided to stop for a snack. I met both Camilles who were super friendly and I had the best hot chocolate. It was really difficult to will myself to leave the warm bakery to face outside, but finally I managed to get up to keep going.
Just a bit after leaving, the Route Verte turned into this gravel pathway that was apparently a shared path for bikes and tractors, because those 2 vehicles obviously have such similar needs. Going on the gravel was so slow moving because I couldn’t get any momentum going, so after about 5 km on the path I figured I’d cut back up to the country highway. That took me through the town of La Pocatière but then I ended back up on the gravel pathways as highway 20 (the Trans Canada) was the only road that went parallel along the shore. So I ended up doing that detour pretty much to save 4 km on the gravel path, and then had to continue on it.
Finally once I got to Rivière-Ouelle the Route Verte came back onto paved road. But at this point the head winds had picked up, so I still couldn’t get that much momentum going. My goal was to make it to Kamouraska for lunch, as I wanted to check out that cantine the couple had told me about a few days earlier. There were a few climbs leading there that in normal conditions would’ve been ok, but with the headwinds were really challenging.
Finally I made it to Kamouraska, and the signage for the Route Verte was pointing me away from the main road and down a hill. I was pretty hesitant to take it at first, as I didn’t want to have to climb back up, but then when I did decide to follow it, I was so happy I did. There were gorgeous views of the St Laurent as I went down, and then the road went all along the shore. I stopped to take a photo and then starting chatting with a woman named Clare who was out walking her dog. She was saying that because of the clay in the water here that the tide brings, the water gets really warm and is great to swim in (at least that’s what I understood—there was a lot of new French vocabulary in this conversation). She was also saying that in the summer, the town is super full of tourists, so I was lucky to come while it was still so calm.
Not far from here was the cantine I had heard about, Mamie Kamouraska. I got a “ratatouille poutine” which had diced eggplant and tomatoes, and shredded cheese from a local fromagerie in addition to the cheese curds. It was soooo good, like better than La Banquise (my fav poutinerie in Montreal). I also had a beer from a local brewery, Tête d’Allummette, there which was delicious. So Kamouraska definitely was a highlight, and I was feeling pretty good to tackle the final 44 km to Rivière-du-Loup, even though it was already well into the afternoon.
When I left Kamouraska though, the headwinds were so brutal. The first 16 km to Saint-André took me an hour and 20 minutes (for comparison, I’m usually averaging about 20 km/hr)! At one point when I was surrounded by nothing but fields and wind I screamed out “fuck you wind!” Unsurprisingly, it didn’t change anything. Maybe if I had yelled in French it would have...
By now I was so tired, and a bit past St André there was a turnoff to go to St Alexandre de Kamouraska, where there was a campground. I got to the turnoff and had to make a decision: 4 km to the closer campground, or 18 km to Rivière-du-Loup. Jess gave me some motivation at this point, the rain had stopped for the moment, and the headwinds had died down a bit, so I decided to push on.
I was so close to RdL, and was really happy to see the km count going down. Less happy about all the hills, but at least they were small. I finally reached RdL, but it was an actual city, not just a town like everywhere else I had passed through. The campground I was staying at was on the other side of the city, so another 6 km.
I reached the campground, exhausted, and went to register. I asked the teenager at the registration if I’d have a view of the St Laurent and he said yes, so I was happy about that. But then when I got to the site, there was a big metal fence (as we were elevated) blocking the view! I could still see through it, the the sunset was gorgeous, but kinda annoying to have the fence there. Also, the tent pad was gravel, so there was no way to stake the tent or, more importantly, the rain fly. The weight in the tent would keep it down, and it wasn’t super windy, but without being able to stake the fly away from the tent, it would be pretty useless at keeping out water. I tried looking for some big rocks to tie it to, but was only able to find small ones that would easily be blown away.
I didn’t really have any other options, so I used the small rocks and hoped for the best. By the time I was getting ready to go to bed, I was so cold. It was 8 degrees outside, so I put on almost every piece of clothing I had before climbing into my sleeping bag liner and sleeping bag, but was still freezing. Definitely not my comfiest night to date.
Total distance: 110 km
Total elevation: 471 m
Avanti Maya!!!!
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