It was a bit confusing leaving the actual city of Rivière-du-Loup, but once I got on the Route Verte, it was great. I knew that the route was going to be unpaved from my map, so I was expecting it to be a bit brutal, but it was heaps better than the unpaved bit I had been on en route to Kamouraska. The Route Verte 8 path is a trail exclusively for hiking, biking, and cross-country skiing from Rivière-du-Loup to Edmundston, NB and runs along an old railroad. It’s generally pretty flat, and it was so nice to just be surrounded by trees and lakes all day. The trail has little rest stations periodically with picnic benches and shade covers, bathrooms, and potable water stations! Pretty much, this pathway was heaven.
At one point, not too far from Rivière-du-Loup, I had to cross over a road, and on the other side, there were construction workers blocking the pathway. I asked them how to get around/back on the path, and they said I could just come through. They stopped doing their work and then two of them came and carried my bike over the construction site while I walked through, it was so nice! They asked where I was from and when I said Toronto, one of the guys replied « Ah oui, les Blue Jays! Les Maple Leafs! » As I went to get back on my bike in the other side of the construction, I saw that my chain had come off. I bent down to get it back on, but it was a bit awkward as I didn’t have anything to lean my bike against, so I was holding it up with one hand and using the other to try to get the chain on. Anyways, then one of the construction workers saw and came over to help. So lovely.
In the afternoon, I pulled off the Route Verte to go into Saint-Honoré. A friend of mine had been biking through this region about 10 years ago with a friend when they found themselves in Saint-Honoré on a freezing cold night without any cold weather gear. The owner of the grocery store in the town had offered up his son’s VW van to sleep in, so I was going to pass on a greeting to him from Toronto. When I got there though, it turns out there’s been a new owner for the last 6 years. I told her the story though, and she said she’d pass it onto the previous owner. Also, while I was in the little épicerie, I ran into one of the construction workers from earlier in the day!
After Saint-Honoré I got back on the trail and decided to stop in Saint-Louis-de-Ha! Ha! for lunch. Yes, that’s a real place. Apparently it’s in the Guinness book of records for being the only municipality in the world with 2 exclamation marks in its name. As I was eating, a man came by and sat down for a smoke. We started chatting a bit, and I asked him what was cool to check out in Saint-Louis-de-Ha! Ha! He said the cows. So I guess the name is the most exciting thing about the place.
After this I kept going and finally arrived in Cabano, the city I planned on taking the ferry to the “national park” from (it’s Quebec, so they call their provincial parks national parks). I got to the motel that my map showed it leaving from, and the people at the motel said it was closed! There was another about 11 km away, but then I’d have to double back on the other side. I called the park to see what time they closed, and the guy said I could make a reservation over the phone and arrive at any time, so I did that, but then I asked how to get to the site. He said that once I entered, I’d cross a bridge and then go straight for a bit and the campsites would be on my right, and if I reached a building I’d gone too far. Seemed simple enough, so off I went to catch the ferry from Notre-Dame-du-Lac. I arrived there 10 minutes after it had left, and it only came once an hour, so I went to the grocery store to pick up a couple things while I waited.
Turns out it was a good thing I stayed an extra night in Rivière-du-Loup, as today was the first day that the ferry began running this season. When I finally got the ferry, it was a pretty, 20 minute ride across the huge lake. On the other side, to get to the park, it was only about 6 km, but there were some serious hills. As I was pushing through them I was just thinking I should’ve stayed at one of those private campgrounds on the other side, as this was so not worth it. I finally arrived at the park, and saw the bridge the guy had mentioned, so went across it, barely fitting through with my panniers on each side. Once I got to the other side, I started biking for awhile but there was no signage, and I hadn’t seen any buildings yet, and I didn’t really know how far to go. I stopped to look up a map of the park on my phone, but there were so many mosquitos swarming me as soon as I stopped moving, that I couldn’t wait for it to load. So I kept going and then after 5 km, I finally found the campsites. I was so happy to arrive, but I still don’t understand why the guy didn’t mention it was 5 km instead of making it seem like it was this short pathway.
Once I set up camp and showered, I started to make dinner, but realized I didn’t have a can opener, so I went by one of the other sites with an RV to see if I could borrow one. After I used it, I went back to my site, and about 10 minutes later, the guy I had borrowed the opener from came by my site and invited me to join him and his wife for dinner. I was almost finished making my food, so I went and joined them once I was done. Olga and Paul are from Edmundston, so I was asking them all about what to check out in the area. They were saying that I have to go to Shédiac before PEI—apparently it’s the warmest water north of Virginia and there are beautiful beaches. After we were done dinner we sat by the fire for a bit which was really nice. When I’m alone, I don’t generally make a fire, since you have to buy firewood at most of these sites instead of scavenging, and then transport it to your site, so it’s not really worth it for one person for one night. So it was really nice to sit around the fire with them.
Tomorrow I’m not going too far—Edmundston is only about 60 km away, so I’ll have a lazy morning and take advantage of the park before heading off. And I have to say, now that I’m actually in the park, all those hills were totally worth it; this is so much nicer than the private campgrounds I passed by on the way here.
Total distance: 113 km
Total elevation: 903 m
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