I slept in at the park and then went down to the water to attempt a swim (I got to my chest and then ran out because it was so cold!). But after that it was really nice to just sit by the water for a bit. I also realized though that I had gotten a bajillion bites the night before which are all super itchy.
In the early afternoon I headed out to get back to the ferry. It was only about 11 km to the ferry, but since the first half was through trails, and the second half was super hilly, I gave myself lots of time and was aiming to get there 15 minutes before the ferry left. I got out of the park and was on the cracked up country road heading down when suddenly after a particularly large pothole I could hear the air hissing out of my back tire. Another flat, in the middle of nowhere, while on my way to catch a ferry that only comes once an hour. Great.
I took everything off my bike and started to get to work, but there were flies everywhere that were swarming me as I was replacing the tire. Finally as I was putting the tire back on, an old man drove by and asked if I needed help. I told him that I had fixed the flat, but didn’t think I was going to catch the ferry, so he threw my bike and gear into the back of his suv, and gave me a ride down to the terminal. We arrived just in time, and I was scrambling to get everything out of the suv and get my panniers on to get onto the ferry. Meanwhile, the guys who ran the ferry were laughing at how stressed I seemed before coming to help. I’m used to TTC drivers who will literally close the door and drive away on you as you’re running for the door and are 3 steps away. These ferry guys though once they saw someone was coming were obviously going to wait for me. Once we were on the ferry, one of the guys who worked there pumped up my tire with an air compressor, higher than I could with my hand pump. I don’t have a gauge, but we did it by feel based on the front tire, so hopefully it’ll keep me going til I can measure the pressure.
Once on the other side of the lake I continued on the Route Verte 8 with some amazing views. At one point I stopped to take a photo, and then I realized that on the other side of the bike path there was a cottage with 2 women in a pool and a man on the deck. I commented to them that they had a fantastic view, and then they asked where I was from and invited me to come take a dip in their pool to cool off. It was a lovely invitation, but I had to keep going to make it to New Brunswick at a decent hour.
After another 90 minutes or so I finally made it to the border. The Petit-Temis trail continues onto Edmundston though, so I just kept going on the same path. Almost immediately after I entered NB though, there was a sign saying the trail was closed, but with no detour instructions. The road next to me was the Trans-Canada, which I can’t bike on, so I wasn’t really sure how to get around. At that point I saw a woman bike out from where it said the path was closed, so I asked her if it was traversible. She said yes, but that there was a hole up ahead you had to look out for. So I continued on the path until I got to this HUGE hole. There was no way around it, so I took off my panniers and climbed down the hole with them and then climbed up the other side. I then went back to carry my bike down and up and was really happy in this moment about how light my bike is. After that it was only about 15 minutes until finally I arrived at my campsite just outside Edmundston.
I had planned my day/ferry crossing so that I’d arrive at the Parc provincial Les Jardins de la République around 6:30 and have plenty of time to set up camp and go buy some groceries for dinner. But what I had failed to take into account was that NB is in a different time zone. So really I arrived at 7:30. And by the time I had set up camp it was after 8, and I didn’t want to have to go buy groceries to then have to cook in the dark, so I looked up a cantine that was close by and ate there. But I am so sick of greasy food and fries by now. Like I think I’ve had more than a years worth of greasy food in the last couple weeks...I will be so happy not to have any more fast food for a really long time.
Total distance: 48 km
Total elevation: 206 m
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