Day 10. There will be hills to climb

Abbotsford to Eastman, Quebec

8/27/23. 38 mi. AIS: 4:09. 9.3 mph. Elev. 843 ft.

Good news… no rain on us today! The sun didn’t break through until early afternoon. Temps are perfect for bike riding. Today’s high was 70. Doesn’t hit that until about 4 pm.

We took some scenic routes today through a regional Parc and then a National Parc. We were on paths along the edge of the National Parc so they didn’t charge us. Followed rivers and lakes and crossed downstream from an earthen dam. It was a pretty casual ride… fairly flat … until it wasn’t! The trail surface was a mix of paved and crushed gravel. Easy enough

Stopped for lunch and a latte pick me up in Waterloo. Thinking we had 25 km (1.5 hrs) to go to Eastman we took off all caffeinated, fed and ready to take on the last push to camp in Eastman!

Not so fast… not the easy, breezy flat trail ride like yesterday. Oh no…. It was a nice gravel road in a straight line that went up up up, down down down then again, then again! Thinking we were at the ultimate top with gorgeous sweeping views of mountains to the south… we went down a very steep hill… only to take a curve and have to go up just one more time!

The only other bikes we saw along the big rollers were e-bikes! I was pretty proud of our 67 year old bodies chugging up the climbs with our load. On one hill I did the wiggle technique that my brother Joe taught me. It works really well.

Then it was a gentle ride into camp near Eastman. Camp was on a nice little lake with lots of summer cabins and docks. The campground owner Helene was quite charming. She jumps on her bike to show us several campsites. Then she said use any of them we want… no charge for electricity! There is honestly no one here tonight. They seem to leave their camps all set up for the next weekend. I’ll take a photo tomorrow of a couple of them. You’ll be amazed at how they set up camp here!

Quick 2 km ride into town for dinner tonight at McMurray Bistro pub. Nice outside seating area. Simple food… burgers, salads and POUTINES!

Tomorrow we have more big hills to climb! Headed to Sherbrooke. 50 km. Some gravel roads that mountain bikes are recommended… we shall see how that goes?!