Day 11 - Apprehensions and resolutions

miles today: 73 total miles: 669
km today: 118 total km: 1078

Today we passed 1000 KM. Somehow we didn’t even notice until writing the blog for the day….

After the show last night, and with a shorter day ahead of us, we were happy to sleep in in the comfort of the AirBnB apartment. Our other main goal for the morning was to get real Montreal bagels, preferably at one of the two OG bagel shops. Chandra has never had the real thing (I had once before) but we make Montreal style bagels in our wood-fired oven at home, so it was definitely worth the effort! I also wanted to swing by Casa del Popolo (not far from St. Viateur bagels) where I played with Searchlights on tour a few years ago. Good memories and cool to stop by :)!

We wandered slightly aimlessly around the Mont Royal neighborhood before we found the shop but the line was out the door, it was already 11am, and we were getting hungry and ready to get going. Luckily along the way we found a bike shop and got new gloves - Chandra’s were shredded and mine had not enough padding so both of us were experiencing numb fingers which is a bummer. So we had to skip the bagel line but found a cool diner with bagels (they were good as well! Maybe not wood-fired but tasted just like ours!).

Chandra threw down some bagel/lox/Hollandaise goodness and I had a scramble with a bagel. Good stuff!

Warning: side note here! While we were sitting there, we noticed a hardware store across the street - we had ridden by earlier and thought it looked too focused on kitchen tools to be helpful, but on second thought, we decided to take a chance on finding a tarp. Et voila! No problem! but why another tarp? Well - this is where my apprehensions come in. I find on long trips like this, the things I worry about the most are not being prepared enough, or not having the right gear. Even with both of those needs met, we get challenges and curve balls and, honestly, the problem solving can be part the joy of this kind of experience. For example, we had enough tubes for a general time touring, but we had multiple flats that were pretty unavoidable. It wasn’t that we weren’t prepared - just got a curveball (and the rain, and …..if you read Chandra’s post, you know it was a hard day). But, we’ve been in massive rain with our gear in the past and nothing (not the panniers, the trailer bag, or the tent) have leaked. But the first big rain night in Couberg, we found the floor of the tent to be wet. Still not sure, but we suspect it’s the seams around the “bathtub” floor and it was an intense rain! But also, we found after the long ride in the rain, that our panniers have finally started leaking. We’ve just never even considered that issue in the past. So now, with the forecast holding more rain ahead, we find (at least in my apprehensive brain) that now we do NOT have the correct gear - at least not that we can depend on. It’s a frustrating feeling, and until resolved, it gives me knots in my stomach. I don’t like the answer to a challenge being “I wasn’t perpared”. So, we have to get things back in working order, regardless of assumptions we made prior to leaving and past experience. For the tent, Chandra realized if we just have another tarp (we put one on the bike at night) to line the floor of the tent, even if water seeps in, it won’t get us and our gear wet. In the intesne rain in Couberg, no rain was coming through the main top part of the tent - only by the floor. As for the panniers, a simple fix is lining them with garbage bags. So, with our breakfast hardware store discovery, we sorted out the tarp, and already had bags from the morning. We hope to find seam sealer in our upcoming rest day in Quebec City and hopefully all the knots will dissipate from my stomach for a bit.

So, after bagels and eggs and coffee, we headed east, past the Olympic stadium.

There was a small headwind today, and with our late start, we wanted to make good time. The going was easy - flat and mellow, sometimes next to the St. Lawrence, sometimes just in fields.

We had planned, also, to start the day with a patched tube that was a little suspect - we figured if it held air, great! But if not, we would just get rid of it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little in between - a slow leaker, so when we stopped for lunch, we found it flat after we took a break. Also, this meant when we thought it felt a little squishy, it probably was and that slowed us down a bit over the morning. Talking with Chris at dinner last night, he mentioned how flats so often come in clusters for various reasons. So, when I put in a new tube at lunch, I felt all around the rim and the tire for sharp things and sure enough - I found a little sharp point at the seam of where the rim is connected to itself to make a full circle. This is the reason we initially had to replace the read wheel on the tandem years ago (and now we are using the old front rim as the new back rim, thanks to Doug’s!). So, I put a little electrical tape over the sharp spot and that should help the tubes live longer. By the way, the lunch spot was a lovely little municipal park with tables, shelter, water, Adirondac chairs, bathrooms - all on the shores of the St. Lawrence in Lanoraie. Awesome!




As often is the case, the last half of the KM for the day we were pretty focused and cranked hard - trying to maintain a good pace and outrun a forecast rainstorm that’s supposed to pass this evening. We made it to Louiseville and I made Kedgeree for dinner. As seems to be an outdoors tradition, I also forgot the cream, but had some milk that I added when Chandra mentioned it. We were missing a couple ingredients, but it turned out pretty well!

Chandra got bit by a bunch of mosquitos as the rain started and the sun set, so she’s crashed next to me in the tent as I write this. We have a really long day tomorrow with some climbs, but looks like a tailwind, and it ends in Quebec City with a full real rest day coming up!

BIKE BETA: It can be unavoidable on a long tour to find sharp spots on a wheel rim. Electrical tape is brilliant at smoothing them over, so we always carry some. Also, the Marina Campground at Louisville is awesome! There is a covered shelter for a guaranteed biker spot (you might not get the shelter spot, but you won’t be turned away if you arrive via bike thanks to the Bienvenue Cycliste program)