Day 21 - Transfer Day

miles today: 87 total miles: 1,323 km today: 141 total km: 2,130

Week 3! We left Bathurst, NB, which at a population of 12,157 is the 4th largest metro area in New Brunswick. We stayed at Youghall Campground, which was quite large (and quite expensive $36 for basically a tent spot among mostly RVs that were settled in for the season). I had slept poorly, so it was my fault that we has a slow sart, but Mike was gentlemanly about the late start

. . . motivating me out of the tent . . .

We were packed by 9:30, did our morning stretches (and boy, these feel so good that I think that I will continue to do them even when we get home. They take just 5-10 minutes and make a huge difference in our days).

For all our friends who are mushroom lovers (you know who you are), I took these pictures for you as our stretching field was covered with them this morning.

So, fed, caffeinated, and limber, we headed out for another day of great weather, a fairly short ride, and a tailwind.

Today was basically a transfer day as we left the Atlantic to cut across to Miramichi and then head south to Kouchibouguac National Park. For everyone who doesn’t have an opinion in the Great Ketchup v. All Dressed Chips Debate, hasn’t eaten poutine, or knows the lyrics to at least one Great Big Sea song, Kouchibouguac National Park is here:

A gold star to anyone who can pronounce Kouchibouguac!

While QC may have the “Bienvenue Cycliste” offering bike tourists guaranteed campsites at a discounted price (and a lot more poutine and ice cream stands), NB has WAY better roads. I know that I am jinxing us by saying so, but so far, we haven’t had a single flat in NB compared to the 8 flats (I think) for QC. With respect to road quality, it is as though New Brunswick is the Wisconsin of Canada . . .

. . . and a few hours later . . .

We did run into road construction, but even then, the flag man (who was missing his front teeth and a half finger) was super friendly and told us that he’d have us go after all the cars so we would have the road to ourselves. Mike said it made sense to let all the cars go so we wouldn’t slow them down, but he defensively replied that they just wanted to keep us safe!

As we were pulling out at the tail end of the cars, I heard him say in French something like . . . “la lanterne rouge est une bicylette” (If you know, you know. If you don’t, look up “last rider in Tour de France.”)

We even had pilot car. The driver of the pilot car also yelled out to us not to drive speed in the construction zone - with a big laugh. To be honest, since a fair bit of the closed road was downhill, we can’t guarantee we didn’t speed.

We hit Miramichi (just over halfway by 4 pm) which meant it was a bit of a late lunch. And we had this bridge with no shoulder to traverse.

Even so, we took some time to properly pose with the city sign for Miramichi ( . . . where the girls sit on your knee)

Most of those reading this will know that Mike and I love taking our niblings out on excursions. It started 11 years ago, when Mike took a 5-year old Leopold (our nephew who is now 16) on a multi-day hiking trip out in Montana. They were hiking along singing Donkey Riding by the Great Big Sea at the top of their lungs when they turned a corner and found another set of hikers coming toward them. Ever since, Donkey Riding has been a thing with our nibling trips.

We pushed out the final 40+ km to Kouchibouguac National Park where we have an entire primitive biker campground to ourselves (if you don’t count the billion swarming mosquitos). It is a lovely campground, but since there is no potable water and a 2.8 km bike/hike, it is not as popular as other camp grounds in the park. That said, we are belly-full with seafood alfredo pasta (conceived by me, made by Mike while I was hiding from the mosquitos), a little stinky, and ready for bed.

Tomorrow, we hope to get an early start in order to get to Shediac, the proclaimed “Lobster Capital of the World”, in time for lunch.

BIKE BETA: We were concerned about riding on NB8 and NB11 - pretty major roads for New Brunswick. Not only was riding allowed (the flag man laughed heartily when we told him of our concern and said “of course bikes are welcome!”) but there is generally a huge, smooth, clean shoulder. The traffic is heavy at times, but really not a problem at all. The bridge at Miramichi, however, has no shoulder and a broken up sidewalk (we opted for the traffic lane). A semi truck got stuck behind us but left us plenty of room. Nobody tried to squeeze by. We pushed hard and fast to inconvenience traffic as little as possible, but really not a big issue.