Day 32 to Notre-Dame-des-Pins, QC
Thu 11 July 2024
Distance covered: 645km
Riding all day in the rain ain't that bad... when it's not cold.
I had planned several months ago to go around the Gaspé peninsula, but after looking at the weather forecast I said nah, it's right on the edge of all this moisture, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl, so I chatted up Claude and said "hey can I come over on Thursday" and he said sure.
This was a very good thing--the rain really came down last night, all night, and I shambled lazily over to the hotel lobby for eggs and toast I read about bad flooding down in central Vermont and thought: yep, that's that storm that slid itself up this way. Hauled out the rainsuit and checked the temperature outside--mild, so no need for wool shirt and leggings underneath--and shoved off around 10 as the rain turned to showers and I deliberately reframed the day from "ugh, rain riding" to "let's learn and find out little techniques to ride effectively in the rain".
I headed down the most direct route, the small yet provincial-level Route 108, where I saw nothing for a couple hours but the occasional logging truck, clear cuts, and potholes now and then. I was wondering what New Brunswick was like, and, well, I can say it's trees. I also found that if I go at 90 or 100kph and adjust the windscreen height so it' maybe 2/3rds of the way up, I can peer over the top of the screen to directly see the road, yet the oncoming wind blows the rain and water coming off the windscreen just over the top of my helmet... so I stayed dry most of the day in my little air bubble, but still had great visibility. The pinlock insert in my helmet visitor worked great as well, with no misting at all on the inside.
I did turn the bike to "RAIN" mode to see how it changed things, and it made it feel like I do when I'm waking up from a too long nap: drowsy and not really wanting to do much... though it did change the suspension to "Soft" which made the bike see-saw and that was a bit nauseating when I realized that had happened. No RAIN mode for me... it's kinda useless anyways as the bike always has traction control on, so what's the point of turning down the throttle to SLUG mode?
But hm, still got another hour to go and what's the DYNA mode do? Normally I just use ROAD mode, this might be fun? Oh yeah it's fun. The drive-by-wire throttle became very perky both when I cranked and released, and the bike felt like it was more a lively 900cc sports bike engine than a gentlemanly 1200cc tourer. The suspension changed to HARD which was just a little too harsh for the potholes, so back to NORM and I enjoyed dodging the potholes as the pavement dried out into Gran-Sault, New Brunswick... just across from the tippy top of Maine.
Lunch was at Pizza Boy with a great view of the waterfalls in the canyon, then back onto the Transcanada big old highway that hugs the international border. It looks funny on a map to me, as in "why does this highway avoid the US", but I saw the routing just follows a north-south river on the eastern bank, so it made more sense.
The weather was mild and even warm here, and the showers had stopped up here in some branch of the Appalachians mountains--20 to 22C--and I considered taking off the rainsuit as I approached the St Lawrence because mountains are cold and valleys are warm right? Uh not here. The rain started right up again and the temperature dropped quickly and bottomed at 11C and after riding for 20 minutes I ducked into a gas station and put on the woolies. Brrrrrrr and this is July?
Nothing much else to report--the Garmin routed me around afternoon traffic fleeing Quebec City, cold roads with gusty winds blowing up the St Lawrence, off and on showers--then southeast on Highway 73 to Claude's place about 45 minutes out of the city, where the temperature happily climbed back into the low 20s as the mountains rose.
Claude made a great dinner of pork chops and veggies (thank you!) and then we went to a local ice cream shop and I enjoyed a sundae.
I think the moral of today's story is always be prepared for winter weather in Quebec. It wasn't terrible to ride in the rain, just somewhat tedious, especially suiting up and figuring out exactly how to layer for the cold. Sometimes you just have to suck it up, because every day isn't going to be sunny and warm.