Everyday Adventures in Quebec

Well, in case you were wondering how a day goes on our trip, here are a few examples of our favorite experiences the past few days. 

So we roll into a town about 7 pm and start asking around for a grocery store. We ask a guy who happens to own the store, and tells us its closed but he will let us in. Then, we ask where a good place to camp is, and he says he happens to own a vacant lot on the water down by the wharf, and we can camp there! awesome!

Then, we are riding through a little town, and a car pulls over to talk to us. Its an old man named Jerry who says he is a cyclist and is on his way to go sailing and do we want to come? Sure! So we bike to the marina and board the 16 foot sailboat, Mockingbird, and go out on the St. Lawrence for a couple hours. What a nice and random break! 

These are just a few of our ramdom adventures, and well, bike touring is by far the best way to travel!!

Quebec is famous for strawberries, and we happened to be here at the right time! YUM!

B-rad surprised me with wildflowers in my handlebar bag  for our `two month on the road` mark. awww :)

we met some awesome friends through warm showers (check out the side link) who let us camp in their yard and hang out with them- great people! Its always good to meet other bike tourist and swap stories and get advice!

our capsite in Kamouraska, where the grocer let us stay. 

The Mockingbird. B-rad even got to drive, and Jerry said he must have norwegian blood because he was a great helmsman.

Biking along HWY 132 along the St. Lawrence river... BEAUTIFUL!!!

Priceless

Well, two weeks after leaving Goose Bay, we finally made it back to civilization! It was a few weeks filled with mostly gravel road, lots of great wilderness campsites and sunsets, lots of dusty days and big trucks flying past us, and LOTS of steep steep hills. If we are not in shape for the rockies after this, we never will be. Our bikes held up great, with the exception of shredding only one tire, for which we had a spare. And the high prices of food and snacks and dealing with lots of dirt road construction was worth it for the priceless feeling of finishing what all the locals said we were crazy for trying. And now, we are happy to be on pavement and a place where there are POEPLE to talk to!  With nearly 2 months and 2300 miles under our tires, we are now headed west and on to the mainland of our cross canada adventure!

Paved Paradise

The dirt behind the grader is way to soft unless you follow in its foot steps

Dorkas works in the Scale shack weighing all the big dumptrucks that kept passing us.  She then dumped a truck load of food onto our bikes.

Safety is our number one goal here at churchill falls.... We toured the hydro electric plant 1000ft under ground...shocking

CBC news interviewed us in Labrador city

You don`t really begin to feel like your in a different country until you don`t speak the language.  This is the border of where English is no longer normal, and we are so helpless when it comes to french.

uhhh Canada is big. Spending our day hiding from the rain.

These guys are also hiding from the rain.

We biked 100 miles in one day just to end with this. Now thats a real century ride. Hopefully the bike computer is Y2K compliant.

Worn out after a 100 mile day. 45 miles of which, was dirt.

This is what it looks like everytime a truck passes you in either direction.

pedaling through the ``eye of Quebec``

Trail Showers

Sunset in Rimouski

The very small LDS branch in Rimouski, thanks again Elders for translating.

Goose Bay Goodness

I know we just posted, but our stay in Goose Bay was worth another one! We met a guy on the ferry over the Labrador that let us use his SAT phone and told us to call him when we got to Goose Bay. We did, and he really took care of us! We were given a bed, showers, laundry, and even old MRE meals to take on the road! He also took us up in one of the helicopters he works with to see where our friends were (they were riding about a day behind us). It was pretty exciting, we didnt expect to get to see Labrador from a tiny helicopter! Oh, and we interviewed with the local paper about our ride, we will update that when it comes out, and we have an appointment with the TV station as well. we're FAMOUS! hahah. Thanks Wilf and Brenda!

Keith and Michaela are the tiny dot on the road. Click on the picture and you can see it bigger :)

SO excited to be in here! its my first time!

Wilf took us up in a helicopter (he works for the heli place here) to look for  out biking buddies. Pretty cool!

We got to cook our own steaks at the steakhouse where Brenda works- turns out we are  pretty good cooks!

Wilf and Brenda, our amazing hosts in Goose Bay. We call him the unofficial mayor of Goose Bay

Brad playing with Narwhal Tusks! Turns out they ARE real animals.

this is US in that helicopter! pretty cool!

A long way from no where

We just finished the first 500 KM of the labrador dirt road section... ouch! who's idea was this anyway? :) Our bums are sore and our brains are boggled, and we are suffering from shaken baby syndrome. Luckily we only have about 1200 KM left of the dirt... We are having lots of crazy times- great weather, saw a black bear (that ran away when we sang- are we that bad?) and lots of beautiful and uninhabited wilderness. Plus we get lots of respectful looks from all the motorcycle tourists :) WE LOVE LABRADOR!

thats four days of biking for us... 12 miles per granola bar= a lot of snacks packed.

yep, a long way from anything, riding on rocks.

reaching a stretch of pavement coming into Goose Bay. The first pavement we've seen in over a week- you'd kiss it too.

perfect road bike conditions...

bottled at the source :)

bears dont mess with boys who wear capes!

New Foundland, New foundfriends



New Foundland was instantly a favorite for us.  The landscape is totally epic, Huge mountains, amazing coast, pristine ponds, raging whitewater, grueling granite cliffs, and best of all the people are made of actual Gold.  We met so many people that went so far out of there way for us it was creepy.  But a huge thanks to everyone that gave us a meal, Sunday devotional, boat ride, satellite phone, car rides to the viking village, a place to sleep , bike maintenance or even 40 bucks to buy breakfast.  One of my favorite parts of this trip is the people we are meeting.  I am amazed of how warmly we are welcomed into random homes and treated like family.  Even as I write this we are being prepared a moose stew for dinner by a couple who passed us on the highway yesterday.  We are still just at the tip of the iceberg (which we have seen several of) of this trip, and already I don't think there can be a better way to travel and really get to know the people in the area. 

     The knee is all better thanks to the many remedies I have been applying, and Mary taking the trailer away from me (she won't give it back ). We still get sore and tired but faster and tanner.  The one thing that people have warned us about the most in Labrador (black flies) haven't even begun yet this season, hopefully we are past when they do decide to take flight.  Our bellies are full and our arms are numb thanks to the not smooth dirt highway.  All in all things on the bikes are doing dandy.

Lonnie, Daughter of the Ocean Spray B&B that we didn't stay at but decided to treat us like guests anyways, by taking us out for a lovely afternoon to Kipple island.

"I'm the king of the world"

These days Mary gets tired of walking so I have to help her out here and there, don't worry we are getting her on a strict biking all the time exercise program as soon as we get home.

The whole gang on Kipple island. Larsens, Pateys, Hoggs, Burton
Did I mention Ocean Spray B&B in Port Saunders, NL will treat you like family

Do you know what the difference is between Mary and Brad?
Mary makes bike touring look GOOD.

Is this what heaven is like?

Another fine host for the night, possibly the only owners of a bike stand in Labrador.

Inukshuk, these guys rock

Marys Harbor,  86Km of dirt road just for this picture

Life on the road

We have been biking up the west coast of Newfoundland- a land of trees, rocks, mountains and hills! its been great so far, i think this may be canada's Alaska :)


eating steamed mussels in butter.. yumm....

mary about to get epic

made it to newfoundland!





suns out, bugs out!



out on the open road!



fiddleheads- a common food up here- we found some growing wild and steamed em up! YUM!

we ran into a local in the rain who let us stay in his partially finished cabin for the night! not a bad location to camp!

got the knee checked out! and the verdict is... tendonitis! looks like he wont lose the leg after all! stretching and ice are in place!

 

our campsite in corner brook, overlooking the town and bay- gorgeous!



a wooded trail through town that made us miss mountain biking.... :)