Gaspésie from Kyle's point of view (Rimouski QC - Campbellton NB)

Cliff's notes:

Best campsite views: Au Soleil Couchant/Grande-Vallée (Minke whale, beautiful ocean), Havre de la Nuit/Percé (elevated view of Rocher Percé).

Best rides: Two day stretch between Grande-Vallée and Percé, with an astonishing view of Rocher Percé as we rolled into Percé. Great climbs into Grande-Vallée and then to Percé.

Total km: Approximately 690


August 21, 2013

I boarded the train mid day in Ottawa. I transferred at Montréal to the Gaspé overnight train. The Gaspé train has a "bubble car" where you can enjoy a 360 degree view of the journey from above the other cars.

As darkness set in, I got comfortable in my "sleeper", a small bed and tried to get some sleep in. The Rimouski stop was at 2:05AM, so I "awoke" and headed to a hotel for the night so I could meet the girls (and Victor) first thing in the morning.

The train is great for travelling with a bike. A $25 fee (per journey), and they take the bike fully assembled. You just need to make sure your train and connecting trains will have baggage cars. I suggest calling ahead. Also, on the sleeper trains apparently you can BYOB.

August 22, 2013

Rimouski - Matane

Waking up a little groggy from not much sleep, and surprised by a nice tailwind we set off. This was my introduction to the perfectly organized and efficient "O2H" team. Off we went on a flat portion and into the Gaspé region..
We camped a bit outside of the city of Matane, in a nice wooded area.

August 23, 2013
Matane - Ste-Anne des Monts

With a full night of sleep behind me, on to day 2. Another 90km stretch of mostly flat, yet beautiful coastal views. This time we camped at the 'ancre jaune' (yellow anchor). 

August 24, 2013

Rest day in Ste-Anne des Monts

We hiked in the Chic Chocs at the Parc National de la Gaspésie. This was actually my first time seeing Moose up close, and there were so many Moose off the trail we took.

August 25, 2013

Ste-Anne des Monts - Grande-Vallée

Leaving Ste-Anne des Monts we knew we were getting into the hills. Everyone was a bit nervous, we are not used to this amount of climbing in the Ottawa region. Everyone stayed determined and we arrived on time as usual, with curving ocean views town after town, then a couple of pretty steep climbs at the end of the day.

Spending lunch at the café recommended by a local cyclist was nice, I bought a baguette and ate some of the local smoked salmon.

Break at café

We camped at Camping Au Soleil Couchant. This camping site had probably the best view and access to ocean on my trip. Highlights were when we saw what I think was a Minke whale swimming by.

August 26, 2013

Grande-Vallée - Griffon

This was a challenging day, with consistent steep climbs and descents for the whole day. It was rewarding though, and we got through it.

Roughly halfway there.

Arriving at the high point before Grande-Vallée



August 27, 2013
Griffon-Percé

Today we went through the town of Gaspé. We thought it would be a good idea to stop and have some brunch and taken in the scenery before moving on.

Stopping in Gaspé for brunch.

This was a pretty tough day after the last two days of culminated effort. We struggled through it and were rewarded at the end with glimpses of Rocher Percé towards the end, then after an exhausting climb we sped down the other end into town and to the campsite.

Starting out on some gravel.

Nice café stop, almost at Percé. Really good food and they were playing the Beatles' White Album too, so pretty chill rest stop for a tough day.

The Havre de la Nuit campsite, while cramped for space (seems to me they just rent out their bar's lawn..) has an incredible view.

August 28, 2013
Sick day!

I must have ate something that didn't agree with my stomach and had to stay in bed all day. I tried to be of some use by helping Victor with groceries.

August 29, 2013

Grande-Rivière (Pabos Mills) - New Richmond

Before we set off I made sure to take a photo of the Santa sign.. I'll have to investigate why Quebec campsites have a consistent Noël theme. We thought it was funny.

Merry Christmas!

Not really much to see on this ride. The day was overcast and threatening rain the whole time.

We had some gravel detours and farm views.

August 30, 2013
New Richmond - Campbellton

This was my final day with the group. We rode through a pretty steady headwind towards New Brunswick. There was really not much to see and for me this was probably the toughest day. We arrived in Campbellton and camped out at Sugarloaf Park, also pretty well known for mountain biking. Too bad I didn't have my mountain bike..

Bridge into New Brunswick/Campbellton

Riding through a lot of native territory.

Campbellton, NB - apparently lots of good salmon fishing.



This was really well organized. Thanks to all who put it together, and thanks to Victor for driving and doing chores! 

Good luck getting to $5000, and good luck to Victor's pHd.

Days 16-18 - Gaspé, Percé and Bonaventure

Day 16 - distance: 101 km (L'Anse-au-Griffon to Percé)

Riders: Danielle, Emma, Kyle, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

Today's ride started out with a 10 km section through Parc Formillon on an unpaved path. Fortunately the steeper sections were paved.

Emma, Sheila, and Danielle
Parc Formillon

We encountered construction, a newly tarred stretch of road, and plenty of hills, which kept things interesting to say the least! We took a long break at Café Artisan in the town of Gaspé in the morning and at Café Couleurs 20 km west of Percé in the late afternoon.

Sheila, Emma, Kyle, Danielle, and Leslie
Café Couleurs

After we didn't think we had any energy left in us to climb any more hills, we had one long ascent followed by our steepest descent of the trip (17% grade) into the town of Percé. Victor could even see us coming down the hill from the campsite, about a kilometer away! When we arrived at the campsite, we were pleasantly surprised to see that Victor, being the incredible person that he is, had already set up our tents and unloaded the van.

Day 17 - distance: 55.5 km (Percé to Pabos Mills)

Riders: Danielle, Emma, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

Leslie, Meghan, Sheila, Victor and I got out on the water on a boat tour that took us to the Rocher Percé and to the Parc National de l'Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé. We saw many seals, Northern Gannets, and Cormorants. We hiked across the island and got to see the largest colony of Northern Gannets in the world.

Northern gannet colony

Northern gannets

Rocher Percé

View of Percé from the water

The hills of Percé

We had lunch in Percé followed by a two-hour bike ride to Pabos Mills where we camped at another site decorated for Christmas.

Day 18 - distance: 96 km (Pabos Mills to New Richmond)

Riders: Danielle, Emma (until Bonaventure), Kyle, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

Even though we're now heading west along Highway 132, we had a tailwind with us again today. We had a fast and uneventful ride along very nicely paved highway with rolling hills. We came across Café Luna in New Carlisle for a mid-morning break. I could barely believe it when we arrived at Bonaventure, my final destination, around 2 pm. I cycled 944 km over 11 days of biking.

Leslie, Emma, Sheila, Danielle, and Kyle
Bonaventure

I checked into Motel du Grand-Pré and we had lunch in my room before saying our goodbyes. The rest of the group continued biking another 40 km to New Richmond.

Meg arrives in New Richmond

Days 14-15 - The tip of Gaspé

Day 14 - distance: 116 km (Sainte-Anne-des-Monts to Grande Vallée)

Riders: Danielle, Emma, Kyle, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

I think we were all a bit anxious for what was to come, so we awoke at 6 am and got going on our bikes by 7:45 am. The first 60 km of riding was pure joy. We had sun, a tail wind, excellent road conditions and hardly any traffic. We stopped for "lunch" (we basically eat constantly so it's probably best not to label meals) around 10:30 am in Mont-Louis. I was touched by the friendly reception we received from locals. One woman stopped to let us know about a market and café, which turned out to be a hidden gem. We bought tomatoes and baguette from the market and everyone had a meal at the cafe. We got back on our bikes and started climbing once we were 85 km into our ride... and we basically continued climbing for the next 30 km to our final destination in Grande Vallée at 4 pm-ish (elevation maps coming soon).

Many of us agree it was our most beautiful campsite to date. Sheila and I braved the cold water and took a dip in the St Lawrence. It was basically an ice bath followed by a "hot stone massage" using the rocks on the beach. As if the day wasn't magical enough, we saw a whale swimming close to shore at dusk. We made a camp fire and barely stayed awake until 9 pm. For many of us, this was our most memorable and favourite day of cycling.

Grande Vallée

Leslie and Sheila enjoying dinner

Day 15 - distance: 75 km (Grande Vallée to L'Anse-au-Griffon)

Riders: Danielle, Emma, Kyle, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

We got another early start since today we had the greatest elevation gain of the whole trip. There is no question, the climbs are tough, but for every uphill there is a downhill and we are hitting some impressive max speeds! We are also starting to get pretty accurate at gauging the percentage of the hills. The highlight was a downhill rated 15% where most of us reached our max speed for the entire bike trip. It started raining for the last 10 min of our bike ride, but we treated ourselves to a night in a motel and stayed warm and dry. Danielle, Kyle, Leslie, Meghan, Sheila, and Victor took a drive out to Parc Formillon and saw seals, while I stayed at a café to do some blogging.

Sheila, Leslie, Danielle, Kyle, Emma, and Meghan ready to set out

Kyle, Meg, Danielle and Sheila riding in the early morning

Guarding l'Anse

l'Anse au Griffon

Rest day in Ste-Anne-des-Monts

Danielle, Kyle, Victor, Sheila and I headed to the Parc National de la Gaspésie on Saturday to explore the mountains. We weren't really resting by going hiking, but we chose two easy and short hikes... and it was worth it! There were spectacular mountain views and we saw four moose.

Kyle and Victor take in the view at Gaspésie National Park

Danielle and Kyle tree and mountain poses

Sheila and Victor

Lunch spot at Lac aux Américains

Sheila's butterfly

Leslie and Meg relaxed in town for the day (smart move) and we all met up for a yummy and filling pasta dinner and made various repairs to our bikes. Victor, with great patience, taught me to true my wheel. It was an early night so that we could get a very early start for our long day of hill climbing.

Sunset in town

Sunset at camp

Days 9-12 - Welcome to Gaspésie

Day 9 - distance: 44 km (Kamouraska to Rivière du Loup)

Riders: Danielle, Emma, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

After a relaxing morning at the Caddell home and a filling lunch at Pizza Mag in Kamouraska, we got going around 3 pm. Thankfully we didn't need to cover much distance today since we had a headwind for most of the ride. We rode in a peloton and took turns in the lead, rotating every 3 km or so. When we arrived at our campsite in Rivière du Loup, Victor was very surprised to hear we didn't get rained on considering he drove through rain on three separate occasions, but somehow we managed to miss it. Camping du Quai is located off Highway 132 E and is right across from "Noël au Château," which manages to stay open for business until 10 pm in August. Very random! While Danielle, Leslie, Sheila and I explored the Château, Meg and Victor went for a run.

Victor, Sheila, Danielle, Meg, Leslie, Emma

Nine-fingered Santa Claus

Danielle and Leslie rescue Emma from the whale

Moon rising in Rivière du Loup

Day 10 - distance: 106 km, 1 flat tire, 1 tire bulge (Rivière du Loup to Rimouski)

Riders: Emma, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

The biking was interesting today with a mix of paved and unpaved roads and paths. We got to cycle along the water and through residential areas. This gave us a good feel for the area. We had some mechanical issues including a flat tire (Leslie) and a tire bulge (Sheila), but on the bright side, we got to stop for lunch and wait for Victor to come to the rescue with a new tire for Sheila at the most beautiful site yet: Saint-Simon-sur-Mer. Danielle took a rest day and met up with Kyle, who arrived by train at 2 am, at a hotel in Rimouski. The rest of us stayed at a campsite that included a hot tub with disco lights, which felt pretty good after a full day of biking.

Bulge in Sheila's tire

Sheila, Leslie, Emma, and Meg

Saint-Simon-sur-Mer

Day 11 - distance: 105 km (Rimouski to Matane)

Riders: Danielle, Emma, Kyle, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

Today we officially crossed into Gaspésie and are noticing the route is getting hillier and more challenging. We also had to bike on sections that the Route Verte map considers "undeveloped" since they consist of little to no shoulder and medium to heavy traffic at high speeds. Considering we're riding on week days during non-peak hours, we haven't had much trouble with these sections.

Kyle has arrived making us a group of six cyclists

Thursday night in Matane we saw the UCI qualifier for the world cup paralympic cycling, which left us feeling both humbled and inspired.

Emma, Meg, Leslie, Sheila, Danielle, and Kyle

Day 12 - distance: 89 km (Matane to Sainte-Anne-des-Monts)

Riders: Danielle, Emma, Kyle, Leslie, Meghan, and Sheila

The route continues to get hillier and hillier. Today we climbed a total of 900 m. Of course this means there are also some steep downhills. Sheila and I are particularly happy to have mirrors connected to our helmets in these cases since they enable us to know when cars are approaching. We arrived at a beautiful campsite right on the water - think crashing wave sounds and lots of wind - in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. We made a delicious dinner while the sun was setting. We're all happy to have the chance to sleep in, since Day 13 is a rest day.

Kyle and Danielle (back)
Meg, Emma, Sheila, and Leslie (front)
Heading out of Matane

View from camp in Ste-Anne-des-Monts

Bike storage, food bins, clothes line and tent