Ottawa 2 Halifax: 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.