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