Days 19-22 - Welcome to New Brunswick

Day 19 - distance: 105-ish km (New Richmond to Campbellton) 

Riders: Sheila, Meg, Leslie, Kyle, Danielle

We had a medium-to-strong headwind most of the day, but are very happy to have the sun back. The Route Verte took us off the 132 through some rolling hills and farmers' fields. We were meant to ride through a provincial park, but we missed a turn and with the headwinds decided not to backtrack. We crossed the beautiful bridge into Campbellton and took a jumping photo for Rob at the NB sign. 

Bridge into Campbellton, NB

Sheila and Leslie arrive in New Brunswick - JUMP!

We slept in a yurt and it was nice to not have to set up the tents.

Day 20 - distance: 107 km (Campbellton to Beresford)

Riders: Sheila, Leslie, Meg and Dan 

Kyle and Danielle went for a hike in the morning, as it was Kyle's last day. Danielle, having accomplished her goal of continuous riding through Gaspésie, took the day off.

Danielle and Kyle

Dan joined us early in the morning. We left Campbellton on HWY 11, after hearing from the tourist info person at Sugarloaf that it's a good road with a nice shoulder, though it's our first riding on the TransCanada. There were some nice views at the beginning, but most of HWY 11 was not very exciting from a cycling point of view. Most of it had a nice 10-foot shoulder, but just not much to look at. With nothing really to stop for, we ended up biking 85 km before taking a break.

There was only another 20 km left to the campsite in Beresford, where we are all looking forward to tomorrow's rest day. Except maybe Dan, who just got here and is also a superhuman on the bike!

For dinner, we followed a 30-year-old recommendation from Danielle's parents to eat at a lovely French restaurant in Beresford. In someone's converted home, we had nice wine, very good seafood, and the BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE ever.

Day 21 - Rest day in Beresford 

Usual rest day routine of laundry, catching up on emails, and calls home. We did some future route planning, some napped, others went into Bathurst for groceries. We didn't skimp on the oreos, jujubes, and M&Ms.

Vic reflects by the water in Beresford

Day 22 - distance: 105 km (Beresford to south of Miramichi)

Riders: Sheila, Meg, Leslie, Dan 

Today we woke up to misty rain, cold temperatures and howling winds. Not an awesome outlook for the day, but we ended up getting pretty lucky. The weather held off until the last 15 km, when we rode through rain, puddles, and got splashed and sprayed by the traffic churning down HWY 11. The beginning of the ride was nice, on the 134, but when it joined with HWY 8, we found ourselves in heavy traffic with little shoulder. We didn't feel safe, and as soon as we could, we took a side road detour onto what turned out to be a sand road, which was new for us. We found you could generally stay upright if you kept up some speed, but occasionally you would sink in, skid out, and have to attempt to rapidly unclip from the pedals to avoid falling.

Sand road

We cruised into Miramichi on the nice HWY 11, complete with a wide shoulder and nice pavement, though we had to cross a very beautiful but very high bridge to get into town. The howling east winds felt like they were going to blow us right off the top!

Dan and Sheila try not to blow off the bridge
Miramichi

We biked in the pouring rain and 13 degrees for our final 15 km, but Vic and Danielle had secured us a couple of the most awesome tree houses with mattresses and our own bathroom. Best of all, a dry place to curl up out of the rain for the night.

Tree house

Inside the tree house