Day 2: success and pain

I'd planned to do just 50km a day for the first week to ease into it, but it's still winter and many accommodations are still shut and I'd rather not camp my first few nights! So I had 80km to cover today at make it to a cabin in Charlo.

Anna and Kyle waved me off after a good night's sleep with a belly full of oatmeal and I rode through villages and towns along the coast, stopping every 10km for food and water. I enjoyed the change of pace from being in the car and felt pretty relaxed, despite my sore bum. My school French finally came in handy when I pulled over at a bibliotheque for wifi and a phone call to book my cabin.

I emerged from the towns into the countryside and cycled past Brunswick Smelter, conspicuous and ugly in its huge clearing in the forest. I got a good look at it too, since I was doing 8km/h into a head wind at that point.

After 40km, I stopped at a bridge and had lunch overlooking a lovely little estuary, listening to the sea birds and the occasional zoom of a car. The sea here is a channel and the mountains of Quebec are on the other side, blue in the distance.

Another 10km and I could happily have called it a day. I'd adjusted my saddle at every stop and it just wasn't making a difference any more. Why I brought my new saddle instead of my old, known-to-be-comfy one is totally beyond me! I'm sure there was a good reason at the time. 

I stopped by a church for a stretch of the legs and another macaroon when I realised I needed a wee. The towns I'd been going through were populated enough not to have any wild wee spots but not busy enough to warrant cafes or public toilets. So I walked behind the church and found a quiet corner that the geese had been using as their personal bathroom anyway and went there. I haven't been smited yet...

All day the weather, the road and the people have been kind to me. It was overcast and not too windy, the road had a wide shoulder most of the way and I have been greeted by pedestrians, joggers, cyclists, motor bikers and drivers with various pleasantries, waves and toots.

I made it the last 30km even more slowly than I'd done the previous 30km but here I am in my lovely 4-person cabin looking out onto the channel, trying not to sit on the sore parts of my tender derriere. Ahhhh... 90 down, 6,110 to go.