Day 76: Rimouski to Val-Brillant (95.08 KM)

The photos above show at least weather wise the progression of our
day. We woke as we have many mornings in Quebec, to fog and a light
shower. At this point, after hitting pretty much uninterrupted days
of rain since Quebec City, everything was pretty much soaked including
our spirits. It takes a huge amount of physical and mental energy to
bike through the rain day after day and it was starting to take a bit
of a toll.

Fortunately our luck finally changed around lunch as we shifted our
course off the St. Lawrence and began heading inland and south to New
Brunswick. It seemed like the further we went inland the more sun we
started to see, finishing with a beautiful, sun bathed campsite by a
lake. Our shorter distance today meant we had some time to dry out
our gear as best we could. I also got to put my sleeping bag through
the dryer which should reduce the extreme "wet dog smell" in the tent,
as Vanessa so aptly describes it.

As well as our return to the sun we also hit some hills today, the
likes of which we haven't seen in a while. We climbed a total of 350m
today; something we haven't done since Northern Ontario.

After having a bit of a break from major hills in the last few weeks
it was fun to marvel that we can push a bike and 80 pounds of gear up
near vertical climbs. Sometimes we hit grades so steep it feels like
sitting up straight would topple your bike backwards down the hill.

Today was our last full day of cycling in Quebec. Tomorrow we hit the
New Brunswick border. Something we keep forgetting to mention is that
some time in the last day or two we hit salt water which means we have
biked from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. We still have a ways to
go, but the bragging rights that come with that feel pretty good.