Today was our shortest biking day. It was almost mostly flat, with a pretty good slight downhill back to the lake. It made for a nice day.
It took us a while to get moving. Anne discovered that the innkeeper’s mother weaves, including some of the blankets, and decided on a dish towel to purchase. The kids explored the grounds and checked out the chickens. I mostly just hung around.
The morning had us riding along farmlands, which left us exposed for some wind. We also rode past a large, impressive, greenhouse complex right next to a sawmill.
We stopped for lunch in St-Félicien, where we ran into Marna and Tom just finishing their lunch. They headed off while we ate.
For much of the rest of the ride were on a trail that ran along a railroad. Every once in a while there would be a gate you’d need to zigzag through. Anne has been doing them while staying on the bike, just kind of skipping along. I’ve been doing then by fully dismounting, as I’m less confident on the tandem. But I’ve been working up the courage to go for it.
Courage no more. Anne misjudged the distance and went down. Max mostly ejected himself and was unharmed. Anne suffered some road rash and a pretty good scrape and bruise where her leg got caught by the bar end shifter. She can still ride, but she’ll have a mark for a while.
Shortly after that, while we were stopped for a snack at one of the many bike rest pavilions, it started to drizzle. It really wasn’t too bad, but we decided to put the rain covers on the bag. Because the best way to get it to stop raining is to gear up for it.
It worked, mostly. We hit a few drizzle patches, but never enough to wish I had any rain gear on myself.
We stopped for another snack in Mashteuiatsh. We ran into Marna and Tom again, who had just finished at a museum. We rode the rest of the way to the hotel together.
After getting bikes stowed and showered, we all went out to dinner. Tom (with Marna’s help) interpreted for us, and we had a nice meal, followed by first and second desert.
Max has made this lying face down for a picture a while thing. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it, but he seems to like it.
Ruth and I continue to gel as a team. We’ve worked out signals for various amounts of power to deliver. She’s learning to read my body language for when I forget to signal (pedals stopping even means bump coming, pedals stopping up and down means a rest, etc). Both kids continue to be cooperative, even though we’re all tired at times.
Tomorrow will be our last biking day. It’ll be longer today, but we have a deadline for finishing. We need to get back to the starting hotel before the office closes so we can retrieve the cases and disassemble the bikes. We’re aiming for an early start.