Super fun day! The day of ascent up to Val Brillant on the Gaspe yesterday resulted in a glide down for the first quarter of our ride today, which took us to the St. Lawrence seaway. There were hilly moments, of course, which we are managing really well. The first glimpses of the St. Lawrence were thrilling! Then, the ~40K from Saint-Flavie to Rimouski was all along the estuary.  We stopped so Y could walk in the water and she found the qualities of the sand, water and beach debris (animal shells & carapaces, drift wood, kelp & seaweed) and structure (double sandbar, slope, gravel transition zone and sand zones) to be singularly similar to Cordova Bay beach. There were even two young boys playing "crocodile" in the warmed water between the two sandbars! The ride along the waterway was also similar to Cordova Bay, with properties that went right to the beach and a mix of high end homes and sea side cottages.  Such a beautiful place Québec! About 9Kms from the Mange Grenouille B&B in Le Bic, we were ascending a steep hill (as we usually seem to do near the end of each day of riding) and suddenly Y sensed that B was pushing her bike from behind, which he occassionally does do. But she looked ahead and saw that, indeed, B was up hill in front... so who was pushing her bike? Just then a giant bike with a giant rider in red and white spadex appeared on her left side and the rider smiled and asked what she was doing on such a steep hill with such a heavy load? Then suddenly Y's bike was light as a feather and she shifted up three gears and flew up the hill, all the while explaining to the "Ange-Velo" that we were on the ride from St. John's to Ottawa, to which he nodded admiration and zipped off ahead and out of view around a bend. We wondered if he was a famous Québec cyclist whom we should have known! We arrived at Mange Grenouille and were blown away at the uniqueness of the environment of the gardens and interior and then had, possible, the best meal we have ever eaten!

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/3261640