Two long rides

Last night I was too tired to compose a posting.  While some of this is undoubtedly due to a 54 mile ride to Chicoutimi with a few very serious hills on the way, I did have enough energy to take a 3 mile walk after dinner to find an ice cream cone.  There appears to be a serious shortage of ice cream shops up in this part of Quebec.  When we were in L'Anse St. Jean for two days, I thought that maybe I should consider opening a stand there, as only ice cream you could buy was pints in the supermarket.  Today I decided that a chain of shops might be in order.  We biked 76 miles and did not see a single ice cream shop!

In spite of this serious oversight, I have not been starving.  All of the pastry that has crossed my path has been excellent.  After fresh raspberry pie last night and homemade blueberry pie tonight, I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.  Vegetarians should stop reading here.  Main courses have featured a lot of game.  I had a delicious venison steak with blueberry sauce the other night but did not try the wapiti (elk) sausage.  Tonight, at a delightful bed and breakfast, our hostess prepared a tourtière, a kind of meat pie which tonight included rabbit.  It reminded me a bit of Cornish pasties one can occasionally find in mining communities in Wisconsin.  

On Sunday, it took us about 50 minutes to ride 5 miles, up a seemingly unending series of very steep hills.  The pay- off came when I coasted almost 2 1/2 miles down without pedaling at all.  Today's 72 mile ride to Roberval was beautiful, frequently in sight of rivers or lakes.  However, the trails tended to be slow, we did get lost, in the process meeting some very nice people who helped us get unlost, and we had a headwind for about the last 15 miles.  We were on the road almost 9 1/2 hours, which is an unusually long day for us.  Fortunately, the place where we are staying, right on Lac St. Jean, is wonderful, and I quickly felt much restored.  I think I am back in bike trip gear now.