#CycleTour2021 Day 5: Cycling still has things to teach me

I am writing this from a campground just outside of Richmond, QC; this will be our first time ever camping on tour, and our first night of camping in maybe 15 years. We used to love camping, but at some point, the idiots running generators and blasting music, combined with a string of bad weather, convinced us that it was just not in the cards for us anymore. But the pandemic and the logistics of this particular tour oblige, so we bought some light camping gear and have hoped for the best. I would like to have tested our setup beforehand, but this tour is so early in the season that the campgrounds have only just started opening up. I guess tonight will be the litmus test; either things will go OK and we will consider camping as an option for future tours, or we will be selling some lightly used camping gear in the near future. 

With that out of the way, today was an absolutely gorgeous day of cycling. Once we got out of Victoriaville, the Parc linéaire du Bois-Francs was more of the same lovely riding, and in fact its straight-as-an-arrow character began to change as we travelled out of the flatlands southwest of Quebec City and toward the more hilly country of the Eastern Townships. This made for a nice change of pace and of scenery. We stopped for 2nd breakfast in Warwick, a well-known cheese town, but the cheese shop was too far out of the way, so we decided to forego it. Aeolus was smiling on us again today, with the winds from the northeast, so we made pretty good time getting to Danville, where we had lunch (and made tea, a new tradition is born!). 

From here, the trail entered a really lovely valley, with a winding brook and pasture lands, sheltered by forested hills on either side. We passed the odd farm, but truly, one could believe oneself a century in the past, so sleepy and bucolic was the scenery. We stopped often to take pictures and look at birds. Truly, some of the loveliest cycling we have ever done in Quebec. Overall, this 150-km stretch between Quebec City and Richmond has greatly exceeded expectations. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. As we were riding along, it occurred to me that I am still learning about myself thanks to cycle touring. I am still learning to live in the moment and not always be wanting to move on to the Next Thing. I am still learning to not worry and be confident that whatever happens, everything’s going to be OK. But when I think about my state of mind in 2015 on our first tour, I think I might have made some little progress. 

We arrived in Richmond shortly after 3, and stopped at the Fromagerie Campagnard for what Quebecois call “crottes de fromage” (cheese curds) and some delicious aged cheddar. Then it was off to the grocery store for provisions and the final, cruel, 83-metre climb up to our campground. We can hear Autoroute 55 very well from here, but we hope that things will quiet down after 9:30, when the pandemic curfew, which is still in effect for another few days, takes effect.