July 10, Day 50, Lac Rapide in La Reserve Faunique Verendrye, to Maniwaki, Quebec 132 km

Whoops, this will be out of order. We’ve had poor wifi and I can’t always post so I save them as draft, then when I get good wifi, I add the pictures and hit “Publish”.

“On the road again. Just can’t wait to be on the road again, ….”

This is one of the songs I’ve been singing in my head as we start off every morning. Some days, I must admit, are harder for me to get going. It’s mostly because our last rest stop was in Longlac, Ontario. We need a rest day soon but both of us are driven, compelled, determined to get through this area. Ontario is formidable in a car and more so on a bike. Goodbye! I’m including the route from Matheson, Ontario, east into Quebec, south to Val D’Or, right down to Ottawa. Goodbye! Goodbye!

There was no need to wear “my uniform” of merino wool this fine sunny morning. Neither did I  need the bug suit. It was beautiful, with almost perfect conditions.   La Route Verte 2 on highway 117 has good shoulders and fairly good pavement. It was just when we turned onto highway 105 at Grand Remous that we hit terrible tarmack. We stopped there at a depanneur , bought chocolate milk and made ourselves some bagels with cheese, before proceeding on our way. There are waterfalls there worth a stop. Mesmerizing watching all that water flow…. Where does it all come from? Won’t it run out sometime?  

Every day Charlie says, “It would be a good day to see a Moose.” I agree, but I tack on “from a distance”. We saw neither moose nor bears today.

When I was around age 10, Johnny Warlo, a friend of my mom’s from her girlhood, and a conservation officer, made a stop at our house. He was enroute to drop off an orphaned bear cub to where, I’m  not sure, …. a zoo, a rehab, I have no idea really. But he turned up with this baby bear and my brother and I got to roll around with it on the front lawn while all the neighbourhood kids looked on. What I remember most about that bear cub is how solid, how dense and heavy it felt. “Mom, can we keep him?”            “Awwwwww…….”

Maniwaki sounds Hawaiian to me but it’s First Nation (Algonquin) for Land of Mary, or Mary’s Land. It’s a Quebec town where we stopped there for the night. Charlie would have been quite happy to “wild camp” but not me. The shower at our last campsite had not worked and the idea of another dirty night was totally unappealing. We bought groceries and went to a hotel. Shower, clean sheets….ahhhh….too bad every article of clothing I have is dirty. There’s a solution to that, but not for a few days yet. In the meantime, if you know what’s good for you, don’t get too close!