Day 97: Louiseville to Ste.-Anne-de-la-Perade

Red brick houses - Yamachiche

When the crows woke us this morning, the rain had stopped and we were out of the campsite by 0930. We took a slow ride along the 138, alongside the St. Lawrence River, past Trois-Rivieres. We had a tailwind and the road was dead flat, so we were just cruising. There are lots of little towns along the river, so the scenery was always changing.

Matt needed a new pair of cycle shorts, and I, apparently, needed a plaid shirt, so we stopped at a Value Village and did a spot of shopping. Much later we emerged, victorious, with our various purchases.

Ste Anne Catholic Church

Due to all this stopping and shopping, progress was slow today, but we eventually rolled into Ste. Anne. As we crossed the bridge, we saw the Information Centre and stopped there to make dinner and scan the area for camping options.
We had hoped to camp on the lawn at the IC, but as soon as we started cooking dinner, all the kids from town seemed to appear with their bicycles and spent the next few hours cycling around the area we had hoped to camp in. While we waited for them to leave, we witnessed a pretty cool sunset.

That would obviously not be an ideal camping spot, so we asked a passing local if there was somewhere we could pitch a tent.
They pointed us down the road and said we could camp in the woods opposite the sports arena. We headed up to the woods and setup our tents in the perfect darkness. Matt and Stephen were up to no good, and as a result Stephen had the zippers on his tent cable-tied shut in the night. This made for some choice words when he tried to get out in the night to pee..!

The site was quiet and very, very dark. Perfect.

Distance: 82.8 km
Time: 3:52:44
Height gained/lost: 218m /-244m
Calories: 2385

Stealth camping