Starting Point: Richford, VT
Ending Point: Waterloo, Québec, Canada
Via:
Abercom, QC, Sutton, Brome, Bromont, Shefford
Mileage: 34.9
Time: 4:23
Mph: 8.0
Terrain: extremely hilly
Temperature High: 50’s
Temperature Low: 42.
Lunch: cream of carrot soup
Dinner: Hiker food fast-cook chili and
beans
Weather: sunny
Wind: some headwinds as well as cross-winds
Lodging: Camping Ile Ste. Marie (Sherbrooke,
Québec, Canada)
Cumulative Mileage: 245
Miles to Go: about 1,562
Projected Distance: 1,807
Percent Completed: 14%
This
day was utterly draining between more hills and lack of food sources along the
way. Normally I don’t like to munch on grass I find along the side of the road
so that left, what? Not much until Sutton. It was such a cozy welcoming town
with some of the best cappuccino I’ve ever tasted. The café there was stunning
when I first walked in, because I had been on the road for hours and hours with
no one to talk to except myself. Opening the door to the café was like
releasing a genie. There was liveliness, conversations, coffee noises, typing
noises (by the on-line denizens using the free wi-fi) and all-around life. It
swam over and around me; truly an uplifting moment.
It
was so comfy there that I was loathe to leave too quickly. This, of course,
left me with almost no daylight by the time I reached Waterloo. Judging by the map and my current average
speed, I would arrive in Sherbrooke sometime around midnight. This was no
option. So I thought perhaps I could locate a taxi. I asked some young people
about that and they said there wasn’t any, but they knew a guy who happened to
be named, Jean Guy, who sometimes delivers people. So I was able to purchase a
ride from his acquaintance whose name I couldn’t tell you. He said his name for
me a couple of times. Over our time together, he said a lot of things a couple
of times and it was only the occasional word that I could understand and
possibly guess his meaning. I speak decent, not fluent, French, and this person’s
accent had be stymied. So he drove me the rest of the way to Sherbrooke. It
took him an hour. Either my guidebook or my GPS was way off because there was
no way I could have made Sherbrooke until the next morning. It was far.
It
was a decision that I didn’t take lightly, but there are a number of factors
that are leading me to consider abandoning this expedition. More on that later.
At
the campground in Sherbrooke, I missed the snack bar by 3 minutes. I had no
change for a shower or for laundry. On the positive side, the caretaker was
there and he helped me eventually solve all of these dilemmas.
After
this day, with its many challenges and with much reflecting on the next move, I
didn’t sleep much.
You
might have noticed by now that there are no photos… this is because the ride
has been so much work and so time-pressured that there hasn’t been any time to
sit back and enjoy the scenery. That in itself is an issue.
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