It is amazing how the terrain can change within a single day’s ride. Apparently Granby sits at the edge of the big plain that stretches from the Vermont line north to Montreal.
We left Granby on La Route Verte 1 heading mostly east towards Waterloo. The bike path was paved in this section and even though we were gradually gaining elevation it was good riding. The terrain gained a bit of topographic interest with easy rollers, and the scenery alternated woods and small farms. Much more interesting than the flat plain further west.
After Waterloo the pavement ended and the bike route was very loose gravel; almost at the limit of what can be reasonably ridden on a touring bike with road tires. We soon opted out and cut over to Route 112. We made pretty good time still heading east, but my the time we reached Eastman the little rollers were turning into real hills. We stopped at a small place in Eastman for lunch, which we enjoyed sitting outside on a large covered veranda; a club sandwich and fries for Jodi and a BLT on brown toast for me (Jodi shared her fries with me). In this area bread comes in two varieties, white and brown. Don’t bother trying to ask for rye; the choices are white or brown.
After lunch 112 continued to carry us east towards Magog, at the northern tip of Lake Memphremagog. Magog is a pretty little resort town but the hills leading here were growing into real mountains so we were getting tired. We rode through town on a really nice paved bike path along the water-front, then turned south on Rt 247 down the east side of the lake. The northern section of 247 is lined with a procession of fancy gates with intercoms guarding presumably long private drives that lead to big fancy lake-front homes. We never saw any of the homes, just their gated drives.
As well, the hills continued. Grind slowly up, coast quickly down, repeat. We stopped in Georgeville to sit on the porch of the general store and down 2 bottles of Gatorade, some cookies, and a Snickers bar. The long stiff climb out of town burned it all up. At the top of the climb we came to a temporary stop light controlling traffic through a construction zone. The light even had a count-down timer so you could know how long the wait for the green was. We had a break of just over 120 seconds while waiting for the light. Once the light turned green we had a 2 km descent at 9% grade (according to the sign) into Fitch Bay, followed by another long hot climb.
After a quick stop in Beebe to spend the last of our Canadian currency on another bottle of Gatorade, we finally reached the border crossing back into the US. We were both tired but today Jodi was especially spent. Instead of pushing another 20 miles or so to the campground we rode the shorter 5 miles into Newport and got a room at a motel.
Just as we were riding into Newport Jodi said she thought her rear wheel was out of true and rode in front of me so I could look. Sure enough, there was a definite wobble in her rear wheel. In fact, it was wobbling enough that it was rubbing the brakes with each revolution. No wonder Jodi was so tired!
A bit of investigation revealed 2 broken spokes, so we will have to deal with that in the morning. How far we ride tomorrow will depend on how long it takes us to deal with the wheel.
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