Rivière-du-Loup to Couturier    |   Campsite: 47.69125° N, 69.21196° W

Waking early to start the day by 4:00 I realize the clothing hung overnight is still damp. I play with the thermostat and move all clothing closer to the electric base heaters. This will essentially melt one of the shoe insoles, providing a bit of discomfort with the left foot. All food purchased yesterday is portioned out for individual meals for the upcoming days of walking. I input all recent expenses into “Numbers”, then head downstairs to enjoy the free breakfast included with the room. Wonderfully fed, I return to the room to put the finishing touches on organizing the pack. By 11:00 I am downstairs and being wished “Good luck in the rain!” by the hostel staff as I check out and move into the day. I am into the late morning, walking east down “Rue Lafontaine” to “Rue Témiscouta” which takes me out of town, photographing a few lovely angles of Rivière du Loup that snakes its way through town. By 1:45 I am 14 km down the road, a quite busy road of local traffic and large, industrial vehicles. This road will eventually lead me to the Trans-Canada (TC) highway Number 85 where I stop at a gas station that includes a lunch counter. Here I will sit at the bar with a very large hot chocolate to warm up and dry off. The rain started falling overnight and is projected to fall for the upcoming five days. Entering Rivière-du-Loup yesterday from the west side of town was lovely—a peaceful walk along a quiet road lined by well-kept houses with front yards neatly groomed, the day sunny and mild. Leaving the city to the east is the diametric opposite: it is an ugly landscape punctuated by garages, auto-body shops, industrial yards, cold, and rain rain rain. While I am able, I note all upcoming major towns mapped for both food and water refills and add these towns into the weather app in order to better anticipate conditions for the foreseeable future. All projections read five-day non-stop rain to Saturday. Where the walk up to this point has been incredibly dry and comfortable, this week seems to be balancing out with some much-needed rain. It should be interesting if nothing else! I made a mental note of a sign about an hour and a half back informing me that the province of New Brunswick is 90 km down the road. By that estimate, I should cross into that province by Thursday, two days walking from today. Making my way through the province of Québec with my very basic understanding of French was not as difficult as I initially thought it might be. It will be interesting to see where in New Brunswick the language of English becomes more prominently spoken. This bleeding of culture across borders is always a fascinating aspect of daily life that I find intriguing. I journal for about fifteen minutes. Before a much-needed pit stop, the pack is given some much-needed organization, and then I am back out walking through the rain. As I am walking a small single-lane highway leading from the gas station to the TC a man in a small car with bicycle rack stops and asks if I need a ride. I say no. He presses. I say no again. He gestures ahead and seems intent that I get into the passenger seat. I say thanks, that I am walking the distance from Toronto to St. John’s, and that I am not accepting rides. He shakes his head, rolls up the window, and drives off into the rain. An hour later, walking through a massive construction zone where I find myself dangerously walking mere metres away from fast-moving traffic I understand the man’s repeated offer urging for a ride. The degree of construction creates rather dangerous walking conditions: pylons placed on the highway restrict safe space due to closed driving lanes, nudging me into ever closer proximity to large, fast-moving transport traffic throwing up water, and pushing me around due to the gusts of wind caused by these vehicles. I struggle through close to ten kilometres of this—as the goal for today is to walk 30 km, I push on. I manage 36 km overall. The day has been difficult. The constant rain, a thorough soaking to the bone, the navigation of a section of highway heavy with transport truck traffic, and a section of TC highway replete with large-scale construction all culminate into a rather unsettling experience. When I decide to put up the wet tent on a patch of dismal ground, I realize the grim upcoming hours of cold, wet clothes that will be wriggled into, beginning tomorrow’s walk, following an all-night rain bleeding into another day of non-stop precipitation. Things are sure to get interesting…

Today’s distance walked: 36.35 km    |    Total distance walked: 1,218.83 km