A Good Day For Bad Weather

Today would probably fall into the category of “Worst Day Yet”. That’s not to say anything bad happened – it’s really only the worst day in terms of weather. Actually, generally speaking today was another very quiet day. From a weather perspective though it’s not nice at all. Completely overcast, and cold. Really cold. And I don’t mean by my definition of cold (ie. anything below 20 degrees). Objectively speaking it’s cold. And those out wearing shorts today are crazy. Ok, well … truth be told I’m wearing shorts today. But that’s only because when I left my tent early this morning I assumed it was going to get warmer. I’m currently dreading the thought of going outside (which I really need to do because I haven’t eaten anything yet today – and it’s now 1:42pm).

I’ve pretty much spent the entire day inside at the Tourism Office in Havre-St-Pierre. It’s warm. They have power outlets to charge my electronics. They have WiFi. Oh, and did I mention it’s warm? The timing of this less than great weather day is actually pretty good. Especially considering that yesterday I was out on a boat and doing hikes while it was beautiful and sunny. I needed to get some work done on the computer today and with only 160km to go to Natashquan (by Wednesday) I figured another day off wouldn’t adversely affect my schedule.

The downside of course is that it doesn’t make for a particularly riveting update. So, now would be a good time to thank everyone for all their comments and guestbook posts. I’m sure you’re aware of this but I read and appreciate them all. Well, maybe not all the spam postings – fortunately I’m the one who has to see most of those. It’s remarkable how many spammers attack the guestbook. They’re like the mosquitos of the internet! Most of them get blocked but every now and then one gets through.

So, thanks to (sort of in order of appearance) JT, Michael, Jacqueline, Janis, Kim, Lisa, Kenneth, Farwell, Harrison, Jeff, Aunt Marilyn, Julie-Ann, Dave (ie. aka Dave), Robyn, Tara, Dave S., Brad, Betty, Guillaume, Jeffrey, Laura, Jamie (yes, I remember you), Marleah, Gary and to all those I’ve chatted with along the way (too many to list) – special thanks to those that had to put up with my English speaking ways!

Ok. I guess I should go outside if for no other reason to take a photo or two. I mean, I can’t very well post an update without any photos.

So, hours have now passed since I started writing this update. In that time the weather has changed about ten times – I feel like I’m being prepared for Newfoundland. We’ve had cloud and sun, then sun, then cloud, cold, then not so cold (but certainly not warm), then rain – lots of rain, then back to sun, then the fog rolled in and with it came more rain. I was fortunate enough to win not one, but TWO races against the rain.

I had returned to the campsite to drop off a few things and decided I should do a bank run to replenish my rapidly vaporizing funds. There were dark clouds approaching but with town only being 3km away I thought I’d go for it. Well, I got about 1km from the campsite when the rain started. Those big drops. Drops that do not bode well for cyclists. I made a quick decision and an even quicker U-turn and put it into high gear – I felt like I was in one of those disaster movies where I was racing to escape the big “insert disaster here” (except for the part that rather than my life being in danger I was just going to get wet – so the stakes were a little lower). Anyway, I made it back to the safety of my tent just as the downpour started. Disaster averted (yeah, ok … mini-disaster).

The rain eventually stopped about an hour later (enough time for a nap). I wanted to head over to the local hunting/camping store in town to see if they had any seam-sealer for tents (the recent rain revealed a minor leak along the seam of the fly on the tent). Unfortunately, it was after 6:00 so the store was closed. C’est la vie. Next stop the bank. And once again the rain came. This time I was close to the Tourist Office so that’s where I headed – and arrived just as the rain started, again.

This time the rain lasted for about 30 minutes before a small section of the sky cleared giving me enough time to head over to the bank and get back to the campsite. A really heavy fog was rolling in and it looked eerie as the town was slowly engulfed by the fog. I thought it would be really cool if a whale would make an appearance as the mist covered the water. Sadly, no whales were willing to oblige. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh, and as a matter of full disclosure I have to admit that after being outside for a bit today it MAY not have been as cold as I previously inferred. It certainly wasn’t warm. And it was “cold” by my definition but perhaps not “objectively” cold.