Day 47 – Miramichi, New Brunswick (Tuesday, June 23, 2015)
I had another good sleep and had a difficult time getting up. I had intended to get up a 5:30 but had slept in ’til 7.
There were no places that served breakfast close to the motel but I was told there were a few places to eat in Beresford. So I made my way to Beresford and stopped at Tim Horton’s where I repeated the order of two BLT bagel combos with a muffin and sorted out the route for the day.
New Brunswick does not cater to the bicyclist or the tourist. The roads are generally in poor repair and the shoulders are often not maintained when the road is resurfaced. I believe the coast is beautiful but I had a long way to travel from Beresford to Miramachi and could not afford poor roads.
I settled on taking highway 134 out of Bathurst which seemed the most direct route but as I crossed an overpass I noticed that the highway 8 appeared to be well maintained with a better shoulder. I changed my course.
The trip from Bathurst to Miramachi along highway 8 was a burden. The wind was howling so I couldn’t hear my music, the geography was uninteresting, I missed the quaint towns and houses, and the smell of lilacs. It would be nice if I could sleep and put my bike on cruise control. My mind started thinking of things I’d rather do that did not involve biking.
There were a few positives:
It didn’t rain.
The road had an adequate but slightly narrow but good shoulder.
My bike didn’t breakdown.
And there was a roadside restaurant about 20km north of Miramachi which offered me a welcome break.
After lunch I ordered a pie partly to delay facing the remaining 70km.
I arrived at Miramichi Campgrounds around 4:30pm, had a shower, did my laundry, and cooked lentils with rice and vegetables. Yum!
While I was doing my laundry I met a friendly young couple who were moving back to Hamilton from St. Johns after a three year adventure. As it turns out he had cycled the trip from Victoria to St John’s.
