The Great Lakes Cabot Trail Tour is a ride with 12 checkpoints. Today is checkpoint # 7, Madawaska ME and the Four Corners Park. Later, we will head to Quebec for #8 and the Walled City.

We have been very lucky regarding weather, but have kept an eye on it. But today we think we may get some rain later in the day. Weather Apps, radar maps, looking up weather forecasts of the cities we will be going through on our ride that day, are all part of the tools we use to figure out what to wear for the ride and what to expect or do during the ride. Todays plan was to get in and out of Madawaska before it rains.

“Red Sky at Night, Sailors Delight, Red sky in the morning, Sailor take warning” was the thought when we go going this morning. Cooler with mostly high clouds and a reddish sunrise. The ride in the morning is very fast as we are on an interstate type of road, and not a lot of cars on it. We travel mostly just at 80 most of the morning and arrive, cross the border into the US in Madawaska under cloudy sky, but no rain. We did our pictures and the birtch wood arrow showed no rain on the old indicator at the park, and we said we will take that.

We cross the border again back into Canada and continue on the highway, which eventually gets to a two lane road and a massive construction project of expanding the roadway through this valley we are dropping down into. Seems like Canada road works are massive expanding projects consuming vast amount of land. I look at them with awe as the cuts through this valley.

For most of the day we were riding in mid to high 70’s to low 80’s and now as we approach the St Lawrence Seaway and make a westly turn towards Quebec. The temps dropped to 63 degrees, so I pulled off to put on my jacket. Five minutes down the road, it was 80 again.

The sky was overcast, a bit of a drizzle. We stop to gas up one more time as we were about 50 miles from Quebec. When we were in Madawaska, we thought we might hit a bit of weather. So far, so good. We left the gas station and continue west when it started to drizzle. Still, warm water, not a hard drizzle, we still can travel fast and pass cars. We continue on and it gets heavier. We past another motorcyclist we had met at the gas station as they had stopped under and overpass to put on rain gear. We continue on – I’m thinking we can get there before it rains harder or we punch through this cell.

we are no 30 miles for Quebec and I pull us over under an overpass to put on my large fulll face helmet. I’m still in shorts, and wet, but its warm so no use putting on my rain pants at this point. Rick puts on his goggles but opts for his small helmet. We take off again.

We are now the slow riders. Ever one we blazed by earlier is now passing us and spraying us with water as the rain gets harder. Really you just slow down and focus on what’s in front even though seeing is difficult. You don’t have a wiper on your shield, and you tend to fog it up so you lift up your shield and water also gets on the inside of the shield. Basically, you can’t see very well….

I look in my rear view mirrors and I can’t see Rick’s lights…. I’ve lost him. We both know where our hotel is as we made reservations and have it on our GPS’s or phone. So I just keep going slow and hope to see him, but no luck. the miles click down and that is all I’m focusing on at this point and hope Rick shows up too. At about 10 miles from Quebec traffic is heavy and about 6 miles left we are in bumper to bumper traffic due to weather and construction. The stop and go traffic is better at this point as everyone is slow. I follow the maze on my GPS listen to the voice commands into the city of Quebec, with French signs and long French sounding roads that by the time Google maps say the name you have past the street.

I see the Best Western and pull in under the roof of the reception area and dismount the bike. My shorts are drenched and my right boot squishes as I walk. I literally took just a few steps and I can hear a bike in the distance and then I can see Ricks lights at the corner. He was not far behind me even though he had stop to fix his eye covers. We were both relieved that we were both at the hotel and not in some ditch.

The rain was still coming down – this was one of those all day rains, just steady and continuous. One of the reasons we choose this hotel was they had a restaurant attached to it. We find out it is closed on Mondays. I asked where the laundry services are, they don’t have any but they can tell you were one is about 1 kilometer away. No thanks, don’t want to get back on the bike, just need a dryer.

So I get out the hair dryer at the hotel and use that. We did walk to a nearby French pizza café and was treated to delicious pizzas, IPA’s and excellent desserts! The French do know how to eat.

Rick studies the weather that night, and we come up with a few idea’s depending how the weather is in the morning.

Cabot trail 2023_07_10 video