The Maritimes. We entered the Maritimes via the Trans-Canada trail, which runs through a strip of forest and farmland from Rivière du Loup, Québec to Edmunston, Brunswick. Our arrival in New Brunswick collided with Labour Day Weekend and, right on time, the onset of fall. Our last night in Big Agnes was in the tiny town of Cabano, Québec and it was a very chilly last night. By the time we crossed the border into New Brunswick it was definitely fall. As in cold and rainy, with no end in sight.
The Maritimes, then, signified a shift in how the trip went. Not only did the cold, damp (wet!) weather make camping unappealing, camping also became less accessible. The Maritimes, well, they're sparsely populated. And we could no longer rely on a campground being within a reasonable biking distance on any given day. In fact, sometimes we were grateful to come upon any form of accommodation at all!
Something else happened too: we started to get tired. Really, really tired. Road weary, bleary, fatigued...as though at any given moment a nine day nap would be nice. When researching and planning the trip, we'd read that the fatigue borne of several months of riding is one of the reasons why it's best to start in the Rockies--get 'em over with while your legs are still fresh. I have to assert that this turned out to be very, very true. I can't imagine facing the Rockies at that point in the trip. What's weird about the fatigue is that we were, in fact, in fantastic condition and we easily gobbled up the steep climbs of New Brunswick without a second thought. But, all the same, we often found ourselves counting down the kilometres until the next stop. Our sudden reliance on motels was costing us a mint, but we were secretly grateful for the incredible luxury of dozing off to Law and Order while curled up in a real(!) bed.
So, in general, the Maritimes had a real feeling of winding down, the trip and us.
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