DAY FOUR-165k

I woke up early again and went for a little 45min jog back down the highway to wake myself up and get some sort of run training in.After that is was a quick tin of beans for breakfast before once again hauling all my gear onto the highway to start another long day in the saddle.The funny thing about riding like this is that the average speeds that I am achieving are really pretty slow at around 22kph but when you take into account the amount of time I find myself sitting on the side of the road recovering from the wind it seems that I am travelling at a snails pace.That fact is brought home to me every kilometer as there are kilometer markers placed up and down the highways and no matter how much I try to tune myself out to the time I'm spending riding those damn markers keep reminding me of how far I still have to go to reach the Quebec border.Very frustrating!

The morning's ride was pretty good and after a brief shower the sun made an appearance and the temperature started to climb as did the surrounding counrtyside. I rode for a couple of hours before my short morning break on the side of the highway and was pretty surprised at how good I felt. It was another hard day after that though and with the ever increasing winds I was glad to have a three hour pit-stop at around 2pm in the army town of Oromocto.This time however my body was really craving some junk food.I felt pretty weak and the stuff on offer in the truck-stop didn't look to good so I headed to the airconditioned sanctuary of the golden arches-yes that's right Macca's.One large size Big Mac meal later and my belly was happy!

I spent a fair bit of time there chatting to a young army guy about my trip as he was keen to find out as much as he could about this bike touring thing.Seem's that he would be riding to the west in a months time and wanted to compare notes with someonewho had actually been on the road for some time.He was a nice bloke and bought me a coffee for my troubles.After my little conference I lay down in the shade for a nap.

With the afternoon sun beating down I hit the road again to see how far I could get that day.I'd already covered about 110k before my late lunch break and would have been happy to get another 40k or so down the highway.The wind was up so I would just have to try as best I could to keep going.What I didn't expect was that my MacDonalds meal would be a huge benefit as my best riding for the day was done that afternoon.I was even enjoying the riding and started to really appreciate where I was and how lovely the surrounding wilderness was.My appreciation was hightened by a pit-stop to check out a big beaver dam in a little pond on the side of the highway.It was pretty cool to see the little beaver hard at work doing whatever it is beavers do so I stopped to film him.The motorists on the highway must have though I was nuts.
Not long after leaving Oromocto I passed Fredericton and finaly felt like I was gaining some kind of headway with this trip.The highway would soon turn north and I would be in Quebec within a day of two and from there only about three days ride from Quebec City.Now if I could just do something about all those damn hills that just woudn't quit!

As the sun started to set I figure it was time to find myself somewhere to camp and after a wrong turn off the highway I found a really,really great campsite perched on the top of a little hill just off the highway,surrounded by trees.It was perfect and even though the ground was pretty rocky the lack of bugs made it seem like paradise.Finally I could walk around without being attacked so in some wierd form of celebration I took all my clothes off and poured the contents of one water bottle over myself in a sad attempt at have a shower.It was the best I had felt in days.The day itself was quite a moral booster for me as I managed to cover around 165k and was still feeling pretty good.Things were looking up in the fitness stakes and I went to bed a pretty happy camper.