A bit of a short day for us, as we were headed to stay with a friend in Fredericton, New Brunswick’s capital city. And a good thing too as the rain didn’t leave us for most of the day. We thought we’d escaped early in the morning.

There was no mist on the tent all — first time in ages that’s happened — and the skies were clear. But by breakfast time the clouds had started to roll in and we had rain all the way to Mactaquac, about 30 kilometers down the road. Thankfully our rain gear kept us dry and proved its worth once again.

The hills were tamer too and that helped our spirits. We made quite good time on the flats and on some fantastic downhills, reaching 50km/hour on one. Much faster and we start to put on the brakes, thinking that fast on a bike can’t be a good thing if it goes wrong!

Just outside Mactaquac we picked up the NB trail again, giving it a third chance to prove itself. Must be the ‘capital city’ effect because despite the rain this part of the trail was in quite good shape — flat, well surfaced, and even a few picnic tables! It took a while to get into Fredericton but we rolled in during the afternoon and set up camp in our friend’s apartment, which she’s kindly let us take over, bicycles and all. Spent the evening eating, playing games and finally got to bed at 1am. Slept on an air mattress, which feels like luxury!