Thursday July 19th
After we packed up with the increased efficiency of a
well-oiled machine, we were very excited to head toward Forillon National Park,
at the most northeastern tip of the Gaspe Peninsula. Here we will get to do lots
more outdoor stuff.
We stopped along the way for provisions. Fresh fish (yummm – definitely not like the
fish you get in Florida), general groceries and the most important – gas.
This part of Canada is very beautiful. Little quaint coastal towns on the base of
the mountains to our left, then on the opposite side of the street the mountain
range shoots nearly straight up. The rock formations were fascinating - you
could see where the earth moved millions of years ago - where’s a geologist
when you need one? I would love to know
more, it fascinates me.
MapQuest told us it
would be about a 3 hour easy ride, but in fact took us about 5 hours including
our stop for lunch in the RV. It was so much more mountainous than we expected
driving along the shore. Norm was
exhausted. It was pretty unnerving to be
driving down grades as steep 17 percent!
(That would be scary in a car – let alone an RV hauling a car). The RV took it like a dream, although there
were a couple of times our speed was reduced to 35mph during the insanely steep
climbs. We didn’t feel badly because we
were passing some other trucks that were going even slower! It will be
interesting to see our mileage on this leg of the trip with all those hills.
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| Rainy, but still beautiful |
It was pouring rain
when we arrived, but we quickly backed into our rather tight spot (first try)
and set up. This campsite was quite
different in that it had lots of privacy.
You really could not see other campers either from the road or your
site. Yeah! Not a parking lot! Only the
hoods of vehicles stuck out of the trees and bushes. Very nice.
We had our fresh fish a l’orange, and played a game and went to bed.
Friday July 20th
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| See that tiny building at top of cliff? We are going up THERE? |
There must have been a forest fire observation deck or
something. Well, I was wrong again! That was our destination. All I could think was “you have GOT to be
KIDDING!” Yikes!
Well, I stalled as much as I could then off we went! It went about as straight up as it could
get. In fact there was about a mile
stretch that they had to put wooded stairs in.
We both HATE stairs! Up, up, up.
I was so pleased that I really, for some miraculous reason, didn’t have much trouble
at all!
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| See where we parked in the bottom right hand corner? |
We finally got to the top and were positively “wowed” by the
view. You can see in the picture the
itsy bitsy parking lot down at the bottom.
See our car? That was about the
best reward for a torture hike we have had.
We decided to count the stairs going down and counted 475 stairs! (that
we went up, then down). Mind you, these
stairs only accounted for about half of the elevation change. The rest was normal uphill hiking. And to think that we didn’t do a hike the
other day because there was a gruesome 300 steps. We’re not sissies anymore!
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| Another of the parking lot WAY down there! |
By the time we reached the car I must admit I was dragging.
After all, my hiking boots weigh 4 pounds that had to be dragged up those
stairs, plus we both carried back packs.
(Norm carried more, of course). Norman said he felt pretty good, but it
sure did not take him long to pass out on our new lawn chairs. I relaxed and read, but I still am pretty
pooped. Hopefully I will feel re-newed
by tomorrow for our bike ride. The
exercise portion of this trip has definitely kicked up a notch.
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| Norm riding along this coastal trail! |
Saturday July 21
Well, all this new found exercise has caught up with
me! I woke up still pretty tired, but
there were bike trails to be had! Observation
– the sun rises at 4:38 am – insanse! There
was one bike trail that went along the peninsula that you can see in the
pictures; it looked like it would be pretty easy. Wrong again!
My God, it went up and down these steep hills for miles. Even Norm was
pretty exhausted and had to get off and walk!
I was certainly glad I opted for this “easy” trail first before we did
the “hilly” one! Remember the 17% grade
roads we were on – well here we were again but on bikes!
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| View from hike to lower observation platform |
The views, again, were gorgeous. We were so fortunate with the weather –
another perfect day. A little warm (near
80) no humidity, and the bluest sky I have ever seen! We hiked to the observation
area – (oh, no - more stairs!) and proceeded to watch a couple of whales and
seals just off the coast.
We’ve had various “sightings” of other wildlife over the
last few days. Of course the moose already
mentioned, plus a fox ran right up behind me on the hiking trail yesterday! I thought it was a person walking and as I
stepped aside to let him pass, I saw this rather large and beautiful fox about
3 feet behind me! He/she just cut into
the woods, went down a little, and came back out on the trail ahead of us! I knew we were starting to drag, but gee, I
guess we were holding him up!
Today we saw our first porcupine (that was not
road kill). A cute mother and baby
eating right beside the trail! Last but
not least, as we were driving back to camp we saw a bear on the side of the
road (thank goodness we were in the car).
I guess we should probably wear the “bear bells” I purchased when we
hike/bike, since they obviously are in the parks.
We took most of the afternoon “off “ and just rested, read,
cleaned house, etc. Tonight’s meal was
chicken cordon bleu (Norman cooked perfectly on the grill), grilled asparagus
and forbidden rice. Not bad for camping,
eh?
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| Bear sighting! Glad I was in the car! |
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| Just like this! Right behind me! (This is an internet photo ) |
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