Time left before our departure:
Useful Links
Other Partners
18 Dec 2009
Hiking trip
A while back, I should say a few years back, Manon and I were toying with the idea to take a few days in the Gaspésie National Park to go hiking. As we were getting ready for the Rally des Gazelles, it seemed like the right thing to do. Why you may ask? What does hiking have to do with the Rally des Gazelles? It would allow us to do something together before the Rallye. Why in Gaspé? Why not, both of us were born there and it was easier for us to have our parents babysit the kids. Thank you moms and dads!
We wanted to spend a few days but life being like it is, full of surprises and unforeseeable events… Manon moved to Rimouski at the beginning of July! It was one of her biggest dreams. But trying to combine her move and our trip was hard enough, so we decided to go just for two days. Our itinerary: Mont Xalibu, on our way to Mont Jacques-Cartier, and a night stay at the Tetras Refuge.
Our first day was just great, sunny all day long… in July (believe it or not!) We left around 11:00 a.m. and got to the top at 1:00 p.m. Because of the time, we had to reconsider going to Mont Jacques-Cartier that same day, so we decided, contrary to our habits, to relax and enjoy the day. And we did just that! On our way to the Refuge, we met another hiker who told us he had a hard time through a snowy path going over a small lake because they were caribous drinking there and they didn’t want to move at all!
Very early the next morning, the fog coming our way, we promptly got ready. The path was taking us through a boreal forest, scattered with open areas and fresh bear scat here and there! Being the first ones to walk the path that day (we’re not sure but we thought so since it was only 6:00 a.m. after all), we kept our cayenne pepper spray close by and we kept on talking! Suddenly, Manon whispered to me “Martine, at your left…” A huge mother moose stood a few metres away, looking at us not too pleased to see us! Since we didn’t want to disturb her breakfast, we rapidly moved on! We kept on walking for another hour, always expecting a bear to show up, and we finally got out of the forest to find ourselves in the tundra. That wouldn’t keep the bears from coming by since the first bear that I ever saw while hiking was in the tundra! With no trees around us, we realized that the fog had taken over the mountains, we could hardly see from one cairn to another. We could barely hear our voices, our foot steps, our sticks… a mystic ambiance was all around us. Pure silence…Suddenly, Manon in a tenuous voice said to me “At your right Martine, a herd of caribous” And I answered back… “And to your left… the rest of the herd!” We were right in the middle of it! What an experience! Just to experience that once would have been enough for a lifetime, imagine… we got to see this 4 times… we were ecstatic!