I got up around 6:30 and was surprised that Chris hadn’t left yet although he headed off shortly. I made myself oatmeal for breakfast for the first time. I had made a mix with some dried fruit, ginger and nuts, but still found it a little bland. I hit the trail around 8 and after the first few flat kms along the river, the trail turned and headed up the first mountain. The climb wasn’t very steep and I thought I was more out of breath than I should be at this point into the hike.

After the climb, the trail did have a junction that was a bit confusing, but I managed to go the right way after checking the GPS maps. It was up and down across the top and then down to Abri Ruisseau Pitounes. I stopped there for lunch even though I hadn’t quite done half my kms for the day (I usually like to stop when I have over half the kms done) since I wasn’t sure if there’d be another good place to stop. I only ate about ¾ of my lunch, so that I could have the rest as a decent snack later. The trail leaving the shelter wasn’t too difficult, but it did get more challenging with a lot of very steep up and downs. My Achilles tendon on my left foot started to really complain, so I was very slow as to make sure to place my foot as flat as possible each step to avoid as much strain on it as possible.

There were two summits on the trail that afternoon, but neither was marked (at least that I saw) nor were there any real viewpoints. It was also sad to see active logging sites (since it was Sunday, there was no one working them), they ruined the small views that I did have. There were also areas in the views that although green, had obviously been logged at some point. When I figured I had done all the climbing, I just sat down in the trail and ate the rest of my lunch. I was feeling a bit disappointed with the reserve at this point; overgrown trail with no views to make the climbs worth it and signs of logging whenever there was any sort of view. The last few kms were all down a steep trail with ankle twisting roots and rocks. I was exhausted when I reached camp and this wasn’t even the challenging section of the Reserve! I was happy to find company at the campsite however. Two women were camping with their dog on a platform near the lake and a woman, man and his dog were at the abri. I set up my tent on the platform near the abri and did my stretching routine. The lake was quite mucky at the shoreline and not very enticing so I found a rock that I could dip my feet in from, but the water wasn’t as cold as the rivers so I didn’t get the same ‘icing’ effect. Back at the campsite someone had started a fire and we all gathered round it. It turned out that the man, Stéphane, was the one with the prosthetic leg that I had heard about in Ste-Marguerite. He has a foot amputation on one side and toe amputation on the other and is hiking the trail to raise money for four different charities. He didn’t explain why he’s an amputee, but I looked him up on the web and he lost his foot and toes to frostbite after being lost for 6 days in the backcountry of BC. His friend, Marianne, was helping him by sharing some of the weight of the gear, although she was only doing the Reserve with him. I’m not sure if it was the campfire, but there were thankfully less mosquitoes than usual that evening.