I was the first to head off in the morning, the others were only going to Lac Gros Ruisseau. It wasn’t raining when I set off but the forecast was for more rain. I have to say that Adèle’s story of howling coyotes had me thinking how I would defend myself against being ripped apart by a pack of coyotes. I managed to put these thoughts out of my head, but I didn’t take the fork to visit Gros Ruisseau when I got there. I had lunch at the second summit after the fork, Mont Ferland Fafard and called Dad to wish him a happy birthday.

I got pretty chilly since I was damp and it was windy, but I soon warmed up again once I got moving again. It was down and then up again to the summit of Mont Pointu. There was a fun little scrambly climb up to the top and I think the views from up there would be nice but I was in the clouds and it was rainy and windy, not inviting conditions. So I continued on quickly to Mont Craggy and again didn’t stop as the conditions had only worsened.

Mont Craggy seems to have a ridge with multiple view points along it before the trail heads steeply down. It was wet and slippery and I fell backwards a couple of times but managed to not completely wipe out. Adèle had been told by a SIA volunteer that the trail down to the Abri Mont Craggy was in bad condition and that the abri was quite far off the main trail. He had recommended continuing to the summit of Mont Blanc and wild camping there. When I got to the turn off for the abri, I decided to take it because the weather was so terrible that I thought it would be miserable camping on a 1000+ meter summit while I had reservation in the abri that night. The trail was a bit long, over 1 km, and steeply downhill on a muddy track, but it wasn’t all that bad. When I got the the shelter, I dumped my bag and went another 300m downhill to collect water at the stream, since I figured I should get it now and then get nice and dry. As I was walking downhill, I noticed this big dark shape and realised that it was the back of an animal. It had it’s head down and for a second, I wasn’t sure if it was a bear or a moose. It was a bit scary since it was only a few meters down the trail. I made a slight noise so that it would hear me, but hopefully not startle it too much, and it lifted it’s head. To my immense relief it was a moose and we just looked at each other for a bit. I eventually took a mini step forward and it turned on it’s heels and headed into the woods. I was so happy that I had finally seen my first moose of the trail that I forgot how wet and cold I was. I got my water and headed back up to the shelter. I was surprised to see a man coming down the trail and to hear that he had a Kiwi accent. Zen and his girlfriend, Judith, were hiking the entire SIA in the opposite direction to me. After we had all gotten dry and settled in, we chatted a bit and it turned out that they had met while Judith was on a work VISA in New Zealand but are now trying out life here and will be living in Montreal. Zen seemed very keen about learning French. They also talked about how they felt that they were doing days that are too long and that they need to take it a bit easier since they’re feeling tired. Another couple showed up at the end of the day, they’re doing a section hike, but I didn’t get to speak with them very much since they were camping on one of the platforms. They had had a long day since their ride to the trailhead the previous day hadn’t shown up leaving them with two days hiking to do in one today.