I didn’t sleep very well as I kept hearing noises as if someone was unwrapping food. I thought it might be Judith since she has diabetes, but in the morning, they told me it was a mouse that was trying to get into their food that they had left out. I found it a bit odd that they didn’t secure their food, but to each his own. I was up and away quite early and was glad to see it wasn’t raining although it was very misty and cloudy. The first part of the day was a climb back up to the trail and then up some more to the summit of Mont Blanc, which I believe is the highest peak in the Reserve. It was a complete white out at the top and windy.

The flat ground where a tent could have been set up was soggy and I was glad of my decision not to try to camp up there. The rest of the day was up and down several peaks until the last one, the famed Mont Nicole-Albert.

In the direction I was going, it wasn’t the climb up, but the decent which is infamous. The clouds had lifted by the time I got there, so I did have some views and could see the waterfall that I would hike by tomorrow, as well as tomorrow’s night’s destination, Mont Logan.

The descent was very long, but a lot of it is along a waterfall, which I’m sure is delightful, but I was feeling too tired to really appreciate it (perhaps Zen and Judith were onto something). There were sections with ropes because you sort of have to rappel down although you could also probably climb down most of it without the rope if you had to.

There was also another decomposed moose carcass along the way. When I got the abri, I found my resupply box waiting for me as planned. There were two large (and I suppose animal-proof boxes near the toilet), one where the SIA people leave resupply boxes and the other where you can leave your empty box and garbage. I sorted out my food and left a few extra things for any other interested hikers. The abri is near a small waterfall and I went down to get water and soak my feet but it was very mosquitoey, so I didn’t stay long. No one else was at the campsite, which sort of surprised me given that it’s just a few meters from a road where you can even park. I set up my tent on a platform since the abri seemed to have some mosquitoes, but I did use the abri to cook my meal and eat, since it’s much nicer to do this at a table than in the tent vestibule.