As I left the Airbnb, it heard some thunder and then it started to pour. I sheltered under an awning while quickly donning my rain gear. I had to get to the shuttle pick-up for 7:45 and was planning to stop by a well-rated bakery to pick up something for breakfast, which was just opposite the shuttle stop and opened at 7:30. I got to the bakery at about 7:20 and despite the pouring rain and the staff having opened the door, I was told that I couldn’t come in until 7:30. I was a bit surprised since everyone says how hospitable Gaspesians are, but I didn’t argue. I found another awning to shelter under for 10 minutes. I contemplated not giving the bakery my business, but the only other open option seemed to be Subway and I really wanted pastries, so I went back at 7:30 and bought a danish and a muffin. I crossed over to the shuttle stop at the tourist information place and as it was unlocked I went in to see if there was a dry place to sit to eat. However, despite the door being unlocked, I set off an alarm inside, so I quickly went back outside again. Luckily, the rain was easing and the shuttle showed up a few minutes later in any case. I was the only passenger…When we got to the Discovery centre, I found Adèle there and we headed off together up the trail. We were chatting and almost walked right past a moose that was just chilling next to the trail, lying in the bushes and chomping down on them. It was a big one with a nice antler rack and it didn’t seem bothered by us at all.

We continued on to Lac aux Americains, which is in a glacial basin. The rain had stopped completely and it seemed to be clearing up a bit, which was a surprise since the forecast I’d seen yesterday had called for a lot of rain all day. Adèle decided to take a longer break at the lake since she wasn’t going as far me today, but I continued on after making an adjustment to my bag, which wasn’t sitting well (it can be finicky and needs the weight inside to be balanced in order to be comfortable).

I headed up towards Mt Xalibu, a bit of climb, but again the type of climbing that I enjoy. I passed Robert and Françoise, a couple of slightly older hikers doing the entire trail, who also have Zpacks gear, and who agreed that the pack can be finicky. They also weren’t going as far as me today, so I continued on after chatting with them for a few minutes. I didn’t do the small detour to the summit of Mt Xalibu since it wasn’t the clearest day (and I had been under better conditions 2 years ago), and continued to the Tetras hut, where I stopped to have lunch (leftover hard boiled eggs with English muffin and bell pepper. I was a bit apprehensive that I wouldn’t feel well since this was pretty much what I ate before getting nauseous the previous day, but it seemed to be ok this time. After a decent break, I continued on to the summit of Mt Jacques Cartier, which is the highest point of the trail at 1276m.

I met a few people coming the other way, including a family with some young children, who were planning to camp at the campsite near the Tetras hut. There were also a few snow patches that I didn’t hesitate to cross this time and may have crossed to precipitously since I had some trouble re-finding the trail and had to double back over.

The climb to the summit was quite tiring because it involved climbing a giant pile of rocks, some of which were tippy. I kept stopping to look for caribou, but no luck. I had the summit all to myself (there’s a shuttle that takes people from the Mt Jacques-Cartier campsite to the trailhead and back and I was late enough that I wouldn’t catch the last shuttle and probably why I had the place to myself). It had cleared up quite a bit by now and I enjoyed the views for a little while and then started down, the also very rocky trail.

I did the extra little loop called the ‘caribou trail’, but still no caribou. My feet were suffering from all the rocks and I was quite slow headed down, but I eventually madi it to the road where the shuttle stops. The walking was much easier on the road and the last kms into the campsite flew by. When I got there, I checked-in and was given some very vague instructions as to where to find the campsite for the SIA hikers. I was lucky that they didn’t need to use the computer to check anything for me since the woman ahead of me was having quite the time trying to spell out her name and address for the man to enter into their system. The campsite was much larger than the one at Lac Cascapedia and had individual sites within it. I was all alone though…I went and showered after setting up camp. It seemed to be threatening to rain all evening, but it only started up a few minutes after I retired for the night, what great timing! I felt really lucky with the weather today since it would have been much harder to navigate over all those rocks if they’d been wet.