I didn’t sleep very well, one of my blistered toes was on fire and it was stormy. Since I had a short day, I decided to get up late and take my time before leaving so my tent could dry. Everything I left in the vestibule, like my shoes and socks, and my tent, including the inner mesh were covered in slugs and slug slime.

I bought some moleskin at the campground store and took some extra care bandaging my feet. I only set off around 11:30 and was relieved that the trail was quite easy and eventually turned into an atv track as I left the Parc de la Gaspesie.

After lunch, I was surprised by how much the trail climbed, even though it wasn’t too steep, it went above 700m altitude. There were no real views though. I took a break about 2km from my night’s destination and collected enough water to get me through until tomorrow since this refuge doesn’t have a water source. As I was filtering my water, I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, which turned out to be a rabbit. It seemed frightened of me since it hopped away when it noticed me, but then it seemed curious since it came closer again. As I approached the refuge, I could hear banging and figured others would be there. It turned out that two SIA workers were building a tent platform and a rain water collection cistern. They weren’t that chatty, but one of them did talk to me a bit about what they were doing. They were wrapping up and left about a half hour after I arrived. I had booked a tent site on the ‘ground’, but decided to use the platform. I did use the shelter to hang out and cook since it was a bit chilly, but thought I would probably sleep better in the tent. The shelter had a nice view, but it was shaded from the sun in the evening. No one else showed up as per usual.