My longest day km wise, so I was up and off early,  I preventatively donned my rain pants and tried to go slowly to reduce the sweating.  It was breezy and less humid that the day before so it wasn’t too hot in them.  Not too long after leaving the refuge, I found the trail a bit confusing but then found some trail markers and started following them again.  I stopped to take a pic of some fungi since I hadn’t taken many and I was thinking of Jordana, who loves fungi. 

Since the phone was out, I checked my GPS map and realised that I was going back on my steps!  I was thankful that I had stopped to take the pic and not added to many extra steps to my long day.  The trail eventually spit me out onto a forestry road that was being built.  I waved to both the construction workers in their respective tractors/large construction vehicles to make sure that they saw me and they did both stop work as I went by.  A little ways down the road, I stopped to get some water since I was out.  The source was muddy, but it did have a gentle flow.  I had to get down a steep embankment to get to it and as I stepped on a rock, it gave way and I fell face first down into the water.  I managed to pull myself out of the pit and rinse off most of the mud. 

I wasn’t hurt, or at least nothing more than a mild scrape so that was good, but the day definitely wasn’t going to plan, I had hoped to make much faster progress.  I finally arrived at St-Yvon, where you can either take to the shoreline again or the highway. 

Hightide wasn’t for about 3 hours and after checking with a local, I decided to take the shoreline. 

I had about 5kms to do and could feel the tide coming in so went along at a good clip, making it in about 1.5 hours to Anse Grand Etang, where the trail rejoined the highway for a few kms before turning off onto a trail that eventually led to a waterfall. 

I was surprised to see three people at the abri near the waterfall, one was a section hiker and the other two were a couple of dayhikers.  The section hiker gave me some bug spray to put on, but no one had any extra to give me.  The dayhikers were locals and thought that the gift shop at the Pointe à la Renommée lighthouse might have some for sale.  However, they closed at 5pm and it was 3 pm and I was 8 kms away.  After a quick break, I decided to do my best to get there before closing.  At first the trail was well used and I was able to make good time, but then after crossing the 132, it became overgrown and I had to slow down until the last couple of kms down the dirt road to the lighthouse. 

I made it there at 4:45, but sadly they didn’t have any bug spray to sell or give me, but I did get an orange crush and it was delicious!  I didn’t have time to visit the lighthouse, but I did learn that it had been moved to Quebec City after it fell into disuse, but that some local women fought to get it back and were eventually successful.  It was also the wireless telegraph site in North America.  The name also has some history, it was first called ‘faim’ in French given that somw shipwrecked sailors starved here and then translated to ‘fame’ by the English when they took over the region and then to ‘renomée’ when the French took the regions back. I only had 1.5 km left to get to the refuge, where I was supposed to camp for the night.  There were two men sitting on the balcony when I arrived, Sheik Choc and Feu Mollet, two other hikers, doing a two week section of the trail.  The area around the refuge was full of shoulder height grasses and shrubs and there was no obvious place to camp, so we ended up sharing the refuge.  The refuge has a nice view onto the Gulf, but a light rain had started and it wasn’t the best evening to enjoy the scenery.  It turned out that my hut companions had done a different two week section of the trail last year and had some issues with other hikers not wanting to share the shelters and their complaints were one of the reasons behind the new reservation system (I didn’t hold this against them since it sounded like their experience was frustrating). We chatted quite a bit and I didn’t get to bed until after 10, but it was great to have some company again.