I enjoyed my pizza and coffee breakfast immensely, even the cold pizza was delicious, with shrimps and lobster…There were two options for the trail this morning, along the shoreline if the tide was out or along the highway.  The timing was good for the shoreline, so I headed down to the beach.  The surface varied from large boulders to tiny pebbles, which were the hardest to walk on since they just slip underfoot, and the air was still and humid. 

I saw some seals, a lot of gulls and few cormorants, but no whales.  After about 5 km, the trail hits Petite Vallee and you’re back on the 132 for a short stint until a pourvoirie (not sure about the translation, but a sort of private hunting/fishing area). 

It was nice to be on real hiking trail again, but then the trail came to junction with the option for ‘difficile’ or ‘facile’.  The trails hadn’t been too hard so far, so I opted for the ‘difficile’ route, figuring it would be shorter.  I ended up regretting my choice as the trail was the steepest climb I’d done yet, with ropes, downed trees to somehow get over and a swarm of mosquitoes.  I stopped for lunch not long after at a shelter, which I took advantage of to shelter from the mosquitoes, which had been following me since the climnb.  The mosquito situation only deteriorated after lunch, I ended up putting on my rainpants since my legs were getting bitten despite the bugspray, which was quickly running out.  It was hot out so my legs were drenched from sweat within minutes of putting on the rain pants.  Since my legs were no longer available, the mosquitoes were biting me through my hiking top, so I developed a technique, were I would swipe them off alternating arms with each step.  It was slow going and what with the humidity and steep trail, I quickly became exhausted and frustrated.  I eventually made it to the refuge and perhaps because it was elevated in the trees, it didn’t seem too buggy thankfully.  I had the entire refuge that sleeps 8 to myself since there’s no tenting option.  I read through the comments in the hut log and it seemed that everyone had a rough go of it getting to this refuge.  Zen and Judy wrote about how it was their anniversary the day they arrived at the hut, but they spent it yelling at each other because they got lost and were being driven mad by the mosquitoes (they had also run out of bugsrpay).  Even the guy doing the ECT had written that Quebec was testing his resolve.