I slept so-so, I was woken up by an animal at one point and again by some rain and wind in the early morning hours.  I wasn’t really able to get back to sleep again after that, but only got up at 6:45.  I made the oatmeal that Mum had sent me for breakfast, maple sugar flavored.  It was sickly sweet and had a fake maple flavor.  I also managed to spill some of my coffee, making a bit of a mess.  I dropped by the shelter on my way out to say goodbye to the guys since their itinerary was now diverging from mine.  We took a photo together and exchanged details.  It was mostly gentle ups and downs through alternating pine and deciduous forest.  It was sunnyish when I set out but it became quite overcast and I was even in the clouds at lot of time, which made the forest seem quite dark and gloomy. 

I didn’t see any wildlife apart from a little red bird, that was quite friendly and let me take it’s photo. 

I arrived at les Crêtes 2 too early for a lunch break, but I collected some water and headed on.  I had stayed there two summers ago and it looked exactly the same.  I had forgotten how steep the trail was when leaving les Crêtes 2, I hadn’t expected my legs to burn so much today!  There were some viewpoints after the climb, but I couldn’t see anything. 

I reached the 132, where there’s a parking area next to the trail with a ‘view’ of the Baie de Chaleurs.  I was hoping for a picnic table, but there was none to be found, so I sat on the ground next to the trail and ate my lunch.  It started to rain lightly, but I was quite sheltered by the trees so I wasn’t getting very wet.  I found it amusing that on one side of the 132 was the 17km mile marker while the 16 km mile marker was just on the other side, literally about 50m apart; my fastest km on the trail!  I carried on after lunch up Mont St-Alban, where there’s an observation tower with a nice view of the cliffs of the Bout-du-Monde peninsula.  It had stopped raining by the time I got to the tower, but it was still too cloudy to see anything at all so I continued on.  After just a short section, I turned off the main trail and headed down to the Cap Bon Ami campground.  There’s an interpretation area near a pebble beach with some information about the seabirds.  It’s extremely scenic, with the cliffs towering above.  

I hung out for a bit, reading the panels and then walked over to the campground.  It’s a drive-in campground, but the check-in area was 3 km away and since I had no interest in walking an extra 6km, I just set up and figured that if a ranger came by, that hopefully they’d understand and help me check-in.  I also hadn’t been able to pay my entrance fee for the park because it wasn’t possible to do so on-line.  It seemed to be clearing so I took advantage of the facilities and washed some of my clothing and showered.  Of course, a thunderstorm rolled in just after I hung up clothing to dry!  I waited it out in the tent doing some Sudokus.  After the storm passed, I rehung my clothes and took my dinner down to the beach.  The sunset behind the cliffs, but it still lit up the clouds and even some of the cliffs off in the distance.  One of the best of the trip. 

Back at the campground, I was unsure about what to do with my food bag since there were no trees for a bear hang although I knew that there can be bears in this area.  I had resigned myself to sleeping with it, when on my trip to the bathroom to brush my teeth and use the toilet before bed, I noticed some bear-proof lockers.  I went back and got my food to stash in one, relieved that I wouldn’t be tempting fate.