Day27 Jacques Cartier National Park

Lachie woke once in the night, requiring the story of The Three Pigs and then he was asleep. Luckily he then slept until 7 am. We ate breakfast, packed our snacks and lunch and set off for the Jacques Cartier National Park.

It is only 50 kms from Quebec, but our car GPS took us to a dead end road near Tewkesbury? Tim used his phone to get another map and we went back onto the freeway and arrived at the NP along with many other cars. This is obviously a very popular park with everyone especially canoeists, canoes and equipment rented out by the NP service. They are also trialing allowing dogs on leads on some of the tracks. Because it was a public holiday, they wanted us to park our car and take the bus to the base of the track, we were going to hike. “Les Loups” 447 M high. 5 km return trip to the first observation deck.

When we were dropped off by the bus, we walked to the river first and 200 m walk. Stunningly beautiful views of the Jacques Cartier River. Then we crossed over the road, changed Lachie’s pants and set off up the hill. I don't think Sarah and Tim read the tiny print that said it was classified as "A” = advanced. Very uneven ground, covered in rocks at times, or loose gravel and quite steep in places. Going up was hard in places, coming down was torture on the knees and leg muscles. Lachie was amazing. He walked at least 2 kms of it. It really is a most beautiful walk, and very popular.

We were passed by many people of all ages going up or down. The aspens were turning yellow. There were lots of things for me to photograph. I did miss taking a photo of a mystery animal- looked like a small brown fox, several squirrels and a few birds. When we finally reached the viewpoint – the view was most incredible. After the photos it was time for lunch before we set off for the return trip, with Tim carrying Lachie over the loose rocks in the back pack.

At the bottom we caught the bus again and headed back to the Discovery Centre for well-earned icy-poles and soft drinks. We sat on the lawn and watched the canoeists and people in the water. We walked over to the bridge so Lachie could throw rocks off into the river below. The bridge was really smelly of some kind of protective paint. Back in the car and we set off for home.

It was a good trip back. We stopped at Chez Victor by the Port, for hamburgers, GF for me.  Lachie ate more than he has for days. After satisfying ourselves with food we came home for a well-deserved shower.

Photo processing for me followed by typing.