August 1
End: L'Érablière Refuge
Miles: 35.5
Total: 4750.1
I got up early and moved out onto the trail. I knew that I had a pretty decent amount of miles to cover, and I wanted to get as many done as soon as I could so that I wouldn’t be hiking until dark. The last few days had been ending well before dark, and I wanted to keep that streak alive if possible.
I noted with some disdain that it was August. I had been hiking for seven months. At one time I had thought it possible that I might finish the trip by August, but obviously that had not happened. I knew now that such a pace would have been fatal, but still I was growing a little weary of hiking and was thinking more and more of what I wanted to do when I finished my trip.
Before long I was back down on the highway doing more road walking. I honestly didn’t mind, because I knew it would help me get the miles done that day. Other than a small jaunt in the woods, I was walking on the road all morning.
The trail went back to the beach again. For the sake of not being a total quitter, I decided to give it a shot. It was miserable. After about a hundred meters, I decided that I had had enough. I attempted to climb up the steep cliff back to the road, but hurt my finger in the process. Very frustrated, I hiked back the way I came and got back on the road. I had been right to skip the beach.
As luck would have it, I ran into Matt and Stephanie from Saint Quentin while I was doing my unauthorized road walking. I knew they were in the area on vacation, but didn’t know if I would see them or not. They saw me while they drove by, and stopped to talk for a few minutes. It was good to see them again, and I arranged to get the long underwear I had left at their house back from them.
Onwards I marched. When I finally arrived in L’Anse-a-Valleau, I stopped in at the visitor center and charged my phone for a few minutes while I ate. As I continued up the road, I found those lovely IAT markings heading back past a motel and followed them. I had only gone a few steps when I was greeted by a woman from the motel balcony.
She invited me up, gave me some chicken and other food to eat, and was very kind. I learned that she and her family had been living at the motel for nine years. It was incredible that she would help me, and all the retired folks living in their nice coastal houses just stare at me or try to ignore me. I greatly appreciated her kindness, but I had to get going to get to the refuge before dark, since it was still ten miles away.
The walk back was a little more difficult than road walking. The ridges of the hills run parallel with the coast, so I was going straight up and down them as I moved inland. I found myself on some old logging roads, but also a lot of overgrown woods trail. Determined to get to the last IAT refuge I would stay at on the trail, I trudged through it all and finally reached the refuge with plenty of time before dark.
I enjoyed my evening there, but I was also feeling pretty weird, almost emotional. I was nearing the end of Quebec. For the longest time I wasn’t sure if I could even get this far, and now I had shown that I could. And I thought that perhaps I could go even farther.
