July 28
End: Las Cabourons Refuge
Miles: 16.8
Total: 4631.3
I was not in a hurry in the morning. I only planned to do about half of a normal day in order to sleep in a refuge that night. Also, I was told that I wasn’t supposed to summit Mt. Jacques-Cartier in the early morning because of caribou on top of the mountain.
The other hikers shared breakfast with me, and I did more journal entries. They left and I stuck around, making me feel a little lazy, though I could feel good about all the journalling I was doing. Finally I packed up and started towards the mountain.
Before long I ran right into a caribou on the trail. He was not afraid of me at all, and walked towards me on the wooden planks. As I took a video of this rare creature he proceeded to show me how he felt about the IAT by peeing right on the trail. I concurred.
The climb up to the summit was not too difficult. At the top I enjoyed the building there and even got some cell service, a first since Mont Logan. Another hiker showed me caribou in the distance with his binoculars. I did a journal entry or two, but packed up as I saw hikers coming up to the summit from the other direction.
I talked with the folks I had seen at La Paruline, and descended from the windy mountain, past the caribou. It took awhile, but I got down to the road where a bus drops off lots of hikers to climb the mountain, and started walking the road out of the park.
The trail went into the woods, and I was worried that I was going to have another Matane Reserve experience. Thankfully the trail was reasonable and I made it out to a series of old mountain roads, which eventually led to the refuge. I arrived there and found two hikers asleep in their bunks, so I got my own and laid down as well.
After awhile I met the other hikers, though they preferred to keep to themselves mostly. They did give me another expensive backpacking meal, which I was grateful for, though I really didn’t need it. I was out of the national park and would be arriving on the coast the next day. I had dinner and went to bed after a fairly easy day.
