July 31
End: Les Cascades Refuge
Miles: 30.0
Total: 4714.6
I got another early start out of Grand Sault. It was the day I would go through Grande-Vallee, a town which was supposed to have groceries and perhaps even be a little bigger than the other coastal towns. My walk out of the hills was not difficult. It seemed to go by quickly, and before long I was back on the coastal highway.
It is amusing that when the trail is on the highway my trail map shows no trail at all, as if the IAT refuses to admit that there may be some road walking in their precious Quebec trail. I put my earbuds in and let my music carry me on to Grande-Vallee. It took a few hours but I got there.
When I arrived I went to the grocery store and hung out there for awhile with some food to eat. I found out the hard way that I don’t like soy chocolate milk, and then moved on. I then discovered some sheltered benches and picnic tables with outlets where I recharged my phone some more. Before I left town I went back to the store and was able, with some difficulty, to obtain a bus ticket from a small town near Cape Gaspe to Sackville, New Brunswick. This would be my link to the trail beyond Quebec.
The town was nice and it was obviously a little bigger than the other towns, but not by much. In any case I had enough food for the rest of my time in Quebec, and was now ready to hike back out to the wilderness.
The first thing I encountered was a section of beach walking. I was not enthusiastic about this. The beach is nothing special in Gaspesie. It is all rocks, and could potentially be an injury hazard for a hiker’s ankles. I decided that I had played along with the IAT enough to not have to deal with that silliness, so I just walked the road to Petite-Vallee.
I picked up the trail again as it traveled back into the woods. Getting fresh water at a campground, I hiked up a series of hills in the heat of the afternoon. Though I was far north, it was well over eighty degrees Fahrenheit and I was glad to have plenty of water.
Some of the uphill sections were a bit ridiculous, with ropes to help walk up the sides of giant slopes that stretched for at least a hundred meters. I reached the camping platforms and shelter of Les Terrasses, and saw that I was making decent time, but needed to keep going.
I made my way along a windmill trail. I climbed up hills and descended down to creeks and brooks below the windmills. At one point the trail climbed up to a service road for a group of windmills all in one spot. I kept moving and finally made it to the refuge.
I got water from the nearby brook and relaxed in the chairs outside the refuge. It was a nice spot and it felt good to be at one of these nice cabins to which I had become accustomed. Eventually it grew dark and I had dinner and went to bed. The trail through Quebec was nearly over, and it was beginning to make me think a lot about the meaning of arriving at Cape Gaspe.
