Camping Rimouski & Motel of Anse, Quebec, Canada
To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I (Wisdom) hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. ~ Proverbs 8:13
(We never did figure out the correct pronunciation)
And since you’ve already seen the “normal” morning view, this is out our windshield! Not bad!
Bic National Park was founded in 1984 and includes 8,200 acres, or approximately 12 ½ square miles. We can’t possibly cover it all, so we chose to climb to the highest peak, and also hike around an almost-island for a grand total of roughly 10 miles, which is a piddly amount compared to what’s actually available.
Since we knew it promised to be a long day, we left relatively early and were ready to tackle our first adventure of the day by 8:30am.
Before we do that though, let’s talk about the visitor center. The Park Ranger (I think they call them Wardens here), knew a little English and between that and her body gestures, we got the idea that the trail we wanted to tackle later today would require some rock climbing, that we should expect some narrow passages, and some large steps. And we should definitely not take our walking sticks because we would need both our hands. And we shouldn’t start that trail until noon. Sounds intriguing does it not?
And so, we begin our day.
The almost constant uphill climb to Le Pic-Champlain (yes, we took our sticks on this one and were glad for them!), wasn’t particularly scenic, as most of the way was just through woods. But that being said, there were occasions to peek through the trees and get an idea of what awaited us at the top – – after a 2 mile, 700’ elevation change hike. The Ranger told us it’d take an hour, but we did it in 40 minutes! It’s all those stairs we’ve been practicing on. And the fact that there wasn’t much to take pictures of. 😊
but this is the drop-off point, and it’s still a three-minute steep climb!
If I was paying for a shuttle,
I certainly wouldn’t expect to have to climb a mountain to get to the viewing spot!
But once we reached the top? Speechless! And not because we were out of breath, so stop thinking that. The views up here were amazingly incredible! And how wonderful for God to create such beauty for us to enjoy!
Why not a selfie? Or why not ask someone to take one?
I guess we were too overwhelmed to think of it . . . : )
By the way, those dots in the water behind us are freighters!
After we were there for a few minutes, a Ranger named Claude (with near perfect English) showed up and spent the next 15 minutes or so telling us about the trail we wanted to go on, places where we could kayak, and even sites to see as we head further northeast. Unfortunately, we’ll never remember all that he said, but maybe it’ll come back when we see it in print or something.
Then, as we sat and ate our banana muffins and looked out over the islands and water, a solo French female hiker showed up who spoke very good English and who proceeded to tell us about the best hiking trail in Gaspésie Park. Or was it Gaspe? They’re both in the same area. Kinda confusing to us foreigners. Anyway, she said not so many people, beautiful and caribou. Sounds great! Wonder what the name of that trail was. . .
Back down the trail we went, took the Jeep and headed over to our next stop – Le Grand Tour trailhead.
There are information boards in a room beyond those open doors.
Most everything was in French.
Everywhere you look, there’s beauty! And we even saw one lonely seal on a rock far away. (Don’t bother looking, you’ll never find it over there.) They’ve got a protected bay area for them. Says so right on the sign. In Seal, so they can understand it. We needed binoculars to confirm it was really a seal. Not sure if that counts as a sighting . . .
I’ll tell you right now, this was the most fun I’ve had hiking in quite a while! There was so much diversity – woods, beaches, rocks, back to woods. . . . And we had no idea what we were getting into, until we were there. There were hints of course, the lady Ranger briefly showed us a picture of some rocks, no dogs allowed, and no children under 12 years old. It’s the ‘no kids’ part that should’ve tipped us off, especially since dogs are rarely allowed on trails anywhere we’ve been in Quebec.
Because of the tide that comes in here (which is weird because the Atlantic Ocean is about 185 miles away!), you can only begin this trail at certain times – 1 ½ – 2 hours before low tide. Today’s tide chart dictated a noon start time, and quite a few people took advantage of it.
Enjoy the hike! I won’t have much in the way of commentary . . . but some.
but we discovered that once we got to the rocky part,
that stopped, so it’s okay.
The trail started getting more and more rugged the further we went along.
It’s hard to believe this is a river!
It’s an estuary (at least around here) – part fresh and part salt water.
And then the real rock climbing began! I suppose technically it’s more like a rock scramble, but for my short legs and body, it seemed like climbing sometimes! I even accepted help from a young French gentleman hiker at one point, so I could step across a ravine. Hey! What can I say. Blaine was behind me and offered to go around and give me a tug, but the young man had already left his group and come back for me with his hand outstretched. It would’ve been rude to refuse him, don’t you think?
At another difficult spot, Blaine was already across and I was waiting for an elderly woman to make her way, when she reached out her hiking stick to me to offer help. I declined. I could just see me pulling both of us down. What did I do? I waited for her to get up and over, and then I called Blaine back to help. 😊
Looking back gives an idea of what we did.
Besides, I’m so focused on what I’m doing, I don’t look around.
Now we get a little breather, before tackling the rocks again. : )
But who would want to lug beach gear over those rocks to get here?? : )
Goofball! Haven’t you climbed enough rocks?
Remember when I told you ‘no children under 12’? Doesn’t this child look younger than 12 to you? Crazy parents! It was hard enough for us, how much more difficult for a mother with that giant contraption and extra weight strapped to her back? And what if she’d slipped? Or the child reached its hand out and bumped the razor-sharp rock? Or a leg got pinned against a rock without the mother realizing it? Crazy parents!
Best hike – – maybe ever!
So much fun!
We began at 11:45am (I know, it was a little before noon, but we ended up being just fine) and reached the point (as in tip) of the almost-island by 2:20pm – almost three hours later. We sat and rested for a bit before heading back on a different trail. Partly because of the rock climbing involved, but mostly because the rock climbing part of the trail is one-way. And as you saw, there’s a reason for that. 😊
The return wasn’t nearly as exciting or fun – and it only took us about 1 ½ hours. 😊
Blaine drove us to another area, across the bay from where we ate lunch, and I sat on a bench while he went seal hunting. He didn’t catch anything. Not even with his phone. 😊
Oh! And did you notice my new hat halfway through the day? After years of searching, I finally found a hat I could live with. I discovered it in the boutique at our Grand Tour starting point. It’s not a visor like I wanted, but it fits well and doesn’t have any type of lettering or pictures (except for some tiny print saying Bic Park in French, of course, on the side). And I like red. I tried on a tan one, but it looked awful. So now, you’ll be able to find me anywhere, even in a crowd!
When we returned home, around 5pm, we were bushed! A quick dinner of leftovers and showers and we were down for the night.
Until the neighbor lady came over about 8:30pm. Not the dog people, the new neighbors on the other side. She told Blaine, “You are never outside! Why don’t you come outside? We want to talk to you!” (she has pretty good English) To which Blaine replied, “Thank you, but we hiked 12 miles today and we’re tired. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.” And she said, okay and left.
Consider us chastised and summoned. 😊