Gaspesie - Land's End

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After leaving Quebec City we drove to the Gaspesie Peninsula. Our route took us along the St Lawrence River and through many small towns. The speed limit is mostly 90 k/hr (56m/hr) except for curves and some towns. I always feel odd when we barrel through a town that doesn’t require us to slow down; I wonder if we missed the sign.

We stopped in Ste Flavie for one night at Capitaine Homard Campground. Periodically we would see the name Homard during our travels and I just thought it must be a popular name. We later learned that is the word for lobster!

The further north we traveled, the road became more curvy and hilly and our greatest grade was 15%. We settled in for a four night stay near Riviere-au-Renard, so we would have time to explore the surrounding area. This is the end of the Appalachia mountain range. I was surprised to discover that the Appalachia Trail becomes the International Appalachia Trail (IAT) when it enters Canada. I knew the mountain range went further than just a few states, but did not realize that it extended from Georgia to Quebec.

There are steep cliffs that lead to stony beaches. Most nights we would take the stairway down to the beach to watch the sunset and look for interesting rocks and sea-glass. There certainly was an abundance of “skipping stones” in a variety of sizes on the beach.

One day we drove to Perce to see Perce Rock. At low tide there is a land bridge connecting it to the mainland. Timing is everything if you don’t want to get stranded or wet. We opted to view it from afar. The town is busy and touristy and parking near the rock is $11 if you stay more than an hour. It is an interesting system of parking to pay the $11 and receive a time stamped receipt. Then if you return and leave before an hour has passed, they refund your money. It did motivate us to see what we came to see and then move on. I would have liked to explore the town a little, but not for that price.

Another morning we went to Cap-Bon-Ami and hiked to the observation tower. It is part of the IAT and the section we did was 1.8 kilometers. We did not overtake anyone in our hike, but we did eventually make it to the tower. I had my doubts about making it all the way, as it was a very steep trail and I am not in as good of shape as I would like to be. I kept my goals very small as the trail wound its way upwards. Often my goal would be to the next curve or the top of the next visible incline. We got to hear and respond “Bonjour” many times as we met people returning from the tower, or passing us. Towards the end I felt that we were so close it would be silly not to go all the way, but still kept my goals short. We did finally make it to the tower and climbed to the top as the fog rolled in. We stayed for a while hoping that the fog would roll out, but it was cold and windy and no guarantee that that would happen any time soon. We took pictures, read descriptions and then began our decent which went much quick than the trip up. By the time we got back to the car, the fog had lifted from the tower. C’est la vie!

We certainly can be gluttons for punishment some days. After lunch we did another hike, which was less steep. We went to Anse-Aux-Amerindians and hiked 4k to see the lighthouse. Again it was a section of the IAT and was the very end (or beginning) depending on your point of view. The trail goes through forests and along the coast and through berry patches. I didn’t give it much thought to the berries until we started seeing bear scat on the trail, fortunately that is all we saw and no bears were surprised by our sudden appearance during their meal.

We rewarded ourselves with ice cream cones. Our attempts at French remain a challenge to understand. Fortunately usually there is someone who speaks/understands enough English that they save us from further embarrassing attempts.

We left the northeastern area of the Gaspesie Peninsula and moved to Miguasha. Our plan was to get up in the morning and move the RV to the parking lot of Parc National de Miguasha. Then we could tour the museum and grounds before heading on. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Their website is: http://miguasha.ca/mig-en/index.php Needless to say there was a lot to both see and read. We opted for the short 20 minute intro guided tour and to then tour the remainder on our own. Our guide was knowledgeable and her English was good. They also switched the movie over to the English version for us and that explained even more. By the end of 2 hours my head was swimming with info on the Devonian Period and the Age of the Fishes. We could have spent even more time there, but we both had reached our saturation point.

We’re leaving Quebec and are heading to New Brunswick….see you down the road!

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