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September 7, 1999
Today was supposed to be a "non-driving"
day, but it took a half hour to get to Parc Gaspésie,
and another 45 minutes to get to Mt. Jacques Cartier, our destination
for the day. Jacques Cartier was touted as the tallest peak
in southern Quebec, a boast that's always a magnet for us. We
had to get to the top somehow.
Being used to the U.S. where's there's
an eatery of some sort on every corner, we headed for Jacques
Cartier figuring we'd eat lunch at the lodge, then hike to the
peak. Hah! What lodge?? There wasn't a soul in sight, let alone
any type of eating establishment! Fortunately, we had a bag
of raisins, a box of chocolate cookies, some juice, and a bottle
of water we'd been carting around in the car, so we bundled
that into a backpack and headed out. The hike was four kilometers,
round trip, and was classified as "intermediate."
Again,  hah!
The rather steep incline was covered with small to large boulders
that had to be negotiated carefully, with one's head down, in
a rather dense fog. Once we got to the top of the mountain above
the tree line, we were exposed to 20–50 mph winds that
provided interesting resistance to the forward motion. We were
supposed to see reindeer out on the tundra up there, but they
were either somewhere else, or hiding in the fog laughing at
us. What made this hike even more interesting, was that we had
to complete the entire hike and get back down to the bottom
in two hours due to restrictions on the number of hours people
are allowed on the mountain (to protect the wildlife). Once
we got to the top, we had time to look around briefly, admire
what little we could actually see, and hide out in the rest
station tower from the wind long enough to cram down some raisins
and cookies and drink some juice before careening headlong back
down the mountain to make the deadline for the last bus down
the rest of the mountain to our car.
Along the way, we ran into some interesting
folks to talk to: a couple who seemed to have the same itinerary
as us—we had chatted with them at the ferry and at the
gardens—and an interesting geology professor from Montreal
who came up to Jacques Cartier on a regular basis  with
students or by himself.
Being tired from our forced march up
and down the mountain, we weren't even out of the park when
we spotted what looked like a very nice place to land early
for the night—the Gite du Mont Albert. It was quite luxurious
by the standards we had set for this trip, so we decided to
pamper ourselves this one time. We got the package deal,  which
included dinner (an elegant French affair with quail and partridge)
and a full breakfast the next morning. We took the room sight
unseen. When we found our room, it was as luxurious the outside
promised...but...no TV! Oh well, we thought, even though it's
early, we're tired anyway. We won't be tempted to stay up late
watching movies, and we'll get a good night's sleep. Hah! About
3 a.m., we awoke to a very loud rumbling outside that increased
as the dawn approached. Unfortunately we hadn't seen the little
sign with the truck on it located on the curve of the road just
before the hotel. We had landed on the mountain logging route.
The loggers started their day early, and so did we. No wonder
no TV!
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