I was a little worried I had followed the directions to the trail head wrong at first since it took me out to some tiny gravel road in the middle of nowhere. It seemed unlikely there would be a trail with an information centre as I didn't see a single sign until the 500m mark. Turns out there was way more than just the information centre though. There was a hotel and plenty of cabins to rent. It's quite the little tucked away secret vacation spot.
We were quite surprised to see frost and snow on the trail last weekend! It was significantly colder than the weekend before and I found myself wishing I'd brought another layer for the first portion of the hike.
I quickly warmed up though since the first 3km is straight up hill. The trail was wide and well marked but I was definitely feeling it in my legs since the weekend before had been so flat. There were a couple of viewpoints as we went up, it's nice to see the trees starting to go green.
It didn't take long to get the main viewpoint and I can see why the trail is so popular. We had a little break there and saw more people than the rest of our time on the trail. There were even a couple of dogs running around making friends.
We even got to see a sun halo! I don't think I've ever seen one quite as obvious as this one was.
Shane and I were accidentally matching this hike so we had to grab a picture. Of course now it's going to become a thing where we coordinate for our hikes.
We came across a little book and foot bridge and decided to stop for lunch. Leslie and I both really love the sound of flowing water.
We made a new friend too! This sweet little Bengal was out enjoying the day. Unfortunately, there was too much mud in this section so he was being carried. I don't think he was too happy to be carried either. He was quite vocal and seemed eager to get going.
It was a beautiful trail once you get up and we've added it to our Fall list since there's such a great viewpoint. It'll be nice to see all the trees change colour. I'm also going to look into renting one of their little cabins for a weekend this summer. They're pretty average for Quebec cabins, the deck is pretty much as big as the inside, a bbq and fire pit and right by the lake.
