Another day at Parc National du Bic. The weather is not quite as nice as yesterday but it's not pouring rain so I will take it. With a couple of trails in mind we head out. The trail we did is depicted in the picture below and colour coded in yellow.
The first trail is at Cap Caribou a very short hike of 1.5 km but it's down then back up a rather steep hill. I found going down more difficult than coming up. The first picture is just before we head down at least it was paved. This second picture is at the bottom looking back up the hill. Yes it looks different, there is a switchback half way down or up depending on which way you are going. Seal watching at Bic is a major attraction. Low tide at Cap Caribou is where grey seals and harbour seals can be seen by the dozen hauling themselves out of the water and lounging on the rocks. These seals are resting and moulting. Moulting is the annual shedding and replacing of the seals fur coat which is essential to withstand the hardships of the winter. I have no idea if these are grey or harbour seals. It wasn't a great day for picture taking. We had fun watching them. We spent some time watching the crazy seals launching themselves from the water to the rock and back in the water. Fun time over now it's time for the climb back up the hill. Made it. Our next trail is Le parcours l'ile-aux-amours which is considered to be easy. The trail starts at the parking lot and leads out to a sandbar then around an isolated island. This hike has to be done at low tide since the sandbar is underwater at high tide. We walked about 2.5 km of this trail. Home for some much needed lunch.
After lunch I figured the day was still young so I decided to ride one of the bike trails. Susan wanted to stay back in the trailer and that's okay. My plan was to start at the campsite climb the huge hill to the Le Portage bike trail then continue on to the Discovery Center and back home. A total of 8kms considered an easy trail. The map below shows the route in red I took. I've made it to the Le Portage trailhead on my street bike. The trail is flat so I figured a mountain bike is not needed. So I thought. Joke is on me, I should have stuck to the game plan. This guy popped out of the forest right in front of me almost knocking me off my bike. I think he wanted to have a race. It was short lived since he met up with friends in a beautiful open meadow. I was having such a great time riding my bike with not a care in the world. When I got to the turn off to go towards the Discovery Center(a place I have already been), I hummed and hawed and decided to go straight on the La Coulee-a-Blanchette trail. Big mistake. This trail is not easy, a mountain bike with more than 7 gears(mine) is required. It is 10 kms from start to finish with mostly uphills on the way out with very few downhills. A few times I almost turned around but I don't do that. So the reward at the end is a lookout called Ilet-au-Flacon that faces the St Lawrence estuary. This is my reward. It was so fogged in I could see nothing. After a much needed rest I got back on the bike and road home. A little easier on the way back but not much. I was sure glad to see the trailer. I AM SPENT/EXHAUSTED. A total of 20 hard kms. But my reward at the end of the day was this beautiful rainbow. Another fantastic day at Parc National du Bic. Tomorrow will be another.
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