Montmagny to St-Jean-Port-Joli | Campsite: 76 Av de Gaspé E, St-Jean-Port-Joli QC, Camping Au Bonnet Rouge
The day begins really well. By 5:15 I am walking through a nondescript neighborhood of houses all alike in Montmagny on my way to Highway 132. The night was mild, leading to a warm morning in which I selected shorts to begin walking into the day. Early on the day sunny, bright enough for sunglasses. All of these factors have helped establish a good, confident pace. As I am leaving Montmagny on this beautiful Friday morning I stop briefly to smell some flowers exploding in fresh colour from a tree. I hear a voice say “It is a good way to wake up, smelling flowers.” I look around and a woman sitting on a second-floor balcony across the street smiles down at me. “Bonne journée!” I walk through the morning with a brief stop in the village of Cap-Saint-Ignace for fruit. The woman working at the cash register will only answer me in monosyllables but greets residents with smiles and lively conversation. Like everywhere, I’ve experienced incredible warmth, compassion, and kindness, but also ignorance and distrust throughout this challenge. By the end of the day, I won’t remember this woman. I will remember, however, all of the people who have entered into kind and interesting conversations with me along the way. In fact, I remember these lovely interactions from the first day of the walk! It isn’t until sometime around 9:00 that the wind begins to blow, gusting ever more violently. It was a few kilometres south of the town of L’Islet. I stop here to eat, finding a relatively protected place from the non-stop wind. But it doesn’t really help. Comically, I can’t put anything down on a flat surface as the wind will simply blow it away. Pockets become stuffed, hands become full, and rocks are used to weigh down pot lids, zip-locked bags of food, empty water bottles, and removed clothing. Even the food on my spoon will get blown away if I am not angled in a position so as to block the wind during my spoon’s journey from the cup of noodles to my face. This westbound headwind coming off the St. Lawrence River continues to blow directly against me for the entire day’s walk—all 41 km to 2:30, when out of frustration for the day I find myself actually checking into a commercial campground located within the town of St. Jean-Port-Joli. I just want to be out of the wind and to have my tent set up before any rain begins to fall. By 3:00 I am lying on the ThermaRest, journalling, and eating. Once my temper tantrum subsides and I am laughing at myself while moving around the tent like a walrus, I put some time into mapping the upcoming few days of walking to Rivière-du-Loup. As this town is located directly on the shore, along with Highway 132 which will take me up the river, I decide to embrace the wind, accepting the fact that it will serve as a new physical challenge to be learned from. As this walk was conceived around the idea of perceiving everyone met along the journey as a teacher, the experiences gleaned directly from nature will also contribute to this three-month curriculum of exploration. For the time being, secure in my tent with rainfly secured, I rest, write, and read my way into the late afternoon and eventually sleep.
Today’s distance walked: 41.68 km | Total distance walked: 1,069.08 km
Reflection on Week 4
• Québec City looming!
• Continuing to find great camp spots for free with incredible views of the countryside.
• Loving the physical act of walking, the intellectual act of reflection, and the creative act of making throughout this challenge.
• 85% of the walk is experienced in nature, returning every week or so to the realm of the urban domain for rest, cleaning, repairs, and food resupply.
• The people I have met and the conversations shared with them all have been such a wonderful, unexpected aspect of this walk.
• The rhythm of through-hiking is now feeling natural, as is sleeping in the tent and carrying everything I need on my back.
• My French has provided me the ability to communicate with the people of Québec—something I was worried about being adequately able before the walk began.
St-Michel-de-Bellechase to Montmagny | Campsite: 46.97101° N, 70.55249° W
4:30 arrives quickly. The morning is very mild, with a gentle breeze blowing against the tent. I rise into a day that begins with a beautiful sunrise—my view unimpeded, camping directly on the shoreline. I am walking by 5:30, and within an hour I arrive at a great rest area. It has picnic tables with roof structures, beautiful large trees, and immaculately cut grass. The washroom building contains a foyer, with a bookshelf of publications and information on the local area, wilderness, species of flora and fauna, and trails. From the foyer open doors to two washrooms, each with spacious interiors and immaculately clean! I change into shorts to continue on with the walking day. The entire day offers scenic views and quiet as traffic is light. The day’s temperature is very mild, with a comfortable cool breeze cooling me the entire distance. A cyclist passing me on the highway says with a wave and a big smile, “Bonne route!” Upon arriving at the very tiny village of Micami I turn onto Rue Principale O, running parallel to Highway 132, and inching closer to the water’s edge. This road carries me into the next village of Berthier-sur-Mer. Along this road are view after stunning views of the river and the Laurentide mountain range off in the distance. There is a wonderful tiny home located on the river side of the road, and I take far too many photos. I walk to the “ami” grocery store to buy fruit and pints, enjoying them with ramen noodles cooked at a public area with picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, and big shade-making trees suspended with a string of lights directly across the road. I write the morning down, realizing that at some point during today’s walk from St-Michel-de-Bellechase to my present location I’ve walked 1,000 km. It was somewhere 5 km back, as the total distance walked to this point is 1,005.06 km. This is now officially the longest hike I have ever made, with many kilometres of the road ahead! I finish up, organize, and return to the road. The upcoming section of highway is less scenic than this morning, but many beautiful views manage to catch my attention. I push on through the afternoon, arriving in the town of Montmagny by 1:30. By 2:00 I am set up and comfortable with wifi in a climate-controlled restaurant to attend to a few days of file organization, backup, and writing transcription. Close to three good hours of work is made, and when I pack up to leave, I feel more confident with the work copied to the external hard drive. Out to survey a number of potential camp spots. Many are assessed but it isn’t until I am out by Highway 20 (the Trans Canada Highway) that I spot a good field next to an automotive dealer. I enter, explain what I am doing, ask if it would be alright if I camped the night on the property, and tell my story. We discuss options, and a conversation ensues in which a number of options are assessed. Phone calls are made, permission is granted, and I answer a number of interesting questions from a few of the staff. Spotting a dépanneur a km around the series of exit ramps, I walk to secure a few tasty beverages and dinner additions before returning to the field to set up the tent. Water is boiled, dinner is enjoyed, and air mattresses are inflated. I have enough energy to catch up on international news by listening to one podcast edition of The World before journalling the rest of the day before settling into the evening by 8:30.
Today’s distance walked: 41.56 km | Total distance walked: 1,027.40 km
“No worries, we’ll find you a place to stay.” – Manager of Guy Thibault Chevrolet Buick GMC Cadillac in Montmagny
Québec City to St-Michel-de-Bellechase | Campsite: 46.87768° N, 70.90807° W
Sleep last night was legendary. 4:00 I wake into the day and prepare for the upcoming walk. The pack is organized with all clean gear and clothing. The food purchased yesterday is portioned out into daily meals for the upcoming ten days of walking, planning, mapping, and forecasting of weather. By 7:42, I have everything I need to be prepared for the upcoming section of 189 km to the city of Rivière-du-Loup. By 9:45 the pack is organized, a final hot soak is enjoyed, and I am locking the door, walking my way through beautiful and historic Old Quebec City. I board the ferry which, in ten minutes, takes me to the south side of the St. Lawrence River. Quebec City is majestic, and the views of the city from the water as the ferry pulls out are incredible. Many photos are taken throughout the day, with every view worthy of being captured. At the ferry docks, all passengers exit, and I begin my first segment of walking eastward along the south side of the river. The terrain is just so damn pretty. The sun is bright in a light blue late spring / early summer sky, and everything around me is uncompromisingly alive. I walk 10 km on a wonderful multi-use trail and a fairly devastating uphill detour to Boul Guillaume-Couture (Highway 132) where I invest in a cold Labatt Bleu Dry and inhale the remains of a bag of potato chips purchased yesterday. By 12:30, I am walking east down Highway 132 when the trail ends. This road will carry me 166 km to the city of Rivière-du-Loup, which is what I am considering the starting point for the fourth leg of the walk. Leg 1 was Toronto to Kingston; leg 2 was Kingston to Montréal; leg 3 is Montréal to Rivière-du-Loup; and leg 4 will be Rivière-du-Loup to Fredericton. Once I clear the suburbs, the landscape opens up. Massive views of the St. Lawrence River and mountains of the Laurentides beyond are on full display for most of the day, visible in stunning magnitude. The road itself climbs 500 metres, descending into valleys of green before ascending again. The road is quite lovely, twisting and turning, rising and descending before settling into a four-kilometre straight stretch into the town of Beaumont where at 2:30 I stop for fruit, a pint, and some rest in the shade. So far I’ve walked 21 km. With the town of St-Michel-de-Bellechase just 10 km away, I decided to walk to it. By 5:30, I am walking into town. At the post office, I ask a man if there is a dépanneur in town, and he says yes and that it is only minutes away. Upon arriving and purchasing two celestially-immaculate frigid pints, I see him in line with a baguette and bottle of red wine. C’est le Québec ici. Securing sustenance for the evening, I make my way toward the shore, which seems to be the culture here, as the public park along the shoreline is wonderfully full of people: families picnicking on the grass; couples running toward picnic tables in order to secure a comfortable site to enjoy take-out dinner or a bottle of wine; groups of children released from school intent on making use of the immaculately-cut green expanse of grass with river and mountain ranges as a backdrop to a pick-up soccer match. I met Marcel in this park on the shore of the river as I was decompressing from the day’s walk while eating a dinner of rice and couscous cooked with my stove. I approached him as he was lying on a section of shaded grass to ask if he thought it would be alright if I camped for the night on the grounds of the park. He felt it would be more helpful to ask the owner of a nearby pub that stood adjacent to the public park for confirmation. We talk for 20 minutes, as he was very knowledgeable about the town and the area. He was also familiar with the upcoming stretch of roadway that I would soon be walking. I thank him and walk to the pub, first speaking with the hostess, and then to the head chef. He explains that the restaurant does not own any land surrounding the building and that therefore—just as my previous conversation with Marcel uncovered—there was a chance that I might be told to leave if I attempted a night of camping in a public park that was so busy with local residents. He mentioned that the restaurant closed at 8:00 pm. I figured that by the time the patrons finished and the staff completed their duties for the day that I could have the tent up by 9:00 if I felt the park empty enough of people. The park does empty out fully by 8:00. As I am waiting, a man who offered me his backyard to camp in for the night back at the dépanneur cycles up to the table I am working at, accessing the internet from the pub. Pierre asks how my walk has been, and we strike up a conversation that lasts close to 20 minutes, his wild grey hair dancing in the wind from the Saint Lawrence. He tells me about what I can expect to see eastward as I walk toward Rivière-du-Loup. We also talk about his own travels throughout Canada and the USA. As he is retired and his family is located in both California and British Columbia, he and his wife will often take road trips to the west coast and stay weeks or months visiting family. He has a wonderful softness in his manner of speaking. We talk about the state of politics, and our love for nature, switching often from French to English and back again. I was intrigued with the man over the course of our conversation here in the park, which nicely continued from the general store a few blocks back. We shake hands as he rides off toward his home at the closing of this incredible day. I have the tent up by 9:00 directly behind the restaurant with incredible views of the river, and I begin to settle into the evening by 9:15.
Today’s distance walked: 33.84 km | Total distance walked: 985.84 km
“Je peux voir l’éternité” – street art painted on concrete freeway overpass columns in Quebec City
