In the Fjord

The day after DW and I had paddled a 20K stretch of the Jacques Cartier River, over several technically challenging sets of rapids, I was pretty beat. I realized in the five months since I had lost my job, I had become fairly inactive. I still sat at my home-office desk, but instead of working for somebody else I wrote my novel, Dark Water.

Only occasionally would I get on my bike for a ride: I can count the number of times that I rode it on one hand. The most exercise I'd get would be from mowing the lawn, but the summer's heat meant that our lawn dried up, and I went more than a month without having to mow it.

In our first three days in Parc National de la Jacques-Cartier, we had kayaked three times and hiked two trails. I covered most of that activity in a video on my YouTube channel—if you haven't seen it already, check it out.

I'll have the 20K river run video next week.

On our forth day, I was pooped. DW and I wanted to climb one of the hills on another trail, but I knew that if I hiked Les Loups trail, I'd be done for the rest of the day (and likely, for longer than that), and our vacation had only just begun.

I wanted to enjoy our trip, so I relaxed at our campsite while DW took to the trail.

We spent five evenings in Jacques Cartier Park and it was so beautiful there. We walked another trail at the end of the forth day and took some night shots up the valley, hoping to see aurora borealis, but weren't so lucky. We got a good night's sleep because the next day, we were moving on.

The drive from Jacques Cartier Park to Chicoutimi was nothing short of spectacular. Our Niro worked hard to climb steep hills, nearly depleting its batteries, but would get nearly a full recharge as we coasted down the other sides. At our peak height, we reached nearly 900 metres above sea level, the highest we had been since our trip to Peru, but even that altitude was nothing compared to the Andes.

We stopped in Chicoutimi for lunch and to visit the tourist information office for maps of the region, but then it was on, down the southern shore of the Saguenay River to Baie Éternité and the Saguenay Fjord National Park, where we would spend two more nights in our tent.

The sight wasn't as 'luxurious' as it was in Jacques Cartier Park but we had been spoiled there with a comfort station across from us that had stainless-steel sinks with hot water for washing our dishes. This comfort station was down the road from our new site and there was only one toilet and one shower stall.

After we set up our campsite, we drove to L'Anse De Tabatière, a hiking trail and lookout point for the fjord, for a sunset view. It was stunning.

The next day, we put our kayaks into Baie Éternité and headed out toward the Saguenay River. We had to be mindful of the tide, which was as high as four metres, as we didn't want to face paddling back into the bay as the tide was pulling out. This meant that we didn't get into the bay until almost 10:00, when the tide was out.

There are cliff faces in this bay that are nothing short of breath-taking and I'm looking forward to seeing my video footage in the next week or so. The wind was really blowing as we paddled and the waves were pretty strong but our kayaks were built for these conditions.

We made it out into the river and stuck close to shore, as the water was even rougher out there. We were able to make a stop in a little cove below the statue for Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay (though we couldn't see it from our vantage) for a rest before heading back into the bay.

Our paddle was just over nine kilometres but in some ways it seemed like fewer because the time flew, though in other ways, seemed longer because we had to fight the wind and waves.

As with our first night in this area, we dined in L'Anse-Saint-Jean, the only area with seemingly good restaurants. The food was good and the local beer was even better.

The next morning, we awoke to steady rain, which was not ideal as we were packing up our campsite. At least we had had the forethought to pack up our kitchen tent before going to bed, but we still had a wet tent and groundsheet to pack into the Niro.

We drove back to Chicoutimi, stopping in La Baie on our way for breakfast, where we found a great café, Ka-fée. Their hot chocolate was the best I've ever had (and I've been to France and Italy!) and their homemade pistachio spread was to die for on a fresh-baked croissant.

In Chicoutimi, we visited le Musée de la Petite Maison Blanche, a small house that somehow survived being washed away when the nearby Chicoutimi River flooded the neighbourhood in July, 1996. I remembered seeing news footage at the time, and how the houses on either side of this one didn't fare as well.

We crossed the bridge to the northern shore and made our way to Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, a small village that overlooks the Saguenay. We had a simple lunch before moving on.

Our next stop was at Baie-Sainte-Marguerite, which is still part of the Saguenay Fjord National Park, but on the opposite shore to where we had camped. This bay is famous for being a feeding ground for the various whales that swim up the Saguenay River.

There's a nearly three-kilometre hike up to a viewpoint into the bay and looking up the Saguenay River. And when you reach this lookout, at Halte au Béluga, you are rewarded with not only stunning landscape but also views of whales frolicking in the bay.

We saw countless beluga whales and possibly some minke whales. We also saw a seal, with his head bobbing above the water surface.

Now, mind you, the whales were far away, as much as a half a kilometre or more, so it was hard to capture closeup photos, even with my 500mm lens. After trying to capture a few shots, I put my camera down and just gazed and took in the aquatic activity.

We spent at least a half hour or so at this lookout point before heading back to the car. Our travel wasn't done. We still had to make our way to the small town of Tadoussac, where we'd be spending the next two nights—finally, not in a tent!

Stay tuned.