Saguenay Fjord National Park 2014

August 11: Day 1 of 3 day hike

For our family vacation to the Saguenay Fjord, one of our goals was to complete the multi day "Sentier du Fjord" hike. It's meant to be a 4-day hike covering 41km but we had to skip a part of it due to unavailable camping on the first leg. This was probably a blessing since the 4th day would have been a rainy wash out but all four of us were a little sad that we couldn't say we did the whole thing. Nevertheless the hike was amazing. :)

Our packs are ready to go... the kids carried their own sleeping bags, rain gear, PJs, swim wear and sandals, stuffed animals, water bottles, and misc stuff like snacks, first aid gear and toilet paper.

The Sentier du Fjord is rated difficult because it is a constant up and down and a fair bit of scrambling over rocks.
Ironically Christopher does better on the 'scrambly' types of hikes

We were impressed by the comfort, cleanliness and great views of the 'refuges'.

One of the 'refuges' along the way... we considered staying in these to lighten our load in terms of not having to bring a tent and sleeping mats but there were no spaces available anymore. 

Christopher wanted to try out one of the beds. There were 2 beds to each 'room' (the rooms reminded us of train compartments).

A little rest after a long uphill section.

Much of the hike was along the top of the mountains with blueberries and lichens along the path and red pine or spruce forests. 

We loved this lichen which was all over and is apparently a favourite food for caribou although they don't tend to come to the Saguenay Park.

Samantha all smiles on the hike. She was a real trouper, especially since she got blisters already on the first day from her new hiking boots. 

Spectacular views including this one of Pointe a Passe-Pierre which was the spot of our first night's campsite.

Christopher squeezing through a narrow section of the trail.

Yay! We made it to our first campsite!

We had all been dreaming of a nice cool swim at the end of the day but the water was absolutely glacial so we had to content ourselves with finding a tidal pool to soak our feet in.

Christopher building an inukshuk to mark our passing..

Reconstituted freeze dried lasagne for supper. We discovered that everthing tastes better after a big hike on a hot day carrying a heavy pack and the catch phrase of the hike was "X never tasted so good" where X could be pretty much any food.

Bjorn and Silver enjoying the sunset.

While Christopher's normal travel companion is Huggabear, this time he chose to bring Bjorn who was feeling homesick for some fjords.

Christopher catching some sideswimmers in a tidal pool.

Christopher found a piece of glass encrusted with lichens.

Sam and Christopher playing on the rocks.

Climbing glacial erratics.

Super green grass that lives half its time under water.

Enjoying the sunset. 

Purple tongues from eating too many crowberries.

Resting our feet.

After a long hard day of hiking the kids decided to spend hours developing a 'rock climbing circuit' and would time each other to see how long it took to complete it.

Sunset.

These flowers (that again spend half their time submerged in frigid slightly salty water) looked like frost on the grass.

This picture of the path to the presqu'ile was taken at low tide. At high tide the water came right up to the path and almost submerged it at points.