North of the park were more
mountains and then some pretty farmland with neat little cottages and
villages. We stopped at a rest area by a weir and found that it also
had a covered bridge over a series of waterfalls, a gem of a spot.
Covered bridges were built with a roof over the wooden bridge deck to
protect it from the weather. Most of them are long gone, replaced by
concrete but Quebec seems to have preserved a lot of them in rural
areas, sometimes with a concrete pier under the centre to correct the sag.
We were headed to Chicoutimi,
where we could cross the Saguenay river and head back down towards
the coast. We had no idea from the maps as to the size of a town, and
we were surprised to find that Chicoutimi is large enough to get lost
in. We drove in on the main road through a typical sprawl of malls
and car dealers, but the old town is clean and pretty, overlooking
the river. The Saguenay is a massive river, wide enough to be called
a fjord. Cruise ships apparently come up this far to see the mountain
scenery and the whales. The cold fresh water from the river mixes
with the warmer sea water coming up the St Lawrence and plankton,
fish, and whales thrive there.
Gas prices seemed about the same
as they'd been in Quebec City so the rumours were just that, rumours.
Eventually we found the bridge over the river and drove back south
towards the St Lawrence and the only road that would take us to the
east. We were looking for a free campsite but the route had few side
roads that we could take, and we ended up going into another national
park, this time at Baie St Marguerite, a beautiful area where the St
Marguerite River flows into the Saguenay. We were the only campers.
It was a more primitive campground, with water taps, but only pit
toilets. However, these weren't the usual dark and tacky metal
affairs, but all elegant white plastic and clean white walls,
something the other provinces and states could learn from.
Saturday September 24th
The day was sunny but with a
strong cold wind. We walked down to the beach for a look over the bay
and were surprised to see a large cruise ship gliding past just
offshore. Obviously the water was deeper than it looked. We were
about to leave and put some miles on when we saw a trail heading down
to the river an
d over the bridge. There was nothing to say where it
went, but it was nice under the trees and out of the wind, and we
followed it through the ruins of the old town and lumber mill that
used be sited on the bay. We spent awhile on the beach, but didn't
do the rest of the trail. We later foun
d out that it went to a
clifftop overlooking the beluga whale's feeding area, but I guess
we'll see them on another day. On the way back we noticed that the
trail was surrounded by dozens of different kinds of fungi. We hadn't
seen them on the way out -amazing what you can miss when you're
looking for something else.