Gaspe

The Gaspe Peninsula was beautiful. The north coast of the Gaspe along the St. Lawrence sea way was breathtaking. Words wouldn’t do it justice, so just go look at Flickr for more photos. As night fell I got into Gaspe National Park at the tip of the Gaspe Peninsula as called Cape Gaspe and sometimes spelled Gaspie. I became a bit confused looking for a campground, signs said winter camping was available some places, but then only in group sites… Anyway, after quite a bit of searching an staring at locked gates in front of campgrounds I finally discovered there was an entirely separate small campground just for group camping that appeared to be open, although it was totally empty. Eager to get to sleep I pulled in and went to bed. It was a cold night.

In the morning I had to scrape the frost of the inside of the windows… I was up just before sunrise and figured it’d be nice to try to see the sun rise over the ocean so I headed a little further down the road in hopes of finding a spot I could view the sunrise over the ocean. Instead I found a trail head… I thought well maybe if I walk a little way down the trail I’ll be able to see, and besides Tucker could use a good walk.

So I started walking… then I kept walking… it was a beautiful trail… As I walked along the quiet cliffs I heard something from behind me, when I turned and looked down toward the water I discovered it was a whale, 20 meters off the cliffs, 20 meters down, breathing… wow what a great way to start the day. So I kept walking… I kept thinking I’d turn back, but I just kept walking because it was so beautiful and peaceful and quiet. Somewhere along the way Tucker chased something up a tree. At first I thought it was a beaver, but later realized it was a porcupine. I’m very happy it ran up the tree rather than quill him, that would have been ugly. By the time I reached the tip of the cape, my five minute morning walk turned into a 4km hike to the end where I discovered a beautiful lighthouse quite unexpectedly. It was a beautiful morning. I didn’t actually see the sun come up out of the ocean, but it was all worth it. With that I hiked back. So I started driving a few hours later than planned, but that’s what is really nice about this… no real schedule to keep means I can find, whales and porcupines and lighthouses I didn’t even know to look for.

The drive down from Gaspe to PEI was equally beautiful. Patrick’s suggestion was a great one and I was looking forward to meeting my first couch surfing host.