At Least We Aren't in a Tent... - Forillon NP - Day 10

It's been raining the proverbial Cats & Dogs since last night. Right now it is just cats on their soft cat feet, but last night and this morning it was definitely dogs on their big paws. At one point in the middle of the night, it was so heavy that the rain bounced off the roof and in through the one inch opening of our roof vent. I found this out by rolling over and finding my feet in a cold wet spot where the rain was dripping through the foot of our bedding.

Needless to say, it was not a day for hiking or biking or birding. The best we saw was a Robin who flew in front of Speedy going from one tree to another.

When we got up this morning, we were surrounded by very soggy looking tents and pop-up tent campers. We certainly were glad had Speedy and we'd opted for the electric site. Our little heater has been working overtime keeping things dry.

After our morning showers (free, not pay showers for a change) and a bit of drying out time, we decided to set off on a drive through the park. With the weather forecast, it seemed the best we were going to get. As it was near lunch time, we decided to drive over to the south side, where there was a recreation center with a cafe. Several 15% grades later we reached the south side and the cafe. It was a bit disappointing, not the comfortable bistro in a wooden building like those near our campground, but a rather cold cafeteria.

It was back to Speedy to consider an alternative. The new Zumo GPS showed a cafe a few kilometers away, so we figured we'd give it a try. We tried, but it doesn't seem to exist. After going about 10 km beyond where the GPS indicated, we turned back to the park.

This time we continued past the recreation center and went all the way to the end of the road along the coast of the Baie de Gaspé, past several historic sites that were too wet to explore. Unfortunately, the road ends 4 km short of the tip, Cap-Gaspé. That would have been a hike (we'd hoped to do it, but not in the rain). It was back to the recreation center.

A lunch of brown food was in order, grilled cheese for Ellen, a cheeseburger for me and a side of fries. We passed on the Poutine, available with brown gravy or BBQ sauce. To make our brown meal complete, we finished with a molasses cookie.

It was back over those 15% grades to the north side of the park and a detour out to the end of the road on that side to Cap-Bon-Ami for a last look out at the fog. The parking lot at Cap-Bon-Ami is at the top of a cliff used as a cormorant rookery. We we could tell this by the odor...and by the cormorants flying by a few yards away at eye level. A quick photo of Steve standing in the rain with a background of fog and it was back to camp for an afternoon of coffee, tea and reading by the good old electric fire.

We are not sure what we will do tomorrow as the forecast calls for rain until Saturday. We might try stopping in Percé and the Parc National de L’île-Bonaventure-Et-Du-Rocher-Percé. We'd hoped to get out to Île-Bonaventure and see the Gannet rookery and the other seabirds that breed there, but that is unlikely if the weather holds. If it is not raining too hard, we might be able to get out a spotting scope and scan the water though, may even get a view of Percé Rock.

After that it may be time to head home. We were expecting the Givi side bags for Ellen's new motorcycle to be delivered yesterday and one of our neighbors was going to pick them up from our front door. Fedex came by but did not leave them since no one was home. I called Fedex last night to see if they could just be left at the door, but the best they could do was put a vacation hold on them for no more than two weeks. After that they would try two more times then send them back. Since we have been waiting over a month for them, they were rather expensive, and they were shipped from Italy, that is not an option. We must be home before then.

We will see...