Attack of the Ptarmigan

Finally!  The warm (68F) and sunny day arrived, and we drove up into Gaspesie National Park to begin our hike to Lac du Diable, along the International Appalachian Trail.  Little did we know what horrors awaited us.

Our hike started innocently enough, with a view of the trailhead below us and Mount Albert in the background:

Here was our official trailhead sign:  the Sentier de la Grande Traversée (the Grand Traverse Trail), which is the part of the International Appalachian Trail running across the peaks of the Chic-Choc Range in Gaspesie National Park:

The first part of our hike followed the banks of the Sainte Anne River:

We reached the Sainte Anne Bridge, and David paused to contemplate the wild nature we encountered so far:

Here was our view downstream:

The snow and ice piled up on the trail a little faster than we expected, so we put on our micro-spikes and thought, "NOTHING can stop us NOW!"  We reached an overlook of Sainte Anne Falls, which was very dramatic.  After admiring the falls, we moved on up the snowy trail:

The entire length of the trail from the Sainte Anne Bridge to the Bridge du Diable showed signs of moose:  lots of pellets, and these tracks leading us up the trail:

Dave stopped to have a chat with his old friend Burl:

After about 2 miles, we reached Les Chutes du Diable (the Devil's Rapids) and had this dramatic view downstream:

This was the view upstream --

-- and this is what it looked like in motion.  But that wasn't all.  Above us were the Devil's Falls --

-- which, again, looked more dramatic in real life.  Then it was a hard, hard slog up the mountain for almost 2 miles until we reached Lac du Diable, where we finally spotted a trail marker for the International Appalachian Trail (IAT), also known in French as the SIA (Sentier International des Appalaches).  It was a lot higher than it looked, because we were standing on 3 feet of snow:

Forget the landmarks - look at that gorgeous lake!

Kathy strolled down lakeside to see what she could see.  David reminded her that both the snow and the lake ice were very thin, and that she could posthole right into deep waters.  She was careful and stayed dry:

Lakeside Lunch!

No sooner did we start back up the trail from the lake, then a cheeky ptarmigan wandered up to us and kept circling close to us.  We thought perhaps she was habituated and wanted some crumbs, so we offered them to her.

Nada.  Instead, she circled closer, and then approached our feet.  It looked like she wanted to peck us.  Then she spread her wings in a threatening gesture. 

We finally deduced that she wanted us to move away from "her" territory.  Maybe she had a nest nearby.  But, whatever, she made no bones about the fact that WE WERE NOT WELCOME.  We tried to escape up the trail, but the snow was so deep that we kept post-holing and she kept up with us, threatening us for nearly 100 yards!

Speaking of post-holing, the whole 2 miles from the Chutes du Diable to Lac du Diable was deep snow, and it was all we could do to find the 12-inch wide packed-down trail.  If we failed, we paid the price of a VERY DEEP POST-HOLE:

...And if we post-holed once, we did it maybe 200 times.  By the time we reached the trailhead, we had post-holed 3.5 miles and hiked 4 miles -- a total of 7.5 miles.  Boy, are our muscles sore, in places we never knew we had muscles.

We are taking a day off tomorrow, so stay turned for further adventures!