Tag Archives: Saguenay

It was my bright idea to hike up the mountain to see the Virgin Mary statue. It was erected by Charles-Napoleon Robitaille, a Quebec City merchant travelling on the frozen Saguenay River. He fell through the ice and

“imploring the Virgin Mary for help, he finally managed to pull himself out of the water. Having become very sick as a result, he again pleaded with the Holy Virgin to let him live ten more years so that he could take care of his family. Wanting to give thanks to She who saved him twice, Robitaille decided to have a statue of the Virgin erected on Cape Trinité…The statue was shipped to L’Anse-Saint-Jean on a steamer but a handling error sent the statue overboard. Fortunately, it was made of white pine and it floated. It was then towed by rowboat to the foot of Cape Trinité, a 15 km trip. Originally made from three wood blocks, it had to be cut into 14 sections before it could be hauled to the top of the cape by hand; a job that took eight days to complete.”

I can imagine that the path the top of the cape in 1881 (that is when it was erected) was probably not as nice as it is now. We had stairs and rest stops along the way and yet we were very tired once we reached the top.

Here are a few pictures of the boat from the way up.

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To prove that we made it all the way there, here are a couple of pictures of us.

According to my Fitbit, the entire trek was 15000 steps or 10 km, so we were pretty tired when we got back. Of course, probably not as tired as the 100 or so people going up in the heat of the day! As we were coming down, we passed then and they kept asking how much further it was (they were still near the bottom). Anyway, if you do decide to do this hike, you should start early in the morning (we were the first and only ones on the trail).

We spent the afternoon swimming. It was so nice to cool off!

It was another early start yesterday (4:45 am) to Taddousac. Again, it was because of the tides. We wanted to be at the mouth of the Saguenay during slack tide (so that the water is not all rushing out, creating a riptide and rapids). There was a swell on the St. Lawrence, so the first hour was not great but as we moved up the coast, the swell lessened and we had a good ride.
We spotted a grey seal, more belugas and a whale of some sort (possibly a common whale) in the entrance to Taddousac. Pretty cool!
We went past Taddousac at 9:00 am and headed up the Saguenay. The cliffs are spectacular! It really is a fjord.
Again, we saw many belugas – diving for food. It you look at the second picture, you will see two white specks – those are belugas. We are not allowed to get too close to them.

It takes quite a while to get to Eternity Bay (hence the name?) but it is well worth the trip! The scenery is amazing!

At the park, there are a few mooring balls (there used to be a dozen but now only 4) so we grabbed one and hooked on. Then we went swimming – the water was salty but a good temperature – 25 degrees, so it was good to cool off.
Today, we are staying put and will hike to the top of the cliff. We will be looking at a statue of the Virgin Mary, placed there in 1881.
More news later!