Ok, so we couldn’t really travel without doing a hike – even if it was our honeymoon! Go figure, huh? This would be our first hiked as a married couple – awe!

Unlike many of our other hikes where we’d plan a single and very specific day on which to hike (and so would be at the mercy of the weather), this being our honeymoon and us having some unplanned time, we had some flexibility on the hike date itself. Turns out, we didn’t really need it – the weather for our trip was perfect and gave us plenty of choices. Saturday it was and the temperature was predicted for the high 70’s – perfect.

This was a point-to-point hike – roughly 7 miles (ok, it was 12.5km – metric, right? We were in Canada!), and only about 1/2 hour’s drive from central Quebec City.   The Mestashibo trail itself follows the Riviere Ste. Anne-du-Nord and is part of the Quebec National Trail.    The river ultimately flows into the St. Lawrence and we decided to hike downriver.   Fortunately another post had alerted us to the availability of a nearby taxi service that would enable us to park the car and get dropped at the trailhead.   Parking at Chateau Mont St. Anne (base of a small ski mountain), we climbed into the taxi and were off.

Interestingly, while Quebec City is solidly bi-lingual (there wasn’t a place we visited in the city that DIDN’T speak English) once we got outside the city, most did not speak english – taxi driver included. Fortunately, we had a map, so pointing and a quick “ici” (here) got us to the trailhead with no other words.

This wasn’t one of our 4000 footers, so we didn’t expect much for elevation change – in the end, it was only about 1100 feet – though because we were following a river, there was frequent ups/downs along the canyon wall carved out by the river.

Just as many rocks, muddy patches, and washed out sections as we’d find in our New Hampshire hikes. Even a few flights of stairs, carefully woven into the side of the gullies, so we didn’t have to scramble. Oh, and yes, there was a water crossing, certainly our biggest to day. We’d been traveling on the north bank of the river – we briefly crossed to the south bank of the river and then back again after a short while to the northern bank. But, no ordinary crossing, this was a fairly substantial river, so it had foot bridges – with a flooring made from side-by-side 2×6’s – so, roughly a foot wide, though suspended by cables, etc. Sturdy enough, though still a bit daunting because of the rushing water beneath.

Every so often, we’d be rewarded with a few, via a wooden lookout over the river canyon, but much of the trail was in the woods. Mostly well marked, though at some point, we missed a junction and instead of meeting up with the Canyon St Anne trails, we somehow got onto the northern canyon ridge and were inland from the canyon itself. Oh well, maybe next time.

All in all, still an enjoyable day out and a few more miles in our new journey together!