August 4, 2024
After a relaxing morning we headed out to explore the park and hit the highlights.
Our first stop was the Hyman General Store and Museum. A nice young women told us about Mr Hyman and the general store that he and his sons and eventually grandson operated here for over 100 years. Apparently he did quite well and became very wealthy. She explained that he made most of his money giving loans to immigrants who wanted to start fishing businesses. Mr. Hyman was either a wonderful entrepreneur anxious to help small businessmen or a loan shark. The young women did a great job telling us his story and at one point seemed embarrassed by her English. She explained that English was her second language. She also told us that she was lucky because in 2023 Quebec passed a law saying that high school graduates had to attended a French secondary school (a thing in Canada) if they went to a French high school. She went to an English secondary school prior to the law being passed. Apparently Quebec is worried because kids are abandoning French for English. It’s all very confusing. Oh, and the bathroom at the general store was great, especially sense the camper home was at the campsite and our next stop was a hike.
We hiked the L'anse aux Amérindiens trail to the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula. The main trail, and the one the park people tell you about, is a gravel service road for the lighthouse. The views of the sea were beautiful, but the trail was not shaded and walking on gravel is hard. We noticed on the maps and some signs that there was actually another trail. It went through the woods and had more ups and downs but it made for a great and interesting return hike. We spotted seals swimming at the base of the cliffs below us.
In a small turnout on the park road was Peninsula Fort. We almost didn’t go and see it because it looked kind of abandoned. We hopped out of the truck and read the sign. It explained that this fortification was build during WW2 to repel an attack by Germany. U boats had sunk 22 Canadian vessels in the St Lawrence Seaway and Canada thought that this area was particularly vulnerable to attack. A net was constructed that spanned the bay which prevented a U boat from getting any closer to the town and port. The small concrete fortress is still there and we could walk all around it and see and touch the guns! It was hardly visible except for the steps that lead you down to the ammo rooms and gun platforms. Great little stop!
We had toaster over pizzas back at the camper before heading to our final adventure for the day. We hiked up to the St. Alban observation tower. (Elevation 285 meters). The hike was only 2.6 miles round trip but the climb was 1000 ft. The views from the top were worth the effort!
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