Flora and Fauna around the riviere des rats.

Tent up and tarped

We put up our tent in the dark. I had flattened the area, but I missed a spot, under where I slept. It also ended up being the spot that accumulated water. However with the foam puzzle-piece floor we put down inside the tent I never realized there was a puddle. The water came in before I tarped. 

dragonfly

I seemed to have  done a poor tarping job, but the tarp as put actually kept the sleeping area of the tent dry as well as cooler. We could keep the back door open even in the rain or at night and not have to worry waking up wet or over heating when the sun beats down on the tent. 

I'm about to measure my tarp. I figure one twice the size will be perfect to fully tarp over the tent.  This one can be used to put over the picnic table when there is one, or over an area to hide under in the rain :) 

Found near the shores of Rivere des Rats, flowering early July

Fireweed

I didn't get to sleep more then 3 hours. There was no sun at sunrise not until 10am. Then it came out, long enough to make the tent too hot. So I opened the back door to let in some air. At 10:15 it started to piss with rain, so I got up quickly and closed the back door and one of the front vestibule windows I had also opened to create wind.  At that point I gave up sleeping. It just wasn't happening. I waited for the rain to stop and went outside - big mistake the bugs were voracious.  In between several showers I tarped over the tent.

I spent part of the day collecting wood and keeping a fire going when it wasn't pissing rain. I also took a few photos of the flora and the fauna.

Camping at Riviere des Rats

Friday I left work around noon, and by 2 pm my friends had shown up and we hit the road around 3pm. We caught heavy traffic around the 640 leading to the 15, in fact we lost most of our time on the 640, thinking it would be better then the 40 across Montreal - but not this time.

A butterfly that landed on my tablecloth

After which we took the 40 to the 55 at Trois-Rivieres, passed through Shawinigan, Grand-mere and headed towards La Tuque. We made a pit stop in Grand-Mere, gassed up and picked up some groceries. We crossed the St Maurice river at Riviere des Rats and went in the Zec Wessoneau.  It cost us $35 total, that included the $10 for the bridge and the 3 nights of camping, plus a right of passage for both of us.  We camped along riviere des rats, around the 22km mark of the road.

The cliff on the other side of rivere aux rats

 I stayed up till like 7 am as I was hoping to take photo's of dawn but it was extremely cloudy at dawn. However it was interesting as the light came up, since it was dark by the time we set up our tent.  We realized that the river we were camped next to had a huge cliff on the other side, and that for all intents and purposes we were at the bottom of a big cliff.

It was extremely quiet. Other then a couple of 4-wheelers and one or two trucks per day, no one went by the road.