It was a beautiful day this morning, partly sunny and in the 70's. So, we were out early, after 2 days of rain, with everyone else! Since we hadn't been able to hike the "Cote Sauvage" in the lightening, we headed there this morning. It didn't disappoint! The trails really vary in degree of difficulty and therefor the potential for an accident does as well. There are notices posted that the town is not responsible for a part of the cliff falling away suddenly, without warning. I prefer not to get really close to the edge because the views looking down, although spectacular, also give me butterflies in my stomach. And the scenery is equally as beautiful a foot or so back from the edge. I used my walking poles and they provide a greater sense of security too. (And you are supposed to burn more calories using them too.)
We were really enjoying the day. The wind was very strong but so was the sun and as we hiked along, the vistas were spectacular and the whole experience was very invigorating!
About 45 minutes in to our hike, while scaling a particularly dangerous area, with a very steep drop off of a few hundred feet, a teenage boy, a few feet in front of us, stepped over the thin wire and was literally at the edge of a very steep precipice. I thought his dad was going to have a stroke. But, he calmly talked the teen back from the edge and then took hold of his arm and began to lecture him about the dangers of what he had just done. When the father stopped talking, the boy, who was visibly angry, perhaps because there were people watching him being scolded or maybe because he was just a teenager, stomped away from his dad, climbed over the wire again and walked to another edge of an even more dangerous point. My heart was in my mouth. The wind was really blowing as you would expect on a cliff, right above the water. And the young man was really skinny. At this point, his dad was pleading with him to step back from the edge -. It seemed like an eternity, but he finally did. His dad grabbed him by his arm again and had, what I can only imagine was, a very serious "heart to heart" with him. When he finished, the boy ran off down the trail (wider and safer) toward the car park across the road. Not sure what I would have done but it was a serious situation that easily could have been tragic. (One of the signs in the photos attests to the number of deaths that occur in this area every year.)
Nothing like a little excitement to spice up a nature walk along the coast. After the experience mentioned above, I stuck to the more conservative paths with my trusty poles.
