Trek in Gaspésie with Katia Astafieff

Katia Astafieff is passionate about the world of plants and a fan of great solo travels. His new story The girl who wanted to see the bear is published by Arthaud.

A month of amazing adventure on the International Appalachian Trail (IAT). Only around 30 people a year set out on this very wild trail which covers 650 km in Quebec, from the Matapédia valley to Forillon National Park.

“It is a country of shipwrecks, forests, lakes, rounded peaks but with horribly steep slopes, a country of history, conquerors, settlers, but above all a wild country, where the bear is king, and the prince moose.”

Katia Astafieff

at franceinfo

“What struck me was this immensity, ‘into the wild’, as we say in the United States, immense wilderness, forests as far as the eye can see… You feel like you’re alone on earth. This total immersion in nature is very absorbing”, says Katia.

She did not rush like an ibex, but advanced like a turtle. According to her, “walking is an art”that’s what matters. “I flew like Icarus, beyond the summits”, writes the one who crossed the Gaspésie National Park composed of 25 peaks over 1000 meters. “It’s very trying.” Facing Mont Nicol-Albert and its rock walls to climb, the adventurer almost gave up.

There were lighter moments, like when she crossed the Galipeault bridge which spans Bellevue Island, “I felt like Meryl Streep in the movie, On the Road to Madison”, she says. Before adding with a laugh: “except there was no Clint Eastwood!”

With humor, she launches: “I came to hike alone in the woods with the Paddington family”. It wasn’t until the day she was exhausted from an 11-hour walk in the pouring rain that the miracle happened… Katia saw a bear on the other side of a lake. An obviously unforgettable moment during which they exchanged a look. And in Forillon National Park, she heard a loon sing.

We want to believe her when she says that “Happiness comes from a few things. A shed, trees, the sky, the sea in the distance, the song of birds, nothing superfluous, just the beauty of the world.” An unprecedented surge of freedom and space.

“I don’t need anything, or anyone. Only the wind, the silence and this winding path that runs through the mountain. Only the emerald of the forest, its thousand shades of green, the bulk of the rocks and the cliffs, the slate blue of the sea. I don’t need anything, just the grandeur of nature around me,” she concludes.

To relive this exciting adventure:

The girl who wanted to see the bear (Arthaud)