Back at camp, we dismantled our tent and made ready to hike back down. The weather briefly cleared into bona fide sunshine, then clouded back over again and looked threatening.
The way down was uneventful and dreary: the rain returned as we descended back into the trees, and the long stretches of super-mucky trail made for slow, tedious, and unpleasant going. I was very glad when we got to the marked "Grande Diagonale" section, because I knew that that meant that the horrible sections of trail were now behind us.
As we descended the final slopes back to the trailhead, the rain ended and the sun peeked out again. Happily, we happened upon the lower lookout to the Manicouagan Reservoir during this sunny period, and we got a few nice shots of its deep blue water and a section of the huge Ile Rene-Levasseur in the middle.
The final section back down to the trailhead was refreshingly pleasant: warmer, sunnier, and with nice trailwork. We arrived back at the car shortly after 11am, less than 24 hours after starting out.
The Monts Groulx will have to be explored again sometime as part of a longer backpack and hopefully with better weather. Although the topography is not super-dramatic, it is an interesting area with extensive alpine terrain that deserves further exploration.
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