Mont Ouareau and Mont de Lac Lemerwt

To get to the trailhead, set your GPS to Rte 125, Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci, Quebec J0T 2A0. The parking lot is quite large, about 30 cars. Because the Mont Ouareau section of the hike is very popular, the lot fills early in the day. The portion of the hike from the parking area to Mont Ouareau (about 2 Km) is well marked: follow the red/white trail to the blue/white trail (see attached photo). There are two viewing spots on Mont Ouareau. At the second Mont Ouareau viewing spot (on blue/white trail), the continuation of the trail is not obvious: it is poorly marked. When looking into the valley move to the left to pick up the trail. There are a lot of side trails leading nowhere. The blue/white trail connects back up to the red/white trail. On the red/white trail milepost 10 km to 7 km the trail is a mess. Even though it is a section of the Sentier National, the trail is horrendously maintained with lots of fallen trees and overgrown branches: wear long sleeves and coat yourself with bug spray to avoid ticks. The trail markers are also not as good as earlier in the hike.