Location: Mont. Megantic, Quebec
Price: Don't remember, but on the website it currently seems to be about $23 per person.
Distance Covered: Approx. 10.7 km, maybe more if you count our trek up the mountain
Links:
Park Website
Google Map
Links:
Park Website
Google Map
My first trip, is of course the one kind of camping trip I forgot to mention in the introduction, hiking. Maybe that's because it's the only hiking trip I've ever done, but I do hope to do more of these trips in the future. This is the trip, for the purposes of this blog anyway, that started it all. That is, it was my first camping trip I went on without my family. I will however at some point, let you in on some of the camping experience I had with them while growing up. Let's begin.
My friend Nick, who invited me on the trip, did the planning and made the arrangements, so I have few details in that respect. I met up with Nick in his home town on the Friday night and we went and bought the food we needed for the trip. The next day we got up early enough, packed up and headed for the mountain. I think we arrived around 10:00AM. It was raining, just a little drizzle, so we threw on our rain jackets and headed out. I believe the camp site was around the 2.2 km mark, and we were pretty damp when we got there. Nick had rented a Yurt, or tent cabin as they call it on the website. Basically, this is a cabin frame wrapped with a tarp like material and usually houses bed frames to set your mat and sleeping bag on, a wood stove, and hopefully a table/bench. It was quite comfortable and there was a stash of wood piled in a shelter next to the cabin.
Once at the cabin we unpacked our gear, set up our beds, cooking supplies and made use of a little clothes line that was already set up near the stove. Mostly, it was great to get out of the rain. The cabin warmed up quickly and it was nice not having to bring a tent. For clothing I always try to pack as little as possible, while keeping a mind to the weather forecast in the area. Packing light is always important, but even more so when hiking as apposed to canoeing, since you have to carry everything. I can't remember the details of what clothing I brought, but my camping experience tells me it went something like this: 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of underwear, 2 shirts, 1 pair of shorts, a hat, basic running shoes, I think I may have also hauled my sandals around, they can be handy to have. This would include what I was wearing, so not all of that was in the pack. I probably left a change of clothes in the car too, it's nice to have them even if you don't end up using them.
After setting up the Yurt and drying off, we headed for a trail that lead to the mountain top. Luckily it had mostly finished raining by this point and there was good cover under the trees. The trail ran along a stream that went all the way up the mountain (or down the mountain, as it were). We started off at a fair pace and managed to jog a bit, but after a while it seemed to be taking forever. We took a number of pictures along the way, including some sections of the stream where it ran right under the trail and along the roots of trees (see video bellow). I also took a photo of Nick further up the trail, between all the trees (see photo & video album above). At one point we found a patch of snow, so naturally we had a snowball fight. Finally, we made it to the top where there was a large telescope... and a road. You mean we could have drove up? Figures! You wouldn't believe the view though, it was so... so... it was really foggy. We couldn't see a darn thing! I did snap an awesome photo of the fog hovering above the tree tops though, which I often use as a wallpaper on my computer. In fact, it's the background of this blog. Anyway, we snapped a few more photos and hiked back down. Not much to say about that, same story in reverse and played out more quickly. I'm not sure what the distance was and can't figure it out from the website, it seemed a good deal more than the 2.2 km we started with though, and much steeper an incline. Needless to say, we were pretty tired when we made it back to the camp. After a little break we made dinner. Nick and I often eat very well when we're camping. I can't remember exactly what we had, though we did start off with some brie and a baguette though. We were able to toast the baguette with the wood stove, which was awesome. Other than that, all I remember were sausage patties. Finally, a night cap of hot chocolate and Crown Royal to wash it all down.
Don't remember at all what we had from breakfast the next morning. Luckily though, weather was nice and sunny. That was great because we had further to go that day, and the hiking was much more pleasant despite being sore from going up and down the mountain the previous day. We got a some nice pictures along the trail. We stopped by a stream at one point to cool our water bottles, and have some lunch. Don't really remember the lunch either, though I think it was sandwiches made of left overs. I think we made it back down around noon, but again my memory is foggy on the details.
Well, that's the first story. Hope you enjoyed it and I promise to get better at this as I go, as well as provided more details, useful and/or interesting.
Here's a video showing a section where the water rushed under our feet and among the tree roots which were keeping the ground above intact.
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