Last week was pretty fantastic, even though I only ran 4 times in the 2 weeks following the Conquer the Canuck 50k. Saturday, June 18th we rode to Mille Roches campground on the St. Lawrence river - I had booked us a site near the Southwest corner of the outermost section (Snetsinger Island) a couple of months ago hoping for a pretty sunset. For reference, this is the campground:
(Photo from Parks of the St. Lawrence)
We were not disappointed:
The next morning we rode the Long Sault Parkway, which is an 11km causeway that spans 12 islands. Beautiful sunshine and blue water.
After riding it both ways, it was off to Quebec and Mont Tremblant for a night of camping at the park - we rode through the village a week before the IM was to be held.
We encountered the first of the blackflies as we stayed in La Grenouille campground, appropriately named for the hundreds of various species of frog singing and croaking in the swampy area of Lac Monroe directly across from our campsite.
The following morning we packed up and rode out to a couple of trailheads in the park.
Think we brought enough crap with us?
Chutes Croches (hook falls) was nice, but the trail out to and then the stunning view of Chutes du Diable were simply incredible.
Looks much smaller than its true 15m/50ft height, and nothing can compare to being buffeted by the spray of such a thunderous example of nature's power.
Off through the Laurentian Mountains, we battled strong, gusty crosswinds (65kph/40mph) that kept trying to blow me into oncoming traffic. It took us until 9.15pm before we reached Parc National des Grands-Jardins, then we got our tent set up and just barely managed to pitch the tarp before a raging thunderstorm came banging through the Pied-des-Monts (foot of the mountains) campground.
We awoke the next morning to more high wind gusts, but this stunning view on the way to the washhouse:
We rode up to the Mont du Lac des Cygnes (mountain of swan lake) Discovery Centre after confirming that via ferrata is only cancelled due to severe thunderstorms, then proceeded to climb a damn mountain.
Our guide called this "a nice flat spot" to stop for a snack.
The route was far more challenging than I'd expected, especially since the aircraft cable lifeline to which you are clipped is not to be used as a hold - there was much less hardware to grab than I'd anticipated, and given that I'm slightly terrified of heights and not a very good climber, I was cruising on adrenaline all afternoon (the route takes 5hrs starting with a tough, technical 30min hike; a stop at the teaching wall to ensure you climb safely; the parcours itself took us 3.25hrs, then another 30min hike back down to the via ferrata office). The 60+kph wind gusts trying to blow us off the mountain didn't help - nor did the 2 rain showers that resulted in wet metal hardware for hand and footholds.
Rain cloud incoming.
I got to a traverse section with no hardware at all for 3m/10ft or so, and was getting tired and ragged so suggested maybe I shouldn't continue. Our guide talked me into trying it, though (even offered to rope herself to me, which I declined) - partly, I'm sure, because it was her first time guiding to the summit of the parcours and she wanted to do the whole thing instead of just the traverse. She usually guides at a different park and had not done the La Montée section yet, which includes the summit trek:
"Poutre" are beams - pieces of 4"x4" wood you walk across in gaps in the rock. "Pont népalais" is a "Nepalese bridge" - just a piece of aircraft cable to walk across with 2 more for you to hold onto, and another piece to which you clip your harness.
This.
I did eventually make the summit of the parcours, and enjoyed the view from the roof.
Pretty glad I didn't chicken out after all.
Next morning it was another ride through the mountains - and a 40min rain shower - to the north shore of the Saguenay River and Parc National du Fjord-du-Saguenay.
We hiked out to the whale watching platform, but the belugas and harbour seals usually don't turn up until July and August so we didn't see any. Strangely enough, we didn't feel that disappointed.
The next morning we finally escaped the swarms of vicious blackflies by taking a ferry across the mouth of the Saguenay where it meets the St. Lawrence and riding through a couple more rainstorms along 138, descending out of the mountains along the seaway to Quebec City, then on through Montreal and to Parc National d'Oka.
While fairly abandoned at twilight Thursday evening, the beach was completely packed the next day for St-Jean-Baptiste Day - beautiful sunshine and a hot afternoon for fĂŞte nationale, with seemingly everyone making the half-hour drive from Montreal to the park.
We, on the other hand, went the other way. We rode into Montreal on Friday afternoon, booked into our tiny hotel room right downtown, then spent the rest of the day and well into the night walking and taking in the incredible sights, sounds and flavours (Schwartz's and Firegrill FTW!) of one of our favourite cities.
Outside la Basilique Notre Dame on our way to a magnificent steak dinner
Saturday morning after demolishing some delicious galettes at a cr
eperie in the west end, we rode the 623km home so we would have Sunday as a day to unpack and get ready to return to work. 7 nights and 2,700km/1,680mi later, it was nice to be in our own bed again.
This week's goals: - run x 5 - swim x 2 - bike x 1 - core/strength x 4
Back into the swing of things with less than 4 weeks until the 12-hour - yikes! At least I managed not to put on too much weight while we were touring - our only restaurant meals were in Montreal, as we'd hit grocery stores and I'd cook breakfast & dinner at campsites, then we'd snack on trail mix at fuel stops as our "lunch". Also managed to keep it down to a single glass of prosecco with our steak dinner to celebrate a successful tour - only drank water other than that.
__________________________________________________________
ill advised racing inc.