Two Days, Two Trails, Two Tales

     I'm ashamed to admit I never heard of the Laurentian Mountains until I found myself on a road running through those mountains. This is a beautiful mountain range in the southern part of the province of Quebec. From Lac Saint-Jean, I traveled south on Route 381 known as the “Highway of the Mountains" enroute to meet my sister and her hubby the next day (my #2 stop).

 

     The beauty of the Laurentian Mountains compares to our Smokey and Blue Ridge Mountain ranges but with a unique difference - the Laurentian Mountains are located in the wonderfully cool boreal climate range.

     I stopped at a rest stop (see #1 on map) on Lac Ha!Ha! It's such an unusual name, but could not find an explanation.  While pouring myself a fourth cup of coffee at the rest stop, I noticed a sign inviting folks to hike a trail in the “Parc de la Digue”. So I got my hiking poles and put on my “bear-siren helmet” and was immediately immersed in this "very boreal", dark and shady, mossy-cushioned-path which was minimally marked and mostly ungroomed. I wasn’t sure where this mysterious trail would lead me, but since I had designed my own trail in East Texas in the Pineywoods a few years back, it was clear to me this trail was designed by someone like me. She or he wanted to keep this little gem of a trail looking “un-troddened”. 

 And about 90 minutes later, this was my view of the northern part of Lac Ha Ha! 

      About another 45 minutes later, I was back at the rest stop feeling elated, refreshed and emotionally satisfied by that wonderful trail.

     The next day I met my sister to hike the “L'Acropole-des-Draveurs Trail” in the National Park des Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie which is a very popular hike. We had been told it was difficult and approximately six miles, but little else was known. The beginning of the trail was beautiful.

     Then we grew weary of the trail resembling “tumbling rocks” . . . 

    For several hours during the climb up, my sister and I marveled at the younger hikers; they were bouncing, running (yes running!), and skipping pass us with nimble surefooted light feet. Everytime they passed us with their smiley faces of deference to their elders, it was a rude awakening that we weren’t nearly as youthful as we used to be. And the thrill of the trail was lost when doubts crept in our old foggy brains that maybe we had bitten off a bit more than we could chew. That's my sister in the photo below; pink jacket.

     And when we were about three-quarters finished (hiked from S to next arrow in photo below), with the hard part behind us . . . . 

  . . . we had this view of an oncoming storm.

     Someone returning from the top of the trail hinted that this view was almost as good as the view from the top. So, it was here that we concluded we’d done enough, and returned down the rocky trail now made doubly difficult by the rain. I concluded that while the previous day's hike made me feel emotionally elated, this hike made me feel old and emotionally deflated.