#laverendrye

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Devant le lac

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Balade sur les sentiers de la chute du lac Roland dans la Réserve Faunique La Vérendrye. #balade #nature #sentier #laverendrye #sepaq #lacroland #foretboreale #foret #Quebec #canada #minirando (à Chute du Lac Roland) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg901hsubbd/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Day 6 - The day we had nothing left to prove. We didn't cover an impressive amount of ground in the barely 6 days we were out there. Just over 120 km was the estimate. But it's also nothing to be ashamed of. The plan all along was to spend our 7th day as a duff day. Just be four guys out in the woods with not a care in the world and whatever scotch we had left. We had visions of staying at a beautiful site, swimming in the sun all day, and just enjoying being outdoors. It was going to be a day in paradise. So when  we got to a site decimated by fishermen, we had to reevaluate our situation. We could stay out there to say we did or come up with another plan. The alternative we came up with was restful, delicious and productive. Maybe the bugs defeated us, maybe the craving for a poutine was too great, maybe we were just done. Either way, by the time the sun was hiding behind the trees, the car was packed and we were headed out. It was a great six days and I could not have asked for 3 better people to have spent it with.

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There's 2 things that, in retrospect, are very interesting about day 5. One is that we had a few folks back home worried to death about us because we didn't use our "everything is ok alarm" properly. We brought a spot with us. I think we could say that we needlessly brought a spot with us. I think it was the fourth night that we turned it off before the email was sent to the folks back home. So we were in one of the best maintained and monitored places to camp in Quebec and our folks were all thinking that somehow, the four of us had all died at the very same time. They should have been stockpiling bottled water and canned goods instead of trying to contact the park rangers. It's sweet that there was concern. Don't get me wrong. It was just unnecessary to begin with. The other thing is that we didn't know that this was our last day. These two things are unrelated. And why we ended 2 days early will be explained in the next post. But it's interesting to think about how we thought we would be out there for 3 more days at that point. I often preach how important it is to take advantage of the here and now because nothing lasts. And this trip was a lesson in that. Without anything actually going wrong, we pulled out 2 days ahead of schedule. And we definitely made the best of it. That will be in the last post.

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Day 3 Any day with rapids is a good day. And we found good rapids to frolic in after lunch. We had to portage around the rapids since we started off at the bottom. Most of the gear was at the end of the trail. Liohn and I went back to grab what was left.  We returned to the end of the trail to find that one of our boats was missing and that Ben and Josh have the worst poker faces. A consequence of being so vastly outnumbered by the bugs was that we rarely took time during the day to relax. We would plough through our days in order to get to our final destination where we could build a fire who's smoke would create a temporary haven safe from the bugs. I speak for myself when I say that it left me a little drained at the end of our days. We ate like kings throughout the trip and stay plenty hydrated. But there was something about the pace that drained me by the end of the day. It was also just before the summer solstice and we had no way of accurately estimating the time except for the metadata from my camera which we had no desire to look at. We would wake up to bright sun and by the time we were settling in for the night, the last of the day's light had just vanished. On day 3, the night time hid a beautiful aurora borealis from us. You can see it in the last photo from this set. It wasn't visible to us at the time. But keeping the shutter open for 30 seconds showed us the night's true colours. I've only once ever seen the northern lights live. If you've never seen them, they truly are one of nature's most beautiful gifts.

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Day 3's photo set is too large to post all together. So here are the photos from the first part of the day. The next post will have the text that goes with the day's photo collection.

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And so here are photos from Day 2. When anyone asks how the trip was, the first thing to come to mind is the word "buggy". We got massacred beyond anything we could have imagined. If you're reading this and you have never been on a canoe trip in the Laurentians in June, keep it that way. To give you an idea of what it was like, each portage was a emergency. They almost all took us 2 trips. When we would arrive with the second load of gear, we would basically look like Riggs and Murtaugh running from an explosion. We would load our gear into the boats. Paddle 50 meters. Then eject ourselves from the canoe and hide under water from the onslaught of airborne, six-legged creatures. It was a war, and we were losing. Before I go on with trip talk, I  want to introduce the cast of characters. Those way better than average looking gentlemen in the photos who aren't me are Ben, Josh and Liohn, who I affectionately refer to at times as BJL. We've come a long way since heckling prices for comic books, chasing with a broom  in retaliation to bombarding my home with stones and however it was that I met Josh. I imagine he was comfortably sitting in a chair. I said hey. He said hi. He was probably squinting. The rest is history. They're as great as friends come. And I couldn't be happier we got to spend that week together. The three of them have been going on a canoe trip for many years with a revolving door of 4th paddlers. I finally was able to be that 4th guy. And as the new kid on the trip, I spent the first couple of days observing them and how they worked together. You notice a lot about your friends when you put yourselves in a "confined" space over a long period of time. It was amazing to see how well their three personalities compliment each other. There's pretty much no overlap. If you don't know them, I'm not going into any further detail; if you've noticed this about them, it's yours to discover. But as an observer, it was a great experience for me. The three of them basically fit together like a 3-piece puzzle. But with way more personality. Even a Kinder Surprise puzzle has at least 4 pieces and will get you fined $300 in the United States (according to Wikipedia). Day  3 soon to come. Trip sidebar: Liohn's humour grows exponentially when he speaks with his mouth full. Something I couldn't capture with a camera.