Wednesday morning we had another early start, as we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We were leaving the Quebec city area, and heading somewhat west, and definitely north, into more remote areas of the province. However, we had plenty of excitement before we left the park too!
We were getting ready to eat breakfast (just like Tuesday morning); I was peeling a peach. Suddenly Rob said to me "Karen, there's a bear, get in the trailer". My heart rate quadrupled instantly as I hurried to grab as much foodstuff as I could and run into the trailer. I didn't get make much progress before Rob said 'Its okay, he's leaving'. I had quickly looked when Rob first mentioned the bear, and once he was leaving I turned to really watch him.
He had just been meandering down the campsite road towards our site, not really in a hurry. But once he decided to leave, he left in a hurry - he was galloping away. It was a full-size bear, and it was really neat to see. But it took quite some time for my heart rate to return to normal!
After our breakfast, when returning from the bathroom, we met another woman who was watching a porcupine. He was a cute little fellow, and although they are rodents, he looked like a little bear, especially his feet.
I had forgotten to take a picture of our campsite while it was setup, but here we are, all ready to go on Wednesday morning. The sites in this park were very nice too. We also had electricity in this park, but the nights were not nearly as cold.
On the road again!
Wednesday night, after about 9 hours on the road, we arrived in Reserve Faunique La Verendrye. This park was very large, and similar to Algonquin - one road going through, with some homes/resorts, even a small village along the way, and lots of very rustic camping. We stayed in a campground that was a little less rustic - there was running water!
However, it really felt like it was a former logging camp, and when the loggers were done they quickly set up some outhouses, put some stones in circles for fire pits, and called it a day. Thankfully the campground was quite empty, so it was fine, but we would not have liked it very much at all had there been a lot of other campers. Our fire pit was practically on the road, too.
It was a park for fishing, rather than camping. There was some seasonal camping, and I think most people who camp there had a boat and would do a lot of fishing.
We spent Thursday in the park, have a rather lazy day. It was disappointing that the park wasn't as nice as the others, where we could have found more to do, but it was nice to have a day off after all the driving. We read and made popcorn, then we burned all our campfire wood and relaxed by the fire.
Friday morning, Rob took the picture above just before the sun came up of the lake with the boats, and then we were back on the road. Quite early, I think we left by 7:30 or so, and just in time, because it did start raining shortly there after, and we had rain off and on all day.
Some time after lunch we crossed back into Ontario - it was nice to be back in English speaking territory! (Notice though, that I took a picture of the French 'welcome' sign; there was an English one too!)
Our destination for Friday night was Arrowhead Provincial Park. We arrived late afternoon, and since we were only staying the one night, we decided to leave the car and trailer hooked up again.
We went for a short walk down to the beach, just to see it.
We had no sooner gotten back to our campsite than it started to rain. Really rain. We could stay cozy and dry in the trailer, but it was getting on supper time. Now, "supper" that night was just hotdogs, but they still did need to be heated. Eventually, we set the stove just outside the trailer door and quickly fried up some weiners. The dirty pan and dishes just got put back into the cupboard. (But don't worry, they were washed when we got home). The rain slowed, but didn't let up. We played a game or two, but we did not have electricity at this site, only flashlights to give us light. So we ended up going to bed very early - about 8:30. But then Rob woke up around 2:00am, and I woke up not long after that. Rob wasn't likely to sleep again, so then neither would I. So, after laying there for a while, we decided to just go home!
The only reason we could do it was because the car and trailer were still hooked up. We had taken very little out of the trailer, just the stove, water jug and a pail. So, we came up with a game plan, rearranged things inside a bit, to make appropriate space for the wet items coming in from outside. I made a couple trips to the car with our pillows (I wanted to have a nap when we got home!) and some snacks, and then waited in the car while Rob put the trailer down. Three minutes later he joined me in the car, and we were off! We were as quiet as we could be - even closing our car doors in unison, so hopefully we didn't wake up the campers around us.
We arrived home around 7:30, and I quite quickly crawled into our own bed for a nap. Even after my nap, we had plenty of time to unpack, and we even had the trailer all cleaned out, and vaccuumed by later that afternoon.
And that was our vacation! It was really good to get away for a week, and to see some more of this grand country we live in. Truly, we serve a magnificent Creator-God.
3 comments:
Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a neat trip, and brings back some memories of my Gr.8 Quebec class trip......way back when! I'd love to see more of our own country - still planning to go east one day, but west will probably come first now :)
Fabulous trip you had. Mom and I enjoyed seeing your pictures with commentary to help guide us.
I am so glad I finally checked your blog again...boy I missed quite a bit:) I stopped checking after your canvas prints were up for such a long time, and I figured, you were probably like me, just not feeling like blogging...Anyways, your fence looks great!! And it looks like you had a great time on your trip! We will have to have you over sometime so you can tell us more about your time:)
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