J'ai eu la chance de passer une fin de semaine à faire du camping au Parc National du Mont-Mégantic. J'avais vraiment hâte car la région jouie de lois contre la pollution lumineuse pour protéger l'observatoire ASTROLab. Ça, ça veut des ciels étoilées fous! À moins qu'il ne pleuve.
ASTROLab du Mont-Mégantic
I must admit, I didn’t know what to expect when I stepped out of the Canoe in Chisasibi. I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice and clean town that looked relatively affluent. With over 2000 Cree, Chisasibi is much larger than Radisson, and Hydro Québec workers from Radisson drive the 120km dirt road here to buy supplies at the town hardware store. This village was like nothing like the native reservation I’ve seen near Montreal, here, there were only nice houses (not prefabricated, like in Radisson) and clean streets.
But it soon became clear that this is no ordinary village. Life here, as I discovered is completely different from even the urbanized towns closer to Montreal.
My first surprise was to learn that 98% of the people here speak Cree as a first language. Some only speak a little bit of English (the main second language). Everything here is spelled out in Cree, from street signs to store names, and this is clearly not for the rare tourists who occasionally make it this far North.
The ski season was open a month and a half before I could get out on the slopes in search of that exhilarating sense of freedom. Whether you are snowboarding, skiing or telemarking, all three sports are but an excuse to spend time with friends in the fresh air on the snowy runs of Québec’s ski resorts.
Solo on the slopes
We all have our favourite mountains, but have you ever been to Massif in Petite Rivière Saint François? It’s my personal favourite and seems to be so for many people. All it takes is a ride down one of the 48 runs or a trip through the back country to understand what I mean. Distracted by the magnificent horizon of the St. Laurence River, it’s almost impossible to keep your eyes on the hill to look where you’re going. Read more about Janick's Snowboard Adventure at Massif
When I wrote this, it was the first day of winter. It’s odd really, I always have the impression that our seasons are conflicting. Winter starts when the days are the shortest, but from then on, each day gets longer and longer until June 21. But even if there’s going to be more sun, we still have to survive the intensity of winter!
No matter how we define this season, in order to survive it, you've got to savour it. At the beginning of winter, Magalie and I took advantage of the change in season and treated ourselves to a little hike, the snow not yet deep enough to need snowshoes.
The view is always better with a moustache
Winter, Snow, Québec, Gaspésie, the Chic-Choc Mountains: the Good Life, the continuation
To read the first part, click here
The Chic-Chocs. Lac aux Américains. Roselin Refuge. 28 of December. 8 AM.
The first morning we woke up in the heart of the Chic-Choc mountains, all bundled up in our sleeping bags, we finally had the chance to take in the magical winter wonderland that surrounded us. After those few hours of well-deserved sleep and a good hearty breakfast, we carefully planned out the unforgettable week ahead. Our daily strategy was simple: Carpe Diem. Having reserved the same refuge for three nights, we had a lot of time to explore our surroundings, with respect to the unpredictable spirit of Mother Nature, of course.
Did I mention it was winter?
Read more about Winter, Snow, Québec, Gaspésie, and the Chic-Choc Mountains - part II
Mercifully, my tent, food and change of clothes stayed dry in my sturdy seal-line pro. And my feet, though submerged, stayed dry in my trusty old gore-tex boots… For about 5 minutes.
Stepping out of the canoe to empty it, at the very start of our canoe trip, in 10 degree weather, is the precise time that the seal around the sole of my old boots decided to finally crack. On both boots. Instantly wet. The gore-tex, of course, stayed intact and impermeable, but ice-cold water now rushed in all around the former seal, marking the end of dry feet for the rest of the trip. I resolved never to leave again without shoe sealant.
Taiga: Even on the river shore, where the forest is thicker, the trees are not large and sparse enough that you can carry a canoe right through them. The underbrush is completely absent, save for lichen and moss, making improvised portaging a breeze.
We met a cold rain and a brutal headwind (the river runs West) at around two and both stayed with us for the rest of the trip. The temperature dropped and never rose above 12 again. Overall, the conditions were pretty miserable but I hadn’t set out for Virginia Beach (which would be closer), I had set out for the North and this is what I had come to see. In this weather and with the cold, that becomes wet nothing ever dries, so extra care was taken to keep everything protected from rain and river. I tucked my raincoat into my wetsuit gloves, which I favoured over poggies since water can penetrate poggies and run down your arms. By never delaying to put on my rain jacket, my upper body stayed dry and comfortable throughout the trip. But having never really believed in rain pants, I had taken only quick-drying polyester pants for my legs. I now believe in rain pants. My “quick-drying” pants can dry really fast, but like my boots they never had the chance to do so in the constant rain, and I my legs were mercilessly battered by the icy rain every day for the rest of the trip. read more The End of the Road
La saison était déjà commencée depuis plus d’un mois et demi avant que je n’aie la chance de m’élancer sur les pistes à la recherche de cette sensation enivrante de liberté. Que ce soit en snowboard, en ski ou en télémark, tous ces moyens ne sont que de prétextes pour sortir prendre l’air entre amis, sur les sentiers enneigés des nombreux centres de ski du Québec.
En solo sur les pistes
Coup de cœur personnel ? Nous avons tous nos montagnes préférées. Mais si je vous parlais simplement du Massif de la Petite Rivière Saint François ? C’est mon coup de cœur personnel bien sûr, mais semble-t-il qu’il soit également un coup de cœur assez commun. Il ne suffit que de se retrouver sur l’une de ses 48 pentes ou sous-bois pour en comprendre le sens. Avec sa vue magnifique, il devient presque impossible de regarder ou l’on va tellement notre regard est absorbé vers l’horizon éblouissant du Fleuve St-Laurent. En lire plus sur Escapade en snowboard au Massif
La Grande river lives up to its name. It is a gigantic, fast flowing river, half a km across river that feels no smaller than the St-Laurent. But for all that, it is not too technically demanding. Before setting off, I made sure to call Hydro Quebec to find out how I can legally get to the river. Upriver from LG2 is nothing but an endless artificial freshwater sea called the Robert Bourasssa reservoir (see picture of Dam, above). I figured I would canoe the river part from LG2 to the James Bay, somehow portaging around LG1 along the way. I learned from Hydro’s helpdesk that I could access a boat launch behind the security portal if a native Cree dropped us off, since the Cree have access rights. So I hired a man from Chisasibi to drive us in and to drive the car back to Chisasibi. As a bonus, this would eliminate the need to call in a bush plane to fly back to the car at the end of the trip since a new dirt road connects Chisasibi, on the bay, to Radisson on the James Bay road.
The first snowfall of winter covers the sidewalks of the big city. Children run, throwing snowballs at each other. The first day of this season is a shared experience and stirs up different emotions for everyone: lovers of the cold rejoice, while others plan their annual vacation down south.
But this winter, why not go to a far-off corner of Québec where there’s lots of snow? One of the best ways to spend this season is to do outdoor sports in one of Sépaq’s biggest parks, where you’ll find yourself among some of the highest mountains in Québec. A slight change in routine will help you enjoy this snowy time and pull yourself out of annual urban hibernation.
Chics Chic-Choc
Read more aboutWinter, Snow, Québec, Gaspésie, and the Chic-Choc Mountains
Part 1: The Road
I took the 15 North out of Montreal, past the ski hills to where it becomes the 117 and continued northward towards Parc La Vérendrye. The last town before the 200km of untouched nature in the parc is Grand-Remous, a living ghost town since the recentclosure of the local saw mill. So far, I was still on familiar grounds, having been as high North as Senneterre for canoeing trips in the past but that changed after the parc.
I got to Val d’Or near sunset, and noticed that I had been driving straight West, not North, for the past little while, so I bought a map to see what’s going on. You’d figure I would have bought one before leaving, but hey, I already knew how to find the 15.
As it turns out, the 117 heads West from Val d’Or towards Ontario. If I wanted to go North, I had to take another, smaller country road (by now, the 117 was no more than a two-way street itself) called the 111N. That led me to Amos, where I once again had to pick another road to avoid going west. It was 200km of night driving before I reached Matagami, which used to be the end of the world before the James Bay road was built. The cold dark road seemed eerily deserted and I was glad I had a jerrican, just in case. In the sunlight of the return trip, I would find out that this segment of the road actually presents the last northern agricultural communities, tiny and sparsely distributed but beautiful, where the northernmost farms reach the limits of arable land.
Rush Hour on the James Bay Road: Note the fire damage to the forest
