Mont Tremblant National Park Getaway, Day 1

 We had not been camping in two years. I really miss camping, and I started suggested we go away again. Our daughter was coming home for a very short visit on the long weekend, and we had wanted to take the drive to Thunder Bay again, but take our time. We thought maybe we could drive back following her, but it wouldn't have given us much time. And her boyfriend's parents were coming up midweek. So I decided we'd go to Quebec again. I reserved 5 nights at Mont Tremblant National Park (what Quebec calls their provincial parks), in the Pimbina-St Donat sector.  We had been to the Diablo sector years ago. 

I wanted to leave on Labour Day after Megan left, but Rob wanted to wait until she got home before we left and that would have made it too late in the day. So we left at 6:30am on Tuesday, Sept 2, which was the first day of school. Since I didn't get a long term placement, it was a nice distraction to be going away instead.

We didn't get very far as we needed gas. We actually left town shortly after 7am.

Somehow, we had kind of forgotten what it's like to drive east in the early hours LOL. We hadn't had to do it since the kids all came home from school over a year ago.

In Cornwall, we stopped in at Farmboy. It's quite a different layout than the two I've been in near me! We picked up a few dinner items, and then got gas--I had heard gas was quite a bit more in Quebec!

Right inside Quebec, we stopped at a tourist centre/rest stop. Rob noticed this sculpture when we went in. We ate lunch in the picnic area--sandwiches I had made the night before. I'm an expert sandwich maker. I shouldn't be eating the bread, but sometimes, convenience wins.

We thought this was the same rest stop as when we stopped on our way to New Brunswick, but it wasn't. It was still nice.  What was cool? was that it used to have a Tim Horton's and a St Hubert and they were both gutted.

Nothing like a rest stop picnic when travelling!

We have a dislike of driving through Montreal, so even though Google and Waze both recommended going Highway 40, on the island, next to the airport. From our experience, driving near major airports is chaotic and scary. I mean, look at this exchange:

We would have had to take the exit after that one (or maybe the second? Just off the map).

Instead, I thought it would be fun to take the ferry from Hudson to Oka, at the mouth of the Ottawa River. It was $14, cash, and not any faster, but more enjoyable.

As we approached the ferry, I noticed a sign "Wait for ferry, 120min".  It was a permanent sign. I noticed there were empty parking spots along the side of the road. And then a sign "Wait for ferry 90min". I had a sudden realization that sometimes you have to wait for this ferry! I hadn't even thought there could be a 2 hour wait! Thankfully, we drove right to the parking lot, and were able to get on the next ferry.  They come about every 10 minutes. 

The car ahead of us was from Texas! It's always weird to be on a ferry, in your quiet vehicle, and see the land go past.  

It seems after that, Waze took us on a diagonal route from Oka, through the lovely farmland, to near the Mirabel airport. I wish we had stopped at one of the many fruit & veggie stands!

We stopped at the big tourist centre just a bit north of Saint-Jerome, right on the highway, then headed north some more, to Sainte-Agathe-du-Monts, where you get off onto Highway 329. It was smooth sailing all this way, until the southern most point of a large lake.

I had simply asked Google to take me to St Donat, because I had directions from there, and it was the last main point before going to the park, so I thought it would be a safe destination. Well, it came up with several options and I couldn't see the full length of the names, but I thought, surely, St Donat, the town, would be the top choice?  You'd think right? Uh. No.

It took us up the left side of that lake. Windy, hilly, narrow cottage road. Beautiful scenery, beautiful cottages. It was a lovely drive, if we weren't eager to get to the campground! We finally made it to the campground around 4:30 and the welcome centre closes at 5pm. We got a simple one page photocopied map of the campground. The map took up about half the page. The symbols were hard to read and much of it was in French. We headed to our campsite.

To get a spot for all 5 nights and with electricity, I had two choices. This one, and the one behind it, which is about 15ft lower. I chose the upper one because I didn't like the idea of another family looking down onto our site.  First thing we did was move the picnic table to the gravel area, and then put the tent up on the sandy section. 

This sign was up at the dishwashing station (more on that later). Some great sounding activities in the summer!

The "Bloc Sanitaire" (Comfort Station, Sanitary Station, Bathrooms & Showers) had opened either the start of this year, or last year. It was nice and clean, well lit and at first glance, pretty great.

See this below the sink? That's a fold down step for kids or little people! Isn't that awesome?! It's held down by the weight on it, so people can't accidentally leave it down and someone else walk into it. There's also hooks beside the sinks. However, there's no shelf at the sink to put your toiletries bag on, and not much counter space. The tap had a design we hadn't seen before. Many taps have you push the end of the faucet to get the water to turn on for a short period. This had a little lever over the end that you pushed down. Much easier once your hand is wet and soapy.

This little fellow was in the sand where our tent door was. Made me grin all the time. I also found a birthday cake candle on the ground. Happy times for some family!

This is what the site looked like empty, after we moved the table. It wasn't too private on the left side--there was an opening with some very tiny saplings (we think they had run power to the sites), and the road was right there. But the campground was not busy during the week.

We made dinner, and then went to the Comfort Station to wash the dishes. It's a nice set up. Two BIG sinks, with stainless steel countertops, under a roof. My only complaint was that the counter should slope into the sink, or have a built in drain board on part of it. It did get really wet.

The showers however, were not as great. Yes, they were new, and clean, but not very functional. It's individual shower cubicles in each of the washrooms. There were hooks--but they were big and chunky and I couldn't hang my bag. There was a tiny shelf--for a small bag, not for clothes. In the shower itself was a tiny corner shelf. There was no bench to put your clothes on, or sit on while dressing. This is a huge mistake! In the shower, it's a "press the knob" situation, with no temperature adjustments. The water pressure and temperature was adequate, but the water stream was small, and the time for each press was small. This made it really hard to rinse my hair. And as the weather gets colder, well, the shower is not going to warm you up since it barely covers you. In fact, when the temperature dropped later in the week, I skipped the shower because I just didn't want to stand there naked with a small stream of water.

We did find the family shower, which unfortunately, doubles as the accessible bathroom. Another big mistake!! Imagine you are mobility challenged and need to just go pee, but there's a family in the shower with a couple kids. The door to the gendered bathrooms was a bit heavy and not automated. There was no handicapped stall in those bathrooms. Also, the lock on the family/accessible washroom is confusing, unless you've seen them before. The top button is green as the door shuts, and then stays green (and is lit up green on the outside). You need to press the bottom button to actually lock the door. Then that button, and the outside button, show red. I walked in on a man washing his hands because he hadn't locked it. The toilet is right in front of the door too, so that would have been really awkward.

There are many GREAT things about Quebec's national parks. This one focuses on protecting the night sky with some awesome star viewing spots and events, and maintaining quiet. However, they obviously think people with handicaps don't camp. All the cabins (solid, and tent covered), have steps. The washroom is not a great set up. And it gets worse as the weekend came. More on that later. 

Shortly before we had left, I had bought two different strings of lights for my deck. This one was plug in, and had orangish bulbs that flickered. I had read on the website for the park that extra lighting is strong discouraged and if you need lighting, it should be red, to protect against light pollution. I didn't think these lights were very bright, and they were orange, which is close to red. I thought they'd be nice strung across the fence at the back of the site, but unfortunately, the power outlet pole was too far away and the extension cord was being used for the fridge. More on the lights later. 

Calgary/Banff Trip, Flight Home

Our last morning wasn't terribly early. I think Hugh walked back to the bakery, maybe some went to the Tim Horton's inside the grocery store. We cleaned up and got ready to leave. We had to be at the airport around noon; Megan's flight was 45 minutes before ours (she was flying straight back to Thunder Bay). 

On the way there, I took a photo of a traffic light, as we didn't understand why there's two red/two green lights for the left turn lane. They are both red, or both green at the same time.

We got gas, and found the car rental return. We were worried because someone had scratched the front bumper, probably in Banff. It was less than the 2" circle, and the fine print also said painted bumpers didn't count, but we were still worried. 

Then we headed into the Calgary airport. We had a huddle to determine what we were doing. We wanted to eat at Chili's as that's not very common at all here. There was one in the A section, and one in the D section. Megan was flying out of the A section, and her flight was earlier. There was some concern that if we went through security in different sections, could we join back up? Could we all go through the same security? 

An airport volunteer, a fantastic friendly older lady, noticed us and came over. She confirmed we could do either and that you can get through all sections when past the security! She even took us straight to a security gate that had no line! She was awesome. I don't know if they're there all the time, or just for the Stampede (she was wearing a cowboy hat), but it was very helpful to talk to a real person!

At the security, I got selected this time for the in depth screening. Of course, things went so quickly that my water bottle was full. About 400mL (a cup and a half). I was thirsty, so I started drinking while the agent was swabbing everything. I got really close to the bottom and I asked if that was good enough, and she said no! This was a lot of water to chug!!

We got through security pretty quickly this time, and went to find the Chili's in A section. We got there, and it was tiny! I think there was only 1 table for more than 2 people. We stood there discussing it for a bit, and a staff member noticed and asked us if we needed a table for all of us. She recommended walking down to D section because it was a much bigger spot. She said it's a good walk, but we'd probably stand and wait at her location for even longer. So we trucked it down to the one in A section.

Definitely worth the trek, even though service was a bit slow. We had a great lunch, expensive because of drinks LOL (oh, the joys of adult children!), and Megan left while we were waiting for the bill. She had to hike back to A section. We were just going to C section.

We got back to our section finally, and a minute later, Megan comes walking up. She got a little mixed up at one point on her way back LOL. So we said good bye again.

We had quite a wait for our flight. I was still having coughing issues, and it sucked. Finally it was our turn to load. I had a window and Rob had the middle, next to a large lady on the aisle. He wasn't happy, but that's travel!

It was looking pretty stormy out! I hate take off/landing in storms. It didn't rain thankfully.

Edge of Calgary. 

I loved this area of rivers! I think it was southern Saskatchewan. All the little valleys! So cool!

And then the patchwork of the Prairies! Bright green-yellow is canola.

That's a mine, the turquoise blue "lake".

Sault Ste Marie. Interesting to compare it to my earlier flight at a lower altitude.

The sun started setting, and was so bright!

Coming in to Toronto from the north-west. It's cool to see areas that are still dark in an otherwise bright city!

We landed and it took awhile to get to the gate for some reason. They switched gates and there was no crew, I think. Finally, after about 45 minutes, we got off. It was nice to not have to pick up luggage, and we zoomed our way to the connector train to the Valiant parking lot. Then we started walking across the lot and we realized, we didn't know exactly where we had parked! LOL!!! We knew it was under the train, near a pillar, but in the dark, that was hard to determine. Usually we park towards the back, but after walking halfway back we realized we were actually near the side/front.

It was a pretty easy drive home on the 407. We never used to take the 407 to the airport, but two years ago I got Rob a transponder for his truck so he could take it to go dirtbiking. Now, that section is free but the section to the airport, we still have to pay for. 

I wish we could have spent more time in Banff/Canmore. I think we made good use of our time, considering the hassles of the shuttles and transportation though. We all survived, and I went to the walk in clinic the next day. The doctor there suggested maybe it was asthma, and prescribed me a course of antibiotics, a high strength (opioid) cough syrup, and two puffers. I started to feel better about a week later. I still have some bad days, particularly with intense exercise, or if it's a bad air day.  

Calgary Trip--Last Day, Banff

 I wrote in yesterday's post about the issues with getting shuttles/transportation.  Parks Canada wants to limit visitors to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. The cheap options are difficult, the easy options are expensive. I missed out on the pre-sale of Parks Canada shuttle buses--they sell 40% starting in April and then release another back 2 days before the date of trip--so to get July 8, I would have had to log on at 8am on July 6--and I didn't want to risk that because I didn't know where we'd be exactly and I'd have to do it on my phone instead of laptop. One tip I read is that it seems like it sells out at 8:02, but a lot of people are holding tickets in their shopping cart, and that expires after 20 minutes, so try again at 8:20. 

 I opted to try the ROAM 8X Reservable Super Pass. This pass allows you to chose your departure and return times, and includes the Parks Canada connector shuttle between Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. I had to wait until June 2, at precisely 9AM MDT. 

I logged in at 9:02 and already the early morning departures and late afternoon returns were sold out. The earliest I could get for departure was 10:15, with arrival at 11:12, and departure at 2:47, arriving back 3:41. This would not leave a lot of time. The connector takes about 20 min each way, plus there's time needed to line up before it, and before the return ROAM trip back to Banff.

I asked in a FB group about the best way to use our limited time. We were advised to get on the connector immediately and go to Moraine Lake. We could always come back to Lake Louise in the evening, or even take a later ROAM bus (but we'd be in the standby line). This is why we went to LL the night before.

We were up early due to the heat, and Rob and I went to Sav-On-Foods for lunch items. I think Lucy went to Starbucks.

We had a 30 minute drive to Banff, so the kids wanted to go to Rocky Mountain Bagel. We went to the location on Bow Valley Trail. If they could have walked there, it would have been faster than driving, but we thought we'd just stop in on our way out of town. Well. There was no parking available, so we sat in front of the dumpster while they ran in. It took about 30 minutes, for 2 simple bagel sandwiches! The kids weren't even all that impressed with them.

We got to the Banff train station and unloaded for the day. It was already quite hot, even though it was about 9:35am.  Just an FYI, there are portapotties in the parking lot, they were pretty decent. We headed towards the Banff High School to catch the ROAM bus. 

It's a pretty easy, level walk, but it was hot and sunny. We had to be there early, but we were probably earlier than we needed to be. We checked in, and when the bus arrived we got on, spread out over the 5 seats at the very back, and waited. We ended up leaving with the bus not even full. 

This was when we got to the high school, 9:47AM. I keep meaning to look up why the sky seems so much bluer out there. 

It was a nice drive to Lake Louise. The bus also stops in the Lake Louise village, and a couple people did get off. It doesn't stop there on the way back. We got to see the parking lot mayhem first hand. I really wish this bus also went to the Lake Louise Park N Ride at the ski hill. I'm not sure why it doesn't go there. As we arrived at Lake Louise lakeshore, the driver announced where to go for the Parks Canada connector bus and we went straight there--just ahead of the ROAM bus. 

We had to wait a bit for it to fill up and leave. It doesn't run on a timed schedule, so you can't exactly predict when you're going, but it doesn't take too long. The shuttle driver was great, giving us information on what you can see, how there's a quadruple plus (I don't know what the official label is) black diamond ski run that requires climbing the mountain, over the scree, to the top, and no, you can't helicopter in. There's also a cabin up there you can stay in. No thanks. The skiiers rely on the lake freezing because when they come down, they can't really stop at the bottom, and have to get across the lake to the road, which isn't open anyway, and ski out. Crazy. If you look at the Google Street view before it gets updated, you'll see a very different view of the parking. You used to be able to drive in, but now you can't--any time of the year. People with handicapped plates, or lodge guests, can park though. 

When we got there, we went for the outhouses. The lines were long but moved quick. Yes, they smell a bit, but hey, that's the great outdoors. 

On the road on the way in, we were passed by an emergency vehicle with lights flashing. When we went to the outhouses, they (the staff, not the actual vehicle LOL) and another Parks vehicle were staring at something across the lake with binoculars. 

We headed towards the lake and came upon photo spot #1, with a long line. The family ahead of us took so many photos. The guy behind offered to take ours, and we got 2 shots of all of us!

Megan's hair is a little wild LOL

Reading the info boards like good little students!

Tree piles. They come down over the winter with the snow.

We saw the "Rockpile" to the left. I had heard about it but never understood what it was. I wasn't expecting it to be so massive. There were a LOT of people up on it, so we decided not to go that way. I had read to go past the boathouse for more great views.  You can see the Rockpile below, in the centre. And if you zoom in, there are people visible.

Here's the Rockpile again, on the left.

I had heard to walk the trail past the Boathouse, so we went that way. We walked past the "cabins" and remarked how frustrating it must be to pay so much, but have all these people walking past all.day.long.  

Try taking photos with different devices, angles and settings. This one, above, was with my phone.  The one above it was on my camera, which I had set probably to the vivid setting. It made the sky washed out, but made the water more turquoise. The reality was some where in between!

It's busy, but be patient. Or, use a photo editing software to remove people LOL. It's not perfect, and don't zoom in too close, but it's much better than before!

We found a spot, right on the edge of the water, perfect for our lunch picnic.

Is there anything more Canadian than a grocery store sandwich for lunch, with your feet in the freezing water? It was NOT as peaceful as it looks though because the trail was right behind us and it was non-stop people.

You can actually see the imprints from skiers! 

We had a nice little break here and then kept going down the trail for a ways.

There was someone painting, down by the water. It was neat they were in a bright red, but due to people, it was hard to frame the photo. I also didn't want to be too obvious.

It's getting hard to know if I posted a photo--I'm dealing with Google Photos with pictures from my phone, and pictures from my camera. 

Shortly after seeing the painter, we came to a more open area on the shore, and decided to turn around. We got back to the entry area and went into the gift shop. It's a pretty tight fit in there. Somehow, I either forgot about the cafe, or we ran out of time. 

We got back to the shuttle pick up area to wait. There were more emergency response people there now, looking across the lake. We have no idea what happened. 

We had to wait on the bus quite a while before we left. We thought we'd get to Lake Louise much sooner, based on when we got on the shuttle, but even though it was nearly full, we didn't leave. There wasn't any commentary on the return trip, but there was a crying baby the entire way. That sucks but happens.

We got to Lake Louise lakefront, and we still had some time before we had to check in for our reserved 2:47 departure. We discovered there was a really nice washroom building near the bus shelter, with a water bottle filler. Don't know how we missed this the night before and went to a different bathroom building closer to the lake that was dark, damp and not very clean. The one at the parking lot also had a water bottle filler!

There is a covered area to wait, with one section for walk ups and one for reserved. When we got the shuttle we thought maybe we could even do walk on for the bus before ours, but the shuttle took too long before it left. When the ROAM bus finally came, we quickly got on, and again, had to wait. There weren't many with reserved tickets, but it was filled up with walk ups (they still had to have the reserved time type ticket, but they were scheduled for a different bus time. If you MISS your reserved time, you'll have to go in the walk up line). Apparently, like the Parks Canada shuttle, they don't open all the tickets at the time they open sales on June 2.

We got back into Banff at about 3:50. We walked around a little, went in a few stores, and Lucy searched up some restaurant ideas. We hoped if we went a bit early, we'd be able to get in somewhere.

BTW, the public bathrooms in Banff were really nice, with a button to press to alert staff if anything is wrong. However, I think they closed at 8pm. This pictures below is the old (and maybe current?) post office (no, Banff Visitor Centre now).

It's just so amazing how blue the sky is. The picture below is very accurate.

We decided to try Lupo, an Italian restaurant.  We climbed the stairs to the top, where the really nice young hostess told us there'd be a table ready soon as a party of 6 was just finishing up. She took Lucy's number and said she'd call when it's ready. So we went back down the stairs and just walked around the couple shops right there before the call came. 

Up at the top is the Banff Train Station, where you can park for free, for 9 hours. You walk down Moose Street to the main street.  Banff High School is the grey 330 Banff Ave, right across from Elk & Avenue Hotel. Lupo is the orange restaurant icon in the middle. 

We hadn't gotten too far when the call came and we hiked back up the stairs. We told our server it was our last night in Alberta, he asked where we're from. Ontario. He asked where. Greater Toronto Area. He said, elaborate. East of Toronto. He said Where--I'm from Clarington. LOL. He got a degree at UOIT (now Ontario Tech University), headed west to ski "for one season" and got hooked. He also worked part time in a job related to his degree, but serving was his primary job. Quite a nice fellow but I missed his name.

We ordered drinks and Megan and Lucy didn't have their ID. Megan had a photo of hers, which he accepted and we said Lucy was the middle child so obviously older. There had been an inspector in earlier in the week and so they were being very careful about checking. The drinks were very good!

We all got pastas, except Hugh got a pizza. The pastas were SO good. Freshly made pasta, fresh ingredients. I think they focus on fresh, local ingredients. The portions weren't huge either, which was a nice change.

The desserts looked delightful, but we had been wanting ice cream all week and had seen a Cows Dairy so we decided to go there. Except, the line up was SO long! After doing some more shopping, we decided to head back to Canmore and got for ice cream there.

In Canmore, we found the Old School Bus ice cream. It was fine. Don't think it was handmade, the flavours seemed just like Chapman's Ice Cream. There weren't any signs saying handmade, nor any branding signs. Parking in Canmore is crazy. 

This was at 10:11pm. We went for a walk, packed up, ate all the fresh food that was left and got ready to leave in the morning. Oh, and Rob was able to park outside in a visitor spot for the night, so no more dealing with that!

The day felt bigger, longer, busier than what it looks like from the pictures. We don't do many touristy things and were worried when we heard how crazy busy the tourist spots are. Yes, we waited way too long for the photo at Moraine Lake, but this is likely our last family trip. It was frustrating trying to figure out the shuttles/bus/online reservations etc (my watch even told me to calm down and do some breathing exercises LOL). It mostly worked out fine, though we didn't get as far up the Icefields Parkway as I had hoped--but I also didn't know that I wasn't going to be able to easily walk up the mountains and needed so much extra time. There is so much to see here, especially if you can do some hiking--even the gentle hiking can get you to some pretty cool places. I'm glad we could do this trip, before it becomes even worse of a tourist trap. I wish my kids could have seen it ten years ago. 

I also came to realize that I prefer smaller mountains that you can climb, or drive up. Like Mount Washington in New York, or Mont Massif in Quebec. These mountains are so majestic, but also, so aggressive!