Mont Tremblant National Park, Day 3

 We woke up and didn't have any concrete plans. We thought we'd drive down to Ste Agathe des Monts and see if we could find the restaurant we went to when we went with the kids. At least, we thought it was in that town. 

We made it into the town and went to the Visitor Centre for a few reasons. One was for the bathrooms but it was closed. So we went to the nearest Tim Hortons. I ordered two coffees on the app, then we went in and I waited by the Mobile Pickup. Forever. Eventually I noticed an older woman ask the young man working the front what was up with me. I held out the app showing my order. They looked at the monitor and didn't see it. They couldn't speak English, I couldn't say much more than duble-duble LOL and va to the question of "ici or va?" 

We headed to the waterfront where the map indicated there was parking. There was, but not much! A very lovely park! Place Lagny at the bottom of Rue Principale:

There's a playground, a community use building that one side opens up to a stage with some amphitheater type seating on the lawn, bocce, walking trails and a municipal pier with a pleasant sitting area:

It's not Lake Ontario, but I could live here!

We decided to make our lunch before exploring the town. We had brought our new one burner stove and everything we thought we'd need to make an old family recipe for "Red Noodles."  There weren't any table right beside the parking lot, but we got one we thought was reasonably flat. It wasn't. 

We lost the frying pan full of almost sauteed onions on the grass when it slid off the stove. Luckily, I had only used 1/3 of an onion (I needed some for another meal). Gave it another go. The other issue we encountered was the wind. We never even thought about that, since our old Coleman 2 burner had wind flaps on the sides and the top became the back panel. I had seen 3 paneled privacy screens for students at the dollar store, so we'll have to pick one up for our next trip. We had carried everything over in this collapsible basin, so Rob tried it as a wind screen. He went back to the truck and got the lids from the Rubbermaid bins instead. We also put the stove on the ground, almost under the table and that helped.  

Legendary Red Noodles. A warm, cheesy, tomatoey lunch. While we were cooking, a whole crowd came to play bocce behind us. It was nice seeing a park being used by so many different people. 

That was a ton of carbs, so we headed out to walk uphill, up the main street, looking for the restaurant. It was one of the best pizzas I'd ever had, back then. Thin crust, wood oven. I can remember what it looked like from the outside, but nothing seemed to match. It looked like a nice little town and we had    quite a nice walk around it.  We decided to head south to the next big town, Sainte-Adèle. 

I found there's a beach, but the only parking we could find was a lot with a sign that said $10/day. Maybe the machine had smaller time segments, but we decided not to stay. It's a small town and unless you're going to a ski hill there's not much there. 

We headed back, and I think we explored St. Donat. Yes, it seems every town is named Saint or Sainte.

The rain finally caught up with us! Luckily, because we were on the sand section, it drains really well.

Rob the chef.

A little bit of autumn at our campsite.

We decided to see how to get to the west side from our campground. We were expecting a road like the one into our campground--two lanes, narrow but paved. A little bit past our campground it turned to washboard gravel. We kept going. At one intersection, we saw barricades and I knew there was something about the trail not going to Chutes Aux Rats, but didn't know about the roads. We hadn't been given a map of the whole park, and there was no cell service. Even if there was, Google Maps didn't show the roads through the park, so you had to zoom in on the satellite view so much that you couldn't tell where you were. So we just kept going. 

We came to a Y in the road and barricades. 

I thought we were going to the La Diable sector, but I didn't know for sure, or what road we were even on. We opted to go the non-barricaded road. It had taken awhile to get this far, we weren't stopping yet!

We quickly ended up at a campground and beach, Accueil du Lac des Sables. It looked nice, but the showers weren't free (not that we had one, we were the only people there, but we like checking these things out).

We admitted defeat and headed back. On the way, a ranger (or whatever they call their park staff) was going the other way. He slowed down so we stopped so Rob could ask what "Impossible" meant. He said there had been a storm and it was closed. It was a young guy, friendly and good with English. Rob asked if it was really closed, or just "closed".  The guy said it was closed. Rob pressed on, asking if his truck could make it. The guy kind of laughed and smiled. He said, "well, you could try, but..." I took this as a no. Rob took this as there's a chance. LOL. 

We got back to the campsite and it was raining. The "Ready to Camp" across from us was empty, so we went and sat on the covered porch for awhile until it stopped.

This little bird has been so wonderful. I got it from Amazon, and it's rechargeable with a standard USB C cord. It has two light temperatures, and can dim. It's got a hanging chain and a stand (that actually stays in when you're using the hanging chain). The light is soft but bright. It didn't work great as a flashlight because it's not really directional. It lit the ground below, not up ahead. But it was great on the table or in the tent, for a nice soft light instead of the candle lantern or naptha fuel lantern.

Mont Tremblant National Park, Day 2

Although Mont Tremblant National Park focuses on peace and quiet in most areas, things happen. Both Rob and I were awoken at 4:30am by a screaming/crying baby. It would get louder, then more distant, but the poor child did not seem to settle. I don't remember how long it lasted. We did get back to sleep. We've been there too. It sucks when you're in a tent and a kid is screaming. You can see when my heart rate went up during the night LOL:

In the morning, I followed an older man with a toddler heading to the wash station. The boy was dragging a high folding step stool--the exact one I insisted on bringing LOL. I didn't need it to wash dishes though. They were speaking French, so I used Google Translate to translate "I have the same stool!" This prompted a conversation in English about camping in Quebec and Ontario, and the challenges of camping with small kids. His granddaughter was the unhappy camper and her and her parents were going to go back home.

It was a beautiful misty morning.  This was looking down over the campsite below us. 

We headed out to Mont Tremblant and I was having the same Google Map issue as the day before. I didn't know exactly where we were going--the ski village at the end of the lake. We made one misturn and ended up at a smaller ski hill

Lovely, but not the ski village!  I think it was Versant Nord. We did make it, after I chose "Pick on Map" for the Information....I didn't know what it was exactly but we found out you can't actually drive to it LOL. We found free parking in P1 and it was an easy walk to the village. As we approached the village, we saw a DeNure Tours bus with a Port Perry sports team wrap. Rob's parents like taking DeNure Tours. 

We took the stand up gondola up to the mid-hill. We walked around a bit and saw the "luge". It wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it would be like a luge track, and you'd be on some sort of sled. This attraction should more accurately be called alpine go-karts, like what we had considered in Calgary. 

We (I) hemmed and hawed, watching them come down the track. A family came in and the Mom got up and when husband asked her if she was going to go again, she said no. So we asked what it was like (they were speaking English). She said the run down was great, but she doesn't like chair lifts and heights so that was the only problem. They had kids under age 10 with them and they said it was great. So I agreed to do it once. The minimum purchase was two rides, so we did that. 

I wish we had bought a bigger package! It was fun!! When we started the first run, the staff told us there were reports of deer on the track that morning! But it had gotten warm and I think they all retreated. Just like Lake Louise LOL.

Although when I got in the cart the first time, I bashed my shin. I had worn a long skirt because it was a warm day (25C) but I didn't want to wear shorts--Rob likes to keep the AC cold in the truck. I didn't think we'd be doing anything extreme, so my long knit skirt is usually fine. I was trying to get into this thing that barely off the ground while a teenage boy held it still at the front and I didn't want to flash him LOL. Those things are low down! Rob sent the picture above to our middle kid, and she said I looked like a "Duggar Girl".  They've long said they can do anything in a skirt, and so can I!

It seemed easy enough, similar to the gravity/mountain coaster, but you had to steer. We set off, and I nearly forgot I had to steer LOL. It really doesn't take much to steer it--it's handle bars, not a wheel. We got down fine and went back up for the second run. As we came around the first curve, there was a lady stuck, half on the grass. We couldn't stop to help, but we did watch for her for a few minutes when we got to the bottom and didn't see her, so we told the staff. One thing I noticed was that because I had to sit more forward (partly due to T-Rex arms and partly due to wearing a backpack), I couldn't pull the bars towards me to make it go much faster. Rob could pull the bars all the way back, but if you go all the way, it actually locks it up, which seems crazy. They do tell you not to pull back to stop--first you'll go really fast, and then you lock up! Wait. I might have this reversed. 

After that, we were ready for lunch and walked around looking at all the menus. I don't think this was the place we went (Le Shack). Crazy prices and amount of food. Who needs that? We got smoked meat poutine and Philly cheesesteak. They were okay. The fries were a little undercooked in the poutine and the sandwich had way too many fries, but it was fine.

After lunch, we decided to take the gondola up to the top. Rob had been here skiing during university days and he said he remembered a chalet half way up with a cafeteria. We couldn't find anything like that, but at the top of the gondola is a cafeteria. The gondola was half the price of Lake Louise. Yes, I know, it's half the height, whatever. 

I believe the sign said it was 25C at the top of the mountain!

We walked to a little viewing area, to the left of the main building. Lac Tremblant reminds me of a Scottish loch... even though I've never seen one in real life. I thought the ski village was actually right at the bottom of the lake, but it's technically at the bottom right corner. 

In the cafeteria/shop, there is a huge eating area with stunning views, water bottle filler, map board. I noticed this light fixture overhead.  Not sure how well it shows, but the light fixtures are beer mugs!

We headed over to the observation tower. We have noticed that signs in Quebec are small. Road signs are often blocked by foliage too. We weren't sure which path to take to go up here, but followed some other people. Looking at the tower from the path from the cafeteria, it looks like it's going to be a tough climb up. It's not though!! It's actually quite a nice walk up. Now, the stairs going up the tower are something else, but there's space at each landing to pretend to look at the view.

There are a LOT of trail here!

On the way down from the observation platform, I got a lecture on reinforcing beams. Apparently they should have used a curved brace, not the straight angled piece. It did feel a little shaky in spots!

You can see here the lower part of the go kart track. 

We walked around a bit when we got back to the top of the village, and I wanted a Beavertail. One every 10 years or so, LOL. While at the booth, we noticed this sign:

This young man was a high school classmate of Lucy's. It's been a terrible mystery and they still don't know what happened after he left the bar. We thought maybe after the snow melted, some more clues would be found, but nothing.  It's horrible thinking of what his family is going through. Apparently they struggled to get posters put up in the village! The Beavertail worker was familiar with the story and many are absolutely baffled, and a little scared. 

We ended up walking down the hill, popped into a couple shops to see if there were any good deals on summer clothes for our upcoming trip. And then it was time to go back to the campground. We had to take a long way around to get here, and I wondered why we couldn't go through the park from the west to the south-east. Surely there's a road?  More on that later!

We went to the beach to check out the equipment rentals and everything because it was all new. What a fantastic beach area!!! 

I LOVED this sort of hydrology play when I was a kid, and loved seeing it when my own kids played this way. 

We noticed a pair of loons, but one looked different.

We guessed it was a juvenile.

The grown up swam away and dove underwater. We heard the kid loon calling out. The grown up one came back up, and we saw a fish in its mouth!

I realized what was about to happen, and switched my camera to video. 

You can also watch on YouTube.

The moon was starting to show.

It was so beautiful and serene. Yes, there was a pontoon boat going by but they were at least going slow and fairly quiet.  There are lovely star gazing reclined chairs along the beach, but I think they need more, and different sizes. You can stay at the beach until midnight to stargaze. 

It was at this beach that we realized just how many rules there are here. On the picnic tables in the campground, they have a sign with "5 ways to be a good campground neighbour", which is awesome, but here at the beach there are a lot more signs!

I couldn't fit the right column in the picture, so it's the one above this one. 

We headed back to our area. We decided to use the family shower/washroom to have a shower. I'd feel bad if there was a handicapped person needing to use the bathroom though! But thinking about it...how do you get in a tent or camper in a wheelchair? The cabins also had stairs. This shower was definitely better, but the clip holding the handheld shower wand was broken. So, although it was nice to have the handheld, it wouldn't stay on the holder to be an actual shower. We used the baby changing table as a counter to hold our stuff. I do miss the days of the old hand dryers with the nozzle you could turn upwards to dry your face (or body)! I wish I had taken a hair dryer. 

I moved the flickering lights string so it was on the table and not spread out. Coming back through the campground from the shower, it looked like our table was on fire LOL.

This is Rob checking out one of the cabins that was unlocked! I wouldn't let him go in, in case it was actually rented. There are several different types of cabins available here. 

We headed to bed fairly early, it was a long day. It's hard to sleep in when you're in a tent, even though our site did not get any sun in the morning.