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.