We’ve now moved to The Pines campground at Mikisew Provincial Park in Ontario. I guess it’s pretty obvious how this campground got its name. It’s a nice site but unfortunately the tall pines leave no opening for the TV satellite antenna. We do have phone and internet. So far the phone service in Canada has been impressive. We have Verizon and our plan includes service in Canada and Mexico. The phone seems to connect to whichever service is strongest, usually Bell, sometimes Rogers. We get our internet through our mobile devices (phones and IPad) and there have been very few places where we don’t have decent service.
The park is on Eagle Lake, a pretty lake with some nice islands.
They even have a dog beach, but Matey is not interested in swimming. He usually walks around puddles.
There have been few disc golf courses where we’ve visited in Canada. We were happy to find they have three here. Yesterday we played an 18 hole course right in the park. It was through the woods and had pretty tight lines. I forgot to take pictures until the end when I took this of Bud walking off the course. This was one of the more open holes.
Today we went to a very nice 18 hole course about 8 miles away in South River.
It was in and around a pretty little park on Forest Lake.
As is often the case with disc golf courses, there were only two other people there, so Matey got to be off leash most of the time.
We had a good round.
We love that these are in such nice places, and as you can see, we’re having a great start to our fall.
It’s been chilly in the mornings but it warms up during the day.
And we have hit this park at peak leaf color. What more can you ask?
After 74 days in Canada we finally saw a moose. We were driving the back roads into town. Bud stopped the truck and this fine gentleman crossed in front of us.
We are now at Riverside Park in Pembroke, Ontario.
It’s a big park in a small city that has about 50 campsites.
It sits along the Ottawa River…
and has a nice walking/bike path. Walkers to the left, bikes to the right, but no one seemed to pay that any mind.
The path goes to the marina, which I think is near this marker. We haven’t walked that far yet. We have time. We are staying here four nights. This is the eleventh campground we’ve been at since the first of September, so we could use a little break.
This morning we took a walk at a small Provincial Park about 7 miles down the road. We wandered out to some wetlands…
and then back through some woods. Nothing spectacular, but very pleasant. It’s nice to just take it easy for a bit.
Yesterday we arrived at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant National Park and it felt a bit like Camp Granada. It was cold and damp, if no longer raining. Our site had some open areas so we should have had TV, but there was no phone service so no internet to check the satellite positions. Bud couldn’t get the antenna to pick up any satellites. Oh, and a bolt had sheared on our hitch and the bathroom faucet wouldn’t run more than a trickle and a pin had fallen out of our bathroom cabinet closer and even though I took apart and checked the sink trap we couldn’t find it.
I drove a couple of miles to the Discovery Center where there was supposed to be wifi. I got service on my phone so I could call my mom, but no internet. I had intended to use the internet to bring up the satellite finder and write down the direction and height angles of the satellites so we could use our compass to reposition the antenna. No go, and Bud couldn’t seem to get any lined up. So no TV, no internet and the radio station he found was in French (of course).
This morning we decided to come back to the Discovery Center to try again for internet and take a hike. We did the hike first. It was one of only three in the area that allowed dogs. Called Le Roche it was supposed to go up to an overlook.
It was a very pretty trail.
It was wide, well made and had benches periodically.
After a long uphill we came to a sign that indicated the dog friendly trail went to the right. So we went that way. It was pretty…
but this was as close as we came to an overlook, you can almost see out through the trees. And we were well past the distance we expected and didn’t want to walk any further. When we got back to the intersection another group was checking directions. There’s no overlook that way we told them. He had an app he let me see (it looked like All Trails). I could tell we were supposed to go straight. These were French speakers, but we all understood each other enough to set out on the wider trail.
In short order we found this. Oh yes, there was an overlook!
The views were spectacular, and it was sunny!
I found the Discovery Center.
I think that is Lac Chat and our campground is just beyond that beach.
And besides the beautiful views we had phone service up there! It was good enough to use our satellite locator app, so I took a screen shot of the positions.
We walked back down to the Discovery Center. Of course I looked for the overlook, and I found it.
It’s right there. And I found the wifi. We went back to the trailer. I had found a bit of glop in the aerator for the bathroom faucet and fixed that. Bud found the pin for the roller on our cabinet closer so I fixed that. He had a bolt for the hitch so he fixed that, and we used the information I had saved to reposition our antenna and we now have TV. And I am back at the Discovery Center to write and post this blog.
So I guess this is more like Camp Granada when the rain stopped. “Gee that’s bettah.”
We left Forillon Saturday morning as the edge of tropical storm Lee was coming in. We had decent weather for most of our drive along the Gulf of St. Lawrence with a helpful tailwind. I took this photo as we were leaving the area. Gradually the land got less hilly and the weather got worse. We stopped overnight at Matane. I took no photos. It was in the upper fifties with rain spitting in a 24 mph wind. We set up without unhooking and just hunkered down for the night.
Sunday it gradually cleared and warmed and we drove on. We arrived at our campground just on the northern edge of Quebec City in 70 degree sunshine. This is an odd little private place. There are lots of trees and a lot of the places are seasonal sites.
It’s surrounded by woods and there are paths through them.
But it really is right on the edge of the city.
Today we drove down to Old Quebec. We parked near the Plains of Abraham. This park was the battlefield where the British under Major-General James Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm. The French were in the Citadel of Quebec which sits atop steep cliffs and was almost impregnable. Wolfe took flat bottom boats and landed troops west of the city. While the British warships kept up a distracting bombardment Wolfe’s troops climbed the steep hill to the rear of the Citadel and overpowered the small garrison on guard there. The two armies then met here. Both generals died in this battle; the British victory led to the eventual defeat of France and her relinquishing of almost all of the land in North America to the British.
There are two things I found particularly interesting. First, the taking of Fort Louisburg (which we visited in Nova Scotia) enabled the British to launch the attack on Quebec. Secondly, the inclusion of the land between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers under the jurisdiction of the new British province of Quebec was a major factor in the rebellion of the American colonies. Plus France’s defeat in the Seven Years War led them to come to the aid of the rebels insuring the success of their fight for independence. So maybe the USA wouldn’t be the USA if it weren’t for the fishermen wanting to dry their cod on the beaches of Louisburg.
Today the city of Quebec surrounds the old battlefield.
We walked around the outside of the Citadel…
and continued around on the Governor’s Promenade, which takes you in front of the Citadel along the cliffs.
It affords a great view of the St. Lawrence River and Quebec City’s waterfront…
and leads to the historic promenade by the Chateau Frontenac. I remembered this from visiting about twenty years ago on a bus tour with my mom, my aunt and my cousin.
We stayed at this beautiful old hotel.
Today Bud, Matey and I walked past the hotel and into the streets of Old Quebec City.
We walked along streets lined with little shops…
and old, old houses.
There were a lot of churches. All these streets are inside the old walls. You can see a bit of the wall with a gate up the narrow street.
We walked up this street towards that gate, but we turned just before the gate to go back towards the Citadel.
This time we took a tunnel under the wall and back to the truck. I enjoyed the walk more than either Matey or Bud. Matey didn’t like being on a short leash and Bud didn’t like driving in and out on the rather congested and convoluted streets. I’m glad they were both willing to indulge me. Tomorrow we go back to the country!
The weather wasn’t too auspicious for our arrival in Quebec on Wednesday. Matey and I discovered the beach just off the campground but this is about all we could see of it.
This morning the beach was a lot more picturesque.
Yesterday we weren’t totally socked in with fog, but it was still cloudy so we decided to take in a few historic sites within this huge park. First we visited Fort Penninsule which was built during WWII to protect allied ships sheltering in Gaspe’ Bay from German U-boats.
Beneath the gloom you can see Gaspe’ to the right and Douglastown towards the left. The guns commanded the entire bay from where they were dug in.
Next we visited a couple of places that have been preserved from when this land became a park. This is the homestead of the Blanchette family.
Besides the house there was the barn and several outbuildings. Unfortunately nothing was open this late in the season.
We had higher hopes for Hyman and Sons General Store, but it was only open from noon until four. We were there in the morning as it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we only got to peek in the windows. It did rain in the afternoon and I spent the time in the little laundromat doing our wash.
Today was supposed to be cloudy but dry so we planned a hike. Most of the day ended up being sunny. This is Cap-Bon-Ami where we hiked.
We were headed up to the tower on that cliff. Don’t see it?
There it is, I zoomed in. It was only 1.4 miles to it, but 935 feet up!
There were several places to stop and enjoy the view. Our truck is parked in that lot.
After the first big uphill, that ran along the old ox cart trail the folks who lived here used, there was a set of the Canadian National Parks red Adirondack chairs. You might think this was the summit, but it was far from it.
We got higher…
and higher,
until we arrived at the base of the tower. Matey rested there while Bud and I took turns taking in the view from the top.
You could look right down on where we came from.
To the southeast was Cap-Gaspe’, where the Appalachian mountains plunge beneath the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. (They come up again as the Long Range Mountains in western Newfoundland.)
I took this panoramic shot facing west and you can see the whole peninsula, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the right to Gaspe’ Bay on the left.
The way back down was easier on the lungs and harder on the joints. This is some of the steepest part of the old ox-cart trail. The rope helped.
We were rewarded when we got down by rocks full of seals.
They were calling so I tried to catch it on video. You can’t really hear them, though, so I’m including this clip that has more movement but only one little bit of a call right at the end. There was also a small whale, but he didn’t stay on the surface long enough for me to get a picture.
In the afternoon we drove to the town of Gaspe’ to a seafood store. We decided to cross the peninsula there to come back along the northern side. We came out at Rivière-au-Renard where they have a decent little harbor. We happened to drive out on the wharf just as this Canadian Coast Guard boat was coming in.
There were some big fishing boats there…
as well as an operating seafood plant.
There were probably as many boats on the hard as there were in the water; a reminder that we’re moving closer to winter. Tomorrow we move on, hopefully staying ahead of any really cold weather.
This is not what we usually see when we pull into a campground.
But this is a ski slope in the winter.
When I checked in the woman said I might want to change my site as we were in the overflow area. “It’s just a big open area,” she said, “although you’ll be the only ones there.” “Perfect,” I replied, “our TV satellite antenna will work.” So here we are in the overflow area and it suits us fine. We actually have more privacy than the folks in the sites in the woods, as they have neighbors.
Matey and I were able to walk in the woods while Bud took the truck to the nearby town for an oil change.
The sun even peeked out from time to time.
We ended up on a very large trail at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain.
I prefer smaller paths, but it was pretty.
We came out near the entrance to the park and got a look at Sugarloaf Mountain, which is not the mountain with the ski trails. This is a nice place for our last stop in New Brunswick.
We are now at Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick. The young woman at the gate wrote it out phonetically for me; Coo she boo guac (the guac as in guacamole). That’s my chair set up on my patio for today where I’m writing this.
The park is along the coast of New Brunswick across from Prince Edward Island where the Kouchibouguac River runs into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The name means river of the long tides. You can see the mouth of the river from the path that runs along the campground.
This morning Bud, Matey and I went for a couple of short walks. First we walked out on a bog. The trail started through a very damp forest.
Then it opened out to the bog where they had this viewing tower. This is a dome bog. It started some 4500 years ago in a depression. But now the sphagnum moss is about 20 feet deep in the center, where it is oldest, and that center is raised higher than the surrounding area. The water and moss are gradually moving outward, slowly increasing the size of the bog.
Next we took a stroll along a path by the river. This part was through a stand of tall pines.
At one point a pine, a larch and a spruce were over the trail, so I had to get their picture. I like the greater variety of trees we’re seeing now.
There were even a number of apple trees, probably there was once an orchard here.
We walked down to where there were a couple of viewing platforms with picnic tables.
A nice place to sit…
with a good view of the river.
With its level terrain, grass and trees, this park does not offer a lot of excitement, but it does offer a great feeling of peace.
We’re back in Nova Scotia and heading west. We’re at Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Cheticamp Campground. It’s a pretty campground.
Nova Scotia has more soil and so big trees. I like that.
Today we took a drive east along the Cabot Trail to a trail out onto White Point. On the trip out it was foggy and rainy and there were no views at the vistas. We did however have a young bear lope across the road in front of the truck. Of course I wasn’t fast enough to get his picture. It was still foggy at the point but clear enough to appreciate the cliffs.
And clear enough to watch the grey seals swimming at the base of the cliffs. They appeared to be hunting. When they surfaced they were always facing the shore and through the binoculars they seemed to be looking right back at us. We watched one group of about 10 seals. These are big animals. Adults can be over 6 feet long and weigh over 700 pounds.
Farther out on the point there was another group of seals. That is one seal sitting on a rock. It was a big one.
Besides the seals and other birds, this bald eagle was hunting fish off these cliffs, too.
On the trip back to camp it started to clear off. Now we could see the highlands.
The sea and shore were lovely.
As we were coming down along the shore I saw black humps in the water. I told Bud to pull off at the next opportunity. Several other people were there watching, too. A look through the binoculars confirmed that we were seeing whales. One of the other watchers said they were probably pilot whales. There were about eight of them. You’ll have to take my word for it, as this was the best the iPhone would do.
It would have been a beautiful trip, regardless, but seeing the animals made it a very good day!
Our last day began with a very auspicious sunrise. We are back at Grand Codroy RV Park which was our first stop in Newfoundland.
We had decided to take the morning to travel past the ferry port on the southern coast to see a lighthouse the owner of this rv park told us about. This is called the granite coast, for obvious reasons.
This was again different than the other coasts where we have been, but still beautiful.
The lighthouse was in the little village of Rose Blanche.
The name has nothing to do with flowers. It’s a corruption of the French words roche blanche, which means white rock. The rocks on that far hillside are quartz and shine bright white in the sun (absent when I took the picture).
It was another dazzling view accessed by another well made walking path.
The lighthouse, which was built in 1873, had been abandoned. The wooden roof rotted and the walls collapsed. All that was left was the tower.
After years of effort the lighthouse was restored in 1999. 80% of the stones are original, the rest were cut from the same nearby quarry as was used in its construction. This is the only granite lighthouse in Atlantic Canada.
The keeper’s quarters have been furnished with items donated by the community.
The fresnel lens is on display.
This is looking up at the granite stairway in the tower. I walked up and it gave a hollow sound with each step. It didn’t sound very sturdy, but the stairs are what kept the tower intact.
On our way to the lighthouse we noticed this falls in the distance. I wanted to stop and get a photo.
Of course there was a well constructed path and a sign telling us these were the Barachois Falls.
This path was built the entire 3,000 meters to the falls.
That’s because it led over a bog.
A bog on a hillside! I was in heaven. The pitcher plants and sphagnum moss made their own fall colors.
As is usual there was a picnic table built at a spot with a lovely view.
And then there was the falls.
I have thought about what makes Newfoundland so inviting. It is not just that the people you meet are so nice. Every community has pull-offs with trails and benches and informational signs. It’s as if the people are saying, “Come on, you’ve gotta see this.” And never have I walked a trail or taken in a view where I thought, “Eh, I could have done without seeing that”.
And so, now that we’ve seen our last sunset in Newfoundland (at least for this trip) I will pass along their unspoken invitation, “Come on, you’ve gotta see this!”
On the Roam Again 