We are coming back from a 4 days trip in the woods, somewhere close to the US Border (actually we could hike to it if we wanted to!). A couple months ago my sister in law and her brother (my husband) went there and in their memory, the cabin was close enough to the trailhead to bring the kids. Of course, why not! Well turned out the walk in was actually 6km ... not the 1.5 km they remembered! Quite a difference. Just so you can picture our caravan: 2 grand-parents, 4 parents, 2 eight years old, 2 three-almost-four years old, and one 9 months old.
Little did we plan that we would get there late afternoon instead of noon as we wanted to. Here we are, its passed 4pm and we realized the length. In the last couple weeks, rain and warmer temperature had made the gravel road usable... so we took advantage of that! Thanks to a volunteer (my husband the hero), we dropped the little ones and the heavier packs directly at the cabin and he drove back to the trailhead before walking back by himself in the dark. We couldn't keep the car there cause 30cm of snow were on the way and the very next morning that same road would be closed. Still, it was a weird start!
But the next days would be just perfect. The cabin had a very efficient wood stove, we had warmth, food, drinks, and gear to keep everyone fed, busy, and comfortable for the length of our stay. The kids played in and out and in and out all day. Uncles, aunties, mammy and pappy rotating on the playing outside shift. My 3 yo could hike to the outhouse by herself and back... even at night...!! We did something right with that one haha.
Two groups were formed for longer hikes while the others stayed back with the kids. The 4 parents managed to get away an early morning to summit Mont Gosford, the trail was magical, with tons of fresh snow and a crispy white mountain top with no view but nonetheless beautiful.
The hardest part of the adventure was coming back. Even if we had treated ourselves with a ski-doo service in and out for the heavier packs (food and bottles of wine mainly), we still had our sleeping bags, clothing and hiking necessities to carry out for everyone. The set of 8yo was not used to hike such distances... 6km on snow is not easy, and the set of 3yo walked a good 100m in total: our sled and snowshoes expedition back became quickly a challenge! We had not well prepared ourselves for the journey back, we could seriously have thought it through a little bit more as the girls got cold early on, in the sleds. This would have been easily solved by adding an insulated pad at the bottom of the sled and left a down sleeping back out for them to snuggle in it... why didn't we think about it? I guess we were overconfident about how long it would take us to hike out and underrated the cold when you are not moving. COME ON, we have been living and experiencing the outdoors out here in the winter forever and we still have not learned that... Anyways, the way back turned out to be a bit over 2 hours. Thanks to extra down jackets, a few hot pads and very motivated parents and grandparents, we made it out safely. The 8yo also got a free ski-doo ride in the last couple kilometers from a passing staff: I am pretty sure that was the highlight of their weekend, one thing for sure is that it was the coolest end to this adventure that they could have hoped for, judging by their enthusiasm!
The happiest hiker award goes to: baby Claire, who sang and slept all the way back, observing over her uncle's shoulders in the carrier backpack, and who enjoyed every second of our stay with a smile.
Overall Highlights:
- Everyone working as a team to take care of the kids, prepare food and keep the place clean and cozy.
- Minimalist cabin to enjoy each other's company over distractions
- Doing everything at a slow pace
Take-aways:
- We need a better sled, we need to insulate the bottom and plan for additional warmth for non-walking kids
- We should have double-checked our distances while planning this trip. I think if it would have been 3km, it would have been perfect for the different ages of our group.
- The pre-made dinners that I cooked, sealed (thank you foodsaver) and froze were perfect. I simply had to lay the pouches in a bucket of water on the woodstove and leave there to reheat slowly. When ready to eat, cut a corner, poor in the bowls and voilà! NO prep, barely any dishes to do. Lick you spoon everybody. That's how you get homemade delicious spaghetti bolognese sauce, chicken fajitas mix and boeuf bourguignon in the backcountry. Of course ... having a transport for food made this possible weight wize!
Comments
Very cool trip! Is this a single cabin? Or are there multiple cabins that you can string together for a multi-day journey?
it's along the Sentiers de L'Estrie, a someone long trail for Quebec, and yes you can do a multi-day journey from cabin to cabin. However, I hate how they manage the Sentiers de l'Estrie (not Gosford itself (the trail passes thru the Mont Gosford protected area, and these guys are awesome).
There is zero map online for the Sentiers de l'Estrie, and you need to be a member to buy maps... it's like they don't want you to come. Their business model is based on membership, which I find stupid in 2018, it basically reduces the crowd to local people... weird and close-minded. I can hardly commit to a gym membership at the corner of my street... why would I become a member of something 4 hours from montreal? I would however gladly buy the map online if they would let me to... and would not mind paying a day or multi-day pass. But it will take a while before I get over this non sense and explore these trails... This was my 5 minutes of venting for the day. HAHA
^somewhat long trail...
At Mont Gosford, the trail system would probably work for a 3-4 days trip, and the map is online ;-) Their shelters are great. Wood provided of course.
LOL, that is funny. I was actually just looking a the Sentiers de L'Estrie site the other night, wondering what it would take for me to do a section-hike of the whole thing. That is when I discovered that in order to get a map and plan things, that I would have to buy a membership, then buys some maps, just so I could decide if I wanted to do it :-)
Maybe we should do a project to hike the trail with a GPS and put the maps here on Outsideways :-)
sounds good!
for the record, my ranting was about Sentiers de L'Estrie, but in the area of Mont Gosford, it is actually the "Sentier Frontalier" trail system, I got the two confused! Sentier Frontalier seems awesome, there is blurry map online, and you can order one by mail to strings attached lol.
The little I have seen is the short section to get to the top of Mont Gosford, and if the other cabins and trail sections are similar, I can't wait to do the whole thing, it's only a bit over 100km.
I know they have been struggling with getting financing and volunteers for trail maintenance (there is an article about it in the Rando Québec of this month) if anyone would like to support them in anyway, one way to start is to go and talk about it :-)
Hey cool! I was not aware of that trail. Maybe we could do a feature of them here on Outsidways, they might like that. I wonder if they speak English over there...
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