Journal Entries

At the the beginning of the gorge is a hydro-electric dam.

The gorge, as viewed from the suspension bridge.

On the third (and final) day of our weekend in the Eastern Townships, we decided to do the tourist thing and check out the Coaticook gorge park trail system. Supposedly this is the longest pedestrian suspended bridge in North America... or something like that :-)

As usual in places like this, not to be outdone, every town needs to claim something as unique and amazing.

It was a summit with some views... and a lot of heat, humidity, bugs, and (thankfully) a small breeze.-- Damien Tougas

Beating the heat.

A side jaunt to a creek and a waterfall further upstream.

We are off for a hot day of hiking, with temperatures in the 30s, hopefully the shade of the trees will offer some relief.

A family camping weekend in the Eastern Townships. Beautiful weather and not too many bugs. What more could we possibly ask for?

Trip post morem thoughts:

• The Sentier National de Quebec has been great. It is well marked, pretty, and well worth exploring further. At over 1000 km of trail, I am definitely planning on coming back here many more times.
• The Lanaudiere region of Quebec (1.5 hours north of Montreal) is beautiful. There is a lot to do out there, and is relatively close to home for us. This was a really good find.
• I am blaming my chafe problems mostly on my choice of underwear for this hike. Over all my years of backpacking, I have always used tight-fitting long synthetic boxers and never had a problem. This year I decided to give merino boxers a try. My analysis is that they absorb too much water, and tend to bunch up creating a situation ripe for abrasion. Never again.
• I am always going to make sure I have anti-chafe balm/lube with me.

My one and only camp site for the weekend, 0.5 km from the road crossing which marks the end of the Sentier the Contreforts.

Thank God for mosquito netting! On some sections of the trail the bugs have been pretty brutal. My chosen camp site is apparently one of those places.

My chafing hasn't gotten any better overnight, and is really painful. I have decided to cut my trip short rather than risk making a bad situation worse by continuing on for two more days. This is really disappointing, as the next section of trail is supposed to be really beautiful. I have texted Renee to come and pick me up at the road crossing.