One Day a Week - 2017

Blue skies, crisp snow, frigid weather, and my ski companion for life @reneetougas on our new years eve day ski along the Lachine Canal.

Somewhat of an annual tradition now, we went for a Boxing Day family hike at Gaff Point, a short drive from @karentogo's home in Nova Scotia. It was a little blustery, but it was nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air and beautiful scenery.

I think I am really going to enjoy having cross-country skis this year. @reneetougas and I were able to steal away for a short outing before taking the kids to their Christmas function this afternoon.-- Damien Tougas

A week of snow and cold means our first ski day of the season. A couple weeks ago I purchased a pair of cross-country skis and boots so that @reneetougas and I can take advantage of the many ski trails around Montreal. It is very nice to be back on the snow!

I am looking forward to slip-sliding around the city. This will be the first season that I can put my running shoes in storage instead of filling the soles full of machine screws...

Today, with a couple family members somewhat under the weather, we took things relatively easy. We went for a drive through the eastern townships of quebec, and stopped at Mont Owls Head ski area for a short hike. It is a beautiful region, one that we plan on exploring a lot more in the future.

The sound of rushing water and the smell of damp dirt never gets old.

Being half way between Montreal and Quebec city, this park gets a lot of traffic, and this weekend was no exception. There were a ton of people out on the trail. Thankfully things thinned out a bit once we got beyond the first junction, but we certainly saw people all the time. Interestingly, many (if not more than half) of the people we encountered were asian - a demographic I don't usually see very often on the trail.

The trail we selected was about 13 km long and only had about 785 m of elevation gain. It was basically a nice loop through rolling terrain around several small lakes and the occasional beaver dam. The weather was perfect and the trail was quite nice, though we missed most of the beautiful fall colours. A week sooner would have been fabulous for leaf peeping.

This year the Canadian federal government gave out free national parks passes in celebration of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation. The passes expire at the end of December, and we have hardly had a chance to use it yet. Today we decided to do a day hike at a national park half-way between Montreal and Quebec City called Park national de la Mauricie. It is a park that has a lot of lakes and hiking/ski trails (sadly nothing suitable for backpacking). Apparently they allow winter backcountry tent camping, so perhaps Renee and I will have to find some winter sleeping bags to take advantage this opportunity, not too far from home.

See the map for this journal for a GPS track of our route.