nature – Page 4 – OldPlaidCamper

Finding winter?

Yeah, it’s definitely out there, it just took us a little while to find! Fortunately, with Scout and her reliable ability and enthusiasm to find most things, we tracked down the good stuff:

After a mild period into the new year, temperatures have dropped, some snow has fallen – and there is a promise of more snow in the forecast – so winter might have arrived!

We checked on the snow conditions for xc skiing earlier in the week, aiming for a gentle start on the Plains of Abraham. We think it is almost good to go, likely Thursday (yesterday) or Friday (today – hooray!)

As we were right outside, we popped into the MNBAQ gallery to take another look at the Inuit exhibits on the top floor. Talk about finding winter! There are numerous wonderful creations on display, carved from basalt, serpentinite, bone, antlers and other materials. Each piece offers insight into a unique culture and community full of myths and stories situated in an amazing and challenging landscape. I particularly love the sculptures where animal/human identities are in transformation from one to another. So fluid, with such skill in their creation.

All the searching for winter can make a person hungry (and thirsty) so we simply had to have a late lunch at Le Billig, a Breton influenced crêperie located a steep and slippery walk down from the plains on Rue St. Jean. I wish I liked cider as much as I like beer or pancakes, because they offer an amazing range of Québécois ciders. Mrs. PC did her best, and I’m always happy with the Boréale IPA du Nord-Est!

And after that light(!) lunch, it was off to catch the fast bus home and get into the woods once more with Scout. If winter sticks around, we could get used to this!

Trolls live here – but we don’t feed ‘em!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful winter weekend!

Looking ahead

I hope you have enjoyed the festive season if that’s your thing. Now let’s extend a warm welcome to 2025 – and dream of a good year?! Nothing wrong with hoping so…

We’ve (I’ve) eaten more mince pies than is recommended, but as they contain fruit, it can’t be that bad, can it? Almost healthy! We’ve tried to get out and about in the rain and slush, but the rain and slush, sigh. Yes, slush more than snow, so our start to xc skiing this winter has been delayed…(although, as I write this, the sleet appears to be turning to snow?)

Ok, instead of skiing or snowshoeing, we’ve been making plans for the spring while we wait. Not much of a plan in terms of detail – it’s mostly, if spring is early, or even if it isn’t, the moment there is a proper thaw (assuming we get a proper winter) shall we, and how soon shall we, hit the road? We shall! As soon as possible! Yes! And will we be tenting along the way? No! We will not!

What’s that? No?! Not tenting? What’s going on, OldPlaidCamper? Good question. You’ll have (not) noticed the lack of tent photographs since late July 2024 and there’s a good – and shiny – reason for that. I’ve been meaning to tell you about our 2024 festive gift to ourselves, one we unwrapped many, many months ago. Why couldn’t we wait?! Here is why:

Yes, we now have a tiny teardrop trailer. A bed on wheels with a small kitchen tucked in the back. The trailer body footprint is smaller than our last tent, yet it sleeps two adults and one medium dog in great comfort. Oh, the comfort. I like tenting, but I love waking up without the cold hard ground seeping into a sleeping bag even more. Turns out we quite like a little extra padding in our early middle age. That’s the mattress, not us. Well, mostly the mattress.

So looking ahead, and once roads and high passes are clear, our plan is to set off with no specific destination in mind – but heading west to start – and see where we might go and what we might find. I’m guessing, in no particular order of preference but determined by geography, open roads, quiet rivers, pristine lakes, mighty mountains, woods and forests, rolling prairies, and some coastline – rocky beaches and sandy stretches. My mince pie beach body is ready. Oh, Canada – watch out, here we come!

Do you have any particular plans for the great outdoors, near or far, for the coming year? Would love to hear about them!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

The little things delight

We’ve enjoyed a few more sprinklings of snow and the temperature has stayed reliably low, so there’s still a white carpet out in the woods. With luck, and if forecasts are accurate, we should have received a sizeable amount more by the time you’re reading this. Please, please, please…

At the start of the week Scout and I had the local woods pretty much to ourselves. Other than the chattering squirrels still at work, and the occasional woodpecker and numerous small brown birds I’m unable to identify, it was mostly quiet. Tracks told us of hares and rabbits, and dogs and walkers out earlier than us, but we didn’t see another person each morning. (Mrs PC remained indoors at the start of the week, under the weather and recovering from flu shots, etc. On the mend now and she’ll soon be back keeping an eye on the children…)

The air was still, with fallen snow balanced precariously on even the most delicate of branches. As morning progressed and a bright sun rose, what heat there was caused snow to tumble, miniature crystal cascades shimmering down. A tiny bird flew across the trail in front of us and into the trees on our left, almost faster than my eye could catch it. Threading through the lattice of tiny branches, wing beats dislodging snow, white puffs betraying the flight path – that was some sight!

With her half curved tail a happy question mark, Scout is most definitely a snow dog, leaping ahead or nosing into snow banks or trying to catch a snowball. I can barely keep up. If there’s a downward slope, she’ll pull hard, trying to get ahead, reach the bottom – and see if I’ll fall? Sometimes I surrender on the steeper ones, putting one foot forward and then sliding down gracefully (you weren’t there, it was graceful) as if riding an escalator, disappointing Scout as I remain upright.

“*There’s a good steep slope just over the rise that’ll get him, hehehe!”*

Goodness, a couple of weeks into the new winter season and Scout is yet to see me tumble. Will my luck hold? Scout isn’t a gambler, more of a gamboller, but if she could place a bet, it would be on me being flat on my face, deposited into a snow bank at some point. There is a lot of winter to come, and many more walks in the winter woods, so she’s probably right…

The little things in an outdoor season of wonder keeping us mostly balanced – thank you, winter! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

At last!

A hint of proper winter! I know my delight in enjoying a “real” winter isn’t shared by all, but goodness, doesn’t a sprinkle of magic fairy dust, I mean snow, really help lift the mood?!

It was a race as to who could get out of the door and into the woods the quickest. Scout won, because shoe laces, but I was a close second and off we frolicked. Mrs. PC? Yes, she can do shoe laces as well, and she was with us but not racing. She plays it cool at first snowfall, letting the children make youthful fools of themselves and, quite rightly, feigning not to know us. Why Scout has to kick up snow into the air cackling madly I’ll never know – no wonder Mrs. PC hangs back just a little…

The first decent round of snow wasn’t all that much if I’m honest. Enough to be noteworthy and not disappoint or disappear overnight. On notes, I always think the last remaining leaves look a little like musical notation, a gentle introduction or prelude to the full song and mighty majesty we’re about to enjoy. (This might tell you I was never a success musically in school or all the years after. Years of instruction and to this day I cannot read a note – how does that happen?)

What was I doing? There were recorders – instruments of musical torture in the wrong hands, and mine were so very wrong – and drums (“Adam, put the sticks down, you can’t play those unless you can tell me what these notes are?” No drums then…) and all sorts of sonic temptations, but beyond hammering at a glockenspiel I never really achieved much. Sometimes, I wasn’t even allowed a glockenspiel – just a single chime bar was the best I could expect. And even then I’d hit it at the wrong time, much to the music teacher’s delight I’m sure. Oh well. It taught me to be an appreciative audience instead. After all, if we’re all in the band, who buys the tickets?

*“Yeah, I’ve heard him sing. Trust me, he’s not musical…”*

On winter and music and buying a ticket, we were lucky enough to enjoy Les Violons du Roy perform all of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons a few weeks ago. My wonder and delight with Jonathon Cohen (conductor and harpsichord) continues – his ability to convey enthusiasm and joy and encouragement in his fellow musicians is something to behold. I’ve never seen or heard anything like it! I know the Four Seasons is probably overly familiar, but to hear it played as it was originally composed was very special. As special as the first winter snow…

Let’s conclude with that attempt at tying together a few loose strings and false notes – thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Dizzy disbelief!

Last week we had the dizzy heights of coastal Maine. This week, after recent events, um, well, there’s a different dizziness and some disbelief around here. I mean, huh?! You did what now?! Hmm, wonder how that will turn out for (non-billionaire) folks over the next few years? Yikes! Oh well, if that’s what you really, really want, then good luck… (If it isn’t what you’d hoped for, I also wish you good luck as depths are plumbed…)

Alrighty, on we go, and let’s look for something more uplifting!

Trees, rivers, mountains, lakes and the like always work for me, so here are a few uplifting images from the last month. Most were taken in Maine or on the (not so) Plains of Abraham when fall was in full colour.

The leaves have mostly dropped now, so let’s skip the dull bit and head straight to proper winter – you hearing my prayer, weather gods?!

Thanks for reading, look after yourselves, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Dizzy heights

As it turned out, the heights weren’t the highest we’ve hiked, climbed or scrambled in the past, but on a warm fall day, and starting at sea level, the near 1400 feet up felt high enough. Got an endorphin high for sure!

If you’re ever in the vicinity of Camden, Maine, and you’re looking for a mostly moderate (and, in parts, challenging) hike with spectacular views from the heights, then I heartily recommend the Mt Megunticook Trail at Camden Hills State Park.

The hike up through a red, gold and green mixed forest on well maintained trails is pretty special, and if the trail only meandered through the woods you’d be happy enough.

The bonus is, with a little leg and lung workout up some steep sections (steps made from rock slabs and a couple of short and potentially slippery boulder scrambles if it was a rainy day) you’ll emerge up top and enjoy amazing scenes over Penobscot Bay and across the low hills and mountains of the nearby Maine interior.

I’ll let the photos do the work this week – and, as much as I like these images, honestly, they don’t capture the magnificence of the place. You’ll just have to visit! You’d be dizzy with delight, I promise you!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Do what’s right…

…is what it said on the beer, and who were we to argue? We shared the bottle, enjoyed it, and that seemed right.

Enjoying our time in mid coast Maine in the fall certainly felt right. Being awake at 6:30am to catch the sunrise over Penobscot Bay was alright – mostly because we could see it from where we were staying without having to head outside. Could have, but it was close to very chilly at that time of the morning. Doing what’s right, we opted to wander down to the beach a couple of hours later.

Very pleasant and all, but maybe head down there later?!

I’ve never seen a leafy beach in the fall. The beaches back on the west coast were evergreen and raincoast wonderful, but not leafy. The eastern side is different, a good contrast to what we’ve been used to.

Those leaves on the shore took a bit of getting used to! Regular stuff for coastal Maine folk no doubt, and our excitement might have seemed odd, but fortunately there was no one to see our strange behaviour. Just (just?!) a pair of bald eagles – lovely to spot them, the first we’ve seen since leaving the west coast!

We did what’s right all week and spent as much time as possible down on the shore. We had one slightly grey morning, and that was great for mixing up the mood and seeing the sea in a different light. Like most places, we know the east coast isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Life isn’t, but it’s generally pretty good if we do what’s right…

Not sunshine and rainbows, but pretty good!

If you can stand it (or even if you can’t) there’ll be one or two more posts about our Maine trip, but let’s leave it here for this week, grateful for the big and the small things. Like not worrying about a bad hair day at the beach. Huh?! (See below)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

The Maine thing…

…is that we’re finding mid coast Maine to be delightful in the fall!

Our first visit, and what a state we’re in – loving where we are right now. Back home next week with more to follow. In the meantime, a few images from this week:

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Moon bright rivers and silver-grey lakes

Rivers and lakes have been a large part of our summer as we’ve explored the big outdoors in this little corner of eastern Canada. We’ve even got on the water – only on for me, never in – a couple of times, most recently on Lake Cascapédia in the haut Gaspésie. Such fun!

Up and over the mountains, the lake is reached via a very rough washboard road. It’s worth the effort if your vehicle can take it, with spectacular views when ascending and descending. In the space of a short and bumpy drive, we experienced late summer in the valley, autumn up top, and something in between on the lake.

Dropping into the bowl of the lake, it was very overcast and a good few degrees cooler than earlier. In fact, it almost rained!

A cool grey bowl, but less cold and forbidding than it appears

The paddling was great, with no wind outward bound, and only occasional gusts to paddle into on our return. It was fun to head into the slightly bared teeth of the wInd and put in a little extra effort to cut through some small swells and chop. Enough to feel it was almost a workout!

Moose are a feature of the park, but we didn’t catch a single glimpse all week. Maybe another time… We’d seen eagles climbing and making high turns most afternoons, but didn’t spot any near the lake. We did see one of our favourite bird sights – a few loons near the canoe, busily bobbing and diving, and they didn’t appear bothered by our loony zigzagging presence.

We beached on gravel shores a couple of times to stretch legs and eat snacks. Off the water, the day was a touch warmer, pleasant enough to sit for a short while and then stage our attempt at a Tom Thomson:

Not even close to a Thomson, but we were happy to try!

Back at base, our evenings in the Gaspésie were spent under an almost full moon. From our camping spot in the trees we could see the bright moon on the river just below us. It was so intense we didn’t need flashlights. This image of the moon on the water was the best I could get:

Did the quicksilver moon on water influence our choice of beer the following day? I’m (beer)easily led, so maybe…

A white river, majestic mountains, a quiet lake, loons on the water, two happy paddlers and a good beer back at camp to end the day? That sounds ok, so let’s do it again soon!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Mountains!

We hadn’t realized how much we’d been missing the mountains until we found ourselves back in a high region once again.

The upper reaches of the Parc National de la Gaspésie were absolutely wonderful, and a particular highlight was the lac aux américaines, a small glacial lake and easy destination found at the end of a short trail.

The trail is easy, but be warned, the washboard roads are not kind on vehicles, and I wouldn’t have wanted to use a regular low slung car to get up there. Some did, but goodness, the toll on the paintwork and undercarriage…

The road got far more challenging as it climbed!

Anyway, if you find yourself up there, take the short hike and you’ll be rewarded with the prettiest of mountain scenes. We were fortunate to be there on a quiet and sunny day, not too hot and just right to sit and eat your lunch whilst taking in the lake.

There isn’t a hike around the lake, but there are several longer (day plus) trails crisscrossing the park with routes above the lake. They’d offer some view if you’re willing to take them on!

Long view towards the lake (from much further back!)

We weren’t in full mountain hike mode, and were quite content to tackle shorter and moderate half day at most rambles. We saw long views, pretty river bends, tumbling waterfalls and rushing waters, and all on sunny days where the early fall light gave everything a slightly golden feel.

The only day where the weather threatened was on our half day lake paddle. It got very dark, a touch breezy, and there were actual raindrops. Raindrops, maybe as many as twenty or thirty. Hardly a deluge, I think we dodged one there.

Anyway, this was supposed to be about the mountains. Mountains! More on the paddling next week! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

	Maria on A short trip…
	plaidcamper on A short trip…
	Maria on A short trip…
	plaidcamper on Striding out…
	plaidcamper on Winter mountain hush