camping – Page 2 – OldPlaidCamper

Still by the river…(part one was last week, and it has the sunnier stuff – this is part two, and less sunny)

…and we wouldn’t mind if we were still down by the river, but we came home after the third day of rain, and five nights out overall. It wasn’t the rain, it was the cold – it barely hit 10C for the afternoon high. Ok if you’re hiking, less so for sitting around enjoying the fire in between rain showers…

“Mountain” sector tent site – light that fire!

One afternoon we decided to revisit the microbrewery just outside the nearby village of Frampton. It wasn’t too busy, most likely due to the unseasonably chilly temperatures, but we received the usual warm and friendly welcome from the brewer on for the afternoon. We tasted a light lager, pretending it was late May, not mid-March, and it was pretty good, one for properly warm days ahead. For those, we stocked up on the raspberry sour we’d enjoyed so much last summer. It’s not a style I usually like, but this one is really good.

Last summer – raspberry sour on the left – yum!

I couldn’t resist a new NEIPA and bought a couple to savour later – slightly too strong but very tasty if you like a big hoppy beer. The last one we tried was only currently available on tap, so we’ll hope to return and buy a bottle/can or two – a new nut brown that was, for me, a perfect autumnal sipper. Goodness, I only had one sip but it was absolutely spot on!

We weren’t only tasting beers or sitting by the fire or snoozing or in between snoozes – we also wandered up and down a couple of nearby trails. The vibrant fresh greens and bright new spruce tips were very welcome sights.

The rain and mist cleared from time to time so we were able to see longish views across the valley. The trail winds past a second section of the campground, a few walk in tent sites in the “mountain” sector. These are lovely secluded spots if you’re happy to hike up a steepish short way with all your gear.

One afternoon, mind and body suitably rested from the hiking, the scenery and the all round pleasantness of the Etchemin valley, I fell asleep and had the strangest dream. There was beer, spruce tipped and resinous, growing on trees. Oh, if only…

Time to wake up! Well, this has been less sunny but not miserable, like a rested OldPlaidCamper during the second and rainier half of a camping trip. Apologies for the ridiculously long post heading this week, no idea how that happened. Sleepy brain?

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

By the river

Thunder? Heavy rain showers? Heat? Humidity? One or two bugs? Check, check, check, check and check!

But… almost constant birdsong, a musical river, freshly unfurled spring greenery, a distant farm dog barking, spells of warm sunshine and a remote campsite in the trees above a river? Yup! On balance, let’s just say “when can we go again?”

We had a splendid few days down by (or just above) the Etchemin. Two decent sized bug bites on my ankle (how? I was wearing boots!) had me temporarily renaming it the Itchyman River, but I got over it, and barely mentioned it at all out loud. I didn’t provide any insects a free lunch once I’d applied the bug repellent. Use it, OPC. Happens every start of camping season – when will you ever learn…?

Itchyman – are those clouds bubbling up? Maybe…

The trailer and bug screen performed as hoped for, the wood-store was well stocked and dry – one match got our fire lit every time, maintaining a pretty good run (he says, modestly) – and is there a better outdoor aroma than woodsmoke and coffee? Perhaps my hiking boots left outside and under the trailer? With that aroma, why do the bugs even approach my ankles?

We saw and heard geese, and I startled a pair of ducks as I leant over to snap a shot upriver, at which point a kingfisher scolded me, Scout shook her head, and Mrs. PC seemed happy enough I didn’t fall in.

Several mornings a hummingbird buzzed me as I was making coffee, darting to the side I wasn’t looking as I tried to spot her. I caught a blur of small brown bird as she buzzed into the trees, perhaps disappointed we don’t take nectar with our coffee.

The Etchemin flows through a lovely little valley of low wooded hills and patches of cleared farmland. Not much more than an hour south of Quebec City, it is a delightful spot to find a change of pace. Breathe in, breathe out, stretch, relax, repeat, and it’ll soon be beer o’ clock.

It’s beer o’clock already? Well alrighty…

A very welcome break from the noise and nonsense that can be hard to avoid in the wider world. Spring this year hasn’t been all that it could have been, but a few more trips like this as we edge towards summer and maybe all will be well, with equilibrium maintained…

More about this trip next week – the river, the rain (yup!), the microbrewery and hiking trails nearby.

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

Rain or shine…

…this long weekend will find us camping. Enjoyably off grid, I’ll catch up on unread blogs and comments later next week!

Either way, we’ll be gone and busy being happy campers! Enjoy your weekend!

Flowers!

Aiming for glass half full in this brief post, but be warned, it might seem like I’m moaning about the weather. If so, it’s because I am.

Right, let’s give half full a go, with something to brighten up our slow start to the season. C’mon, spring, time to show yourself – it’ll soon be summer…

We wandered the Plains of Abraham last weekend, taking a picnic with us as we searched for some spring colour. We found one or two bright patches in the not quite planted Joan of Arc gardens, and it was pleasant to find a bench in a sunny spot and turn our happy little faces up to the sun, almost golden and contented. Yes, mother, with suitable hats and sunglasses. We’re hoping to head down there again this coming Sunday, see if any more has been planted.

Prompted by two sunny days in a row for the first time since, well, it’s hard to remember, we uncovered the camping trailer on Monday. Happily, all is well with it, so we’ll be up and out from midweek and through the Victoria Day weekend, camping whatever the (rainy) weather. Optimistic sunblock and bug repellent, as well as a tarp or two if needed. Surely not…

Let’s keep it short this week and end here with a spring in our step! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Bright, cheery, and hoppy, like a springtime OldPlaidCamper – cheers!

May!

Hooray! I said I’d share the first green blades of grass when they appeared, so here we go, from earlier this week:

Ok, so we had to look hard, but it was there! Since then, with a morning of sunshine and a few more heavy showers, it has been greening up nicely. Spring! Boing! May! Phew!

Finding and fixing a puncture – the bike would be enormous!

Now our thoughts can turn to camping, so much so, I finally repaired a puncture in the inflatable tent yesterday, and next week we’ll be uncovering the trailer and seeing if any small critters need rehousing before giving it all a general spring airing. A riverside site in mid May is booked and beckons… Yup, it’s May! Hooray!

Short this week, rather like the stretch of sunny spring days so far… Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Pondering

Pondering ponds. I’ve been dipping a toe or two in Walden Pond the past couple of weeks, if only on the page, and mostly as respite from the spite and stupidity on display in certain quarters. Away from ponds for a moment (I won’t rant, honest), but does stupidity and incompetence even begin to cover it? Unbelievably useless at almost every level… No, no rant, but as I’m here, how can this level of incoherence and destruction also be so predictable and boring? The “very best people” appear to be so very dimwitted and dull. Dear oh dear. Anyway, ponds.

I like how Thoreau is so thorough in his pond descriptions, be they of the ice structure, surface water, volume, depth (ha!), water creatures, or the variety of reflective qualities he found in the many ponds he was acquainted with. I’ve sat staring out over the page and at our current “springter” (thanks, PW), with my thoughts casting back to lakes we’ve visited, and recalling specifically our trip to Lake Témiscaming last summer.

Goodness, how that vast body of water entertained us. When we weren’t paddling or hiking, we must have spent hours sitting by the water, on rainy days and dry days. To borrow/paraphrase from Thoreau, what a delight to be enthralled by ripples and furrows caused by water nymphs or fish, and isn’t it something to marvel at how, on a calm day, the see through mirror surface reveals the heavens above and below?

Yup, hours spent watching the water-skimming insects and ducks make their way, sometimes disturbed by the occasional canoe near the shore, or by one or two motor launches farther out. Tranquil scenes, enjoyed at the time and now many months later, and well suited to encourage calm – I’m happy for that in these strange times…

As springter gives way to spring proper, we’re planning to head out and enjoy some more quiet pondering time by the water. Without wishing days away, now the snow pack is beginning to disappear, perhaps there’s a little countdown to that first camping trip?!

Anyway, stay sane everyone, and let’s plan for the best while enduring some of the worst. We can get by, by dreaming of and enjoying outdoor life. Life in the woods! Or mountains! Or coastlines, parks, gardens and the like! Thank goodness for what remains of our wild and natural spaces – enjoy and protect them!

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

Snow days, desert blues – and lemons?

We’ve enjoyed – or endured, if the novelty of shovelling snow has worn off – three pretty big winter storms the past couple of weeks. Two of them arrived only three or four days apart, and the (welcome, from me) accumulation was quite something. The pile of snow, post dig out, on one neighbour’s lawn is twice my height. I feel like scaling it and planting a flag!

The blizzard conditions did slow us down with regard to heading into the woods. I checked today (Wednesday) on the trailhead, and the city snow plows have created a high barrier across the access point between two houses. Blocked and probably not great for Scout at the moment due to the depth of powdery snow on the other side. It would be way, way over her head. I think she’d like to have a go, wallow in it for a few minutes, but she’s not going to get too far until some snow shoe tracks pack it down, create a trail. Who could do that for her…

So we’ve been a bit more indoors than we’re used to, finding some different diversions to pass the time pleasantly enough. For me, that’s extra music and kitchen time. Yup, the desert blues and lemons mentioned in the title above.

For the desert blues, can I heartily recommend two albums? The first, “Heritage” by Songhoy Blues, is a delightful set. A slight departure from their first three noisier albums, the tracks here are still pretty lively, but the sound is more traditional, mostly unplugged and absolutely wonderful if you enjoy their Malian style.

Snow fun… “Can I take a break, head indoors, and listen to some music?”

The second album I’ve played over and over the past week or two is “Imarhan” by Imarhan, an Algerian band I’d not heard before until I went down the desert blues rabbit hole. If you like Tinariwen or Songhoy Blues, then you’d probably like this album. I’ll certainly be listening to their other albums in the next little while. Desert songs for snowy days? Why not?!

Listening to these albums reminded me of the time we were technically homeless a couple of decades back (we were waiting for a house purchase to complete) camping our way from SW France down into southern Spain. It was early spring and almost always sunny, with the sparkling Mediterranean on our left as we drifted from coastal town to coastal town happily enough, listening to music broadcast from North African stations on the radio. We’d stop at little markets and grocery stores to pick up essentials like coffee, beer and churros, as well as amazing oranges and lemons. That time was among the first of our ongoing series of midlife crises, and then, as now, we certainly enjoyed it. Does life have to give you lemons? No, but if it does…

Lemons are not the only fruit (if JW needs a sequel title)

Lemons! We’ve almost got there! The most enjoyable new recipe I tried this week has to be this lemon desert, oops, I mean dessert, by Rachel Roddy. Like a sharp OldPlaidCamper, the result is zesty, tart and sweet, and really rather more than enough. If you find yourself snowed in and you’ve more lemons than you know what to do with, then this might be the way to go?

Looking sharp outside the MNBAQ yesterday more on that another time

Dessert (yup, again, hehehe) blues on lemon flavoured snow days – too much of a good thing? Not for us! Although, as I’ve eaten more lemon dessert than is medically recommended, I guess I should leave it here this week and head outside, try and dig our way into the backyard and burn off a few calories.

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!

Down to the river…

…not to pray, at least not in the conventional sense, but perhaps an unspoken word or two of thanks was offered up, a recognition of a special space and place.

We were very happy to be down by the Etchemin River once again. We were also very happy to enjoy mild temperatures, if not quite as warm as our previous visit. Signs of early fall were all around, from the sharp snap in the air first thing, to the dry leaves shaken loose by sudden brisk breezes and seesaw floating to the ground.

A highlight of the week was the daily flyby of several skeins of geese at dawn and dusk, their honking and wing beats tracing the path of the river. Each time they flew over, sometimes up high, other times almost touching the treetops, I tried and failed to get a clear and closeup photograph. Splendid sights and sounds, and a reminder the current season is moving on and warm weather camping might be almost over for another year.

We have one more longish camping trip to come. By the time this is posted we’ll be somewhere in the Gaspésie, having traced our own journey several hundreds of kilometres east along the southern shore of the mighty St. Lawrence river. We’ll be huddled over a fire beneath the low mountains and amongst the tall pines, hoping the days are warm even if the nights are cool. More on that another time.

I’ll wind up for this week with another religion adjacent observation – we’ve developed quite the fondness for a smoked blue cheese produced at the Saint-Benoit-du-Lac monastery over the river and to the southwest of Quebec City. It’ll be in amongst our picnic items for the coming week. Try it if you can find it – simply delicious! Inspired by a higher power? I don’t know, but the fromage bleu fumé reveals/provokes almost divine levels of devotion…

“No smoked blue for me? Ok, whatever, not sulking…”

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

Grains de folie!

Maybe if you spend too long in the woods with nothing but your thoughts, strange things start to occur?

You’re sitting in your chair – finally, you’ve found just the right camping chair, both sturdy and supportive and with a little pocket for your favourite woodsy beverage – and you start to nod off. A day/days of strenuous inactivity can cause pleasant drowsiness, so when you come to with a slight start, you ask, what was that?

Was it the porcupine returning to the scene of his earlier encounter with Mrs. PC and Scout? (A non-spiky encounter – good news on all sides!) Nope, doesn’t seem so.

Maybe the crows have returned, believing they hadn’t done enough previously in their attempts to disturb the peace? Nope, no crows.

Must have been an industrious woodpecker, drilling for something tasty up in the higher reaches? Nope, nothing like that.

So, why am I suddenly on alert? Haven’t seen or heard a raccoon, the chattering squirrels aren’t about, but something has intruded, gotten into my empty head. Good thing Scout would warn us if an unwelcome whatever was approaching. No, scratch that. This is the same Scout that didn’t even blink last time a bear wandered through our backyard. A crow, deer or squirrel, then yeah, she’ll let us know. Scout’s many wonderful things, but being a reliable guard, no, not so much.

There it is, I can hear it now, a distinct rustling in the undergrowth behind me. Did anyone else hear it? No?! I’ll settle down then, must be an overactive imagination. Take another sip of the rather wonderful bottle conditioned saison from the Bercée microbrasserie we visited earlier. Mmm, excellent. Grains de folie!

There! I knew I wasn’t losing it! Look what’s come out of the woods to greet us. No, not him, he’s not real. The second one.

“*Are you calling me an unwelcome whatever*? *Not real?! Sure, have another sip, enjoy it, and maybe I’ll be along later to have a word?”*

“*What ya drinkin’? Looks good! Don’t mind me, don’t be startled, I’m just out on patrol! Watch out for that beardy little fella – come to think of it, he looks a bit like you, doesn’t he?*”

Huh? What’s going on? Maybe I’ll keep the other bottle for when we get home, lock the doors, and drink it inside? I love it up in the Saguenay – wonderful lakes and woods, and a great place to sit and let your thoughts drift – but maybe don’t drift too far? You might end up a touch Kenogamachiche here on Lac Kénogami…

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

	plaidcamper on Contrasts
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	plaidcamper on Safe harbour