Hiking: Marais de la Riviere aux Cerises

Thanksgiving weekend usually also means going for a nice hike to catch the last of the colorful palettes that cover the forest from the maple trees that change their colors. The drive is beautiful and the walk is calm and comfortable.  We definitely chose the best day to go for our hike this year.  It was mild weather, sunny, colorful leaves and it was in a beautiful area of the province of Quebec of approximately an hour drive over.

We went to Eastern Townships in the Magog area. Eastern Townships of the beautiful Province of Quebec is one of the many places known for its impeccable scenery.  I’ve been there a few times for Bleu Lavande which is lavender fields, one of the biggest in North America, and I’ve been for the Magog Winter Fest.  However, I’ve never done the hike there.  We chose a relatively easy hike which felt more like a walk on Marais de la Riviere aux Cerises.  Its pretty much a flat area with a few trails that run through the forest and then onto a boardwalk for a good length and that makes this one very special because we haven’t done one like that before.  My boyfriend and I were both recuperating from lack of sleep from the past weeks so it was easy enough for us to get some fresh air and for me to do some photo shooting.

Bat made from scrap

Cute Catepillar venturing onto the path

Dragonfly

Bird hotel

Squirrel

Cherries

Colorful maple leaves

The longest trail there is the Pioneer Trail which is 2.5 km.  With all the stops and detours we took to see observation points, we took about 2 hours or so to finish it up.  I’m sure we’ll be back to hit some of the other trails in the future, maybe at the other national parks to get some mountainous hiking in. This time around, it was amazing fun and very family friendly if ever you want to head there for a relaxing walk :).  I can imagine how equally beautiful it’d look in the summer when all the flowers are blooming and the marsh lands looking more moist than it was this time around.

Do you like to take nature walks/trails? Are there any around you that you’d recommend?

 

Falls Trail

I just got back from vacation as I had said in my previous post, Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moments. As promised, I’ll be posting in a bit more detail on my various adventures in Saguenay Lac Saint Jean.  The first place I visited was the Falls Trail (Sentier des Chutes) found in the Fjords du Saguenay National Park.  This trail was supposed to be a intermediate to difficult level hike.  They had some really crazy markers as well for distance.  Their 1 km didn’t feel like 1 km..more like 2km (but thats maybe because by the end of the path, it was just like a wilderness obstacle course of climbing big boulders, walking up steep hills and paths full of water running through it.  I’ll take you along for our walk on this trail!

LETS BEGIN!!!

The first 1.5 km was pretty smooth.  We had to pay with this envelope ($6 per person) then started off on a pretty decent dirt path between slight slopes and tall trees.  At the 1.5 km mark, there was the first Falls.  That one I featured in my previous post mentioned above. There was 3 levels that you could climb up to get close to the falls, which was just breathtaking (how many times have I said that already?)

At around 2-2.5 km, we had the viewpoint and the top of the falls that we were at before.  The view was so amazing (for lack of a better word).

The next point was at 3.5 km where the second falls was situated.  This one is a bit less majestic as the first but its located at a nice little peaceful area.

It was such a beautiful atmosphere to relax and regain energy before we decided that we’d try to move on for another 3 km to the top of the mountain with the limit that wherever we were, at a certain set time, we’d have to set back.

So the next place was undetermined distance from where we were.  This part for the last part was crazy…we had to climb a mountain and drop back down to reach the walkway to cross and walk over all sorts of crazy paths over mossy boulders, water and mud, etc.

In the last 3km path, we went by a few areas that were pretty nice.  Like the one before, where it was a stream or river or something running along the wall.  We walked on the slippery path on the side.

We also passed this lake called Lac mort, translates to Dead Lake.  For something dead, it sure was peaceful there.  It was really quiet and we made a stop here on the way back to recuperate energy.

After Lac Mort, that was it.  The path went from bad to worse.  It was just path of boulders and on top of that it was going up a steep path.  By the time, we reached the 5.5km marker, we had a flight of wooden stairs which lead to the boulders below.

At that point, our time limit was up, our water was all gone so with only a few hundred meters left, we had to just go back before it got too dark in the forest (since we didn’t have any flashlights).  Sad, but it was a decision that had to be made.  Next time, we will be better experienced and bring a whole lot of water and probably energy bars and maybe pack those hiking poles (or whatever you call them).

Hope you enjoyed that! More adventures from Saguenay Lac Saint Jean coming up!!