oh canada – twodustysoles

Montmorency Falls, a short bike ride from our residence in Quebec City

Many a kilometers we have covered the past two weeks. Our desire to be out of the trees and in the open has drove us on, quickly passing through many a Canadian Province. Hiking Katahdin, aka Baxter Peak, in Maine, gave us a little breath of fresh open air, climbing quickly above tree line and rising in all 4200 feet in elevation over 5.2 miles. If you have done any hiking, you know that is a steep trail! I must add that Baxter State park had a twist to throw at us, testing our Colorado forged lungs and legs. We arrived at the park on Saturday to check with the park rangers if our vehicle would be allowed in the following day. The park has VERY strict rules about almost EVERYTHING. Our concern was the 9 foot high height restriction. We were happy when the ranger at the Visitor Center looked at our Sprinter van and said, no problem, we had two of those go in today. The next morning we awoke early at 4 am, wore Dizzy out with a run as no dogs was one of Baxter’s rules and she would not be joining us on the hike. By 5:30 am we were nicely near the front of the line waiting to be let in at 6 am. Another rule, the park is gated 100 percent and if you have a permit to get in you must be through the gate by 7 am or they will sell your permit to someone else and you are out of luck. 6:05 rolls around and we roll up to the gate, the employee eyeballing us and denying us access to the park. A bit heart broken, as I for years have wanted to hike Katahdin, Miren and I agreed to park the van and ride our mountain bikes the 9.5 miles to the trailhead. So in all, not only did we hike Katahdin in 6 hours, we ended up biking 24 miles s well…there is more to that story I won’t get into

Let’s just leave it at we were both driven to leave Maine and put the experience behind us hoping to just remember the beautiful views from the top and the great rock scrambles it took to get there. (If we are ever having a beer sometime, maybe the full story will come out about our distaste and joy to not have to return to Maine in September…)

at times the scramble up seemed endless with many false summits, so much fun boldering, the way down was yhe butt kicker on the knees

The Maritime Provinces were a bit of a blur….tree after blessed tree! I think both Miren and I had expectations of what Nova Scotia and New Brunswick would look like and we were off, far off. One of their special traits is the Bay of Fundy which lies between the two provinces and brings with it the largest tide in the world. On most days the tide recedes and ebbs about 40-50 feet in height twice a day. Yes, 40-50 feet…this leaves the docks for boats and cargo ships alike pivoting on flotation devices and many areas can only be accessed twice a day when the tide is high. Part of the coast is strewn with rough sedimentary rock that stands like pedestals in areas such as Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park. Half the day the crumbling surface is lapped with water, the other half of the day tourist walk the ocean floor looking up at the rocks. Such an extreme tide must have been quite the hurdle to the fisheries that dominated the area many years ago.

miles of ocean floor exposed when the worlds largest tide goes out

Hoping a ferry, van and all to the province of Prince Edward Island, we experienced a little maritime Canadian culture in Charlottown where we caught a performance at the Confederation Arts Center. I was struck by the message and sense of pride in their country that the young preformers displayed leaving Miren and i questioning the differences in the USA and Canada. Many people compare the two countries; I think the biggest difference to remember is population, Canada having barely broken the 35 million where as the USA has now surpassed 325 million. I think its hard to hold comparisons when such a dramatic difference in population exists, I just wish we Americans had a common bond, a sense of pride, and something that made us all “American”. Most countries use their language to give them a commonality, Canada included with both French and English being their national languages.

Pressing on to Quebec City, we were searching for a way to park on a Saturday afternoon. With all the parking signs in nothing but French, I was using google translate to decipher the endless parking signs that lined the neighborhood while Miren took Dizzy for a quick walk to relieve herself. I looked up and noticed yet another woman was ogling over Dizzy (I swear, this dog gets all the attention). Luckily, she spoke much better English than we spoke French and before we knew it she was standing in a parking spot holding it for me to maneuver the van into. After chatting a bit and learning her husband was a General for the Canadian Army before he died, we parted ways with her shouting back, “you will be fine to park there until Monday morning at 9am”. What! how did we score a shaded residential parking spot one mile from the walls of Old Quebec, two blocks from streets lined with restaurants and coffee shops, and free to park for two nights. We spent the next two days exploring the beautiful city by foot and bike, trying to pick up a word or two of French as we soon discovered outside the tourist service areas, many of the locals did not speak English. I loved the narrow streets wafting with the smell of baked breads, towering basilicas, mazes of alleys and buildings that held so much character. Miren assured me that I had not been misled, Quebec did feel like Europe.

After leaving Quebec, we ventured to Montreal and quickly discover it has a completely different feel. We jumped the Metro into Old Montreal; it too had many old buildings, basilicas, and cobble stone streets but had a different vibe. Projectors cast images high in the sky on the side of buildings and modern world mingles amongst the old 19th century buildings. If you know me, you know I am usually blunt and to the point. Seeing I have been rambling on I will cut to the chase and say, Quebec by far was our favorite city, one I would visit again.

Now here we are in Manitoba, pushing hard to a small town of Brandon hoping to get a little exercise playing tennis before catching the opening ceremony of the Olympics at a neighborhood bar. The past few days has been filled with driving, broken up by swimming in both Lake Huron and Lake Superior in the same day…we were exceptionally smelly and needed two baths obviously :p The drive around the north side of Lake Superior was amazing; when rock meets water, beauty happens. The mountains are calling, as they say, so we will be pushing on to Banff/Lake Louise area. We both are craving a little touch of home and hope the mountain air will fill our tanks.