My daughter Nekoda decided she wanted to go to Montreal for the summer to dance. Since neither my wife nor daughter had ever been there before I had a crazy idea to fly out there for the weekend to see the sights together, and then my wife and I would leave Nekoda there for her dancing and fly back home. It would be a whirlwind weekend. When I was a student I worked in Ottawa for a year and my company did occasional trips, and some of these I went on: skiing in Vermont, skiing in Lake Placid NY, and to Montreal to see the sights and a hockey game in the old Forum. However, I skipped the trip to Quebec City. I was a student and money was probably the reason I did not go, but I regretted not going on that trip. Now 36 years later I had a second chance to go to Quebec City. We would fly into Montreal, drive to Quebec City for the day (a 3 hour drive), and then back to Montreal and spend the next day touring around that city.
First I will talk about Montreal briefly. Sunday was a rainy day but we had a very enjoyable time walking around old Montreal. We saw a number of cathedrals (2 in Quebec City, 3 in Montreal) but one of them stood out: The Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal (built in 1824). Without a doubt it is the most magnificent thing I have ever seen in my life. My wife and daughter agreed although they said they saw a couple in Spain that were equal to it. It was so incredibly beautiful and I could feel God’s presence in the church for certain. I admit I didn’t like that we had to pay $16 each to go inside (it should be by donation in my opinion), but nonetheless I think (and you may not agree) but my thoughts are that whoever built the church did it all for God’s glory and they did it to the absolute best of their ability. Not that He needs it but God deserves our best. I think of the song “I played my drums for Him, I played my best for Him”. That is how I feel whenever I play drums in church. I always try to play my best (for God). To me, this cathedral exemplified this.
Anyway, back to Quebec City. Our flight was an overnight and we arrived in Montreal early on Saturday morning. There was no leg room for me on the plane and I just could not could not could not get my legs into a comfortable position. I got maybe a few minutes of sleep. We picked up our rental car and found a fantastic place for breakfast near the airport. I had a lot of coffee but it is a 3 hour drive and I did not make it. I had to pull over for a 10 minute power nap. That refreshed me enough to drive the rest of the way to Quebec City. All the signs in Quebec are in French, they do not bother with English at all (even though it is an official language). That does not concern me because I can read the signs (for the most part). One thing did bug me, though: Quebec drivers are absolutely the rudest drivers in the world (at least out of all those that I have seen). I remember knowing this fact from my student days but I had forgotten. Almost all of them drive too fast. If you think Californians drive too fast, Quebec drivers are worse. They are extremely impatient. If you are driving too slow (even if you are not driving slow, but too slow for them), they will tailgate you and honk their horn at you. I can’t even tell you how many times I was honked at. Get out of my way, Yankee! (how do you say that in French?)
We arrived in Quebec City around noon, found a fantastic pizza place for lunch, and walked around the old city. It is a very beautiful city and I am so glad we made this trip even though it was a lot to handle on such a short weekend. It was 36 years in the making and it was worth it all.
Of course the trip would not be complete without a waterfall. Quebec City has a few of them but we only had time to visit magnificent Montmorency Falls. The official height of the waterfall is 272 ft. although it did not seem that high to me in reality. It is a popular park and you do have to pay to enter. We arrived in the late afternoon. I thought of taking a nap first but there were clouds in the area and I thought I could take my photos right away. It is a fairly long walk from the parking area up to the waterfall so I left my wife and daughter in the car (to nap) and I ran up the path to the bottom of the falls. I made it and was able to take pictures while clouds shaded out the sun. I spent some time enjoying the waterfall then walked back to the car. Now it was my wife and daughter’s turn to go up to the waterfall. While they did that I was able to take an awesome nap. It was perfect. Now I had the energy to drive back to Montreal. We got to our hotel around 9:30PM very tired and had a great sleep. It was a whirlwind and amazing weekend trip to Quebec, Canada.
The wind was supposed to stop at midnight. It did not. It continued all night long. Occasional large gusts battered the tent throughout the night. I got no sleep. I do not think Journey slept much either as I could hear her tossing and turning all night long.
It was still windy in the morning. I expected there to be mosquitoes and I bought a new device which supposedly would keep them away but I did not get to test it out because there were none, thanks to the wind. I had to make our breakfast in the tent vestibule again. Journey enjoyed her special breakfast but I could not eat much. We packed up and left early, at 7:30AM.
The photo is Lake Lois Falls. You can tell it is a pretty big cascade but there is still snow covering some of it. If I had waited to come later when the snow was all gone, by then the waterfall would be much reduced in flow. Maybe if I had come a couple weeks later it would be better but I doubt I will ever come back here again even though it is a beautiful place.
Both Journey and I were very tired on the hike back. Due to lack of sleep? Due to the hike being so hard? Due to me still recovering from sickness? Due to all of the above?
There were no mosquitoes so I was very happy about that. The snow was hard and icy on the climb up to the pass. Spikes would have been proper but I did not have mine. Journey was running on ahead in the snow and had no issues. From below it looked pretty treacherous but it really was not because there were footprints I could walk in and dig my feet into the snow.
It was all downhill from the top of the pass but I was just so tired. We stopped at Maud Lake for water and rest. A good decision because there were no mosquitoes there (I figured there would be some at the Silver Creek crossing where we stopped on the way up). Shortly after Maud Lake I stopped for lunch. It was very early for lunch but as I said I was tired. And hungry. After this rest I seemed to gain some energy and was ok for the rest of the hike. Journey, however, was not. She was tired and lagging. Whenever we stopped for a rest, even a short one, she plopped down on the ground. We took quite a few rest breaks and eventually we made it back to the car. It was 2PM. Journey needed the rest of the day and the next one as well to recover completely. I bought her a hamburger on the way home. She deserved it. It was a marvelous overnight trip in the Desolation Wilderness.
I have been sick (again). I have not been hiking in a few weeks. Finally this weekend I felt like 100% again so I thought it would be good to take Journey on one last backpacking trip before summer. I thought about going to Eastern Sierra but I just did not feel like making the long drive over there and Journey hates long car rides so it would not be good for her either. How about something closer to home? How about the Desolation Wilderness?
It was supposed to be windy all day Saturday. That would keep the mosquitoes away. Sunday would be a different story. We arrived at Mosquito City (aka Wrights Lake) just before 9AM. The wind had not started yet but there were no mosquitoes so that was good. The recreation area is not open (which was very surprising) so we had to park before the gate which adds a half mile or so to the hike. The parking lot was already almost full.
We started our hike. The wind started right on time at 9AM. My pack was very heavy. It was 40 pounds because I was carrying all Journey’s stuff as well. I need to buy her a new pack but I have not done it yet so I figured I would just carry all her stuff this time. I am sure she was happy about that. Me, not so much.
About halfway you have to cross Silver Creek. I was a bit shocked how much water was flowing in the creek. It was deep and up to Journey’s belly. She was leery but she did well crossing it.
The total hike is 8 miles one way with 1500 ft. elevation gain. That is not so bad except almost all the gain is in the last two miles before the pass. This was a very tough climb. I was absolutely beat. Heavy pack, no exercise in weeks, you get the picture. Journey seemed to do well but if she was carrying a pack she would have struggled.
When we got to the top of Rockbound Pass it was extremely windy. It was almost blowing us off our feet. We quickly continued off the pass and encountered a lot of snow on the north side. Journey was ecstatic about the snow, running back and forth down the steep slope while I carefully tried to make my way down without slipping and falling. Journey has built in micro-spikes on her feet. Ha ha.
It was very windy at Lake Lois where we planned to camp. There was one group camped at a spot just before the lake and they may have been out of the wind for the most part but there was no other place. We crossed the outlet stream to the spot I camped at last time. It was very windy here but there was nothing else so I set up camp here. Once I got the tent set up I was happy with how it was handling the wind. The gusts were 50mph and they were constant. The tent was being blown to pieces but it was holding up.
I could not cook my dinner because the wind blew out my stove immediately. I tried to block it from the wind with big rocks but that did not work. The only way I could cook is from the tent vestibule which was out of the wind so Journey and I sat in the tent while I made dinner in the vestibule. Journey thoroughly enjoyed the dehydrated meal that mom made for her. After dinner we had 1.5 hours before we had to go on our evening hike. Sitting outside in the wind was out of the question so we laid down in the tent. I forgot my kindle (stupid) so all I could do is listen to the wind batter my tent to bits for 1.5 hours. It was crazy.
In the evening we hiked down to Lake Schmidell. It is only a half mile but a big 500 ft. descent. Coming back up afterwards was tough because I was so tired. There was not much wind down at Lake Schmidell but there were mosquitoes. My goal on this trip was to photograph the two waterfalls at Lake Schmidell and Lake Lois as they were all covered in snow the last time I was here. They are not great waterfalls but I thought the one at Schmidell would be a lot better (pictured here). You could not get up close to it and there were a lot of trees blocking the view. Well, I managed and did the best I could.
When we got back up to our camp at Lake Lois the wind had died down. It was still quite windy but it was not crazy wind. We got into bed and (tried) to go to sleep.
It was Mother’s Day. I thought I would invite my wife on a hike. This would be her first hike since her hip surgery. I thought a 2 mile round trip hike with 500 ft. elevation gain would be a good one for her. She thought so as well. Journey was like: Huh? Mom is coming hiking with us? Woo hoo!!
The plan: Little Robinson’s Valley Falls. Tara has never been up to Robinsons Flat before. Shocking perhaps, but all the hikes up here are very difficult, so perhaps not. Along the way, I pointed out all the significant locations: Mumford Bar, Beacroft, Ford Point, West Fork New Canyon, Tadpole, Canada Hill, Sailor Flat, New York Canyon, and finally Robinsons Flat. She was like: I don’t care. None of these places mean anything to me whatsoever (joke). I was like: But these are my favorite places in the world!
We arrived at the trailhead. No one was around at all. There was still a tiny bit of snow at the beginning but that soon disappeared. Journey had the zoomies running back and forth on the little snow patch as we started hiking. She was very happy. There were quite a few gnats but not any mosquitoes. They were a bit annoying.
It took longer than I expected hiking down to the waterfalls. Tara had trouble walking on the loose rocks and had to go very slowly. There were quite a lot of them. Journey hiked close to mom the entire way, waiting patiently for her and not running ahead. We made it down to the upper falls. It was late now so I left Journey with Tara while I quickly went down to the lower falls. I took some photos and hurried back. We had an hour to make it back up the hill before sunset. We did it, getting back to the car just as the sun was setting. Tara did very well on her first hike after surgery. It was a grand ole Mother’s Day at my favorite area in Tahoe National Forest.
I think we both slept pretty well. It was not cold. The Stellar Jays woke us up at 5:30 AM. They were right outside our tent and they were loud! We got out of bed, started packing up and making breakfast. There were mosquitoes! They were not biting yet, but they were quite annoying. Especially because there are not supposed to be mosquitoes right now. That’s why I go hiking in April and early May in the first place. Journey enjoyed exploring all around the large campsite area in the morning. The previous day she did not really do that because she was too tired.
We left at about 8AM. As soon as I put her pack on and we started hiking, she started going really, really slow, and acting like she do not wanna hike at all. I was sure the pack was not rubbing against her legs like it did last time. But maybe it was? Something was wrong. Was it pinching her somehow? She was not really acting like she was in pain or anything, just that she did not want to hike. I decided to carry the pack for her. At least it was all downhill from here. I think we’re gonna have to try a different pack for her next time.
It was a cloudy day with a storm coming in the afternoon. This made it easy to get to the lower falls in good light. It’s a steep descent down to the bottom of the waterfall but Journey and I made it without difficulty. There was a lot of mist at the bottom making it difficult to take photos. Lower Granite Creek was flowing tremendously. It is a cool little waterfall. I measured it to be 20 ft. high but it seemed more than that.
I took a fall. I stepped on a log. It looked to be dry. It was not. I slipped and fell hard on my shoulder. It could have broken but thankfully it did not; nonetheless I was in pain for quite a few days. I lay on the ground for about five minutes trying to recover. Journey was like: what are you doing on the ground, daddy? Let’s get going! That is quite ironic because she was stopping to sniff every other bush on the way down the hill.
We made it back to the car and drove home. Trip two is over. It was a fantastic backpacking trip with Journey into the Trinity Alps Wilderness.
