Spending time in nature is one of my favorite activities, and that is why I like hiking. One can spend hours in nature and get in touch with oneself.
When I dated a guy about 15 years ago, I remember that one of the weekend activities was hiking. I wrote down many names of the parks to keep track of since we sometimes visit the same park multiple times.
La Mauricie National Park was one of them and I had a pleasant trip.
This past Monday, Labor Day, I visited it again, with a friend and her hubby.
It was FUN FUN FUN 😁😁😁
According to Wikipedia, La Mauricie National Park (French: Parc national de la Mauricie) is a national park located near Shawinigan in the Laurentian mountains, in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada. It covers 536 km2 (207 sq mi) in the southern Canadian Shield region bordering the Saint Lawrence lowlands. The park contains 150 lakes and many ponds.
It is a HUGE park. It has THREE entrances and many trails, for hiking, and biking. Of course, there are other activities as well, for summer and winter; camping, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing.
There were three types of trail: Easy 🟢 Intermediate 🟦 Difficult ⬛
It has been a while since we walked/hiked in a park. Last time it was Jan 1 when we (the same gang) strolled in Parc National du Mont-Saint-Bruno, but that was an easy stroll.
And I recorded the trip in this blog post: Happy New Year!
This time, we chose Lac-Solitaire (#13), a 6.1 km (loop) with 443 meters in elevation gain. It was an intermediate level and took us more than three hours to finish the loop.
It wasn't easy with all the ups and downs, muddy roads, and sometimes slippery situations.
We DID IT and we had a lot of fun!
Here are some highlights 🔝🔝🔝
Our entrance fee ($9.00 each) was waived because my friend's hubby works in the military. He mentioned to the doorkeeper that I also work for the government and asked me to bring my ID next time. Just when I thought I might benefit from such privilege, I realized later (after some research) that it only applies to people who work in the military, not elsewhere in the government 😂😂😂
"When nature calls, one has to respond to it". If you heard about this idiom, you know what I mean 😂😂😂
My friend Lin commented about the first half of the hike as "Just up up up, nothing to see", which was true. She wore a pair of white running shoes but with the muddy hills, they soon became blackish. None of us wore proper hiking shoes or boots. Imagine the dirty shoes at the end of our trip and the washing efforts to put in after 😂😂😂
Lin was rather pleased about the second half of the hike after the lake Solitaire came into view and of course, after she answered nature's calling 😂😂😂
Lin was cautious going down hills and her hubby was always there ready to lend a helping hand. He did trip three times himself and his little misfortunes triggered a lot of laughers among us ladies. Thankfully, there wasn't any bad fall 😂😂😂
We chatted with a hiker who came all the way from France. He has a ten-week vacation in a year, this trip was just a little portion of his annual entitlement. He chose the Difficult ⬛, more than 10 km trail and he is in good shape. When my friend suggested that I should take advantage of this situation and have a fling with him, and when I was tempted to give in to her suggestion, the mighty hiker had already vanished from sight 😂😂😂
On the way going down, we came across a little cabin and wondered what it could be. Lin said it might be a washroom. I disagreed with her: "Five people came out, man and woman, it cannot be a washroom". She said, "There might be dividers". Glad she didn't bet on this one, she would lose 100% 😂😂😂
We had a delicious dinner at a restaurant in Louiseville and Lin picked up the tap. I promised the couple a movie + dinner in the near future. Louiseville is a beautiful quiet town with a magnificent church. We experienced a glorious sunset after dinner🌞🌞🌞
It was a day full of laughter 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
My question: when we can do it again❓❓❓
Note: In the image below, there is only one (top right) from Park Mauricie.
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