Kamouraska, Quebec

Once again, we apologize for the long hiatus in posts! There's a lot to catch up on, starting with the last few stops on our Canadian adventure.

After leaving Fredericton, we continued on our journey towards Kamouraska, near Riviere-du-Loup in the Quebec province. We stopped through Maine on the way to get cheaper gas and groceries and call our families- surprisingly, neither side of customs gave us any hassle about this. Apparently Canada is not as concerned about the import of produce as the US- they didn't even ASK if we had any food with us. Our final destination was another help exchange in a tiny town down miles upon miles of dirt road. Arriving there, the first thing that happened was for Adam to get stung in the temple by a bee; we probably should have taken this as a sign of what was to come and bailed right then. However, we got to the place where we were supposed to be staying, and learned a valuable trip-planning lesson: when arranging help exchanges, it is important to verify that the provided accommodations will include a bathroom, and more importantly, potable water. After discovering that this was not in fact the case, and that the cabin, although it had character, was covered in mouse droppings and dead bugs, we decided that this exchange was not something we were particularly interested in, and parted ways with the host. (But not before taking a video of this highly unique cabin! Sorry for the sideways video- I can never seem to remember you can't rotate videos easily)

 As usual, Adam and I were attacked by bugs immediately upon arrival back into Canada. This was the official beginning of my reconciliation with spiders, based solely upon the fact that they eat bugs. However, as we left this creepy cabin after dark, we had an unfortunate experience that greatly increased our bug exposure for the rest of our trip: Adam and I killed the only bat in Canada. This was the only plausible explanation we could come up with for the obscene amount of bugs we encountered, although it's also possible that the poor thing, overwhelmed with the quantity of bugs it was tasked with eating, committed suicide on our windshield. Either way, it was a startling and frightening experience.

Fortunately, our luck improved as we fast-forwarded to the next stop on our trip- camping in Kamouraska in order to go rock climbing there. We stopped in Riviere-du-Loup for the day to sightsee, and were rewarded with a waterfall (not the most impressive ever, but pretty nonetheless) and a lovely park along the St Lawrence River. While having a picnic dinner in a park, we greatly amused a young girl when I tried to teach Adam to cartwheel- she promptly tried as well, but I couldn't help her progress any since she didn't speak English. Her dad was equally amused with our antics, and finally helped his daughter to succeed by grabbing her feet and completing her cartwheel attempt for her. =)

The campground wasn't anything special, but the climbing was excellent, except for what I termed the "stupid short wall" where the climbs were short and dumb. The rest of the routes were on some of the most interesting rock I've seen- there were huge pockets everywhere! The views from the top of the cliff were phenomenal, looking out over the St Lawrence and some of the nearby farmland.

One of the perks of this place was that the names of the routes had been painted on the rock at the starting point, eliminating some of the guesswork of finding the routes, although the fact that it was mostly sport also made the routes pretty clear. Adam led excellently- he didn't fall once. The only snag happened when he Z-clipped the second bolt on Bonsai (5.8), which he discovered in clipping the third bolt. However, since he could still reach both bolts, he simply unclipped the second bolt for an elegant fix, much to the awe of the high school climbing camp from Maine that had become instantly enthralled at hearing the phrase "Z-clip". We climbed a series of classic 5.7s and 5.8s, ending with Cassonade shown below.

I decided that I particularly like Kamouraska- the rock is exactly my style and I was impressed with myself on the climbs that we did. The hike in is definitely less than fun, but the quality of the routes and the view from the top make it probably my #2 favorite cliff (second to the Gunks, of course). But the nearby campground was certainly a let-down; maybe next time we'll be able to find a better place to stay!

As usual, don't forget to check out the rest of the photos from the trip on the "Pictures" page!