Category: Outdoors

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Long Resourcing Trek

Hello everyone!

I’d like to introduce you to my new project!
In fact, I should say our new project!
I’m leaving with Oceanna for a 2300km hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Start : Fort Montgommery, New York State, USA
End : Parc Forillon, Quebec.

Oceanna is a very intelligent and sensitive 16 year old girl. She has a good heart and loves to help others. Sadly, like many disillusioned young people, she has lost herself in a behavioral whirlwind. She accumulates failures on a personal level as well as in her relationships with friends, lovers and parents. She has not been in school for a few years. Oceanna has a difficult inner life and does not seem to find motivation for a future and/or an independent life that will fulfill her in her adult life. She has a few suicide attempts under her belt and several behavioral problems that lead her to depression and delinquent behaviors that are dangerous for her and her loved ones.

After receiving news from Oceanna that overwhelmed me, I decided to leave everything behind and officially organize this therapeutic adventure. I am doing a project that brings together my academic learning, adventure life experience, and personal life experience and use them to create a program to help people in need through adventure. I have been working for several years on both a personal and physical level to finally be able to do exactly what I love in life while helping people in need.

As I am doing this project completely voluntarily, I will be raising funds to pay for the minimum of my mandatory payments.

 

We will feed the site with our photos, videos, thoughts and experiences throughout this adventure!

Thank you for supporting us both morally and with your comments.

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My return to Quebec

The return…

My arrival in Montreal.

 

September 7 – Campbelton to Sainte-Florence : 75 km
Back in Quebec…  After a salutary stop with my family.  A family that was kind enough to take me to Campbelton to spare my tired legs despite a nice break with them.
It’s clear that the end of my trip is approaching as Quebec is getting closer and my body is feeling it!  It seems that it is more and more difficult to ride, to move forward, to get closer to the end of an adventure that I don’t want to leave even if my body and my head ask for it…
Luckily the Matapedia valley charms me.  I stop in a wonderful place to cook on a wood fire and feel the pride of having become the woman I always wanted to be!  I am happy and proud of how far I have come!

Retrouver la Nature du Québec avec la vallée de la Matapédia.
How about a nice campfire to warm me up!
Bike path along the Matapedia River.

September 8 – Sainte-Florence to Amqui : 32 km
Despite the beauty of the place, I feel exhausted…  I’m sick, I have a sore throat that forces me to stop for two nights in a nice inn in Amqui, in order to get well and continue my journey towards the grand finale of this wonderful trip.

You have to eat to cross the valley.

Local gastronomy, why not!

September 10 – Amqui to Sainte-Flavie : 84 km
Strange departure from Amqui in the wrong direction!
I definitely feel a resistance towards this return to Montreal.
I have to get used to my return to civilization and to the Quebec I know so well.

Sunset on the western side of the Matapedia Valley.
Typical Quebec hills.
A first night near the St-Laurent river.
Sainte-Flavie and route 132.

September 11 to 14 : 233 km
From Sainte-Flavie to Rimouski > Trois-Pistoles > Kamouraska / Saint-Pascal > Saint-Jean-Port-Joli

The road continues… with a good headwind that exasperates me!
Despite everything, I’m on the edge of the river and I get drunk on the beauty of the landscapes and on these beers from microbreweries and generous in alcohol… To this are added beautiful meetings and a beautiful evening in a field to finally fall asleep under the stars!
More or less well recovered from a fresh night, I fall asleep near a grocery shop…
But Providence provides for my great fatigue and I am offered a ride to Grondines past Quebec City.
That’s it!  I am on the north shore of the river.  My home is getting closer and closer…

September 15 – Grondines to Louiseville : 97 km
Second to last night before returning to Montreal…  I’m panicking… it’s the end!
I am proud and happy with myself.  But the fear of returning to this life that is not my ideal scares me.

September 16 – Louiseville to Repentigny : 77 km
I’m riding on the Chemin du Roy, I’m tired… my thighs are burning… there are only a few kilometres left before I get to Montreal… but they seem endless.  I find myself in the suburbs, I have to sleep in a motel…  Phew!  The place is very mediocre…  I sleep with difficulty, because the smell and the dilapidation bother me.  I feel very far from my nights under the tent swept by the sea winds…

17 September – from Repentigny to my home, Montreal
It’s over, I’m crying.  But I am also excited.
My friends and my mother are waiting for me impatiently and I can’t wait to see them…  They will be there…

My arrival!

I am coming.  They are here!  I am back.

(see my arrival in video)

Epilogue

It’s not over yet…

You still have a few days to make a donation via my GoFundMe page.
And I’ll soon be giving all these beautiful pennies to the Répit-Jeunesse organization.
Thank you to all those who did it and to those who will do it again.

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Fogo Island

Visit to an island at the end of the world… Fogo.

“I found my treasure island. I found it in my inner world, in my meetings…” – Hugo Pratt

I have a few dis-eases to confide in you…

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Gros-Morne Hike

Hiking in Gros Morne National Park.

A bit of hiking, it’s a change from the pedal !

Shortly after my arrival on the island, on a beautiful day, I had the opportunity to hike the Gros Morne National Park.

I love the mountains as much as the road and this place was a longstanding wish because of its reputation. As they say, it’s a ‘must’!
And if you go to Newfoundland, and especially if you arrive by boat from Blanc-Sablon, for sure, Gros-Morne is waiting for you!

It is an exceptional place because of its landscapes, its geology, its telluric energy! I hope you will meet him, he is like a giant of the Earth and the Sea.

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From top to bottom

Everything that goes up must come down.

We were at Lake Louise…
239 km from Jasper on the Glacier Road.
A park warden informed us that it would be impossible to sleep in a wilderness campground in the national park. We didn’t like it but the campsites were closed because it was too early in the season. No choice, especially as a recently awakened mother grizzly is prowling around and our food would be a perfect target!

In Bear Country

We are in the transition from winter to spring. The bears are waking up from their sleep and are also in a new cycle. The wake-up call is brutal and they still haven’t had their first morning coffee! We must therefore be vigilant to avoid a potential encounter.

Sleeping in the woods, with animals…

When travelling, every constraint can become an opportunity.
Our solution: rent a car to Edmonton. We can still enjoy the nature and the national park and we can do some hiking and rest our tired muscles.

So here I am, hiking in Jasper. After my head injury, hiking in the high mountains was impossible for me, as the altitude was unsettling. I felt strong and ready to attempt this 2200m mountain. The happiness of climbing a mountain was coming back to me! I am here, I am succeeding! I undertook the climb. My symptoms had disappeared! Step by step I climbed, step by step the happiness of success permeated my being!

Promising mountains

Suddenly, I can’t go on, I’m shaking…
I feel the symptoms of 3 years ago coming back! I don’t want to experience this weakness again! I am afraid, I am still shaking, I have no balance… a step forward is endless… The summit is there and I want to reach it. I resist and continue even though I am afraid to stay in this state. There is a mixture of happiness and pride at having managed to get so high and despair at the return of the symptoms.

Threatening sky and crowing

1800 metres. How come I can’t go any further, how come my body is resisting, how come my head has no control over anything? And this mountain, so threatening, doesn’t allow me to take a false step…
My travel partner is worried and has to help me to get down safely. I am now back down to 1000 metres; my loss of balance is fading and I am regaining my inner stability.

From the summit to the coulée

Fatigue set in and a few days’ break in Edmonton would be much appreciated. The abrupt transition from the mountains to the plains was necessary…

End of the dream day…

I open the door of this small hotel room… Tears are running down my sunburnt cheeks! The symptoms are back… Half of my head is numb and I am shaking! A rest here will do me a lot of good. I hope that the plain will bring me a salutary lull…

Plains, sweat & dust

Would the spirit of the Bear, encountered in the heights, come to signify to me the need to pull myself together and set up more appropriate limits to assert my personal space and a new rhythm for my peregrinations?

I will have the Plains to answer…

Accompanied by my shadow
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Newfoundland (2019)

The end of the world… almost !
Newfoundland is Canada’s only island province. Unique !
You might say that there is also Prince Edward Island or even Nova Scotia… but aren’t they connected to the land by a bridge or a good strip of land ?
Newfoundland, by plane, boat or pedal boat !
It’s worth the trip !

In 2019, I travelled it in duo and cyclo-camping.

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