When in Doubt, Head North

I love driving north. 

There's something about heading out in that direction that gives me a deep sense of contentment. Maybe it sounds crazy, but it's absolutely true. Heading south just doesn't give me that same feeling of excitement and happiness. Even if something fun is at the end of a southern journey, it's still not comparable. I can see why humans have often felt the pull of northern exploration.

On February 12th I headed north. 

There was triple the normal excitement because I was heading towards something that more resembled actual winter, I was going to see a biathlon World Cup race, and I was catching up with Daniel who had been in Aroostook all week volunteering at the World Cup. 

It was really fun to see my former Craftsbury teammates Hannah Dreissigacker and Susan Dunklee race in the pursuit. I even got to catch up with them briefly! 

Post race I headed further north to Caribou to prep for a Gaspé trip departing the next morning. 

My co-leader and I had a group of four Maine high school students joining us for a 6-day backcountry ski trip to the Parc National de la Gaspésie. 

We headed north (almost exactly) Saturday morning and drove up through New Brunswick and into Québec. We jogged east for a bit along the bottom rim of the Gaspé peninsula, then again turned north and into the heart of the Chic Choc and McGerrigle mountains.

An afternoon of food and gear prep was followed by a very cold first day on the trail. (Almost all of these photos are courtesy of my co-leader Tammi! She did such a good job documenting.) 

The high was somewhere around 4ish F and the snow was cold, sharp, and squeaky. In other words, slow. The 10km to our first hut was almost all uphill anyways, so the slow snow didn't feel so terrible. And honestly, it was just fun to have snow at all!

The next day was a long 20+km that involved first crossing Lac Cascapedia. It was a bit warmer and with clearer skies, so we got some good views of the terrain. To me, this is what the Gaspé is all about: expansive, surprising mountain views. It didn't disappoint. 

Hut life in the backcountry is super fun. Life is distilled into what is most important: warmth, water (we melt snow on this trip for drinking water), food, and rest. And, of course, fun. Here I am crushing Tammi at cribbage with a very lucky flipped Jack. Honestly, this might be my favorite photo ever! We're not competitive or anything.

We got some new snow for a beautiful section of trail I hadn't travelled before. It wound up from Le Huard hut to La Mesange, crisscrossing a stream along the way. It felt like skiing into Narnia. 

Mesange is a very cool hut up high surrounded by stunted fir and spruce. Everything was covered in 12+ inches of fresh snow.

Gray Jays were everywhere and very friendly. One landed in my hand without me offering him food! 

And, um, then it rained. A lot. Looking back at the weather archives upon our return, I learned it rained almost an inch that night and the wind gusts were up to 50km/hr (32mph). I had a hard time falling asleep as the wind was shaking our hut, the rain was beating against the windows, and huge clumps of snow could be heard falling and landing outside. It made us all so grateful that we were warm and safe (and dry) inside.

The next day was sunny but the new snow was gone, transformed into hard, fast, loose granular in just an overnight. The trail was narrower and the only section of our route untraveled by the gear shuttle snowmobile, making for very challenging ski conditions. The downhills were scary fast and the uphills hard to get grip. We side-stepped a lot. 

Try side-stepping both up and downhill for an entire day. 

You'll find new muscles you never knew existed. 

But it was beautiful. And despite the loss of snow, the pack was still deep. Here you can see the summer trail signs way down low on a post. 

The rain exposed a lot and left some surprising bits of green along the way. This is on a rock in the middle of a lake.

Our day was long and tiring, but we were greeted by a beautiful moon

 when we arrived back at Lac Cascapedia. 

Our final day was fast and mostly downhill. 

Luckily this trail is wider and more gradual, so it was fun instead of side-steppy. Here's a video I took while cruising down one section. 

What a magical experience the Gaspé provides, even with uncooperative weather or challenging snow. It's the North at some of its best: expansive, quiet, beautiful. Views that change around every corner. Silent and old conifers and birches watching over the trails. 

I'm so grateful to the people of Québec for preserving this special wilderness.