September 30, 2016
Rest days in Parc du Mont-Tremblant: Nice place to recover
The first night, it got dark early and I went to bed early.
The first morning, I went for a slow hike up to a lookout point over Lac Monroe. The trail was good so I was able to not use my quads.
The second night, I went to bed even earlier, but woke up some time later to a sky filled with insanely bright stars. I wanted to stare at them for a while, but the animals around me were really active and freaking me out a bit because I couldn't see any of them.
The second morning, I did nothing and continued to do nothing all day. I planned another early night, but after returning from my shuffle to the Discovery Centre to use the wifi, something unexpected happened.
There was a cyclist setting up a tent.
She was on an overnight trip, having taken the train partway from Montreal. She did a similar trip to another park a couple weeks ago and said she was the only cyclist staying there. (These parks need to promote their cyclist sites a bit more.)
I almost immediately apologized for not even trying to converse in French, but it wasn't necessary. I realized that I'm only here as a tourist this time, in a tourist area, so nobody cares what language I speak. It sounds like a small thing, but it was quite a revelation for me.
She was planning to have a fire, something that hadn't occurred to me, seeing as how I'm too cheap to buy firewood. So we walked over to get a bundle of wood and set about making a fire.
We failed miserably because we had no small pieces of wood and taking deadfall isn't permitted in the park. We had no axe or any way to make small pieces of wood. On top of that, the firewood was damp. I was disappointed that she had paid for firewood she couldn't use.
She was more concerned with the beer supply: "I don't know why I bought two beers. Are you sure you don't want one?"
I had a better idea. "Why don't we go to the other campground and trade it for some small wood?"
We set out on our quest, seeking out people who were around their campfires instead of cozy in their heated trailers, returned with small wood as well as the beer, and soon had a fire going.
Just as I had unnecessarily brought up the language issue, she brought up the Quebec issue. At its simplest, many French Quebecers still feel like they did 60 years ago, when they were being held down by the rich Anglos and the church. The situation is drastically different now, but the feelings get passed down a bit through the generations, same as any other cultural mindset.
Today, Quebecers feel overly controlled by Canada. The rest of Canada looks at Quebec and sees a province that gets tons of special privileges.
I think it boils down to Quebec wanting one or two key things that are incompatible with being part of Canada. But remaining in Canada and not getting those things maintains huge economic benefits. Quite a decision.
Even with the fire, and perhaps because of the caution required when discussing politics, I was tired and went to bed early, as usual.
But not before eating a sandwich she offered me. I tried not to, I think I refused twice, but when she said "I hope it will still be good in the morning," I cracked. Can't let food go to waste.
I've been eating tons of food, but not enough, apparently. I have no idea what my body needs these days. I'm wondering how much of an effect this is having on my legs. I'm going to take an extra day off in Montreal and spend some time trying to figure out what I need.
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