Mauricie National Park

While on my way to work today I thought about the Mauricie. I'm not sure what triggered the memory. Perhaps I was thinking about camping as a holiday that would be missed this year.

D. had been camping in the Mauricie for about 10 years before we went together. I had never been camping before I went with D, his brother, M, and their best friend A. What an amazing introduction to camping to go with these three. M and A liked to fish so it was all about the fishing for them. D's favorite thing was to lie at the edge of the lake on a rock and look up at the stars, watching for shooting stars. I wasn't even sure if I'd like camping when I first went, but I grew up in rural NB so I knew I'd be happy to be away from the city and near water.

We portaged to Lac Dauphinais, and then on to Lac Des Cinqs,the two big lakes on the map. We started (I think) at Lac Giron and spent the whole day canoeing and portaging to our destination, one of the most remote campsites. Since you can only get there by portaging for a whole day there are hardly any people out there. I think our first night, the first year we went, we shared a site with one other tent for one night, but that was it. With us having two tents it definitely worked to our advantage when each site generally only holds three tents.

I loved following M and A's canoe as we wound our way along the lakes. We stopped just over half way on a rock outcropping to eat our lunch and M and A often went in for a quick dip before we moved along. I was learning their traditions as I went along. They knew how to pack properly and which sites were the best ones to stay on for peace and quiet. It was a lot of work to get to Lac Des Cinqs, but it was well worth it.

Lac Des Cinqs is stunningly beautiful and we often witnessed small weather systems moving through. The sky changed throughout the day and the lake was a new experience every day. I loved jumping off the rocks into the cold water. The lake was fairly deep at our two campsites we stayed at so we could always dive in just meters from our site. Swimming in the lake was the most enjoyable.

My first year there the mosquitos were quite bad. We just seemed to hit the season at the wrong time. We ate dinner before dusk just so we could flee to our tents once the mosquitos came out at night. Even in the day though I found it to be unbearable, spending my days in long sleeved everythings. D. and I started taking the canoe out. Out on the lake there was more of a breeze and no mosquitos. We'd just drift along on the lake. I'd read or just lie in the canoe enjoying the sun. D always sleeps. He can sleep anywhere. The next year we went there were no mosquitos, but I continued the canoe tradition simply because it was so peaceful to drift on the lake with no sound of anything but the wind in the trees, the ripple of the water lapping against the canoe and the birds flying past us.

I don't know if we'll ever get back to that lake. I'm not sure I could portage that distance again and now we're on the other side of the country. At least I got to experience the Mauricie and discover how much I love camping at the same time.