Category: Caminos

Work Harder – June 4, 2022

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #5
  • Plaidance to Montebello
  • Distance: 14.25 miles / Total: 59.75
  • Time: 6 hours 25 minutes
  • Ascent: 846 feet / Descent: 857 feet
  • Weather: 66 degrees, sunny with clouds

A day walking on the shoulder of the road required harder work to see the beauty of the day. The cinder shoulder provided softer footing but pepper-size pebbles found their way in your shoes. Shoes were repeatedly removed and shaken out.

Plaidance to Montebello 14.25 miles.
Arnold had sanded the handle of his genuine beaver-gnawed walking stick.
This home owner bragged no need for a lawn mower. The tethered horse’s job was to trim the grass. He dandily took apple cores from our hands.
Beauty found.

Accommodations

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #4
  • Thurso to Plaidance
  • Distance: 9 miles / Total: 45.5
  • Time: 5 hours 45 minutes
  • Ascent: 294 feet / Descent: 279 feet
  • Weather: 75 degrees, sunny

The Chemin Des Outsouais had found accommodations which were located a day’s walking distance apart. These accommodations were described in broad strokes. Churches, community centers, and residents stepped up to the challenge. Tonight’s lodging was the basement of a home. Tiny feet pattered above our heads.

Heaven was any place we could finally drop our backpacks for the night.
Reflecting the day in journals or on devices. For us it was important to be together.
Unlike a snail, we don’t naturally transport our accommodations.

Call the Midwife – June 3, 2022

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #4
  • Thurso to Plaidance
  • Distance: 9 miles / Total 45.5 miles
  • Time: 5 hours 45 minutes
  • Ascent: 294 feet / Descent: 279 feet
  • Weather: 75 degrees, sunny

Dozens of turtles were making their way from the wetland to the cinder path. It was egg laying season without the benefit of a midwife. We passed a hundred mounds of cinder and sand where turtles had deposited eggs. Whenever one of us approached the turtles, they reposition themselves to be face-to-face. I could only imagine them saying, “Don’t mess with me or mine.”

Midwife needed…
Reproduction, the purpose of nature.
Stare down.

Walk on Water

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #4
  • Thurso to Plaidance
  • Distance: 9 miles / Total 45.5 miles
  • Time: 5 hours 45 minutes
  • Ascent: 294 feet / Descent: 279 feet
  • Weather: 75 degrees, sunny

Walking on water was exactly what Google.map showed as today’s route…until you zoomed-in. The thinnest bit of land laid between the wetlands and the river. It was a gem alive with small animals and vistas.

Walk or swim??? Thurso to Plaidance 9 miles.
Wetlands foreground, river background.
Yellow Irises in wetlands.
Wetland wildlife.
Domesticated Canadian wildlife.

Then There Were Five – June 3, 2022

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #4
  • Thurso to Plaidance
  • Distance: 9 miles / Total 45.5 miles
  • Time: 5 hours 45 minutes
  • Ascent: 294 feet / Descent: 279 feet
  • Weather: 75 degrees, sunny

Life has a way of getting in the way even on the Camino. Elise needed to go home. Desperately she tried to arrange a taxi, Uber, or Lyft. No such convenience in small towns. Danielle arranged for her husband to pick her up. What kindness❤️.

Au revoir Elise.
Family of Six
Teary goodbye.
To Danielle, “Bonjour ma maman de substitution, je suis bien” from Elise.

Steeple – June 2, 2022

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #3
  • Masson to Thurso
  • Distance: 13.5 miles / Total 36.5 miles
  • Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
  • Ascent: 664 feet / Descent: 676 feet
  • Weather: 68 degrees, overcast

St-Jean-l’Évangéliste Church’s steeple could be spotted above the tree line approaching Thurso. Its community hall, complete with shower, provided our night’s rest. But who’s tired?

St-Jean-l’Évangéliste Church
Community hall with air mattresses lined up along the wall. “Tonight’s nest.”
Perhaps in another life I lived in Canada. The Trudeau sticker did not reflect the blogger’s opinion.

Break Time – June 2, 2022

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #3
  • Masson to Thurso
  • Distance: 13.5 miles / Total 36.5 miles
  • Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
  • Ascent: 664 feet / Descent: 676 feet
  • Weather: 68 degrees, overcast

Several families provided comfort stations for weary Camino travelers. A place to sit, slip your shoes off, and refill water bottles.

Break time didn’t mean a break from devises.
An organic farm shared their property with the Camino.
Some breaks were longer than others.

Country Stroll – June 2, 2022

  • Ottawa-Montréal Camino #3
  • Masson to Thurso
  • Distance: 13.5 miles / Total 36.5 miles
  • Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
  • Ascent: 664 feet / Descent: 676 feet
  • Weather: 68 degrees, overcast

Quebec’s beauty was revealed in its country roads. Everything was a lush deep green.

Posted sign for Camino hospitality.
Charlottersville’s Foxfield Steeplechase contenders.
What do you suppose was stored in the silo?