Camping Canadian Thanksgiving week-end.

Mont Adstock in background of a pink sky at sunset

On Wednesday I decided on an impulse to go back to Parc National Frontenac this week-end. It's the first time I go camping in October. I've been in late September before. However it coincided with Indian Summer. So it was actually warmer the one night we camped out, then it was when I camped in August. Admittedly the nights were cooler as a remnant of hurricane Irene the day before.

Thetford Mines - Close up of tailing pile near Mine.

We left at 10am on Saturday morning, and took the Mercier. That bridge gets scarier by the minute. The longer I'm on that bridge, the more I shake and sweat. I kid you not! We took the 132 until we met up with the 30 and then met up with the 20 going towards Quebec City.  At an exit we took the 165 going towards Thetford Mines.

We made a pit stop in Plessisville. We had lunch at the McDonalds and got some groceries at the IGA right behind it. Big IGA, I figured it would be easy to find food we wanted to eat. We kept going, driving through Thetford Mines and making it to the St Daniel entrance of the Parc National de Frontenac.

We took the exact same campsite I'd chosen with my daughter as the other spots I might have wanted to try out were already booked.  We dropped off some of our gear and then drove to the trail in the forest undergrowth near Riviere du Bleuet.  We walked the trail on both sides. We went through all the short off shooting trails that took us to either Lac St Francois or Riviere du Bleuet.

Lac St Francois near Riviere des Bleuets

Just before arriving on the edge of the lake, I caught the unmistakable smell of sweetgrass, but I was not able to locate it's source.  After our trek through the woods, we drove back to our campsite and set up camp, cooked dinner. We also spent time taking pictures of the sunset in steps as the colours went from all shades of oranges pinks and reds on Lac St Francois.We built a fire once it got dark, and then saw the beautiful almost full moon and spent about an hour just taking pictures in the dark.

G-Nome hanging out with Mushrooms in peat bog

Next morning we went walking through all the different paths of the peat bog. It just blows the mind to see all the vegetation that can grow in such humid conditions. The purple pitcher flower were no longer in season but I still saw leaves everywhere.  We left there around lunchtime as the bog path got crowded with other nature enthusiasts.

We had packed up the campsite and left by 2pm, and made it home around 6pm. We'd probably arrived almost an hour sooner if the Mercier hadn't been so congested. That bridge is SCARY.