Montagne Noire +

Summer adventures are in full swing and I have really fallen behind on blogging!

On July 10, Shane, Leslie and I went to Montagne Noire for our hike and to tell Leslie all about our trip.

The trail was really scenic with lots of lake views. Leslie is on the hunt for a chalet so we like to scope out the lakes we hike near to see if she should buy a place there. This one was appealing because we didn't see any motor boats on a hot summer day.

This trail was a little more unique since there is a WWII fighter plane crash there. I think this is why the trail was actually created, to visit the monument. It was interesting to see, we hear a lot of stories about planes going missing during the wars and it's hard to comprehend with today's technology. They actually didn't find this crash until two years after the war and had to guess at some of the soldiers aboard it.

The plane was also much larger than I had expected, there were 24 soldiers on it. They were American and apparently were going on leave. They had been flying from Gander, Newfoundland to Mont-Joli, Quebec, but weather forced them to continue on, aiming for Ontario. Unfortunately, it seems to be a combination of bad weather and human error that led to the crash, not anything to do with the war. It was discovered after they found the plane that the elevation of the mountain was incorrect on the maps. The poor pilot likely flew too low and with the bad weather didn't see it until it was too late.

The trail wasn't overly hard but the sun was really strong and I wished the lakes were close enough to take a dip. We climbed an observation tower and discovered that the trail crosses a back road popular with dirt bikes and jeeps!

On Sunday, I ventured out with a new friend, Audrey to rent a canoe. The marina was about an hour and a half from the city which we were hoping meant it wasn't super busy. It ended up being a cute little local spot. We got there a little early and they gave us the canoe anyways and we got to canoe around the whole lake.

We liked looking at all the houses and cottages along the lake. There were quite the differences, some were super tiny and run down while others were huge or really new.

We had the canoe for about two hours (and our bonus 30 minutes) which was the perfect amount to get out and have fun without being overly sore.

After we returned the canoe, we had a little picnic before venturing back to the city. I want to go back here to canoe again as we found a river near the end that we didn't have time to explore. Leslie ordered a SUP so maybe we'll go here when she gets it.