Blog #4 - The Chic Choc and McGarrigle mountains

Dear Friends and Families:

On February 23^rd we packed up all of our things and said goodbye to Vermont, crossing over the border to Canada. As we drove into Canada we began to see changes in our surroundings. Hardwoods like maple were replaced with cedar and jack pine. The landscape itself changed as well as we looked out the window. Everything appeared very flat until all of a sudden a mountain would jut out, pushing through the ground and up into the skies with its frosty cap touching the clouds. We arrived at Manoir des Sapines in San Felicite, a hostel that overlooked the grey icy ocean. In the morning we moved out and began our ski in the Chic Choc mountains. Snow is constantly being dumped on the Chic Chocs because of their position in relation to the ocean. We felt like giants skiing through the trails with the trees being so buried in snow that only their tippy tops stuck out. Not only is there a difference in surroundings, but another major difference between this leg of our expedition and the last is that instead of carrying our home on our backs and setting it up in the evening, we have the luxury of a home already set up. Our cabins are even equipped with beds and a woodstove! Because of our hut-to-hut traveling we have been able to focus on our navigation and skiing skills plus reading A LOT of the Odyssey!

On our second day in the Chic Choc’s, our teachers Misha, Hannah and Seth separated with us and we students traveled alone 15k to our next cabin, Le Pluvier. The instructions were to stay together as a group and all arrive at the same time. It was fully expected that we would get there late into the night and we met that expectation. We skied into our cabin close to 11pm, more than ready for a good nights sleep. Although it was a long day, we all had a sense of accomplishment and had lots of fun flying down hills and face planting in the snow