Tuesday 22 November 2016

Mont Tremblant (Part 1)

Because I didn't want to bore my friends to death by recapping my vacation in real life, I'm going to do it on this blog so that I can actually get this down somewhere in multiple parts.

This summer, I took a gander over to the majestic Mont Tremblant, a mountain within the many Laurentien Mountains of Quebec. Most people go there for skiing or snowshoeing, but nope, I had literally no where else to go this summer. I have been to almost every road-trip worthy place within a 10 hour driving radius. There was nowhere left to go except for a four day trip to Mont Tremblant, then to extend the fun, a bunch of camping trips scattered around my Summer vacation. And so, my family set off to Quebec.


Day 1: Before the trip, I made sure to stockpile on an ungodly amount of snacks to bring on hikes and the car ride there and back. I expected the car ride to be excruciatingly long and boring, but I'm not gonna lie, it was actually kind of fun. My brother and I made a playlist to blast out for the entire car ride, but ended up playing Hamilton songs for half the time anyways. I spent the majority of my time trying to come up with things to draw, and a small portion of the time actually drawing it. When I wasn't drawing, I was stuffing myself on food and looking out into the plain farms. Farm after farm after farm. It was only in the last two hours where scenery started to get interesting. And let's not forget my trusty ukulele, which I single-handedly managed to piss off every member in the family with until they threatened to throw it out the window. Ah good times. At the time, the only songs I knew how to play by heart were: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" "21 Guns" and "Riptide" without looking at sheet music. Fun for me, hell for everyone else.

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Our cabin was a room in this building
We finally got to the base of the mountain, but it wasn't over just yet, due to our sad attempt to find our cabin. It was practically impossible. It didn't register on the GPS, so we had to use a physical map to get through some weird roads. After an oddly long time, we actually made it to the cabin and settled in. By that time, it was too late to go hiking or do some exploring, so my parents decided to go to the casino. I honestly have no idea who thought it was a good idea to put a casino on a mountain, but I guess it's pretty good for people waiting for someone to finish skiing or hiking or something. Anyways, my twin brother and I were left alone in a hotel room with nothing much to do. We tried to entertain ourselves first, by eating food. The only thing we could make at the time was a sandwich, and I didn't even like the sandwich I made, so that didn't go on for long. Our cabin had a TV but all the channels were boring. There was one that was playing Supernatural, but it was in the middle of an episode and I didn't want to potentially spoil the rest of the show for myself. The cabin also had wifi, so Youtube kept us going for a bit. We eventually got bored of Youtube because too many Youtubers suck (like Leafyishere). The fun really started when I busted out my ukulele. I Googled new sheet music to play while we belted out Hamilton songs. When my parents came back, I volunteered to sleep on an air mattress because our room only had a bed and a pull-out couch. Sleep came surprisingly easy.



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A Tiring Climb
Day 2: I woke up nice and early at 6:00, then woke up the rest of my family. When I'm on vacations, I go to sleep late and wake up early to get the most out of my trip. Sleep is for when I'm home. The thought of spending a lot of time sleeping in a cabin when there's so much more to do and see disturbs me. Anyways, breakfast was unmemorable. My brother, my dad, and I all got our hiking stuff and set off into the mountains for a long, tiring, and hopefully rewarding day of hiking. My mom wanted to stay behind. Up for a challenge, we chose the most strenuous trail to the summit: Grand BrulĂ©. At the beginning of the trail, we were confused; How was this strenuous? Around fifteen minutes into the trek was when things started to heat up. Either it got progressively harder through the whole thing or I got progressively more tired, but it was tough. Sweat was pouring down my face. Every clearing we came through, I thought we were at the top. There was one point where I could have sworn I saw the summit landmark, but nope, two hours to go. Needless to say, the hike was beautiful. There were a few people we passed and exchanged a "bonjour/hello". Around half the people there spoke English, and half spoke French, so every time I passed someone, I would greet them in both languages just in case. The scenery during the hike was marvellous, and we passed through rocky terrain, forest, small ponds, and breathtaking cliff-views. It was strenuous, yes, but worth it? Definitely.

When we got to the top, we ate some well-deserved poutine and I got to practise my French. We had a few more hours before the gondolas closed, so we decided to do a little bit of trailblazing for fun. We took the gondola down because people don't typically hike down mountains when there's an option, especially when it's getting dark. We wandered around the Tremblant Village like pathetic tourists, and ate dinner at a nice Italian restaurant.

Rocky, Muddy Trail

My Little Mountain Friend

Summit View

Treetops

That's the end of part one. I was originally going to make the entire vacation in one post, but I feel like I should be updating more often, so multiple posts is the solution. Is this what travel bloggers do? Am I travel a blogger now? Geez this blog is all over the place. Anyways, stay tuned for the next post. (Not that anyone cares)

Sunday 13 November 2016

I'm Back...


Hello to my two entire followers. I think I mentioned somehwere that I only post when I'm bored, and I guess my long break showed how much of an eventful life I lead. Haha no, just kidding. The real reason I haven't posted anything in a while is because I forgot I owned a blog. Pathetic, I know. Aaannnyways, here's a repost from a post I made on my friend's blog: http://freyathefrypan.blogspot.ca/




I have come to share a secret of the Earth. Yes, it is the one and only, maned wolf. Basically a red fox on stilts, and if you hadn't known already I love foxes. Maned wolves are really cool, not only because they look like foxes with deer legs, but because they aren't even wolves. What. 

These awesome canines are actually related closest to the forest fox and bush dog, and thrive around in the tall grasses of South America. Being the tallest species of canines, maned wolves look kind of like the lanky awkward teenagers of the animal kingdom. 


Fun Facts About Maned Wolves:
- They can grow up to 1 metre tall
- Their urine smells like marijuana
- They are omnivores. Half of their diet consists of fruit, which is odd for a canine
- Their black mane stands up when they detect a threat
- They have a spooky bark: https://youtu.be/oBSGEl-yB7A
- They're nocturnal

Unfortunately maned wolves are endangered due to loss of habitat, being killed by farmers trying to protect their livestock, introduction of new diseases, and more. Let's try to not let them go extinct please.