ZIP LINING IN QUEBEC

Friday October 21, 2005

Karen and I took part of the afternoon off work to meet at her house at 3:00. Vicki and Harry met us there and drove us to Les Trois Erables Bed and Breakfast in Wakefield, Quebec. We arrived there around 7:00 or so after following the Mapquest directions. Karen and I had arranged for several rooms. Wendy, Don, Paul and Sue would be joining us about an hour later. Paul and Sue were not able to get a room as they booked late but ended up down the street at the Wunderbar B&B. Since we were the bookees, we took the nicest and most expensive room. It was very nice and quite large.

We unpacked, then our host, Jim, made us reservations at the "Soups On" café just down the street. The food and service was excellent and the owners very friendly. Harry and I were treated to our meals and wine by Karen and Vicki. Unfortunately, Harry and I were expected to retaliate the next night…there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Just as we were finishing, Paul, Sue, Wendy and Don showed up. We stayed long enough to bother them and make sure that the bowl of gourds were all taken out and placed in front of Sue. We raced back to our rooms - it's not easy trying to keep ahead of group #2. Eventually, we all met up in our party room upstairs and lounged around drinking wine. Karen fell asleep. Whenever she would wake up, I would show everyone my special technique for putting her right back to sleep. It's quite simple…ask me and I'll show you next time we're at a gathering. Great party trick!

Saturday October 22, 2005

Woke up fairly early in our king-size bed and then we checked out our bathtub. We met Wendy, Don, Vicki and Harry for a gourmet breakfast prepared by chef's Jim and Joanne. Paul and Sue were not allowed to eat with us as the lower classes are still segregated in this area. Wendy and Don decided to spend the day with Paul and Sue wandering around town.

The four of us were given boxed lunches then Harry drove us to Meech Lake and we hiked the 3.5 hour Wolf Trail. It was actually a dull day and rain sprinkled a little but it was a perfect day for walking and a very nice trail. Harry's job was to spot mushrooms for us to photograph. He only found us a couple so we will be interviewing for his position in the next few weeks.

After our hike we headed back to Wakefield. We met up with our group and all eight of us spent about 3 hours wandering the shops. Karen had a hard time getting me out of the toy store. In an art gallery the dealer showed us a painting saying, "This one was made by a local woman who is 80 years old. She made it entirely using zippers." Paul replied, "So somewhere in the village is an 80 year old woman who can't keep her pants up."

After a quick tour of the covered bridge we decided to eat at Chateau Eric. We walked over there, although Karen was so tired I ended up piggy backing her part of the way. Eric served us some water from a dirty bottle and then told us he was out of soup while crossing the majority of items off the menu. When he was done, there was little choice left. We got up and strolled over to Le Maison Earle instead. It was much nicer and actually had food. The paper airplane fight led by Don was a lot of fun. Harry and I frowned at the same time when the bills came.

After supper we walked back to our rooms. Tonight Karen and I had to switch rooms as our original one was reserved for tonight. We had a room off Vicki and Harry's. They had a nice room with a fireplace and a large bathroom. We had planned to get a photo of everyone in the enormous tub but we were all too tired. Don, Wendy, Paul and Sue were too tired to even join us in our party room tonight.

Sunday October 23, 2005

Joined everyone for breakfast again. Jim and Joanne are excellent chefs and perfect hosts. I would definitely recommend this bed and breakfast. We checked out, then the 8 of us left in two cars and drove to the LaFleche Aerial Park. Sylvie met us there. She'd been staying with her cousins nearby. We paid our $39 fee each and then geared up with our supplied miner's helmets for the cave tour. Very good tour. We saw bats and crawled through passageways. The highlight was Wendy falling in a hole. Then our guide had us sitting in a chamber and worked up his spiel saying that when we all turned off our lights simultaneously it would be pitch black. It didn't quite work that way as Karen forgot to turn off her digital camera. The guide was more disappointed than any of us. Total tour was about an hour.

Back at the centre we traded our helmets for climbing gear. Our new guide gave us a rundown on the equipment, showing us how to use it and lecturing us on safety. It was an excellent seminar. We were led up the mountain to the first obstacle course in the trees. Sue took one look and decided she would keep her shoes planted on the ground. The rest of us took to the trees. We were required to walk up a ramp then make our way from tree to tree via different pathways consisting of hanging ropes, sliding boards, a single wire, zip line, stirrups on the end of a rope, all kinds of creative ways including a skateboard you could ride on pulleys. We were required to clip on to an orange wire that followed us on the route. We had two clips and each had to be clipped opposite the other. We also had our pulley system for the zipline clipped on our belts. When you completed one obstacle, you had to unclip it from the tree and re-clip on the other side. We all became quite deft at doing this. Karen and I found some of them relatively easy so we challenged ourselves by creatively daring each other. "You have to do this one with no hands like I did," I said to Karen although I had used both hands all the way. Surprisingly, Karen found that one quite difficult. "No legs on this one", she said to me. On one of them we both did it backwards. Occasionally we would spot Vicki and Harry tiptoeing over a wire or balancing on a log.

Wendy had some difficulty after completing the hardest one. Her arms began to wear out so that she couldn't hold on anymore. She finally decided to give up. Dominique, our guide, brought over a 20 foot ladder and came up. Wendy said, "I'll just climb down". Dominque explained that would be too dangerous so instead she would tie on to Wendy and they would have to complete the rest of the course 50 feet up in the air together. Wendy said, "I'd rather just climb down". However, rules are rules. That was her punishment for stopping early. Wendy looked exhausted as she crawled on her back through the barrel sections…especially when her hood got stuck on one of the slats. In between traipsing through the trees, Karen and I would yell encouragement to Wendy such as, "C'mon Wendy…we haven't got all day". Wendy cried back, "I'm trapped - I can't go anywhere." We all took turns watching Wendy's fear-filled face as she manoeuvred over various chasms. It was a lot of fun. Eventually, Wendy completed the course by zip lining down to earth where she dropped to her knees and kissed the ground. She joined her groundhog friend, Sue. The rest of us went on to complete the remaining two courses led by our new guide, Moe. On one test, Sylvie fell out of the stirrups and managed to drag herself back to the platform 4 times. We all thought that was an incredible feat and it earned her the title of "Wonder Woman". Paul and Don survived swinging down the rope into a net, then we all walked back up another mountain to the large 2000 metre long zip line suspended 30 metres above a small lake. We were so used to the heights by then that none of us gave it a second thought as we clipped our pulleys onto the line and pushed off. Our last ride was a zip line back across the lake to the parking lot. It took us about 3.5 hours in total. It was an awesome course with excellent instruction and guides.

We all drove off and met at Montanas in Ottawa for supper. Since there was a waiting line, our group decided to keep going. The four of us ate at East Side Marios in Brockville then headed back to Karen's in Kingston. We said goodbye to Vicki and Harry as they completed their trip back to Coburg. The end of a perfect weekend.

Dave's Photos

Click on a link to see a slide show of our trip

Bed & Breakfast in Wakefield Quebec

Cave Tour at LaFleche, Quebec

Aerial Park & Zip Lining at LaFleche, Quebec

Information

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Aerial Park Zip Lining & Cave Tour at LaFleche, Quebec

Les Trois Erables Bed & Breakfast in Wakefield, Quebec