No Mosquitoes, But We Did Have Some Pesky Squatters!

  For my sister's birthday, she wanted to go to Foresta Lumina in Coaticook, Quebec. I had never been to Quebec before (aside from Gatineau) so I was excited to be able to go with her.  We bought tickets online and we made reservations online for two campsites at Parc de la Gorge de Coaticook. We packed up the cars and headed to my cousin's house in Ottawa where we stayed the night before getting an early start the next morning.

  We had 4 cars in all. My sister, Anika, and her husband, Dean, in one car, myself in another, my brother, Carsten with his girlfriend, Penny, in another car and my cousin Shelli, her husband, Jeff, and their two girls, Tessa and Delaney in the fourth car. We decided ahead of time that we would take the toll route to get there because it would be faster. Taking the toll route was also another first for me. We also decided that since it was a 4 hour trip from Ottawa that we would stop at the first rest stop we could find just after the toll booth. 

  With the plan in motion, we set off on our way. It was a hot day and, unfortunately, my car has no working air conditioner. So I drove with the windows rolled down pretty much the whole way. Being in a car by myself, I had no passenger to text back and forth with the other cars in our convoy so I was not able to communicate with anyone until I could stop somewhere. I was a little nervous about that, but I didn't fret over it too much. All went well at the toll booth (aside from a car not wanting to let me into the line... but I managed to squeeze in front of  him all the same).

After the toll booth I started looking for a place to stop. We were travelling down highway 10 and this highway was in dreadful condition. The streets of North Bay in pothole season are better than highway 10 was. I kept thinking it would get better but it never did. It is in desperate need of resurfacing. 

​  At this point I didn't know if I was behind or in front of everyone else. I passed exit sign after exit sign with inviting signs that said "Mc Donald's" or "Esso" , etc. However, unlike Ontario's "En-Route" rest stops, none of Quebec's rest stops are directly on the highway. You have no choice but to take an exit and go into the edge of a town somewhere. I hate doing that at the best of times, let alone in a place I have never been before and a place where I don't really know the language at that. I didn't want to drive into a town and then get lost and have to find my way back onto the highway I had come from. I drove and I drove and finally my arm and knee was getting numb so I knew that I had to stop. I finally chose an exit and went towards an Esso with an A&W. Sure enough, the moment I got off the exit I made a wrong turn and was headed away from the Esso. Luckily I caught my mistake right away and was able to turn around within a minute or two. 

  I pulled into the parking lot of the Esso and was greeted by a "Horse of a Different Colour". It was a lot of different colours actually.  I filled up my car with gas and then began texting the passengers of the other cars. I found out that everyone else had already stopped for a break long before I had at various other exits. Turns out I was ahead of everyone else. That was fine though because the reservations for the park were in my name so it was probably best that I got there first anyway.  So I hopped back in the car and continued on my way. It was only about an hour or less from this point. 

It had been sunny and hot for most of the drive. But when I was just about 20 minutes away from the park the skies darkened, the clouds rolled in and the rain started pouring. The down pour was so heavy at times that on more than one occasion I was hydro planing with my car. I had to roll up my windows and the glass started to fog up. So then I had to turn on the defrost in the car. I am sure the town I was driving through was quite pretty, but I was having a hard time seeing any of it.  Finally I was happy to see the sign for Parc de la Gorge de Coaticook up ahead of me. 

To get to the park you have to drive through the covered bridge. It was quite picturesque. I loved it, 

 The other side of the covered bridge opens up into a large parking lot with arrows pointing in different directions painted all over it. I was not sure exactly where to go so I chose to follow the arrows on the far left that went towards a little building that looked to me like it was probably the main office. 

I parked my car and got out and went to speak tot he gentleman who was sitting on a chair just outside the door. I was hesitant to talk to him because I was not sure if he knew English at all. I was wondering if maybe I should be waiting for my sister's husband Dean to arrive because he is fluent in french. But I decided to be brave and so I went over to speak to him. Turns out that he knew enough English that we could communicate just fine. He explained that the little building was not the main office, it was just where the sell firewood and he pointed me in the direction of a much larger, round building that was the main office or the "Welcome Center". 

I went inside the Welcome Center and asked one of the girls at the desk if she spoke English. She did not but she got a lady named Manon who did speak English pretty well. I explained that I had reservations and that the rest of my group were still a few minutes away but would arrive soon. 

Manon started processing my reservation and she gave me a green, paper 8 to hang in my car window to indicate that we belonged in the park. The 8 had how many adults and how many children were on the site, as well as the date of arrival and the date of departure. We wondered if they used the shape of the 8 because it was a reminder that you could only drive 8 kilometers in the park or if it was because we were leaving on the 8th. We forgot to ask and we never did find out, but I think it was probably a reminder to drive only 8 kilometers an hour because I didn't see any other numbers hanging from other people's car windows and I figured it would be tricky to get some for departure dates that were double digits, like 22 or something. 

I was dismayed to find out that we were only allowed to have one car per site and that the other cars had to stay in the parking lot at the front gate. It's a little inconvenient but not something I hadn't encountered before at a couple of the Ontario parks. Once we got to the sites we could easily see why this rule was in place. Many of the sites are somewhat small and there really isn't room for multiple vehicles on a site. 

  It wasn't long before everyone else in our group arrived and checked in. Manon told us how there was going to be live music on the patio of the Welcome Center that night (every Saturday evening) and that there would be a movie playing in the upstairs part of the Welcome Center that evening as well (Spiderman, in French). 

​ It was still raining and everyone said that they didn't really want to set up in the rain. However, we did want to see the camp sites. So we took two cars and half of us drove up to the sites while the other half stayed behind at the Welcome Center.

  The sites we had reserved were A8 and A9. We were very surprised to find that another group of campers were already sitting on A8. They had put the backs of 2 hatch backs together with the hatches open and put a tarp over them with a picnic table underneath to form a make shift tent to shield them from the rain that was coming down as they prepared their lunch. I went up to them and tried talking to them but they did not speak English very well. I told them that they were on our site and they said that they were not. I asked them if they had site A8 and they said that they did. So we were confused at this point. 

  So I suggested to Anika and Shelli and Carsten that they go back and ask the people at the Welcome Center about it while I  worked on getting at least the dining tent up. I suggested that maybe we could have site A10 instead since it was much bigger than our existing sites. 

So they drove back and left me to put up the dining tent. It wasn't long before Manon showed up and started speaking in French  to the people on our site. After a few moments she came to me and asked if they might have some time (2 hours) to finish their lunch before they left. I saw that they had a small child with them and I knew my group didn't want to set up in the rain so I agreed (although I did think that 2 hours was a bit long).  After Manon left a gentleman from our site came over and apologized and thanked me. He explained that they had been told that they could choose any site.

However, as time went on we doubted that they were ever told that. After about an hour, it stopped raining so we were able to put up the tents on the site that we did have while we waited. 

Since it had been raining, the ground was fairly muddy. There were ferns and undergrowth everywhere and all I could think of was "we are going to be eaten alive by mosquitoes". The amount of ferns made it look like we were camping in a jungle. As it turns out though, the Bracken Ferns along with a forest of Hemlocks, acts as a natural mosquito repellent! We were mosquito free the entire time we were there! It was so wonderful! 

Unfortunately, you couldn't go exploring through the underbrush though because there was a risk of encountering poison ivy. 

We waited for close to the 2 hour mark and as time went by we realized that the people on our site were not even trying to get off it. They were in no hurry at all. They weren't packing up and there had been plenty of time for them to eat and get on their way. So when Dean went down to switch our cars around he went and spoke to Manon about it. In no time at all Manon arrived again. This time she had a security guard with her.  She spoke to the squatters again and told them in no uncertain terms that they had to pack up and leave and they had 5 minutes to do it in. Manon and the security guard stood by and did not leave until the squatters were gone. We were grateful to Manon and the security guard for handling the situation for us in a professional manner. We did not have to deal with the squatters ourselves at all and Manon took care of it all for us. With the squatters gone, we were finally able to put up the other tents. 

Once everything was all set up we were able to relax and explore the park. The sun was shining again and the temperature was getting hot again. Shelli and the girls got their swimsuits on and headed on down to the pool. 

The girls had a water fight at the Splash Pad. 

Penny and I took a walk back down towards the Welcome Center. I marveled at the beautiful Smoke Tree growing on the side of the path. I was particularly interested in this tree because we had just planted a tiny one in my front yard at home and now I could see what it will eventually look like. 

Near the smoke tree is a little pond with a couple of chairs next to it so that you can sit and read a book in the shade. 

The back of the Welcome Center has a huge ramp leading up to a huge open doorway. It kind of reminded me of a barn. 

I was surprised to find that not only was there a large makeshift screen for the movie that would play later that evening, but there were also tables with a bunch of board games for kids to play. There was also a bean bag toss game and a pool table (but Dean told us later that the pool table was small and not the best ... but I was impressed they had one at all). 

Just outside the ramp of the Welcome Center there is a shed filled with mountain bikes that they rent. The park has a number of trails that are great to go mountain biking on. 

​When you bring the bike back there is a washing station where you can hose the bike down after you use it. 

Penny and I continued our exploration of the main park grounds. They have a large jungle gym, some swings and slides. They have a picnic area near by too. 

Right above the playground was a large flock of birds (the following days this flock got even larger. I think someone said there were about 70 of them one day. It was amazing!) At first we thought they were turkey vultures, but then we saw some a little closer up as they swooped down and around and we realized that they were not. 

They seemed to be some sort of hawk. Carsten, Penny and I looked them up in Penny's bird book later on. 

As far as we could tell they were Broad-winged Hawks. They migrate in large flocks called "kettles".

We got some wood for the fire that night. 
You get quite a bit of wood for the amount that you pay. The wood is nice and dry too. It is a good value. 

The bathroom near our site was not your usual vault toilet. Instead it was a port-a-potty. Normally I am not fond of port-a-pottys but this was was very clean. So clean, in fact, that I didn't even see any insects in it and it didn't smell bad. Unfortunately there was only one to share for everyone on all the surrounding campsites. But it never seemed to be much of a problem. 

Perhaps it is because the comfort station wasn't too far away and the Welcome Center had flush toilets and showers as well. 

The comfort station could have used a bit of an update but it was clean. It had showers and a little laundry room too. 

We saw some Ragged Robbin flowers on our walk back to the campsite. 

Back at the campsite Penny made a little friend. This little chipmunk would come by every day and seemed to like Penny a lot. Perhaps it was the smell of her shoes.  

We got a fire going for supper. The interesting thing about the fire pit was that it wasn't secured to the ground. It was the bottom of a metal barrel and it still had the bottom in it. So we could drag it around to where ever we wanted to. The down side was that it had no grill so it was hard to cook on. 

And one side had a tall back on it so if you were sitting in a circle around it someone was always looking at the back of the barrel instead of at the flames. 

After supper, Dean took Anika for a walk. Little did she know that it was so that she was distracted and wouldn't see us setting up for her birthday. Since this trip was the Foresta Lumina theme we brought a bunch of things that glowed in the dark. We had balloons that glowed (they were supposed to glow for 15 hours...they glowed for days!! Best birthday balloon purchase ever!). We had glow sticks and glow in the dark rocks and cotton candy and presents.

And there were cupcakes decorated like fairy houses with paper fairies on top. 

The darker it got the better the lights glowed. Anika came back from her walk and was surprised to find the place decorated and presents ready to be opened. 

We wound down the evening with a marshmallow roast over an open fire. 

Aside from the little hic-up when we first arrived with the squatters on our site, we were really enjoying this park so far. And we hadn't even gotten to the best part yet. Tomorrow we were going to see Foresta Lumina!