| Story Gaspe2006 created by Michael Newman |
Polly and Mike took a one week riding vacation near Mont-Joli on the Gaspe Peninsula. This story documents that trip. The story has just been started, bear with us as we fill in the details.
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The trip started a day early. We flew to Mont-Joli airport and stayed at an art gallery hotel on the St. Lawrence seaway where these concrete sculptures adorned the beach.
Note the huge difference in the water depth when the tide came in at sunset. Tidal differences exceed 10 feet at this location.
On Day 2, we arrived at this small inn where the riding portion of the trip began. Our host Uncle Pierre was most welcoming and set a fine table.
The barn behind the inn was originally built to house a dozen cows, various other animals, and equipment for this small family farm.
Behind this door were the horses.
Looking back from the top of the hill, you could see the barn "at the foot of the sky" and glimpse the inn.
While eating dinner, we looked out this window to the barn with its promise of riding on the 'morrow.
To create confusion, the leader of our ride was also Pierre. Uncle Pierre ran the inn; Pierre led the ride.
The saddles were Western endurance saddles. Each horse had small saddle bags. In addition to the rain gear and drinks, spare shoes and enough blacksmithing tools to put them on were scattered among the gear. If a horse lost a shoe, it would be crucial to be able to replace it so the horse could continue on the trail.
And off we went--walking, trotting, and stopping to graze.
The first day's ride ended at this lakeside motel. Dinner was served in the main building. Our room was on the second floor overlooking the lake.
Around the lake from the motel was a camping and trailer park. Beyond that was a small barn for the horses. Here I (Mike) am getting ready to ride out for the second day on the trail.
In the middle of the trip, we stayed at Pierre's ranch where he kept the rest of his string of horses. The ranch was the jumping off point for the longest leg of the trip to the west.
Fishing was a little traumatic for Joelle, but she did manage to catch her dinner.
Nikki was good at catching her own dinner and became the designated fisherperson for Polly and for her mother.
On the way home, we stopped at a waterfall. The waterfall was small and intimate with a nice swimming hole below. Unfortuately, it was too cold to take advantage of the opportunity.
Pierre's daughter had a tremendous interest in flying. On a short riding day, we had the opportunity to take her for a flight. The airplane is a Lancair IV-P. At low altitudes it flys about 200 knots. It is capable of climbing to 25,000 feet where it gets a true airspeed advantage and goes 270 knots. The next few photos show the happy flyers, the farm, and the intrepid new pilot.
The younger daughter was dissapointed she couldn't come on the flight.
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| | Alexandra after the flight |
Lunch on the fourth day was atop a mountain. The overlook shows much of the area we rode through, putting our journey in perspective.
We saw this sunrise at dawn on the last riding day from our room at the same motel where we spent our first night on the trail.
On the last day, lunch was at this working farm. The farm specializes in meat raised in a more traditional manner, producing a higher quality and different taste. The couple also seemed to have a specialty in raising children. In addition to two older children, our hosts not only adopted two sons in 2005, but they also decided that they'd like a younger sister for the boys. They began the process of adopting a girl only to find out that she was being separated from two younger brothers. Instead of breaking up the family, our hosts decided to adopt all three--for a total of 7 children. Lined up outside of the bathroom to brush their teeth, the children reminded us of "The Sound of Music."
Polly makes a new friend.
Riding down toward the coast brought us close to several of the hundreds of power-generating windmills being constructed in the area. The windmills stand 55 meters to the hub and are 48 meters in diameter. They stick out above the forest and dominate the landscape.
After seven hours of riding we again arrived at Uncle Pierre's inn. Polly and Bonnie enjoyed a much needed rest.
Other photos taken at the same time that these photos were taken can be found in the directories that these photos came from. The photos in this story came from the following directories:
Gaspe2006
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