Les chutes Montmorency.

It started off as a day trip, I guess, and as an opportunity to show off a part of the region to a friend who was in Québec City for just a few weeks participating in a French language training program. The plan was to drive around on l'Ile d'Orléans and check out Montmorency Falls. We quickly came to the conclusion, that sitting in a car for any length of time would not be in the cards as this was one a precious few darn near perfect weather days we had experienced up to that point in what had been a rather dull stretch of late spring and early summer conditions.

So, after driving around the island without any major stops, but still appreciating that it has something to offer -nice place, wrong time type of situation- we pulled into the parking lot of “le parc des chutes Montmorency” just a few minutes from the bridge back on the north shore of the St-Lawrence somewhere around noon-ish. The first place that one's attention is drawn to is obviously to the falls themselves. I won't go on and on about the statistical data but suffice it to say that they're higher but not as wide or as thunderous as Niagara Falls, but they are quite impressive nonetheless.

What they may lack, in some people's eyes, in terms of Niagara's overwhelming power, they more than make up for in sheer beauty and style, which makes it the perfect falls for the Quebec City area. Beauty and style.



I said that the first thing that one notices are the falls. The second thing that one notices was to be our mission for the next while, and that, was the staircase that hugged the cliffside, 478 steps. Then the walking trail at the top which turned west and then on to two walking bridges, one over a gorge, the other over the falls themselves. Then, onto the Manoir Montmorency, a stately building with a manicured lawn, impeccable garden and panoramic patio. There is also a gondola that ferries visitors up and down from the Manoir to the base of the falls, avoid the hassle of the staircase and bridges altogether, but, I knew that being with an athletically inclined companion, that the stairs were going to be the route for which we would opt.



It wasn't really the climbing of the stairs that felt challenging, it was the presence of the two bridges between the base and the Manoir which were cause for, let's call it, preoccupation, on my part for I am afraid of heights.

This is not something that causes me a lot of problems in a day-to-day kind of way, but on this day, it was clearly going to be an issue. How big an issue it would be, I decided, left to circumstance. “I'll cross that bridge when I get to it”, is the way in which I decided to look at this situation. So for the moment, climbing up those stairs became the focus of my attention.

This would be as good a point an any in the story to address the levels of physical fitness of both Alison and myself. Actually, it is more the variance of levels of physical fitness between Alison and me. She is an athlete. I was an athlete. She cycles, plays sports, doesn't overindulge and seems to like endurance tests. I smoke too much, drink too much coffee, don't exercise regularly and am about 20 pounds over what we used to call “my fighting weight”. And I also never really enjoyed endurance related physical activity in the first place. I am a sports guy. I like games. I'm a guy. Running, long distance cycling and cross country skiing bore me to tears. I need to keep some type of score. But, this was a challenge and as any guy, or at least any guy I've ever been associated with, will tell you, I wasn't about to let either the stairs or the bridges get the best of me, and there was no way that I was going to let Alison get the best of me either. I know that it wasn't a competition, but I still have some pride and the fact of the matter was that there was no way that I was going to go down without a fight. It may be irrational thinking, but life's all about being irrational...

While walking the 500 meters or so from the parking lot to the base of the stairway it became clear that I would be faced with three major challenges. In no particular order these were; climbing the 487 rather steep steps without huffing and puffing and making it to the top with some semblance of dignity, dealing with the two bridges and the height related issues and, of course, my footwear.

Yes, my footwear. I was wearing brand new, out-of-the-box, leather sandals. The only time prior to that morning that I had worn them was when I tried them on for size at the shoe store. And, I was wearing socks then. No socks that morning, obviously, because “Who the hell wears socks with sandals?”. If you're going to wear socks, wear shoes, it's just the way it is. Anyway, I've had enough blisters on my feet to know that this was going to be a get-blisters-on-your-feet day. I've also had enough blisters on my feet to know that they won't kill you. So just suck it up, princess.

I hadn't been as focused on a task to the degree that I was about climbing the stairs in quite a while. Driving a bus with 55 passengers on board in a snowstorm in Northern Alberta was probably the last time that I had been in this zone. Getting enough air and choosing a good pace were two priorities. At least if I focused on that, I wouldn't be looking around and getting freaked out about the heights. “Look straight ahead and climb”. Easy enough. So up we go...

You climb about three levels before you reach the first observation deck. It is basically the spot where the staircase turns right as you go up and it is where people stop to take pictures for the first time. I remember thinking that I was going to be okay in terms of physically being able to climb the stairs but now the heights were starting to have an effect on me. I hate the sensation that it causes within me. It is both a mental and physical discomfort. I attempted to walk to the edge of the deck and take pictures but I figured that I had better not push my luck so I ended up standing about 5 feet back and snapping a few quick pictures and refocusing on the climb. It's at this point that I first noticed the beginnings of the blistering on my feet. The tops of both of them were turning red and were starting to heat up. “Nothing I can do about it now, so keep going”, which is exactly what I did. Eventually we made it to the first of three covered areas along the climb. It's at about the one third mark. It is at this point that I decided that I was not going to push the height issue and handed the camera to Alison. I was going to climb all the way up, eventually cross the two bridges, but I wasn't going to walk to the edge in order to get the pictures. So for the remainder of the climb I was just trying to find a suitable rhythm and “gettin' 'er done” as the saying, no matter how grammatically imperfect, goes.

And get 'er done I did. Made it to the top in fairly decent shape. Good enough shape to start looking for a smoking spot, which is of course, a sad commentary on the grip that nicotine has on my brain and body. But one of the only benefits of a smoke break is that it provides me with an occasion to take stock of a situation.

It is at this point that I could confirm that blisters were not only a probability, they were now a fact. I'm not an expert on the various levels that make up skin but I can explain it thusly. There was separation between the top two levels. Whatever they happen to be named. And it burned. So once we headed up the little hill that led to the first bridge, it was off with the sandals and “walk in the grass Tommy Boy”. My friend Alison, of course, showed absolutely no signs of physical effort whatsoever. Literally a “walk in the park” for her. But, so be it, we headed for the bridge...

It turned out the first bridge along the way was quite wider and quite a bit sturdier than I had imagined. There was none of the walking across a span while holding on to both of sides that I had pictured. Rather the bridge was about 3 to 4 people wide, depending on the people, with good sized railings on either sides and no wobbling whatsoever. But it was still high over a gorge and I just looked straight ahead and avoided looking down at all costs. There would be no lollygagging for me.

After crossing the first bridge, the trail leads into the woods then turns left towards the falls, and the second bridge. As we approached the falls, two things caught my attention. The first was that there was a little canteen that served hot dogs and hamburgers, but beer as well. And the second thing I noticed was that there was a perfect spot to stop for another smoke, (a pattern with the smoking thing...), which had a pretty good view of the bridge, the river and the top of the falls.

Now this second bridge was an even more impressive structure. It reminded me a little of a railroad bridge that can be found in the Gaspé peninsula, my home area. On the right of the bridge was the river which flowed about 15 to 20 feet below, to the left were the falls and their 260 some odd feet drop. The right side didn't bother me too much, but I wasn't a big fan of the left side. So again, it was straight ahead, good walking pace, no farting around, stay cool but get this over with. Again, mission accomplished. I came, I saw, I crossed...


At this point I thought that I had seen the last of the two bridges because I thought that there was a trail that led back down the other side. I thought this, but I was wrong, as we were to discover in just a few minutes.

* Note. This is the spot in the story where I stopped writing some weeks ago. The long and the short of it at this point is that after, walking around pointlessly due to my thinking that I knew a shortcut (great plan with blistered feet) we went back down the same route. I now have two little scars on the tops of my feet to remind me of that walk. I've also been back alone and climbed the stairs and crossed the bridges, but this time with proper footwear. And 15 to 20 less pounds...

Bishop Raymond Lahey.

- To the Catholic Church leadership in general, and in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in particular.

You knew that Lahey was into child pornography as far back as 25 years ago but still he managed to become a bishop? Either you are wholly and truly incompetent beyond words or this type of issue among the clergy is so rampant that rather than just go ahead and rid yourselves of these people you have some type of crazy, there's really no other word I can think of at this time, crazy, view that this a a problem that you can deal with from within your own walls.

And as for Lahey first avoiding arrest and then playing on words with the conditions under which he was released pending trial, the answer is simple. It's called a revocation of bail. So just throw him back in jail pending trial. You do this all the time, and I think that in this instance, it would be, no pun intended, warranted.

Stuff.

- If I had known that learning the harmonica was so relatively simple, I would have taken it up before. If you've got the right key and the right groove, it can happen.

- I saw a kid who looked to me like being no more that 12 or 13 with green highlights in his hair, black Doc Marten boots with fluorescent green laces, black tights under khaki green knee length shorts and a black and white t-shirt that exclaimed "The Sex Pistols". I couldn't help but think I should wish him luck. It's gonna be a rough ride through the teen years.

- It's 17 pounds and counting. Since arriving in Quebec City some 2 and a half months ago, I've gone from 206 to 189 pounds. Essentially, walking, lots of walking, no fries, no white bread and lots of green tea.

- Thank God for internet radio. Québec is a great city on a number of different levels, but the radio offerings here leave a lot to be desired. Too much talking, not enough tuning.

- I hope that when, and if, the time comes that I've grown too old to drive that I will have the sense to stop.

- Though I really want to, I find it difficult to cheer for the Quebec Remparts. I just can't get myself to get excited by a Patrick Roy team.

- I was searching for some Jethro Tull at my local music shop and after going up and down the "Rock Anglophone" aisle and coming up empty, I asked the clerk at the register where I could find some Tull and he answered "Check la rangée du rock progressif". I have to love any place that has an aisle dedicated to progressive rock.

- You can tell a lot about a kid based on the way he/she rides a bike.

Quick shots.

- Tonight will be a pretty good test of the Leafs' defence that everyone in Toronto seems to be very excited about. I, for one, remained to be convinced that this is a world class blueline. And to win the Stanley Cup you need world class talent and they presently don't have it with their offence or their goaltending, and as is my contention, neither do they have it with their present gathering of defencemen. One thing is for sure, Komisarek and Beauchemin simply have to play better than they did in the home opener against the Habs. It wasn't a lack of effort on their part, it was just as one might say, it was a game devoid of poise.

- Is it just me or does any else out there think that the big goofy bastard with the mustache in the baby carriage in the Scotiabank commercial need a good friggin' slap in the back of the head. The dumbest ad I've seen in a long time. Boo Scotiabank! Boo!

- I've always thought that Peter Puck has a stupid voice.

- You'd think that after what, 3 or 4 years, Evgeny Malkin would speak better English. WTF is he talking about?

Ode to Old Smokey. (part 1)

A few years back I was working, and living, in Iqaluit, Nunavut, a locality of some 6500 or so, located on the southern end of Baffin Island at the back of Frobisher Bay. While looking out the window of our office that overlooked the town and out onto the bay, I was taking a break from my workday reality and began to consider what I could do on my next "trip out" which was coming up in a few months.

I more or less instinctively knew that my holiday would probably entail some type of road trip because as opposed to what seemed to me to be the majority of my friends and co-workers, I am not really the "go somewhere with a beach and sand" resort type of person. I travel to discover, not so much to lay back and get drunk by the pool. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with laying back and getting drunk by the pool, just not my thing.

The first hurdle to my road trip plan was the fact that I had no wheels down south. Remember, I was living in Iqaluit, which is in the Arctic. Only way in or out is pretty much by flying. And the only wheels I needed in Iqaluit were supplied by Her Majesty and I owned a snowmobile that I would put about 6000 to 8000 miles per year. You could drive everywhere around town on your ski-doo. I loved it. Anyway, back to my not having wheels down south.

The first thing I did was to start looking around on autotrader.com in the Ottawa area. I my search parameters were; something fun to drive, something different, something in good shape and something not too expensive because it was essentially going to be one road trip and then, maybe hang on to it or maybe sell it.

I looked at Volvos and I looked at Beemers but didn't find anything that quite felt right. Then I looked at some Porsches. I hadn't really considered them because I guess that I thought that they were just too expensive so I hadn't bothered checking them out. Well I was right about them being expensive. The 911s sure were. But organized my search results from least expensive to most expensive according to my price ceiling and found quite a few beaters but two interesting prospects.

And so another hockey season begins.

Actually, for me the hockey season started about a month a go with my first trip to the storage locker to gather my gear which had last been used in November of 2007. This was followed by 3 shinny sessions with the 35 to 50 crowd and a couple of QMJHL games in Rimouski and Quebec. But tonight, tonight the Leafs welcome the Habs in this season's Air Canada Centre NHL opener. Let's hope that they are not too welcoming...

But before talking about tonight's Original Six tilt in Toronto, three of their generation's greatest players called it quits recently.

Joe Sakic arrived in Quebec City in the fall of 1988 after being drafted in the first round by the Nordiques in 1987. Through the majority of his seven years in Quebec, Sakic was the lone shining light on some fairly lackluster teams, but with good use of very high draft positions, the team's fortunes slowly but surely began to rise, with Sakic's quiet, workmanlike leadership and the addition of players such as Peter Forsberg, Owen Nolan and Adam Foote, the future looked bright for the team on the ice. Off the ice however, things were different for the Nordiques. Financial realities forced the moving of the team to Denver where they were to become the Colorado Avalanche. In his first season in Colorado, Sakic scored 120 regular season points and added another 34 in the playoffs as the Avs brought the Stanley Cup to Denver in their first season in that city. Much to the chagrin of Quebec City hockey fans who had suffered through years of rebuilding only to see their team achieve ultimate hockey success upon their arrival to Colorado. One of my favourite pieces of hockey memorabilia is a signed Joe Sakic stick that my brother got from him for me during one of his many visits to a Nordiques practice.

Mats Sundin is one of my favourite all-time hockey players. He also started out in Quebec City. And from all accounts he loved the city. His downfall in that city was that he didn't get along with Pierre Pagé, the coach. Well time has proven that in that argument, Sundin was right, cause he's going to the Hockey Hall of Fame and Pierre Pagé is... well I don't care where Pierre Pagé is.... When you look at Sundin's career stats, what you notice is the consistency. Year after year after year it was pretty much always 30 to 35 goals, 80 to 85 points. But it wasn't just about the stats. He was a fun player to watch. He had size and he had grit and he had loads and loads of talent. The true successor to the Swedish tradition set by Borje Salming a generation earlier.

If ever there was an example of what can be accomplished as a hockey player when one pays no attention to what others may say about you it is Theo Fleury. Listed at 5'6" (I saw him in person at the Dorval Airport where I worked in 1989 when the Flames won the Cup in the Forum against the Habs and if he's 5'6" I'm 6'2"!), Fleury played a game based on speed, skill and sheer determination. The adjective feisty comes to mind. Perhaps the greatest career ever by a Calgary Flame and an important contributor to various incarnations of Team Canada, Fleury's NHL career ended in a series of incidents brought about by Fleury's battle with alcoholism.

So anyway, these three players will be heading to the Hockey Hall of Fame real soon.

On to tonight's game.

The shot clock was 46-27 in favour of the Leafs who dropped it in OT to the Habs 4-3 in their season opener. Goes to show how important Carey Price is to the Habs' hopes and that there is still some work to be done on the Leafs' front. A couple more things.

François Beauchemin looked a little nervous out there tonight and Mike Komisarek was sure showed that he could be, as Brian Burke calls it, truculent and pugnacious. He will however have to make sure that he doesn't continue to get into penalty trouble as the season progresses because that will get real old, real fast...

Colton Orr took on who most consider to be the reigning heavyweight champion of the NHL, Georges Laraque. No big blows were landed but you could see that although Orr certainly didn't hesitate to take on the big man, Laraque is still the king.

I thought that young Viktor Stalberg looked very good in his NHL debut. The 161st pick of the 2006 NHL drafted showed that he has the size, speed and skill to play in that league and picked up a point in the process.

Mike Cammalleri picked up two assists and 5 shots on goal as he led all forwards in ice time.

Speaking of ice time, the Leafs will not win many games this season when Mitchell is leading their forwards in this category.

Pretty lame pre-game ceremony at the ACC. Always good to see guys like Sittler and Lemieux and even Paul Henderson, but MLG Entreprises are in the entertainment business. Be creative for goodness' sake.