Day 12 – Welcome to Boulder Town (Scale). When we scaled the Doncaster Park mountain the couple who took a photo of us, recommended that we needed to go to the picturesque town of Val-David.

So here we are! There are thunderstorms on the horizon (specifically 4pm) so we have a small window to hit the nature reserve and explore.

Daddy saw from his research that Val David is one of the most popular places for bouldering in Spring – Summer time and snow-shoeing in Winter.

We parked up and headed for the Welcome centre where our friend spoke perfect English. She advised sticking to the C route and if we are feeling adventurous to go on a few more routes.

These routes go around actual mountains so we weren’t sure if people here are more adventurous or that’s just what she tells everyone.

Luckily, the routes were well signposted through the nature reserve. All with snow shoe related markers.

As we started the trail we noticed two things. One it’s black fly central here and two there were some massive (almost unreal) boulders. Also some amazing acts of nature, like…

The other side.

To say the boys were in there element would be an understatement, they were jumping and climbing and playing on nearly every big boulder they came across.

The scenery started to look unreal, like a film set with a stegosaurus walking through. Daddy had to double take a few times at the sheer scale of these boulders.

As we moved across a huge group of boulders we were transitioning from the hot humid air to an almost air conditioning level of coolness. Puzzled we thought, maybe as it’s so dark under these boulders it must be colder?

We decided to explore and couldn’t believe what we found.

Huge lumps and sections of ice wedged at the very bottom of these boulders. They were sending out the cool air, as they never get any sun to completely melt.

The boys were having a great time and enjoying themselves, but Mummy was standing waiting and wanted to carry on with the trail. We called for the boys and started to head off. Then Mummy said “Elliott, where are your sunglasses?”

…I dropped them…down a boulder gap.

Elliott!!!

The boys set off on a dangerous and quite ridiculous mission to retrieve his sunglasses. The only saving grace was Elliott was convinced that he knew where he dropped them and Daddy had his iPhone camera torch.

Somehow Daddy lowered himself into the boulder gap with the iPhone torch on and searched around. The torch didn’t reach far enough to the bottom of the boulder so we were about to give up when Elliott jumped into the hole and said “Here they are Daddy” problem solved. Health and safety non existent.

As we moved through the trail we started to see boulders with white chalk marks.

We started to hear voices and as we turned the next corner we started to see climbers. This is one of the best spots for bouldering in Quebec.

We turned the corner and saw three young guys practicing their bouldering. The boys stopped and asked them questions, while one of the lads (his first time) tried to climb the boulder. They had brought their own crash pads and food, they all were very friendly and commented about having superior grip strength when they were kids.

The real climbing team.

We said goodbye to the climbers and started to dig in for the uphill part of the C trail. We were hiking between two mountains, which is known as a safe haven for white tail deer.

The winding trail lead to some rocks that were dripping water.

Nate wanted to catch some drops.

We made it up to the top and luckily there were a few photo/scenic points to take it in after that 1hr climb. We were worried that as a nature reserve there would be spots like a traditional national park to enjoy.

We started the descent down the mountain and saw a few interesting sites on the way.

This one was as you are leaving the nature reserve, it was a little bit too big for the boys to climb!

We finished up and decided that as the thunderstorms hadn’t arrive yet, we should eat lunch by the river.

We played a few games of a game called “Cookie Crumble” that Nate invented which consisted of running around after shouting cookie crumble. Elliott managed to injury himself during each game and had to be carry off the cookie crumble battleground.

We made a pit stop at Walmart (there are only two between here and the airport) and grabbed a bunch of supplies. Giant marshmallows and a value deal of Mummy’s mascara plus looking for teeth whiting strips for Faye. We also found the perfect birthday gift for Elliott.

We headed back and dodged the rain, before the heavens opened for a good hour. It’s still very humid here but the rain has made it slightly cooler which was very pleasant.

Tomorrow we found that in a local park they hosting a free event called Skatefest. Kids can try skateboarding for free from 10am till 12pm and then pro skaters around doing a demonstration for the kids.

Free to try and free to watch. If anyone reading knows Mummy, Mummy loves a freebie!

Song of the day