| Summary | Camping and hiking near the US/Canada border |
| Owner | Matthew Gilbertson |
| Creation Date | 2009-10-04 17:51:26 UTC-0400 |
| Description | Matthew Gilbertson
Jake Osterberg Sep 19-20, 2009 We drove up to the New Hampshire/Quebec border early Saturday morning for a weekend of international adventure. As soon as we crossed the border the scenery abruptly changed from the endless fall colors of NH to quaint French Canadian farming villages and not a word of English. We found our way to Lac Megantic and then to the Mont Gosford preserve a few hours before sunset. Everyone we spoke to seemed to understand English well, but were reluctant to acknowledge it. We told the Park Ranger, "yeah, we're here to climb Mount Gosford." He was shocked and said "It's too late to climb now." Come to think of it, I guess Jake and I didn't look too prepared; dressed in everyday clothes and arriving with only 2 hours of daylight to spare, we didn't seem to be too serious. But we signed up for a spot in the shelter anyhow and started climbing up. We got the shelter a little before sunset and cooked a nice dinner of pasta, real popcorn, and smores. The shelter was very nice, and looked much like some of the shelters on the Maine section of the Appalachian Trail. We decided to hike up to the summit after dinner for some stargazing. Mont Gosford is situated near the NH/ME/Quebec corner, only a few miles into Quebec. From the top of Mt Gosford that night we gazed into a sky of endless stars. There were very few man-made lights to taint the view; for 270 degrees around, we looked off into the black distance with not a light in sight. Off to our west we could see the distant (~100mi away) glow above Montreal. So many stars we visible I had trouble picking out some of the constellactions like Casseopeia and the Big Dipper that are clear even in Boston. As we layed on the large elevated wooden observation deck, we realized just how difficult it was to capture in a picture the beauty of the night sky. You just have to see it for yourself. We returned back to the shelter for a pleasent, albeit cool, night's sleep. In the morning we hiked a few miles over to the international border. We saw on the map that a hiking trail went along a few miles of the border and decided we had to check it out. In that area of Quebec the US border follows the ridgeline, regardless of the roughness of the terrain. 3ft tall cast steel posts mark the border every kilometer or so. There were 400 of them between us and the end of the border at the Atlantic Ocean! The border itself is cut about 15 feet wide, and probably gets maintained about every three years. It was cool to hike knowing that your right arm is in the US and your left arm is in Canada. Jake took a nap in two countries. At first you might think, wow, it would be pretty easy to get across the border! But in reality that would involve hiking at least five miles through extremely dense trees. I think that part of the border is very secure indeed. I decided to cerimoniously add a little bit of property to the US, so a took a rock and threw it from the Quebec side to the Maine side. Jake got an awesome picture of the rock in the air. We packed up and headed back to Boston via Maine. Along the way we saw some awesome early fall colors. It was cool to spend the weekend in two countries. Quebec is actually pretty close to Boston after all. |