Today’s episode finds us the day after the long drive from Toronto to the Laurentians. It is Saturday and my uncle was kind enough to invite us all over to his summer cottage across the river, a cottage we can see from his house where we are actually staying, it would take us 5 minutes with a motor boat, but it will take us 45 minutes to drive over to the extremely secluded location at the base of a small mountain, no neighbours in sight.
Having no neighbours is a plus, but the one-car-wide-dirt-road-full-of-curves-and-hills isn’t, especially when you have 45 minutes of driving on it. But, it is a small price to pay for the amazing view and tranquility it gives. After a nice lunch, we decide to trek to the top of the mountain and take in a bird’s eyeview of the village and all the lakes surrounding it:
The gang on the way down, half-way
A trek like that warranted a swim. DR and I took the challenge and were dragged behind the speed boat on a tube, lying on our stomach, holding for dear life. Refreshing.
After a short break and a huge BBQ,the rain started, not really heavily but steady enough for a good 30 minutes. Big deal we all thought. The amazing colours that followed were unbelievable, as shown in DR’s blog. It was awe before AAAAHHHHH! (that’s me screaming on the drive back when we came face to face with “the horror”.)
Around 10 PM, after a full day, and still tired from the long drive a day before, we decided it was time to go to bed. We packed both cars and started the ride back to our weekend home up that narrow and extremely dark path, only lit by our headlights. Up. Down. Left. Right. Left. Up. Right. Up. Right. Down. Flat. Down. Left. We weren’t driving very fast as we knew the area was full of crazy wildlife which could fall upon us at any turn. Up. Down. Left. Right. Left. Up. Right. Up. Right. Down. Flat. Down. Left. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH! Well, at least that’s the sound it would have made if were wouldn’t have been on sand and rock when I suddenly noticed that there was no more road in front of us:
Gone is the road, and yes, that’s a tree fallen in the middle of it.
Since there has been so much rain this summer, we take it that it had accumulated over the months and that the last little downpour earlier that day was the “last drop” this side of the mountain needed, it had released an enormous amount of water being held by rocks and dirt and therefore creating a flash flood big enough to take part of the road with it and unearth a couple of medium size trees, which of course needed to fall right smack in the middle of this hell hole. After examining the damages to our only way home and calling my cousin so she could come make sure we would be able to continue on after this hellish mess, we all started to pick up large rocks and fill out the biggest hole, giving us enough room to drive the cars slowly to the other side of the washed out road where at this point only one tree was blocking the way, too big to lift, but small enough for a whole gang of people to hold back to the side for the cars to drive through.
When my cousin arrived with her ATV, she was able to go ahead of the chaotic mess and verify that this was the only area affected, once we passed this hole, we would be safe to drive all the way to the main road without any incidents, well, hopefully without any incidents, it was still a fair ways from that location. She mentioned that in all her years living there, this was the very first time she had ever seen something like this… oh joy, lucky us.
Syl’s husband decided to pass in front of me and was the first to drive his SUV across the way with the thinking that if I got stuck, he’d be more able to pull me. He succeeded. I followed slowly hoping the area we “repaired” wouldn’t give out and send my rental down the newly made 2 feet deep ditch. Luckily, our “engineering” held and both cars safely made it past that hurdle. Now on to the tree obstacle, easy peasy, slowly. Done. Not a scratch. Hurray!
As we drove on after the mini-scary adventure, we saw a deer on the side of the road, just curious about who the hell was crazy enough to travel this road at that late a time. I waved. It was then that I reazlized we had just spent almost one hour in the middle of the deep dark woods with only our car headlights for light, a deep dark woods full of black bears… Oh MY!