Today’s excursion was something different: Goat Hiking with a Beaver Dam Visit and picnic in Quebec forest. It was great fun, though getting there was a bit more of a challenge than I would have preferred – our Lyft driver wasn’t able to find the hotel to pick us up! Fortunately, he was only half a block away when he called, and we weren’t carrying luggage, so it was only an annoyance.
The actual hike took place in Parc naturel du Mont-Bélair; we met François (our host and guide), the goats, and the other guests in a parking lot a few hundred meters from the trailhead.
Once we were all present and accounted for, we drove into the woods and loaded up the goats with our lunch. There were five goats all told: Theo, Buzz, Sven, Forrest, and Shadow – all males (or former males) saved from a fate as dog food because goat farmers only need nanny goats for milk production. François also brought his dog, Luna, who kept the goats (and the people) in line!
The forecast called for rain, so Diane and I wore the bad weather gear we’d gotten on the National Geographic Newfoundland trip last month, and it worked perfectly – there was no rain at all while we were out.
We were encouraged to lead the goats on the hike; of course, they actually knew where they were going and led us!
Soon enough, we were at the beaver pond; beavers had dammed up a stream and made a large pond, as well as converting some of the dry areas to marshland.
François had brought lunch for us – beef/moose stew, locally-brewed beer, strawberries, and brownies his daughter had baked. All were yummy. Not everyone finished all that they took, but the goats and the dog took care of the leftovers (see the photo at the top of the page).
We took a different path back to the cars; François pointed out bear claw marks on one of the trees along the path (fortunately, the bear was elsewhere).
Sven was a bit slow on the way back to the cars; he kept butting trees along the way. François said that it was because rutting season was approaching – he also said that Sven would be a lot less interested in such things very soon!
And suddenly, we were back to where we’d all parked. François brought us back to the parking lot and we discovered that some of our new friends were staying at the same hotel we are…so we came back to the hotel in the same Uber, saving the environment in the process. :-)
We went back to the old city this afternoon so we could see the Halloween decorations outside City Hall. We also had some goat ice cream at Fromagerie Ferme Audet, which we’d visited on our tour yesterday.
We decided to have dinner in the Upper City and found Aux Anciens Canadiens, where we had a very nice (and probably very traditional) meal. Diane had duck confit salad and I had hunter’s chicken, which were delicious; we weren’t as impressed by the Inniskillin Pinot Noir. Somehow, we saved enough room for maple syrup pie!
