We found a memorial to Remember Baker (captain of the Green Mountain Boys and the namesake of our bluegrass band) in the same town on the shore of the Richelieu River, near the location of his death. However with the plaque missing it seems that Remember has been forgotten, even at his own monument.
Our drive through Montreal was a bit tricky due to construction, but we made it across the St. Lawrence River to the island and then to the northern shore. At Trois-Rivieres, we turned north and soon found ourselves entering the park. We got our campsite and made our first paddle on Lake Wapizagonke to survey one of their many motor-free lakes. It was a paddler's paradise for sure. We turned some of our raclette into grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and headed to bed.
The next morning, we again embarked on Lake Wapizagonke and headed north through a series of two small lakes connected by rivers. The second river required some tricky navigation over beaver dams, but we made it to the northern end of the first basin of the lake. We left our canoe on shore and strapped on hiking boots to make a loop through the forest. Our first view was of the areas that we had just paddled.
Continuing on, we next stopped at Waber Falls for lunch where we were quite impressed by the beautiful cascade. We snapped many pictures and lingered longer than necessary to soak up the cool spray.
Our last stop was at an overlook of Lake Anticagamac where we again lingered, enjoying the solitude and the view. We eventually finished our loop and canoed back to our launching point.
We were about to head to our campground for the evening when the beaches across the lake looked enticing, so we again hopped in the canoe and enjoyed our own beach for a few hours that afternoon after a much needed swim.
It was early to bed after another raclette sandwich and we headed south in the morning where we paddled the southernmost basin of Lake Wapizagonke before heading out of the park. With no open campsites, we would need to find different accommodations for Saturday night.
In the afternoon we went to Forges du Saint-Maurice where we learned about the iron mining history of the Trois-Rivieres region. We enjoyed the mixture of ruins and replications of the site as well as the long history of the forge. We were also likely one of few English speaking tourists that came to that site.
With a lack of destination for the evening, we chose Magog, PQ on the map to see the northern end of Lake Memphremagog, which juts into Vermont. We were quite surprised to find a bustling tourist town and after walking the streets and enjoying the lake we had a nice French meal at 1885. We continued to follow the road south and also took in the view of the lake from Newport, Vermont where the lakefront had been cleaned up considerably.
With impending storms and lack of quality campgrounds, we headed home. We will be back to La Mauricie in the future to explore more of their wonderful lakes.
