To Boldly Row - Northern Forest Canoe Trail, 2016: Day 14 – Mansonville, QUE, to Clyde Pond, VT

S-2016-9-3

Start: Mansonville,Quebec!

End: Clyde Pond Campsite, just beyond Newport

On the Way: Mansonville, The Grand Portage, Lake Memphremagog, Newport, Clyde River, Clyde Pond

Miles: 21.5 (Milepost: 270.5)

Map: 5, 6

Weather: Foggy in AM, burned off my 1100, nice and cool for Grand Portage!

Map 6: Mansonville, Que., to Bloomfield, VT/North Stratford, NH

Trail Overview

O frabjous, momentous day! Had a nice long sleep in my cozy Mansonville park spot, woke up to a little rain and fog (the beavers having behaved themselves and kept the noise down, I’m pleased to report), and had a nice smooth paddle out to Ch. Peabody on the North Branch of the Missiquoi. On the way out of town, I passed lots of trees and fields draped in dew-encrusted spider-webs, which picked up the light in the soft gray mist. It was quiet and Halloweeny and lovely.

Wonderful morning quiet at my parkside campsite.

The start of the Grand Portage. (The not-so-grand prologue:
an undignified scramble up that riverbank on the left of the bridge...)

Once on Ch. Peabody, ‘twas time for one of the high points of the Trail: the Grand Portage! It entailed 6.7 miles of first steady uphill, then steady down. I used my new waist harness mechanism and draped my camp towel between me and the boat to minimize bruising (nothing visibly discolored yet) and set to. By 1100 the fog had burned off and it was altogether quite a nice sunny stroll past some lovely farms, barring some taxing legwork on the uphills. Consider this my leg day. Can’t skip leg day.

Dieter and I both have our walkin' shoes on.

My newly-devised portage harness: a strap of webbing on the prow handle, long enough to wrap around my waist and loop around the handle again. Towel added to stop boat from bashing against my hip. Having hands free, especially for uphill hiking, made a world of difference.

0.7 miles from the end of the portage, I came across Jewett General Store, a little gem of a place that was hopping on a Saturday morning with tourists and locals alike. And the reason was fresh-baked bread, straight from Owl’s Head, that same place in Mansonville I caught open last night. I bought a loaf of fig and pistachio bread and a liter of 3.25% milk for the sheer novelty of it, sat outside on the porch bench and munched it down with some honey for lunch. The road, which skirts Owl’s Head Mountain, is apparently a popular biking circuit, and I got to chat with some bikers from Montreal.

Bread and honey and front porch sittin' for lunch.

An old-fashioned ice chest at Jewett's!

I had to get a liter (!) of 3.25% milk (!!) for the novelty of it.

Jewett's: that blessed oasis.

Lake Memphremagog is apparently quite a big Montreal vacation spot. It spans the border vertically, making it really popular during Prohibition where it was a frozen highway from rumrunning into the States. Divers have apparently found sunken cars with trunks full of moonshine on the bottom.

The Lac, after a long hike.

Quebec folk don't mess around with their signs.

I was just about to leave when the friendly owner, who had just asked me if that was my kayak parked alongside the minivans, came out and saw me off with the gift of a fresh chocolate croissant! Tell you what: those moments between him asking me “Do you like chocolate?” and disappearing into that magical store of his were some of the most wondrous and delightfully hopeful moments of my life. It was the most perfect balance of chocolate and warm, oily break. In a word, heavenly. Lovely bit of trail magic.

Croissant!

I boogied on down the 13 miles of Lake Memphrenagog, came into Newport in the afternoon and checked in with customs via video phone (they didn’t even use the video: they just asked for my passport number, kept me on the line a while, then said I was free to go. It was a bit of a let-down…), paddled the little drainage canal out of Newport, bypassed some low rapids at the mouth of the Clyde River (my pal for the next couple of days), and portaged past the last dam. I’m now staying at an NFCT site tonight on Clyde Pond. Just as I was pulling up, a daytripper was leaving with his river playboat atop his station wagon. He’s apparently an NFCT maintainer for Vermont out for the weekend, and he asked if he could come back in the AM to interview me and take video of me shoving off for an NFCT promotional video. I’m not usually fit to impress many people at that time of day, but that’s cool, I guess.

The Newport Customs check-in videophone. Anticlimatic.

Newport waterfront: welcome back to Vermont.

Hammock hang with tarp on Clyde Pond.

[EDIT: Turns out his name is Joe, and he works for the AV department of Middlebury College, where one of my best friends went for undergrad!]

I’m pretty trepidacious of the 3+ miles of rapid-tracking I’m in for tomorrow morning. If the water levels weren’t so low, I might just say eff it and portage around them… But since the rapids will, in theory, be on the tame side anyway, might as well give them a fighting chance.

Bon voyage, Quebec. Hello, more Vermont upriver malarkey.

Things Learned:

+ New portage method FTW! Saved my hips and my legs on the Grand Portage.

+ Sea kayaking in Canada’s eastern fjords was recommended by a Montreal biker at Jewett’s. Must add that to the Adventures-to-Investigate list.

+ When 7 miles from the border, most places will accept US cash. And speak fluent English.

Trail Magic:

+ The Grand Portage was the lovely stroll I needed in life!