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On the weekend, I actually did work on Tongue Rug, I documented three waypoints. I biked in Gatineau passing through Angers, Thurso and camping in a provincial park – Plaisance. It was an intense weekend. 120 km the first day, and 100 the next. I needed to get away and think after a stressful week.
It is comforting to read of other artists’ struggles when I do feel like the walls are closing in:
“The telephone bill unpaid. The net of economic difficulties closing in on me. Everyone around me irresponsible, unconscious of the shipwreck. I did thirty pages of erotica.”
— Anaïs Nin, Diary 1939 – 1944, volume 3
I may have a studio space in Saint-Henry… But can I muster up the $100.00?
Started a Masters program in the French department at Concordia University: Littératures francophones et résonances médiatiques. Though I am interested in the literature field, I am also motivated by a desire to improve my French speaking and writing skills and meet more francophones. Perhaps this is a way to develop the Tongue Rug project? A way to research interfaces and language?
… I am frustrated with my Tongue Rug project right now. For the last two weeks I have been working in Photoshop, stitching together the panoramas. Twice now, I worked for a couple of hours on a document, only to have it fail. (I need the ends to match so that I can make a perfect circle.) It is a frustratingly long process, but when it works, what a feeling! I know I just have to stick with it and I will get over these hurdles…
Just as I said, I went back to the computer and kept at it. It was worth ef the effort. I finished the Lac Panache vista. It brought back fond memories, not only of when I took it, but when I was younger and I would hike up with my cousins.
… Today I followed through with my plan. I would have to work harder and on my own. I bought a scanner to work with my laptop. I started scanning the lake photos from last summer. It was the push I needed. I have been wanting to scan these for months. They were sitting on my desk at work. At the end of a shift, I had no energy to stay and work on my project into the late hours. I hope this sets the tone for a working routine.
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View Tongue LA-1 in a larger map |
A fantastic canoe-camping trip
Francine Gagnon via e-mail
Montreal, October 31, 2003
Six of us forty-somethings went on a canoe-camping trip in that area in May 2003, on the Fête de la Reine 3-day weekend. I think we may have paddled that lake. The weather turned out to be truly fantastic, staying in the mid 20's centigrade, yet there was not a bug in sight.
While canoeing our 30 km trip, my partner and I spotted the carcass of a huge dead animal with an impressive panache. Its skin had changed colour. It looked like gorgeous thick black leather with colourful dark deep textures and patterns visible on its slippery surface.
There was moss and wild flowers growing on and around it, yet there was no smell, no visible decomposition. Perhaps it was frozen during the winter.
When we talked to the park rangers, they thought it was wounded by a hunter and that it went by the riverside to die. It chose the tip of a beautiful tiny peninsula. We were able to approach on water from 3 sides from approximately 6 feet away.
This may sound gruesome but it was not. What we saw was magnificent and impressed us both. We stayed in silence for a while, in awe of nature's way of dealing with death.
I am an artist and a photographer, yet regrettably I did not have a camera. That image is now embedded in my memory.
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Now that I was used to camping, I decided to do a quick overnight trip, my destination only 80 km away. Leaving the island through Laval’s suburbs was an experience as it was a very confusing trail system. I encountered many other cyclists as I passed by small villages and farmland. Less than five hours later, I was setting up my tent at Ste-Anne-des-Plaines campground; basically a summer trailer park. It suited my purposes fine: it was cheap, there was a small store to buy groceries, I could take a hot shower and my lot was sheltered by evergreens.
I set off soon after to find my lake. First, I went too far and had to double back. I then spent some time following a trail by a river, circling and lost. I finally emerged from 20 foot high reeds, and thick orange mud into someone’s backyard. I followed another trail and found the road where I started. I soon realized that the lake, almost a large pond, was in fact, accessible from the road. I had been bushwacking for nothing. The lake was out in the open and I was conscious that it was on private property. I hid by a bush to take my photos in the round. There were ducks on the water.
That night, back at the campsite, I read Thoreau’s Walden. Seemed appropriate. I slept soundly and woke up in the middle of the night in a rain storm. My tent was dry inside but the next morning at 9:00 AM it was still raining. I decided to pack up and go nonetheless. I was soon soaked to the bone with mud on my legs, in my hair, the back of my neck and along my back, even in my teeth. However, it was quite peaceful on the trails and a warm day despite the rain, so I kind of enjoyed the experience. I got into a good cycling rhythm and actually missed the Laval stop, continuing to Boisbriand (I will be going on a similar ride when I document LA-3. The more I gain experience, the less I will get lost). On the way back I took the Parc Linéaire des Basses Laurentides. I believe it leads all the way to Mont Tremblant.
| Time | Location | Trip Odometer | Moving Time | Stopped | Max Speed | Moving Average |
| 8:40 Stop: 10:20 Depart: 10:30 |
Fruits et legumes, Montée St-François, Laval N 45°37'854" W 73°39'661" |
20.2 km | 1:08 | 19 min | 40.1k/h | 17.7k/h |
| Stop: 1:00 | Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines N 45°45'844" W 73°48'662" |
55.8 km | 3:00 | 55 min | 43.4k/h | 18.6k/h |
| Depart: 1:15 Arrive: 1:58 |
Camping Lac des Plaines N 45°45'376" W 73°48'886" |
63.3 km | 3:28 | 1:37 | 18.2k/h | |
| Depart: 3:05 Arrive: 3:45 |
Got lost. N 45°49'643" W 73°52'377" |
74.6 km | 4:03 | 1:51 | 18.3k/h | |
| Arrive: 4:00 |
LA-4 N 45°49'891" W 73°49'530" |
80.4 km | 4:42 | 2:10 | 17.1k/h |
| Time | Location | Trip Odometer | Moving Time | Stopped | Max Speed | Moving Average |
| 9:45 Stop: 10:46 |
Chemin de la Côte St. Pierre, Parc Linéaire des Basses Laurentides | 101 km | 5:43 | 2:17 | 43.4k/h | 17.7k/h |
| Stop: 11:35 Depart: 12:00 |
Sainte-Thérèse N 45°39'123" W 75°50'771" |
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| Stop: 1:00 |
Boisbriand N 45°35'776" W 73°50'440" |
129 km | 7:11 | 2:35 | 17.9k/h | |
| Arrive: 4:30 |
170 km | 9:22 | 18.1k/h |
Traveled to and documented LA-4 Lapalme Lake. (Saint-Lin, Montcalm, Lanaudière, Lanaudière, Quebec, CA)
LA-4 ( map l path )
Saint-Lin, Montcalm, Lanaudière, Québec, CA
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I had gone to the Banff Centre for the Arts for Interactive Screen 3.0 as part of Cyberpitch 2.0. After the residency, I took a bus to Pincher Creek and a man drove another hiker and I to Waterton National Park with the promise that he would return to get me in a few days. I set up my tent at Watertown campground and went exploring.
To get to my waypoints, I decided to rent a mountain bike, rickety but at least it would get me to point A. I set off, my muscles still sore from my 20 km hike the day before (Alderson-Carthew trail). The way to Red Rock Canyon was all uphill. It was hot and muggy and I missed having my panniers on the bike itself as my backpack was lumpy and jabbing me in the back. I stopped several times to repack the bag, redistribute items, and pull the hair from my face, sticky and clinging. I was cranky. Thankfully, there were very little cars and I stopped to read a few interpretive panels. At one display surrounded by purple wild flowers, I noticed a black bear sitting on its haunches in the grasses, about 20 metres away. I wasn’t scared, just surprised. It showed no reaction to seeing me, chewing its cud as I hopped on my bike and took off.
About two hours later, I reached the Snowshoe Trail and continued on my bike, but an hour later I had to lock it up. The terrain was too rocky and steep. It was actually faster to walk. A retired man from the States, Phil, soon joined me. At first, I didn’t mind because I was afraid or running into a cougar or a bear again. (I had been told to make a lot of noise while hiking and to cover the back of my neck as cougars targeted this area of the body when jumping from above. Just in case, I carried a Swedish fishing knife attached to my water bottle. I needed that false sense of security – false in that my spindly little knife would not be an effective weapon against a wild animal. Same as the bells to warn bears of human presence. Most of the rangers said that these did not work as the sounds did not carry). Because of the forest fires in Glacier National park, Phil had crossed the border. That park meets Waterton National Park at the border; they are called peace parks as the border is undefended. At the end of the trail we decided to part ways and try and meet up later. I wanted to hike to Lost lake and to be honest, wanted a little peace and quiet to soak in my surroundings.
My heart was beating hard the whole length of the trail as I didn’t see another person. I made as much noise as I could, humming and making up songs, but my sounds seemed blanketed by the thick foliage. It was worth the hike to encounter this magical lake with its tranquil, emerald water, embraced and protected by a mountain range. It was fitting to find a lake with this placename as I had been lost so many times during the course of my project. A seesaw between two states: one of searching (discovery) and one of being lost (the unknown).
Apart from a small sign with the altitude, there did not seem to be any trace of human intervention. A wild, indeed lost lake. Grizzlies were said to graze on the opposite shore when the wild flowers were in season. Going back down the trail, I took photos for the second time of Bauerman Creek (A-2), capturing it at different bends. I had lunch and waited for Phil at our meeting point, but eventually set off alone. He caught up later. I politely declined a ride with him back at the Red Rock Canyon and went for a dip in the icy water to cool off. I saw Mount Bauerman (A-3) from a distance and realized that that would be the closest I got to its peak.
It was eery to see Bellevue mountain again in the summer as Jennifer and I had stopped at that location in the winter of 2001 when I first attempted to document Mont Bauerman by a snowshoe trail. I remember clearly how the sounds of coyotes yelping in the wind, witchy and highpitched, had sent shivers down my spine. We were not properly equipped to go on a long unguided excursion.
During both trips, Mont Bauerman was inaccessible. I had to trust that Bauerman was somewhere behind Bellevue mountain, without having seen it myself. In retrospect, the search for these waypoints is not so much about toponymy and placenames as much as about letting go and leaving some things to the realms of the unknown.
On my way back to the campsite, I saw what I assumed was the same bear again, this time in the middle of the road as I came up a hill. I turned my bike around ready to go the other way if it came after me. I put my arm up to warn the cars coming up behind me to wait. The bear eventually crossed the road and sauntered back to the meadow. I raced by in case it decided to give chase and went and reported the sightings to the warden.
Back at Waterton Lakes, the view was stunningly beautiful, but in a way that made me feel sick to my stomach. I knew why the skies were so pink. It was the smoke blowing in from the States: the forest fires in Glacier National park, just a border away.
| Time | Location | Trip Odometer | Moving Time | Stopped | Max Speed | Moving Average |
| 9:45 Arrive: 11:40 |
Snowshoe Trail N 49°07'822" W 114°01'578" (4910 FT) |
18.6 km | 1:26 | 31 min | 46.6k/h | 12.8k/h |
| Leave: 11:50 Stop: 1:00. |
Locked up bike at 1:00. Started hiking with Phil. | |||||
| Arrive: 1:40 |
Bauerman Creek N 49°08'67" W 114°07'445" (5639 FT) |
27.8 km | 2:55 | 55 min | 9.5k/h | |
| Arrive: 2:25 Stop: 3:05 Depart: 3:25 |
Lost Lake Bauerman Creek |
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| Arrive: 4:45 Depart: 5:15 |
Red Rock Canyon | |||||
Cycling parkway Cycling Snowshoe trail Hiking Snowshoe trail |
40 km 12 km = 60 km |
6:28 | 2:30 | 9.3k/h |
Traveled to and documented: A-2 Bauerman Creek and A-3 Mount Bauerman (Waterton National Park, Alberta, CA)
A-2 ( map l path )
Waterton National Park, Alberta, CA
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