Sat with Nat · walking

Finding new ways to be fit on vacation. Nat throws out her 30 year habits.

natalieh (she/her)

Recommended Soundtrack: These Boots Are Made For Walking

Friends, I’ve had a 30 plus year habit of steaming down the 401 highway from Ontario to my home province of New Brunswick to kick off vacation. From college days in Kingston in the 90s to the last ohhh 17 years from London. The goal, get the frick home as fast as possible.

This year, I’m trying something different. The Friday night of the last day of work I took a nap. A glorious 90 minute nap to start my vacation.

Nat smiles at the camera, clearly just awake from a very deep sleep. She looks pretty proud of herself.

Instead of frenetic activity and getting on the highway as early as possible Friday night or Saturday morning I just took it easy.

We had a change in plans Saturday that opened up the day. No timing to meet. No one waiting on us. Just a hotel in a town between Montréal and Québec and all day to get there.

In the Victoriaville Quality Inn lobby there are e-bikes and scooters to rent. Plus plenty of bike lanes to use them in!

We leisurely packed in the morning and got underway sometime after 9:30 am. This was unheard of in previous years.

The traffic was. Well. Unrelenting. Fully understanding I am also traffic, I’d never been on the 401 near Toronto midday on a long weekend. It was so busy. We joked it was an exercise in patience.

Our toodling eventually got us to Victoriaville PQ around 8 pm. It was getting dark so we grabbed a bit to eat at a microbrewery. There was live music downtown and streets were full of people. It was awesome.

The next morning, instead of rushing to get back on the highway, we went for breakfast at a diner and took a hike on the Four Seasons trail on Mount Arthabasca.

Nat and Michel take a smiling selfie in the dappled shade of a maple grove full of sap tap lines. They are near a trail pay box for “le Sentier fee Troitteurs”. Roughly translates to the trail of the walkers or trotters or hikers?

It was a beautiful 3 km trail. I had accidentally driven us to the top of the mountain instead of starting at the base. It turned out to be perfect as we took the more challenging part of the trail down l. We sauntered the way around the mountain on maple syrup access roads and east trails. Well maple sap tap collection lines, it’s boiled down to make syrup.

Woven through a stand of maple trees are bright sap lines that come together into larger lines. There are dozens of lines in various colours including blue, purple and black.

We finished our hike on top of the mountain. It was perfect weather with amazing vistas.

We saw runners and mountain bikers on adjacent trails. I loved how everyone had their own paths.

We see the back of Michel’s head as he reads a sign warning of pedestrian and cycling collisions where our paths meet.

We then headed off to our last leg of driving. We arrived refreshed and ready to visit. Our back feeling good for the 1,300 km trip we had just driven.

I loved making the drive part of the vacation and getting some activity in as well. I’m not going to lie, it was painful to shift gears and be less goal oriented.

Have you tried a new approach to vacations before? How did it go?

Published by natalieh (she/her)

Fat feminist 47 yr old mother of 2 adults who loves her high energy life partner of over 25 years. I love moving my body and walk wherever I can. I sometimes ride my road bike, do yoga, lift weights and other shenanigans.

4 thoughts on “Finding new ways to be fit on vacation. Nat throws out her 30 year habits.”

  1. This reminds me of road trips in the EV… we’ve stopped to charge in some interesting places and instead of rushing to hop back on the road immediately we stay anywhere from 20-45 minutes and check the area out while the car adds more electrons.

  2. Those are hard habits to break.. Traveling east with small kids was a multiday affair for us. But naturally some family members sleep in and then drive through the night. Others of us early rise and like lots of stops along the way.. Happy travels.

  3. That sounds like a great alternative to grimly driving for 10+ hours (which is what I do almost all the time). I’ve been thinking about trying this on my way to and from Ontario this fall (where I’ll be knock knock knocking on your door in London..,.:-) )Thanks for the encouragement!

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