Labour Day

This past Sunday, after a great day of new-ish trad climbing at Cochrane Lane in Welsford, I went to the Munson Lake boulders to work a couple projects and to do some trail planning in preparation for a literal labour day of construction Shawn and I had committed to on holiday Monday.

The bouldering session was brief, as I developed a flapper quite early. So after scrubbing the last line on Small Slab, I took off for the river.  My goal was to see if a quicker/easier path could be established between a parking area and a swimming spot.  Previous exploratory visits indicated that though the Slab Area was closest to the river, at that point it’s flow it is too wide, shallow and vegetated for any pleasurable soaking.  Up stream, a trail was beginning to take shape between the Megacrystals boulders and a narrows/rapids.  Though most of the year it is too shallow to swim, the moving water is deep enough to sit submerged in the fast current to relax and bathe.  However, the long walk back uphill to the car (at Roadside Area) afterwards is less than ideal.  I was hoping to head from the Slab Area towards the river, and pick up a game trail through the mature forest that would lead most of the way upstream to the rapids.  This had the potential for a flatter, and shorter walk than the Megacrystals trail.

I hopped over a spongy section behind Inversée, and into an area of mature forest.  The thick canopy formed by the tall trees leave only enough light and moisture for a carpet of moss under them.  Visibility is really good, and the walking is easy. I headed North along a path of brown, well trampled moss.  At the first fork I went left.  It led to a tangled alder thicket.  I backtracked and went right.  This forks as well; one to a boggy section choked with poplar saplings, the other to a nearly impenetrable (for mammals our size) concentration of young spruce on the edge of the old clear cut.  I went back and forth this way, fighting through a rough section hoping for ease on the other side.  After an hour and only progressing half way up the river, I’d had enough.  Finishing the other trail, rather than starting a new one, is definitely the way to proceed.

For the return trip to my car at the Slabs, I decided to try following the edge of forest where it meets the clear cut, so that I wouldn’t overshoot my destination.  As I headed up hill, I passed a few small boulders imbedded in the slope that looked decent enough, but were not worth the schlep on their own.  I gathered up a bunch of dead wood and build a few piles up on the high points to facilitate their rediscovery at a later date.

As I neared the border of the clear cut, I turned South. Fifty metres of easy walking led to a thick wall of green running as far as I could see (which wasn’t as far as that phrase sounds) both East and West. I could see a few places where a moose had crashed through this, so picked one and went for it.  Fifteen steps later, and I was face to face with one of the biggest, baddest, mossiest boulders at Munson Lake.  This thing is 5-6m tall, steep, featured and adjacent to at least 3 similar erratics!

I hadn’t bothered to bring my camera, and I doubt I could have backed away far enough to get a clear shot of these things anyway, so you’ll have to take my word on this. They are amazing! Each is overhanging on at least one side, and most faces (even the overhangs) show obvious features that are atypical of granite erratics.  They'll require some scrubbing, but could host 12 or 15 stellar boulder problems.

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Labour Day Monday, as planned, Shawn cut stumps at Cornerstones and Slab Area, reducing the pad puncturing potential, while I moved rocks around the base of Mace so a few new lines can be attempted.  There are now five or six problems in this area that are just in need of a final scrub and a first ascent.

We then headed towards the river (via Megacrystals trail), did some trail work, and cleared some dead trees from the area to make room for tents.  We used the logs to build bridges through the bog and got about half-way through before running out of gas.

After refueling, we squeezed in a good bouldering circuit at Cornerstones before heading home.