Ascent of Mont Sainte Margaurite on 2010-08-02| Date: | Monday, August 2, 2010 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Peak: | Mont Sainte Margaurite | | Location: | Canada-Québec | | Elevation: | 686 m / 2251 ft |
Ascent Trip Reportnote: I've decided that adding all man-powered distances and elevation gains into my ascents would count even if it included cycling to the location.
Mont Vianney's ascent and the day's cycling had left me almost exhausted. I still wanted to find a nice camping spot though while covering as much road distance as I could. I cycled downhill to St-Ferdinand, on the shores of lac William. I stopped at the marina and got a poutine and huge cheeseburger. I then took a small pause to refill my legs and then started again along HWY 165. I soon turned left on chemin Craig. This is a scenic route highly worth the travel. It's a grinding uphill battle though and I faced the steepest hill in my whole trip. That hill was hard to climb and at the top, I stumbled upon a lookout installed by Hydro Québec.
It was close to 5:30pm now and I decided this was where I'd sleep for the night. Views were splendid, with the sun setting soon. I could see all the way to Québec, more than a 100km away. Many people stopped at the lookout and I spoke with a few. When the sun finally set, I pitched my tent and went to sleep.
The next morning, I packed up and set towards mont Sainte-Marguerite around 8:00am. I was determined to bag it, along with mont du lac du Cinq, and return to Québec that day. It was a cold and foggy morning but I still managed to get a good speed going. There were many hills past Saint-Jacques-de-Leeds and Wilson, before I angled towards Saint-Sylvestre. There, I took route du Radar, leading to the mountain. It was a steady uphill that soon turned into gravel.
I decided to ditch the trailer and keep going on my bike. After hiding it, I started again at a much easier pace. I soon arrived to the 'écovillage'. I knew there was a fee to go up the mountain, so I looked for someone in charge. I met two guys after hopping over a fence and one told me he took care of that but would have to fetch change in some building. We agreed I'd stop on the way down, so I left to climb the mountain on my bike.
It was easy without any load and in less than 10 minutes I was at the bunker's entrance. The doors had plywood coverings but everything had been ripped off. The inside is inhabited by pigeons and I explored the ruin. In a completely destroyed underground area I could hear rats scurrying around. I knew there are benchmarks on the roof so I tried to find a way up there. In the radome building, I found a rusty ladder that led to a trap from which sunlight came in. I climbed it and extricated myself out on the roof. I couldn't find a benchmark on the radome's roof, but the main building was too high to scale safely from there so I made my way down in the bunker again. This thing is huge, three stories high, with 2 main staircases and many nooks. When I came back outside, I tried to figure out where the true summit was. The bunker had been built a little bit lower than the real high point. I figured it was where a newer telecom antenna had been built. I looked around it but didn't find anything.
From there I made my way down to meet the caretaker. He finally didn't have any change and waived the fee. I talked with him for 10 minutes and then left to retrieve my trailer. I decided to skip mont du lac du Cinq and was then on my way towards Québec and arrived home around 5:00pm.
View MRC HPs (fin-juillet 2010) in a larger map
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| Summary Total Data | | Elevation Gain: | 1148 m / 3767 ft | | Elevation Loss: | 1497 m / 4915 ft | | Grade/Class: | 2 | | Quality: | 9 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Road Hike | | Gear Used: | Bicycle | | Weather: | Hot, Calm, Clear | | Ascent Statistics | | Elevation Gain: | 1148 m / 3767 ft | | Extra Loss: | 818 m / 2687 ft | | Route: | road cycling and access road | | Trailhead: | Intersection - Rte de Vianney / 4e rang 356 m / 1171 ft | | Descent Statistics | | Elevation Loss: | 679 m / 2228 ft | | Trailhead: | Home - downtown Québec 7 m / 23 ft | Ascent Part of Trip: MRC HPs (july 2010) (3 nights total away from roads)
Complete Trip Sequence:
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