It had been a long time coming…

WithLouise Gratton

In the leading role of Mary-Lou

Text by Louise Gratton

Graphic art by Jean Gaudet

Photography by Louise Gratton, Serge Côté and Mélissa Plourde

Prequel

As a kid, Mary Lou had two favorite games : horses and Indians. Yes, not cowboys, horses. At 5 years old, she would run and run around the park, neighing and shaking her curly head, jumping over any obstacles that came in her path, including dogs and other kids. Her mother said to calm down, it made her dizzy. But Mary Lou ran until she was all sweaty and too tired to go on or too hungry. Her brothers said she even ate grass but when they did she would cry out “ It ain’t true!”. Well… she did try it once.

Later on, when she was allowed to stay outside until dark, Lou would play Indians with her friend Luc, who always wanted to be the Chief because he had a authentic apache headdress (yeah, right!). But Lou didn’t care. She was a ferocious warrior and darkened her face with dirt to blend in with the environment. They would spy on the neighbors laying low behind hedges, moving stealthy between bushes, running fast and hurdling fences after startling the unsuspicious white faces with a piercing war cry. Once at a safe distance, they would fall down and roll on the grass, giggling.

It was a lot of fun, until summer 63, when Luc decided he wanted to play Batman and Robin. No way man…

In her teens, Lou’s pride of having Abenaqui and Mohawk ancestry was broken by her stupid brother who gave her the family’s genealogy for Christmas. She was shattered because, all these years, she had believed her Grandpa who had told her she had Indian blood. He had also promised her a pony like her mom had as a young girl, to go with the wicker buggy still hidden in the barn behind old and dusty hay bails. Now, he was dead and Lou couldn’t bring anyone to accurately tell the story that she wanted so badly to be true. Not even her Grandma who’s last name, Gill, was that of half the people in the Odanak reserve near the village where she was born. Anyway, she still had two things that her Grandpa had given her and that no one could ever take away: the love of horses and a passion for nature.

No one was really surprised when she decided to study ecology. At age 56, although she loved her nature-related job, Lou felt strayed. The same old, same old, eat/work/sleep routine left her empty - while still gaining weight. She needed a serious brake. She took a 3-month leave to think about what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. Browsing the net one rainy day, she came upon the website of a ranch that offered expeditions in the McGerrigle range, west of the the Chic-Chocs mountains. That was it! She would learn to ride and go on a five-day horseback riding trek in the Gaspé Peninsula, a part of the Appalachian Mountain Range she cherished.. Two years later, she did.

It had been a long time coming…

I was in the Chic-Chocs a long time ago with other botanists. We were there to survey rare plants growing on the serpentine taluses and summits of mont Albert, in the Parc national de la Gaspésie.

Serge Côté, owner of the Domaine du Centaure and professional mountain guide with Vanessa Moreault, intern at the ranch.

The tag line for the Parc national de la Gaspésie is “ a sea of mountains” and it truly is. A large forest block on the Northern Appalachian Ecoregion maps. A wild landscape seen here from the top of the Petit Mont Sainte-Anne at 1,147 meters with , in the back, mont Albert at 1, 151 meters.

Also in the park, mont Jacques-Cartier, the highest summit in southern Quebec, culminating at 1,270 meters. Together with the Chic-Choc Mountains to the west, the McGerrigle Range provides habitat for the only woodland caribou herd south of the Saint Lawrence. We actually followed the caribou’s path on which we could clearly see fresh tracks, browsing and feces. They must had been here not long ago.

The diverse alpine vegetation is closely tied to the geology of the region’s highest peaks, which include extensive areas of calcareous, serpentine, and potassic bedrock, each harboring a representative alpine /toundra vegetation. Seeing the plants was like meeting old friends I had not seen in a long time. Once a botanist, always a botanist…

Early morning , mont Table. It’s hard to believe this is Quebec.

Flats, at the foot of mont Xalibu and montTable - to the left - are in fact the restoration site of the former Mines Madeleine that extracted copper and gold. It is now a very famous winter destination for backcountry skiers and snowboarders. Maybe in a near future…

Back at the ranch. From the inn’s dining room, a peaceful view of the Bay of Gaspé, Gulf St. Lawrence.

Resting the horses on a one-day trek that took us across Forillon National Park. The Portage trail we rode on is the actual path used by the Micmacs to reach the bay of Gaspé from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, therefore avoiding the treacherous water of Cap Gaspé.

Like all riding destinations near the ocean, the beach is a must. This place is called Sandy Beach but locals also call it Boom Defence . It was, with Halifax, part of Canada’s defence strategy during Second World War. An actual net prevented U-boats from moving inland!

Behind the 3-km sand spit colonized by sea grass, Sandy Beach harbors an extensive salt marsh renowned for its diversity of aquatic birds. It is the site of the most important common tern colony of the Gaspé Peninsula. Their cries, a farewell at the end of perfect time for nature.

Stay tune for the sequel

“A free spirit”Fall 2012

Louise and her new buddy Fortune

THANK YOU

To Nature Conservancy Canada

and to my new friends at the ranch “Le domaine du Centaure” located in Cap-aux-Os, near Forillon

National Park

Serge Côté (Guide and owner)Mélissa Plourde (Guide and cook)Vanessa Moreault (intern guide)

Fortune (Appaloosa), Doc Jim (Canadian)Sheba (Arab), Flash and Jesse James

(Quarterhorse)

July 2012