Magical Moments with Dearest Ones

This post is a reflection of an incredibly magical moment with my Father, Brother, and Brother in Law.

It’s a cold evening in February, on the north side of the Gaspe peninsula. Earlier that morning were eating breakfast about to leave Hotel Grande Vallée, which is where we stayed the night before.

Which by the way is an amazing little hotel. The owner is wonderful. If I remember correctly, she used to work in accounting or finance but decided she wanted to have her own hotel and service all kinds of adventurers. Fisherman, snowmobilers, you name it. The food, amazing. The hospitality, impecible. The view, magical.

We are winding through the northern mountains of the Gaspe and we come upon a huge mountain side with a bridge or pass of sorts. As we begin to cross we all look to our right and immediately our breath was taken away. The saying “a picture doesn’t do it justice” has never been more of an understatement.

This location was so beautiful. So peaceful. So quiet. So serene. So perfect. So magical.

It was later in the evening so the sun was off to the west nearing the horizon.

We stopped to take pictures and to just pause and take it all in.

About 10 minutes into our pause we noticed flashing lights down in the valley. As we waited and looked closer we saw that those lights were the lights on top of a trail groomer.

Having rode halfway across this pass and now standing on it, we were actually unbelieving that the trail groomer was going to actually be able to get through.

This pass was not all wide. You could fit one snowmobile length-wise across it. There was so much snow that the guardrails were burried on the cliffs edge. Approaching the edge you would see it’s almost a straight drop hundred’s of feet down into the valley.

We were slightly concerned.

So we drove to the other side of the pass, stopped and waited for the groomer to come up.

We watched him slowly inch forward across the pass seemingly unphased by the edge of the cliff was almost over.

The trail groomer made it. Slowly but surely he had crossed the pass in what I can only describe as masterful driving of a trail groomer. If you have ever seen one, they are not small or nimble. This guy drove this thing without fear right across the pass.

We gave the groomer a wave as a sign of thanks. Thank you for your dedication to grooming some of the absolute best trails in all of Canada. Thank you for your resolve in traveling long and far in order to allow for amazing, memorable and magic moments for those who travel those trails.