Day Hike
The Toit des Laurentides, or Johansen is a 14km hike, the trail head is across the street from La Sablonniere campground.
We have hiked this trail a few times and measured it, according to the Runtastic app the length is actually 18km.
It is mid November, days are really short and I actually just wanted to revisit the beautiful waterfalls alongside the trail.
This trail is always very muddy with a few creek-crossings before you reach the first viewpoint at 1.7 km. The next 2 km are what is most spectacular about this trail, as it runs alongside the creek with beautiful waterfalls.
The sun is very low in November, I brought my tripod and 14-24mm lens. Unfortunately I do not have a polarizer or ND filters for this lens but it was somber enough for long exposures at low ISO. What’s really nice about the extreme wide-angle lens is that it creates beautiful starbursts around direct light sources.
My hiking buddies were very patient with me, it was getting late and we made it only to the bridge which is about half way up the trail.
We took a break by the side of the bridge, made us some hot soup and snacked on the dehydrated apples I had brought.
As I already knew that the remainder of the trail is only moderately interesting and it was getting late, all my fault, we decided to turn around and head back to the car. After another stop for a few additional shots along the creek.
Update: winter wonder
We are now in winter 2018. This winter is quite extreme with temperature changes ranging from above 0 to -30 and below.
We hit the Toit des Laurentides trail again after a sudden surge in temperature and found the waterfalls quite pretty.
Here are a few pictures of this snowshoe hike.
