Over the Hill

By Cindy Desrocher

Hearing about this project creates a strong realization that I must admit: I am aging!

To set the scene: My son Vincent is 47 years old, my husband is 78 and I am 75.

Saturday morning we wake to the phone ringing, my son is calling to invite his mom and dad on a hike with his girlfriend, Joannie.

He has just mentioned to his girlfriend that he doesn’t share many activities with his parents (but I think he is just being funny).

They would like to hike 6 kilometers around Lac Solitaire in the Parc de la Mauricie. Thinking to myself 6 km, no problem, after all we have walked 10 kilometres many a time. Of course we would love to go!

During the drive to the park, Vincent’s girlfriend mentions that this is not an easy walk, but a kind of a steep ascent. “Oh how interesting,” I say.

We aren’t on the trail for 10 minutes and I am huffing and puffing! The walk is already becoming a steep climb over big rocks, whipping branches, roots and yes, a complete ascent.

After only 15 minutes my son says “We will go ahead and wait for you at the ‘lookout’ at the top.”

He disappears and we continue this exhausting ordeal. We don’t quit...and continue climbing, but we are almost dying!

Hiking  on this...single file trail , we stop to catch our breath, and I happen to look back behind us to find a bunch of people who were slowly climbing, following us very slowly. All the hikers were backed up. My husband and I step aside to let these young people fly by.

Exhausted, we reach the top, where Vincent and Joannie are sitting on 2 large Adirondack chairs.

They call us over, saying we have been saving the only 2 chairs for you! Merci!

The view is breathtaking, really awesome. Vincent proceeds to tell us that he knew were still coming up on the trail, because he had asked everyone who passed us if they had seen his mother and father.

Obviously everyone, I am sure, had seen the only white-haired couple on the trail!

While chatting with everyone at the top. we are informed that Vincent proudly told all the hikers that he was worried because his parents were 92 and 95 years old. Believe me, we all had a good laugh!

I guess my son just wanted us around to transform his day-to-day existence into a happy, excruciating moment!

PS. The descent was worse than the ascent! But the joy shared is irreplaceable.