Where to go?

[Viking]

Hi Tenderfoot,

I do like the idea of building a stripper and now is a good time. I just have to finish up remodeling a bathroom first - and that's going slower than I would have hoped!!

[Neil]

Can we move this discussion to another spot on here?

It's not exactly just a paddling discussion anymore, is it?

[Neil]

Here in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, we are confined to our immediate area. No going across the bridge into Montreal or driving out of town. Our street is on a hill (400 yards long, 85 feet of elevation gain) so I load up my pack with 35 lbs and crank up and down it 4 times, 3 times a day. Compared to hiking it's not much but I figure with that I'll at least maintain a base level of fitness. People here are encouraged to report transgressions of distancing and if what I've heard is true the police receive more than a thousand calls a day.
Google shows that of all of Canada and the US Quebec's citizens are doing the most to reduce contagion. The Google page is quite interesting. I found it by using Google and Covid in the search field.

[Lucky13]

I was planning on loading the back -pack with 50 lbs of books, and walking the track that is right down the street to get in shape for a trip into Brooktout lake. I figured the six miles I would need to cover from the north access was 24 laps on the track, and then decided I would die of boredom walking 24 laps on an urban track. However, after a month of sheltering at home, I may be able to stand it!

I am amazed that people who seem to have an aversion to marked trails and a love for the bushwacking experience can be so intolerant of "thread drift" on this board!

[Banjoe]

Here in our city of about 20,000 (hard to get an accurate number these days-Did the college kids go home or stay in off-campus apartments?), I am seeing a significant impact on the forests. I'm five minutes from downtown in one direction, or into hundreds of acres of preserved forest and gorge in the other. Where there used to be slightly visible deer trails there are now heavily used people trails. Since it's spring there are lots of skid marks from shoes and boots. It's only going to get more noticeable as the weather warms, hopefully drying out might help. Too bad about the wildflowers and ground nesting birds though, too many people can't be bothered to keep dogs on leash as is required.
Fortunately I prefer to get out of the house before 6 am and can still experience a quiet walk in the woods. Most days I'm getting between 2 and 3 hours and have done a bit of trail improvement to the marked trails so they don't get too much wider or messed up. Not sure how bad it will be if the state parks can't open the gorge trails because they are confined and social distancing isn't possible, the impact elsewhere is going to be ugly.

[Banjoe]

Missing trip reports with photos from up there. Here are a couple from "down here" where we got a couple inches of snow and temps in the teens. Not bad for April.
By the way, while I was by the water nine deer came to it on the other side. They make more than slightly visible trails when they travel like that. I'm predicting their numbers will be decreasing as fewer people are getting paid. Same for firewood.