My girlfriend and I took our son across the Ottawa River, up the Avoca Road and into Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains. My grandfather has had a farm in the region since the early 1960’s. After showing the farm to Diane, we kept driving into the mountains, across the Rouge River and up above Bell Falls into Rivington where the mountain tops take on the appearance of a dragon’s back. Then there’s one mountain top that’s a little separate from the others, and it looks like the back of a turtle.

The whole 2.5 hour trip to Rivington, then down Kilmar Road, and back to Vankleek Hill, is beautiful [Google Trip: here], and would make a great afternoon out. Close to an hour into the trip there’s a decent restaurant that caters to the white water rafting tourists. And another about halfway that doubles as a convenience store which, it being Quebec, also sells alcohol and fireworks, so there’s something for the kids.

The roads are mostly paved, but they’re also mostly as wide as 1.5 cars, and haven’t been repaired in fifty years. Some of the hills could be confused with walls, and coming back you’ll be riding the brake the whole way. But facing death at every corner will just add to the charm.