Riding In Canada, A!

Today I drove to the grocery store, bank, registration, and then finally got on the bike. My roommate and I rode to the base area to ride the Marathon course backwards. We stopped in at a shop and they gave us a map and some advise on which way to head. Within five minutes or so a park ranger pulled us over for no pass. I guess you need trail passes to ride these trails on the mountain. Well, we tried to ask him which way to head, if we really needed passes, and that we were racing on Saturday, but he still wanted us to pay him $11.50 a piece. Finally, we kept on rolling along a river and hoping to come across a trail up. We never really saw our trail, but then came across a junction that we figured out were to go next. This was how our ride went all day. I guess that's what we get for trying to poach their trails and not being able to read French. We kind of were and kind of not on the right trails. Every so often there were orange flags on the ground and red arrows to our backs. We continued to follow trails up to the main access road to the summit house, which had a great panoramic view of the great outdoors. After enjoying the views and looking at the map on more time we decided to follow the downhill trails down. Again, we got lost and could not stay on the right trails. We went from really rocky trails, to jump ramps, to rooty, rutty, slimy, and muddy trails, to fun, and flat trails. I could not believe it was so hard to stay on a trail or find the right trail. Cross my fingers that Saturday I can stay on the trail and make it back to Mt. St. Anne from Quebec. The rest of today was relaxing or tiring talking and IMing Andy in Japan and catching up on the rest of my blogs. I am so ready to go ride some trails and not get lost.