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The tour will be in French at 2pm.

Our ghost adventure begins.  It’s a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon this June.  Perfect day to go into a cold dark cave.

We head to

Lafleche Caves.

I am with my son Matt.  His first drive down Highway 366 to the Caves.  He gets to share the Buddhist temple, Lac MacGregor, the winds, hills, turns and curves before we hit the 307 south to the park.

Runnin’ with the Devil

The park is deep in the woods and mountains.  All there is a couple of chalets and the parking lot.

You can see the zip lines everywhere. They even run over the water.  The entrance to the caves.  The nature trails.  The setting is breathtaking. Mother nature at her finest.  Humans interacting with and appreciating the ancient rocks and trees.

Danger is all around us at the park.  You must sign a waiver before zipping or going into the caves.  Playing with nature can be dangerous for us mere humans.  We need to be careful.

The caves are among the oldest and biggest on the Canadian shield.  Discovered in 1865 by a bear hunter Dubois who stumbled into an entrance looking for a bear den.  He found one.  It is now the exit of the tour.

You wear a miners helmet with a flashlight on the top.  Your only light source in the caves.  Wear a sweater cause it really is that cold in the cave.  You can see your breath and it hovers around 5 degrees for most of the tour. Matt has brought an extra flashlight.  This proves extremely useful further on the tour.  We are told about this large stone hanging that when hit sounds an echo throughout the entire  cave.  I see a creepy rock beside it.  It resembles a demon face.  I can’t look at it.

The ladder climbs up 20 meters (65 feet) high.  As we begin the ascent, I see the safety roll cage around the ladder we are about to climb.  Hard core now.  My son is ready for the challenge.  There are landings between ladders to rest on.  He continues on not wanting to stop, claiming he just wants to get to the top and get it over with.  I follow behind ready to catch him at any point.  I never need to.  He is fine. Non stop 78 steps.

At the top we relax in the Dream Cave.  The Scouts have sleepovers in this cave.  It is warmer up here than the rest of the cave.  We are instructed to turn off our lights and be quiet.  All we can hear is the dripping of the water. Pitch blackness.  Peace.

I think I could live in a cave.  I must be part bear, part hermit.  Its coldness, darkness and silence is comforting to me.  My claustrophobia tested.  I face my fears and squeezed through a tiny passage on my stomach.  I survive and am feeling safe in the cave.  No bats to be seen.  The bears long gone.

We haven’t seen any spirits either.  Not felt any ghosts.  The guide tells me to ask any question.  I ask the guide if there are any ghosts.  She claims to not believe in them but tells a story of ghosts seen in this large area we are now in.  Matt and I just finished taking pictures of what we think is dust.  Or maybe orbs? 🙂

We will return to do the zip line over the water.  We survived the trek through the deepest mountain ghost cave. Next we ride through the treetops suspended over the lakes.  Bring on the danger.