What a great Sunday morning it turned to be, brilliant blue skies, light winds, mind you it was a tad cool (-4 C). We thought we were lost at first for when Gai Luron came in sight, all that we could see was manicured lawns stretching from the road to the chalet. Where to park, certainly not on the grass where we park in winter, so we pulled up across the road. No sooner had we arrived that the shuttle bus from NDG arrived and spewed out a wagon load of monkeys, oops sorry, some club members.
Eventually the tally of members and friends reached 18. The chalet was open and with a fire burning, as they were having their pre-season sale of rental gear. The big bonus was that the toilets were available, I did mention it was a tad cold.
Now as everyone knows, we have skied here many times so there should be no problems finding our way. All that is required is to find the trail letter, L in our case, put the skis in the track and follow the tracks. Wait a minute, there is no snow just icy patches, and there are no tracks. Suddenly there are numerous tracks leading in all directions, tracks which in winter are hidden in the snow. There was even a bridge across a significant fast running stream which many a member denied ever seeing before. Remember, we were on the L at this time.
Our plan was to take the B loop, and we did start on it, however we missed a sharp right turn and carried on a path leading to new houses instead of heading down to the river. Reluctant to back track, we picked up another trail and followed it back to the L. Safely back on the L, our plan was to follow it round to pick up the C loop. I should be more careful in my choice of words, did I say “safely”, the temperature was still below freezing so there were many patches of ice, sadly the ice was not too thick and so suddenly two of our group disappeared up to their knees in an oozing, smelling bog. Of course everyone thought it was a hoot, not so the poor trapped individuals, they struggled to free their legs, hoping their boots would not be left behind. With a satisfying SLURP they became free, and bravely carried on even with wet and smelly feet.
At last the C loop was reached, although not the normal start to C, which was closed. We never did find the true C, but followed trails somewhere between C and L until we all popped out on the L again. Back to the chalet and the warmth of the fire, especially for our wet-booted friends, a few bites of our sandwiches then off to Timmies.
Well who would have thought Gai Luron would have been such a challenge!