The last time we walked at Les Cedres in 2011, was in fact our first time walking there, and there was little snow on the ground with trails frozen. Not this time, we were about to embark on what can only be called a “boot camp”. The terrain around the Base de Plein 
Aire Les Cedres is sandy and the main trails very sandy, like walking on a beach at the sea shore but without the sea. So thirteen of us, yes that dreaded number again, as it happened there were fourteen of us but we did not know it until later. Anyhow back to the walk, it was a mild dry day may be in the teens temperature wise and we were fortunate to have our local Les Cedres expert Christine BM so all maps etc were put away and we entrusted our lives to Christine. It immediately became evident that the soft sand would make for strenuous little walk and unfortunately for Linda H aggravate a sore leg, still we ploughed on following our leader on the numerous trails that are at Les Cedres. We tend to know the ski trails but there are lots more used by horses, dog sledges, rabbits and the odd human. It was evident that several horses were about as they had marked their trail with large soft cairns, I guess they did not want to get lost. We how ever did not need to build cairns, not that we had the ability to do it even if we wanted. After about an hour of “sand trotting’”, does not sound as good as “bog trotting” but just as hard we arrived at Poirier, well know to the cycling brigade. Crossing over we did a loop on the other side then turned on our return loop. On this return we came across a couple of horse drawn buggies, O.K. horse people they may not be called buggies but 
it’s good enough for me. It looked as though they were competing in some form of competition, maybe “A run down the walkers challenge” still we happily crossed paths without any blood spilt. Closer to the centre we came across our fourteenth member, Egon N. Egon had arrived late and set off in pursuit but without the expert knowledge of our guide and an inability to read and understand horse cairns had got hopelessly lost and was navigating back via the hydro lines. Soon we were back at the centre, “How far was that “ was the cry, only 10kms came the reply. “ Can’t be seemed a lot further than that”. And that’s what a boot camp is about.