Just like two weeks ago at Rigaud, the forecast was for rain — 80% chance of 1-3 mm was the morning prediction for St Adolphe. But I tweeted at 5 pm on Saturday that I would be there, “come what may”.
I had been in Ottawa and on Sun morning I drove to St Adolphe via Aut 50 E and Rte 329 N. There was no rain the whole drive and the views of the autumn colours along Aut 50 were the best I had seen in years. At this time of year, the drive out of town to a hike can be more of a joy than a chore. Nevertheless, I fully expected to be the only person in the parking lot when I arrived at 10 am, but three other hardy hikers were there waiting. We got ready and I checked the Weather Network’s radar projection — it showed that most of the rain was passing south of the region, i.e., over Montreal. The rain would eventually reach us but not for a couple of hours or so. In any case, we all had water resistant hiking jackets and boots, so a bit of rain was not a worry for us.
We set out under cloudy skies and a 14 C temp. Our plan was to hike trails 2 and 3 for a total of 8.5 km. The trails are end-to-end loops so the idea was to follow a figure-eight route. I had a plot of a hike from a few years ago to guide us. There was more climbing than I remembered–it was a steady uphill for the first 1.5 km. We did get a 15-minute rain shower during that part but the trails were not muddy and we had the proper hiking gear, so it was no issue. There were a couple of other brief showers during the hike, but it was mostly rain-free.
The trail was a bit rocky and strewn with fallen wet leaves, so water-proof hiking boots were essential. Many of the leaves on the ground were brilliantly coloured, so watching your step on the trail was a beautiful view this day. There were few other people on the trail, but while we were taking a break and some photos at the turn-around point, a couple of runners came by and so we are able to get one good group shot.
The trail intersections are a bit tricky and we often had to stop and check the maps. But we still managed to miss a turn towards the end and so missed the fourth part of the 
figure eight. We finished with 7.7 km and a total elapsed time of 2h 35m. It was just as well, as a light rain finally began to fall steadily just as we got back to the cars. But we had a marvellous hike and we all agreed it had once again been worth it to disregard the weather forecast