Author: Tom V

Let’s run through the reasons why people might have skipped the hike at Mont St Bruno on Sunday morning.
Rain — It was supposed to rain.  But the forecast was revised overnight and the system left the area before 8 am.
Traffic — As I had advised, there were no road closures affecting the routes to the Champlain Bridge.  Traffic was light, with no delays at all.
Wind — The winds were strong.  But as every experienced hiker knows, the winds are much diminished in the forest.  It was very comfortable.
Mud — Some suggested the days of heavy rain would make the trails muddy.  Not so at Parc du Mont St Bruno.  The trails are well-constructed and were mud-free.
Party — Several members were at the Club Cycliste Beaconsfield (CCB) year-end party the night before and may have stayed up past their bedtime.

It was definitely colder and more blustery on Sunday morning than in recent weeks, so that alone may have dissuaded many people.  (But hey, it *is* autumn, after all.)  Nevertheless, a very exclusive subset of BTNSC members turned out at Mont St Bruno.  (And every one in the group had been at the CCB party.)  It was cloudy and 4 C at the 10 am start.  Extra layers were donned and the small BTNSC contingent set out.

It is difficult to overstate how really lovely the walking conditions were.  The wide, smooth trails were covered with a radiant blanket of gold and yellow leaves.  The howling winds from outside the park were reduced by the trees to a gentle, swirling breeze.  Given the small size of the group, it was decided to take a more peripatetic route to explore some parts of the park we don’t usually see.  One highlight was Le Vieux Moulin, which houses a very charming and inviting salon du thé.  The group also found a trail along the edge of Lac Seigneurial on the way to Lac des Bouleaux.  At the floating dock on the latter lake, another much larger walking group was encountered.

 

 

 

 

 

It was 6 C at the finish, and the sun was coming out.  The stats: 11.1 km in 2 hr 10 min.

This was third time in four weeks that the Sunday morning weather forecast made it look doubtful for hiking.  And for the third time, the forecast was wrong and the conditions turned out to be excellent.  Perseverance pays!

This was third time in four weeks that the Sunday morning weather forecast made it look doubtful for hiking.  And for the third time, the forecast was wrong and the conditions turned out to be excellent.  Perseverance pays!

 

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

It was a beautiful fall day for the Oka hike last Sunday.  The fall colours were in evidence on the pleasant drive along Rte 344.  We gathered in the parking lot in the north end of the park under sunny skies and 10 C.  Perfect weather for hiking.  There were 14 of us who were able to get away from turkey baking and other Thanksgiving-related duties and turn up for the hike.  None of the club’s canine members were able to make it, however, to take advantage of the new dog-friendly policy at Oka.

We set out at 10 am along the usual route.   Most people who visit Oka on a fall day take the Calvaire trail, which is the most direct and easy-going path to the summit with the three chapels.   But being hardy members of the BTNSC, we always set out on the Sommet trail, which few people take.  That route is longer and has a few short, steep stretches.  We did spread out a bit, but we regrouped a few times and everyone was fine.

At 5.5 km into the hike we reached the summit with the three chapels, where we were afforded a spectacular view of the countryside and the Lake of Two Mountains / Lac des Deux-Montagnes.  We were also treated to free apples from the local orchards and generous chunks of Oka cheese.  They have this celebration of local produce only once a year and we always make a point of being there on that one day!

After about 20 minutes of snacking and chatting and picture taking, we started down on the Calvaire trail.  As mentioned, it has many more people on it, including many families with small children.  But it is a wide and gentle trail, so it’s not like anyone is feeling too crowded.  After another 2 and a bit km, we were back at the parking lot.  Total distance of 7.75 km and total elapsed time of 2h 20m.  Sunny and 11 C.
As promised, it was a short but invigorating hike with lots of wonderful colours and views.  Those of us who were lucky enough to take part certainly had something to give thanks for on this holiday weekend.

During the day on Sat, I sent out three tweets to update the Sun morning Rigaud weather forecast.  It kept getting worse.  In my last tweet on Sat evening, I shared the forecast of “80% prob of 1-3mm”, but I also said we would still try to hike.  Perhaps I should have also included the old adage, “80% of success is showing up.”  After all, since the hike was close to the West Island, it was not such a big gamble to show up and see what the weather would end up being.

Those of us who *did* show up were well-rewarded.  It was a perfectly pleasant morning to hike the trails of Mont Rigaud.  Despite the wet forecast, in the end there was no rain.  And by no rain, I mean there was not a single drop during the entire hike.

No doubt because of the expectation of rain, it was a small group of seven who met in the parking lot of the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame in Rigaud.  There were five club members, including Christine B-M, our local trail expert and volunteer leader of this hike.  The other Beaver Tailers were Jan & Cathy, Bob and me.  Hikers 6 & 7 were hiking friends of Christine.  Claude was along for the second year in a row to help Christine by bringing up the rear (of what is usually a larger group) and making sure any stragglers stayed on course.  And white-bearded Alfred just happened to arrive to hike on his own and he accepted our invitation to join us.

It was cloudy and 14 C as we set out at 10 am.  The trails were slightly damp from a bit of rain over night, but the trails were not slippery and there was not a single bit of mud.  We followed the standard route up the hill and around the backside of the mountain.  The trails and turns on this part of Mont Rigaud are all unmarked, so having a guide like Christine is the best way to ensure we do not get lost.  We paused at the usual spots: the “potato fields” of rounded stones, the burned chalet, the beaver dam, and the lookout at the cross.  We then went further west to the top of the ski hill before making our way back to parking lot.  We hiked 9.25 km in 2h 45 m, so back at 12:45 pm.

It was a splendid start to the BTNSC hiking season.  It just goes to show you, even if the weather looks doubtful, it’s often worth it to show up!

At the EOS Party on Sat evening, there were only two people who said they planned to go skiing at 11 am the next day at the P’tit Train du Nord (PTdN).  And one of those two was a maybe.  I certainly did not think I would go.  But back home after the party, I was browsing Facebook and saw a post by the PTdN people with a night-time photo of the freshly groomed trail and the comment that the conditions would be great on Sun.  I was suddenly tempted, but decided I would see how I felt in the morning.
After getting up and moving all my clocks ahead one hour, it was still early enough and the weather was great.  I decided to go for it, despite not having been on my cross-country skis in over a month due to bad weather and scheduling conflicts.  Yes, it was going to be a few degrees above zero, but I wasn’t scared of putting on klister.  I drove to the vieux gare de Mont Rolland in Ste-Adèle and arrived at 11 am just as Mickey and Sharon were parking.  The parking lot was two-thirds full, but there were no other Beaver Tail skiers.
Sharon decided to go skate skiing while Mickey and I prepared our classic skis.  I put the gloppy universal klister on my skis and we set out north.  The klister worked surprising well and we made good progress.  It was about +4 C or +5 C, with sun and no wind.  It was a real treat to be skiing with no hat or headband and a light pair of gloves.  Mickey had skied a lot this winter (including doing the Canadian Ski Marathon) so he was in his usual top form.  Fortunately for me, he dialed back his effort level so that I could keep up with him.  But he did egg me on to go “just another km” and before I knew it we were 13 km out.  The PTdN is a linear trail so I did the math and realized I was now committed to a 26 km ski, my longest this year by far.

The return trip was mostly downhill and given the often icy surface (when the trail was in the shade), double-poling was the easiest way to move along.  We stopped often to take photos, or at least that was my excuse, I just needed to take some breaks!  We finally returned after 3 hr 25 min for a well-deserved lunch at the Café de la Gare.  I was feeling tired and sore, but It was one of my most enjoyable outings of the year!

The conditions were looking marginal for Sun, but I still decided to organize an “opt in” outing to Morin Heights.  The weather forecast suggested that it might be a bit colder there and I hoped they had received more snow than rain on Sat.  Eight people responded and said they were ready to go if conditions looked OK in the morning.

On Sun morning I tried calling Morin Heights but their phone line was not working.  But all the Sepaq centers, including Tremblant, had provided early morning updates and they all talked about wet heavy snow and how they could not groom the trails as a result.  So at the last minute I cancelled the outing.  I suggested to the eight people they could try going to cap St Jacques if they had waxless skis (which I don’t).
That did not mean nobody skied on Sun.  Sharon Z was one of the eight respondents, but she missed my message cancelling the outing and drove up to Morin Heights.  She reported that conditions were indeed poor and that even the flat aerobic corridor trail had been damaged by people walking on it.  She then drove to the P”tit Train du Nord where she found the conditions were fine for both classic and skate-skiing.  So she did get in a good ski outing.
I received other reports about people out on Sun.  At least four members did end up skiing at CSJ on waxless skis.  There were a few puddles to contend with but it was still decent skiing.  Two other members ended up at Morin Heights but went snowshoeing instead and had a splendid time.  The most surprising report was from Marlene B.  Her and Brian A happened to be near to Domaine St Bernard so they went there with their skis and with low expectations. But they found the conditions to be just fine.

Once again the moral of the story is: good skiing (and snowshoeing) is out there if you are persistent and willing to take a chance!

I have been watching the recent revival of the X-Files TV series.  It occurred to me that I can relate to Fox Mulder.  As he does with aliens, I am often trying to convince people that skiable snow *does* exist out there, despite the lack of any tangible evidence outside their windows here in the city.  Like Mulder, I am usually greeted with skepticism.  Some think I’m an outright crackpot.

This past weekend’s S-File was a case in point.  After last week’s thaw and rain, the conditions here in Montreal were very poor for skiing, assuming trails were open at all.  But I heard reports of sightings of snow up north.  I worked to get more evidence and then to persuade people that they just needed to believe.  If they were brave enough to venture out and go to the right place, they too could actually see aliens, er, I mean, snow!

I settled on Parc des Campeurs in Ste Agathe.  I considered Gai Luron, which was also reporting most of its trails open.  But I figured a bit further north would give us more assurance of skiable terrain.  And, after all, Ste Agathe was the original destination we had in the schedule for Feb 7.

There were 14 of us who turned out at Parc des Campeurs at 9:45 am last Sun.  The parking lot was not very crowded.  Another nice thing about this place — the price is right!  The trail ticket is $13, which is a bargain compared to most of the off-island ski centres we are going to these days.

It was -9 C and it was not supposed to get warmer than -7 C.  It felt warmer than -9 C, as we set out under blue skies.  It soon clouded over, but the temperature stayed comfortable.  There was about 5 cm of fluffy snow on top of a crusty base.  The centre had last groomed the trails three days earlier, but with the light skier traffic there, it was just as well they did not re-groom.  It left more of the new snow for us to enjoy.

We all started out through the camping area and headed towards the Stonehaven trail and then to the Grignon and Vanier trails.  We soon split up into four groups of 2 to 4 skiers according to our speed.  The trails were in very good shape, but the descents were definitely harder and faster this day.  It was important to focus on having a good snowplow stance to maintain control on the downhills.  We had 2 skiers who stayed on the green trails.  As advertised in the last update message, the greens at Parc des Campeurs have a fair amount of climbs and descents.  They found the trails challenging, but still enjoyable.  On the other end of things, our “A” team trio of skiers (Scott, Dennis and Ghyslaine) was the only group to do the 1-km long climb (and then back down) to the top of Mont Ste Agathe.  The rest of decided to save that one for another day.

We all skied for about 2 hours and then gathered at the chalet d’accueil.  Everybody said they were so very happy they had come out to Parc des Campeurs this day.   The conditions were just so much better than most of us had expected.  Even our one skier who decided to skip skiing and stay in the chalet to nurse a cold had a pleasant morning.  She sat by the window with her sketch pad and drew something she saw that she thought looked unusual.  Could it have been an alien spacecraft?  Perhaps the S-Files will merge with the X-Files after all!

It was a tough call for where to go last Sun.  We had planned to finally make our first club visit to Gai Luron.  But El Nino was acting up again.  The forecast (for both St Jerome and Montreal) called for a warm front to roll in on Sun morning, bringing with it a sharp rise in the temperature to well above freezing (+5 C).  Based on the hourly temperature forecast, we decided Sat evening to change the venue to Cap St Jacques (CSJ).  We figured we could get an earlier start (9 am instead of 9:30 am) to get cooler temps.  If things warmed up too fast and the conditions deteriorated, at least we would not have travelled as far nor spent $18 on a trail ticket!
When we arrived at CSJ on Sun shortly before 9 am, we were surprised to find that the temperature was -4 C instead of the expected -1 or 0 C.  D’oh!  Conditions up north at Gai Luron were probably excellent.  But we were at CSJ and it was too late to go anywhere else.
There were 16 of us at CSJ — 15 of on skis and 1 on snowshoes.  We got our gear ready to go, took the obligatory group photo, and set out.  As usual, we all started out on the same first section of trail.  The trail conditions were quite good.  The people with wax skis had a clear advantage over some of the others who were on their waxless skis.  But it was great skiing (and snowshoeing) for all.  Most of the skiers went around on the 10-km red rabbit trail.
About an hour later at the end of the trail (by the road close to the chalet d’accueil), a bunch of us regrouped as skiers (and our lone snowshoer) emerged one-by-one from the woods.  As predicted, the temperature had risen quickly.  At 10 am it was already 0 C.  Some of us opted to do an extra 3-km loop.  It continued to warm up and it became clear that the skiers on waxless skis were now having an easier time of it!  It was about +4 C at 10:45 am when most of us had finished.  The temperature being reported for St Jerome was just as warm, so it would have been difficult skiing up north also.

 

 

 

 
It was disappointing to miss out on Gai Luron, but at least a good crowd still managed to get in a good ski outing at CSJ!  Here’s hoping that this week’s warm and rainy weather is followed by enough snow to get the trails back in decent shape soon.