Last weekend was clear and sunny, but it was a tad cold, with morning temps of -18 C at Gai Luron on Sat and -23 C at Ste Agathe on Sun.  But as those of you who have ever tried it know, with the right clothing skiing in such weather can be surprisingly enjoyable!
And so it was for the eight Beaver Tails who were spotted on the trails at Gai Luron on Sat and the eleven who met at Ste Agathe on Sun.  I won’t bother trying to describe how nice it was those two days.  Just check out the photos on the website.  Go to http://www.skibeavertails.ca and click on “Photos” to see for yourself.  After waiting so long for decent snow, it felt wonderful to be able to ski on in such marvelous conditions.

Sometimes our plans and the club plans do not gel. The first real dumping of snow was followed by a winter blast, terribly bad for brass monkeys. Fortunately my make up does not contain brass but a fair amount of self preservation, so Saturday a plan was hatched to ski local, Bois de Liesse, knowing full well that we could scurry home quickly if my alloy composition started to change. As it turned out it was cold but bearable at least for the youngsters in the group, and given they had the car keys there was no retreat available. So we tootled around the trails along with a fair number of non primates including Continue reading →

It was decided at the pot luck lunch the day before to cancel our original destination of Gai Luron due to poor conditions and instead go to Mont Rolland and ski at the Parc Linéaire le P’tit Train du Nord (PTdN).  What’s more, we also delayed the scheduled Dorval departure time by one hour to 9 am, a decision which I found disturbingly popular.  Hmmph.
Anyway, as expected, Continue reading →

It would appear that I seem to get my official numbers of walkers wrong, or so the official bean counter says, well I am sorry butI refuse to take off my boots and socks to help me count soif we have more than 10 walkers out, I make an estimate. So my estimate for Cap St Jacques is 18, if you have a different number feel free to add it here ().
So Sunday at Cap St Jacques was a bright sunny blue sky kind of day but a trifle cold. Standing around was O.K. for a minute or two but then although the wind was light the cold started creeping into our bones. We had a short delay whilst season tickets were bought and a few late comers arrived then we hit the red rabbit trail. No give in the ground today, everything was frozen solid, which probably accounts for the fact that apart from ourselves there were very few walkers. Naturally we set off with the typical “Beaver Dash” for the first couple of kilometres, thank goodness we are a non competitive club or I would not be able to keep up. At last common sense prevailed and we dropped to a more appropriate “Beaver Trot”. You do not know what a “Beaver Trot” is, Continue reading →

Approximately 72 hours ago, a small group of Beaver tail’s wanna-be skiers descended upon the network of trails maintained by Le Club Equestre Les Forestiers, St Lazare, shared alike by seasonal walkers, poochies, cyclists, skiers, snowmobilers and resilient trail riders in a casual harmony of mutual respect. The promenade began as a replica of a 10 km ski, albeit without the skis, as the group diligently followed the well- beaten path lest they ventured astray and encountered a people-eating troll.[1] However, the brand new map of colour coded and numbered trails offered a fair representation of Continue reading →

Unlike the West Island there was a good covering of snow at Les Cedres, not enough to ski but definitely sufficient to get talk of which wax to use. Anyhow 14 walkers gathered on what was our first on foot visit to Les Cedres, of course many of us are familiar with the xcountry trails being one of our better local centres. We were also lucky to once again have a local, Christine BM to show us some of the off piste trails, normally the preserve of snow shoe’ers and horses. No the horse do not use snow shoes if that’s what you were thinking. So the starting gate was dropped and out we galloped, down some pretty trails and across several duck boarded areas. I had often seen school kids going down these trails and being a snob had dismissed them as nothing special , but I was wrong they were fun. Of course Al L planned to do his own thing and keeping to the xcountry ski trails to complete a loop. So our happy band minus Al L went up and down dales around tight bends, slipped nearly into cold looking streams and Continue reading →

“We never need parking for twenty cars on our walks” I said to Linda H
“Well we will today”
“No we won’t”
“Yes we will”
And so it went on all the way to the parking lot at Ile Bizard, and low and behold ours was the only car.
“See I told you”
“Not so fast’
Then they all started rolling in, a trickle at first, then a rush, finally the last few stragglers had to search for a parking spot. Like Fairview on Christmas Eve.
I think we solved Montreal’s Budget deficit in one day!
Thirty nine, yes that is no typo error, 39 walkers had turned out on what was a very nice day in December. Now what do you do with 39 walkers on Ile Bizard, the park itself is not very big but with interesting feature like a boardwalk over the large marsh, and many birds. To be honest with 39 chattering walkers the chance of even seeing a sparrow is pretty remote. We had thought that with a little bit of out and back we could manage a 9 kms walk So after a Hollywood style group photo we set off from the Pointe de Carrières crossing the long boardwalk, with pretty views over the marsh. Soon we were at the heart of the park, where if you has studied the map, which never happens in our group,you would have noticed that there is a central circular path and three spurs, to the 1. secteur de L’Église, the 2. secteur Les rapides and Continue reading →

Well it looked like 21 people decided Mont Royal was a good place for a walk on Sunday, not only that, we found a willing guide David H who having completed a 16 year apprenticeship on Mt Royal felt confident enough to lead our band. Indeed he led us on a merry dance, along the xcountry ski trails avoiding the main paths most of the time, thus keeping us safe from crazy cycling teams out training, and showing many of us the quieter and delightful parts Continue reading →

Well it had to happen one day, we lost some of our group although technically they lost us. Anyhow more of that later. Hasn’t this been a great late fall or what! Sunday was no exception , bright blue skies, sun shine and crisp temperatures. It was noted that the official bean counter was absent once again, will we ever see him again. Rumour had it that he accidently planted the beans and was too embarrassed to mention it. Fortunately with the aid of several fingers and a couple of smart phones we established that we had 23 walkers. The plan was to walk in an area Parc de Falaises ( www.parcdesfalaises.ca) which is a new conservation area, and also some older back country trails which are on private land.

Our first objective was to reach the viewpoint at Mont Shaw, which was duly achieved followed by a steep descent to pick up a faint leaf covered trail leading to MOC. Now with our gang on narrow trails we do get spread out and so as usual the lead group missed the turn, I do not know why, the old 6 inch ribbon tied to a tree stuck out like a Highway sign, if you looked up. So we all made it to the MOC trail and around Lac Paradis except when we regrouped we were 4 short, the 4 leading walkers. We wanted to go right but Continue reading →