Trail map of Oct 17 walk (pdf file)
Mont St Hilaire Oct 17 Report by Keith
Mont St Hilaire is a great little hill sticking out boldly from the plain, unfortunately lots of folk think the same and as we arrived at 10 am the parking lots were already busy. Mind you when we left several hours later the line up to enter stretched way down the road and the external $4 parking lots were doing great business. Anyhow back to the beginning, a fine group of walkers, thought to be fourteen, assembled despite a certain degree of dampness. A quick check of who had maps, one person or perhaps two, it looked like another day of the blind leading the blind, still we have always found a way in the past. So it was to be Burned Hill, Pain de Sucre, Dieppe and finally Rocky and back in time for tea.
Off we set, good old Mont St Hilaire, nothing like a brisk uphill climb to get the heart rate up and clear out the lungs. Soon we peaked at the first summit where the view point is not one of Hilaire’s finest, still a first tick. At this point the trail became a little indistinct or maybe we were not on a trail, however in true BTNSC tradition we strode manfully on soon joining up with the Pain de Sucre trail. Now Pain de Sucre is one of St Hilaire’s more popular peaks with a steady climb up to the pièce de résistance, a Via Ferrata rope move to the summit, always good fun. Summit Tick 2 presented a fine viewpoint if a little crowded, unfortunately the excitement of the rope move meant a “pee” stop was required, not an easy task on a busy summit still our members are always up to the challenge.
Down we went and onto Dieppe. We were all enjoying the quiet trails after the crowds of Pain de Sucre when rounding a bend we were pounced on by the Memories paparazzi. How are they able to find us, we must have a mole in the club. Still our body count went up by two to sixteen and we did get some fine photos. Onward we went, stopping briefly at the junction for Dieppe and Rocky in order to get a consensus on which way to go, that idea was quickly thrown out the window when no immediate consensus could be reached and off we went to Dieppe, tick 3. Another fine viewpoint if a little chilly, so onto Rocky and our last tick, number 4. From now on it was plain sailing down the blue trail, did I say down, well there is a little climb on the way. Soon we were passing the lake on the main trail, which by this time was really busy, still we did not care our hike was nearly over. It was thought that most everybody stopped for Timmies on the way home, how we miss the official bean counter when he is not out with us, without his diligence we are never sure if everyone is there. Finally the drive home and the chaos of downtown Montreal in the construction season. As I said Mont St Hilaire is a great little hill and well worth a visit especially with all the friends who came out today.