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Hiking in the Prévost and Shawbridge area is very interesting historically as we park at the old railway station used by the ski train in the past and many of the trails we walk were created by the Magill Outing Club . Names of the trails include MOC, Johannsen Est (JE), Whizzard (WZ),date back to 1937.
So on a warm November Sunday 24 club members started off from the Prevost Station to explore the trails of the past. Tech note: the official bean counter no longer carries his bag of beans but is dependent on an App, does that make him an App Counter. Anyhow off we went, heading for the first lookout, Mount Shaw. Now to reach the first look out it is necessary to make a turn on an leaf covered indistinct path, needless to say the Young Bloods at the front never saw it so had to retrace their steps . Note Young Bloods is a relative term and may not always apply to these folk . However what was evident that knowing where we were going to the YB’s was of secondary importance to getting anywhere faster This was particularly true of one of the ladies in the group, that right Cheryl? Mount Shaw duly reached and obligatory boulders climbed, the group swooped down to Lac du Paradis passing the remains of a previous club member who sadly met his demise in the old cabin basement. See picture of the week. Here the group briefly split, some rounding the lake anti clockwise whilst the others went clockwise, the dogs didn’t care they just jumped in the water. Regrouping we ascended to the hydro lines, pylon 94 to be exact, I put that in for those of you who like to count pylons, yes they do exist.
The plan now was to head North and creep up on the second viewpoint near Mont Belvédère from the northern slopes. Sadly we came across numerous No Trespassing signs that even the YB’s understood so we prudently backed off. A short bog trotting, or water crossing if you like, and we soon started a little steep ascent led by the YB’s, not the way we planned, exclaimed the Pres. however the club hikes are famous for route changes on the fly so we were soon sat at the view point enjoying our lunch. But how to get back to the parking lot. Easy retrace our steps to the first intersection and turn LEFT descending to the valley floor. So after we had managed to recall the YB’s back to the LEFT turn we did descend to the valley floor and followed the damp trails to finish on the P’tit Train du Nord .
Now the important stuff.
1. How far did we go?
2. How long did it take?
3. How many watts did we burn?
Did we have fun? Yes we did! The answers to the other questions was hidden in a geocache somewhere on the trails.