A dubious weather day did not prevent 25 walkers collecting at the Sucrerie de la Montagne on Sunday Morning, mind you 9 of this group had crossed the border from Toronto in the dead of night just to join us, or as Germain said “can my friends come on the walk”? My heart had been set on an early coffee but the 25 sets of wistful eyes soon melted my heart, and I am not talking about Lulu here. The plan, 
yes strange as it may seem we sometimes have a plan, was to walk the xcountry ski trail starting in a Northerly direction, completing the loop and finishing in time for tea. Al L started with us, however he had his own plan, I think there was a plan sale at Costco, any how you can read about Al’s adventures on the BTNSC Blog. As we walked along there was evidence of rain falling, the brighter ones detected this because they were getting wet, others had to be told. Still no sign of a retreat, we passed several groups of runners enjoying the trail, far more pleasant than running on the pavement in the burbs. Eventually the rain stopped, and we turned South on the red trail . Our fate was sealed, no turning back now we had to complete the loop. A few hundred metres before Rang St George we stopped for food, big mistake… several people eventually became cold and were very pleased to start walking again only to find at Rang St George there was a toilet. Do you know how long it takes for 6 walkers to use the toilet, a long time if you are cold. We could have easily stopped for lunch here and combined eating and whatever the ladies do in the toilet, reducing the cooling off to a minimum. 
Once again we started walking, our spirits high even though we mentioned that we were only half way round and the more steep climbing yet to come. These Toronto folk are a hardy bunch, must be all the training they do walking to the Go Train. The second half of the trail is I think more scenic than the first half with the trail twisting through the woods before finally climbing up to the Viewpoint, my VPA satisfied for another day. The Viewpoint Addiction effects or should that be affects our Toronto friends in a strange way, they seemed to be elevated by the experience, check the photos and video, very strange, obviously it was getting near the time to deport them back to Ontario. The last 3kms went without incident and we were back at the parking lot. All we need now is a big dumping of snow and we can do it all again this time on skis.
An enjoyable round, less demanding than our previous walks but a tad further, just short of 15kms. Sadly our Toronto friends had a long drive home, whilst we went for pizza.