“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 the one we had come from, the 3. secteur de la pointe de Carrières. And so it came to pass that we decided to go to 1. first. Note the clever use of numbers to avoid typing the names all the time. Clever eh. This trail has the only real climb of the walk just before reaching the road, our turning point to go to 2. Our group had naturally broken into three, the respected old sages led by Al L , the main core and then Jessica B and her companion Tim who really we hadn’t seen since departing from the parking lot. We allrecalled Jessica’s last words , I am going ahead to the toilet and I will meet up with you later. Oh dear, we passed the toilet, Jessica unseen, still why let it spoil our day.
Pleasant walking through the woods brought us to the start of the spur to 2. Or the return to 3. It was at this point that a certain person who shall be nameless but who has a habit of constantly checking is iphone spoke up. “Hang on if we go back now we will achieve our 9 kms” said Tom, oops what a giveaway . Suddenly it was “I only wanted to do 9 kms”, “I have kitchen work to do “, “Christmas shopping” , “golf is on the TV” “ I have to go to an Estonian church in N.D.G.” and thus the Wimp group was formed and to top it all Jessica and Tim appeared.
So bidding farewell to the Wimps, the Bold and the Brave carried on to 2 and the water’s edge, close to the ferry well known to our many cycling friends. The return walk was uneventful, with a slight detour to a bird watching viewpoint then back to the parking lot at 3. Sadly we did not find a pleasant lunch spot to allow our ladies to eat their sandwiches, of course we did not have any sandwiches so we were a little biased against stopping. Hope we will be forgiven.
Well what did all that mean, a record turnout, including several new faces who we hope to see again. A really pleasant walk in the woods and marsh lands, a first time there for several folk. A 9 to 10 kms walk for the respected old sages and the Wimps, sorry Jessica we have no idea what you did. A winning 13 t0 14 Kms for the Bold and the Brave.