It definitely felt like winter was in the offing on Sunday morning. Many of us saw a few light flakes falling as we looked out our bedroom windows. But buoyed by an extra hour of sleep, thanks to the end of Daylight Saving Time during the night, 21 of us made the trip up north to Val David.
This park has gone through a few name changes over the last decade as the adjacent communities of Val David and Val Morin worked to transfer the land containing the trail network located between them from private to public hands. It is now officially called the Parc régional de Val-David-Val-Morin. The park consists of two sections: Secteur Dufresne and Secteur Far Hills. Most of our hike took place in the Secteur Dufresne.
It was about 0 C under a partly sunny sky as we got prepared at the Chalet d’accueil Anne-Piché. Despite the flakes we saw in the city, there was no snow on the ground. Once all the boots were donned, trail tickets purchased, and bathrooms visited, we took our traditional group photo and set out at 10:25 am.
Our master navigator, Keith, was armed with his trusty GPS, a fresh trail map, and a GPS plot of where we had hiked last year. However, this did not prevent the group from stretching out and getting separated about 30 minutes into the hike. While the lead part of the group waited patiently at the first trail junction, the remaining hikers managed to lose the trail and had to resort to a bit of bush-whacking to find their way back onto it. Rejoined again, Keith kept a close watch on the group to ensure that we stayed together the rest of the way!
This hike is definitely rated as at least “moderate”. There was a good amount of up and 
downs as we went from one viewpoint to another. Some of the trailside scenery is quite special as we stroll by massive stone blocks left by ancient glaciers and large cliff faces where we saw a few rock climbers scaling them with their ropes and pulleys. We also noticed that the park custodians have been actively maintaining the trail network with new trail markers and a couple of brand new warming huts.
We took a few brief breaks at some of the viewpoints for snacks, but otherwise kept up a steady pace. The sun came out about half the time and would warm things up to about 4 C. Keith kept us on the straight and narrow and we all returned together after covering 9.5 km over 3.5 hours. Several of us stopped at Tim’s in Val David for some well-earned refreshments before the drive home. A great day in Val David!