Sun Oct 27 Val David: Report by Joanna C

On a drizzly Sunday, 12 BTNSCer’s and a greyish poodle congregated in the chalet on rue Condor, Val David, to embark upon a hike of an indeterminate distance. This was not a normal hike in the traditional BTNSC sense for it was decided that two newbie leaders, (one who confuses right with left, and the other who is topographically disoriented,) would lead the group through the woods and hills of Val David, and back.

The first glance at the trail map revealed a jumbled-looking selection of differently-coloured lines and non-linear numbers. Our objective was to somewhat follow Keith’s red dots on a GPS 2013 10 27 Val Davidplot from last year’s hike. So we identified the POI’s for the day, and tentatively sketched a route across the page and back, when the kind lady at the chalet not only indicated that our maps were somewhat outdated, but also reminded us that the chalet closed @ 4:30 p.m.

After a rocky start a mere 15 m into the hike, we reassessed the trail and finally made our way across the hills and towards the first lookout at Mont Condor ouest via trail c/13…

An accurate account with specific trails numbers and exact distances is not going to happen here – however, we did make it across the map from the chalet at the left, to all four (or five?) lookouts, narrowly missing steep drop-offs, along trail E-L, 7, around a loop which was trail 5.  (We nearly went backwards because the sign said ‘do not enter’.  Who knew that the first ‘do not enter sign’ meant do not enter, and the second one meant ‘go this way’. No wonder we nearly got lost…)  Finally we climbed back along the trails 3/1/39… Our journey brought us up some rocky terrain, and swiftly down leafy covered descents — some muddier than others — and back to the chalet, which was still open, fortunately, or we’d never hear the end of it…