On Sat afternoon and evening we kept an eye on the weather. The temp hovered around the freezing point with snow and rain falling, depending on just where and when one was checking the weather. But it became clear that, while there was rain mixed with the snow in town and points south, in the Laurentians they were only getting snow. So at the End of Season Party on Sat evening, we quickly reached a consensus that Gai Luron would be the place to go on Sun morning. A tweet to this effect was duly issued.
It definitely did not feel like the second day of spring as we arrived at Gai Luron at 10 am on Sun. The Swix thermometer at Gai Luron said it was -12 C, but our car dashboards were reporting 
more like -15 C. However the sun was out and that helped. There was a reported wind of about 25 km/h, but it was from the west and the Gai Luron chalet sits on the east side of the big hill with all the trails, so we did not feel the wind at all. What’s more, they had received 3-5 cm of powdery snow and the trails were all freshly groomed.
There were only six of us who gathered in the chalet at 10 am — me, Mickey, Scott, Ghyslaine, Roy and Dennis. There were several more members at the EOS party the previous evening who had expressed their intent to join us, but that was earlier in the evening, before the effects of a late night of eating and joviality apparently caught up with them!
After applying green(!) wax to our skis, we were off on the “L” trail. It is difficult to overstate how truly excellent were the trail conditions. I
t really seemed like it should be Jan 22 instead of Mar 22. The new soft snow on the ground and laden on the branches, the perfectly groomed trails, the blazing sunshine, the sheltered forest. The six of us skied the first loop together. We also did the two extra single-track loops off the “L” trail (boucle B and boucle C). Everything was in great shape, with lots of fresh snow to make all the descents easily controllable.
After skiing 12 km on the first loop, we met two more members back at the chalet: Hervey was skiing while Muriel was snowshoeing. The original six skiers split into two groups of three and proceeded to do one or two more loops. I tried to keep up with Ghyslaine around the “G” and the “U” trails. She had spent the winter competing on the local racing circuit and finished as 
4th best in Quebec in her category. Needless to say, my attempts to ski fast enough to keep her in sight were ultimately unsuccessful!
It was a splendid cross-country ski outing no matter what the date might have been. But it was all the more remarkable for this late in the season!