Well it had to happen one day, we lost some of our group although technically they lost us. Anyhow more of that later. Hasn’t this been a great late fall or what! Sunday was no exception , bright blue skies, sun shine and crisp temperatures. It was noted that the official bean counter was absent once again, will we ever see him again. Rumour had it that he accidently planted the beans and was too embarrassed to mention it. Fortunately with the aid of several fingers and a couple of smart phones we established that we had 23 walkers. The plan was to walk in an area Parc de Falaises ( www.parcdesfalaises.ca) which is a new conservation area, and also some older back country trails which are on private land.
Our first objective was to reach the viewpoint at Mont Shaw, which was duly achieved 
followed by a steep descent to pick up a faint leaf covered trail leading to MOC. Now with our gang on narrow trails we do get spread out and so as usual the lead group missed the turn, I do not know why, the old 6 inch ribbon tied to a tree stuck out like a Highway sign, if you looked up. So we all made it to the MOC trail and around Lac Paradis except when we regrouped we were 4 short, the 4 leading walkers. We wanted to go right but they could have gone left so we sent someone to look left but with no success so we assumed they had gone right. Of course there was another alternative they could have been abducted by aliens, oh dear knowing the four we felt sorry for the aliens. The next section is a steady climb up to Power line pylon 94, even the new lead group could not miss that! If you are into power lines this one is quite impressive as looking South you can see the line heading to Montreal with the city on the horizon. Just as we were about to leave our missing 4 appeared, obviously they had scared the crap out of the aliens who had smartly dropped them back to earth. Their story of being told to go around the Lac du Paradis was clearly delusionary.
Lunch was taken at the Belévèdere viewpoint, with cracking views over the valley and a wee dram in our hand. Another 
steep descent and we arrived at the WN trail, at this point a few walkers left the group due to time restraints and descended to the valley, the remainder plowed on up the WN and the WN Wizard trails. All was well until the leader suggested a turn up the hillside on what was considered to be an nonexistent path, not sure if it was the climb or the nonexistent path that was the problem, but the pointing out of another faint ribbon and a bit of smooth talking got the show on the road, of course it helped that the trail became a little more distinct as we climbed and soon we topped out. Suddenly smiles all round, the hangman’s noose removed from the leaders neck as the gang recognised the pylon 94 again. Just two more kms of mainly descending and we arrived back at the parking lot at Prevost station. Just another great day, oh nearly forgot another 10kms walk with lots of climbing, super.
Maps of this area are not available but Ghyslaine has made some copies of the old ski map which I can send club members, ( Keith, email BTNSC @ ymail.com) but if you go remember to respect the private property and the conservation areas.