Camping Alouette, Quebec, Canada (Montreal)
Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. ~ Proverbs 4:7
I keep forgetting to mention a couple of things – – remember those bridges we have to go across to get to Montreal? That’s because Montreal is an island! Did you know that? We didn’t! And those bridges we cross are the busiest road they have. But guess what? On certain nights, they close the bridges for, of all things, fireworks! Completely close them! Starting at 8pm.
We’ve seen quite a few fire trucks with lights flashing and horns blaring, trying to get around the city at various times. Hopefully, they all got to wherever it was they needed to be.
So on with today.
Feeling much better, we climbed not one, not two, but three mountains today!
Do you remember us taking pictures of the mountain across from our campsite? That’s where we went today. It’s called Mont St. Hilaire and is part of the Gault Nature Reserve, owned by McGill University and used in part, for research and education.
We didn’t know much about the place, only that you could climb to the top. It was early Monday morning, so we didn’t expect a whole lot of people around. Boy were we wrong! There was a line waiting just to get into the place, and probably ¾ of the parking space was already filled – with Quebec license plates. We saw two from Ontario and one from Illinois and us. Other than that, I’m guessing they were all fairly local.
Once we had a map, we discovered there were actually three peaks!
I included a highlighted picture of the route we took today.
Much of the trails looked the same. Nice wide path with either packed dirt or small gravel, so although we had a steady incline, it wasn’t difficult. We began with the Pain de Sucre trail. You’d think with a name like that, it’d be a bad omen, but it’s actually French for Sugar Bread. 😊
Stunning views! We haven’t done a hike like this for quite some time! Going back down the very steep portion of the trail, we were thinking that “Pain” was a good name for it.
If you look closely, you can just make out the skyline.
It’s a plane.
Practically eye-level with us, though!
Next up, we cut across on a connector trail and headed up to Dippe (no English translation for this one, or the next) for another chance at wonderful views. The only sad thing? The views from all three peaks are virtually the same! We kept hoping to see the other side of the mountain, but that never materialized.
That’s Pain du Sucre!
Can’t believe how far away it is!
Again we had to head back down to catch a connector to Rocky.
The Rocky trail went down to Lake Hertel.
Along the way, we passed a woman about our age headed up the mountain wearing a tank top, fringed skirt and sandals and sporting nicely coiffed hair. She looked like she’d be more at home shopping than climbing a mountain. I certainly never look that good when I hike – not even in the streets of Montreal. In fact, the only time I look even close to that good, is when I go to church on Sunday morning.
Which reminds me . . . . it seems I forgot my Monday morning sermon review. If you were looking for it, I’m truly sorry. We remained at home and sat on our couch and listened to Pastor Mike teach another section from the Gospel of John. In a very small nutshell, it was about examining the reason you attend church and what your life of daily worship looks like. Do you live according to God’s Way? Or according to your own way, and think God will accept that. He won’t, you know. He expects us to be sincerely trying to live His way. He knows we’ll stumble and fail at times, but where’s our heart truly at? Do you have an arrogant attitude and think He doesn’t really care, or that you can sin now and ask forgiveness later? It’s all about the heart. We need to examine our hearts and learn from His Word what He expects from us.
Once we made it to the Lake, there was a bench waiting for us! We were sooo thankful because we were bushed! As we were preparing to leave to traverse the short distance remaining to the Jeep, two men stopped by. Now, something you need to know – – since there were so many Quebec cars in the lot, we always said, “bon jour!” to the people we passed in the trail, and they’d respond in kind. So when the men stopped and said “Bon jour!” We replied the same. And one of the guys started rattling off French words. (hahaha!) Blaine told him we spoke English, he immediately switched to words we could understand. We had a nice conversation with the two of them. Both were very familiar with Quebec City, but neither could come up with anything specific – – and one of them used to be a tour guide there. They just said, “Everything! And all the food!” 😊
We made it to the main part of the lake and sat at a picnic table to enjoy the view and rest some more.
We were just about back to the parking lot, when we spotted two small woodpeckers (I forget what kind) low on a tree trunk. You never see woodpeckers that close, so we stood still and watched them as we’re slowly taking our phones out to try to snap a picture, when suddenly, what we think was a Peregrine falcon swooped down right in front of us towards the woodpeckers who took off at practically the speed of light to escape! Love observing nature!
21,100 steps today. And not steps like flat sidewalk steps, I’m talkin’ steps. As in climbing mountains steps. I think we (as in all humanity) should recognize the difference. And we did all this on 3 cookies, ½ a banana, an apple, ½ a small bag of trail mix and 24 oz. of water – – each. And now I’m just going for dramatic flare. . . . 😊
Back home, we were hot and tired (and hungry, but it was leftovers so that was ready quickly), and as usual the campground voltage was severely lacking. The power is so bad here, even turning on our floor fan blew a breaker! So forget the air. Blaine ended up having to run our generator for about 20 minutes – even though you’re not supposed to – just to make it livable in here.
Once the coach cooled off and the sun went down, we were fine. Tomorrow we move to the Quebec City area.