Mont Orford PSA

If you’re ever in the Mont Orford area and think to yourself "Hey, I should walk up there!", stop yourself. You’ll thank me later.

My mother had the bright idea that we’d go for a nice hike at this provincial park today. No problem. I’m always ready for a nice day of hiking. What neither of us had thought of or were expecting was to arrive at a completely closed ski station where we ended up hiking up the ski slope. At times it felt like we were going straight up a 90° incline. It wasn’t a long hike, only 4 kilometres but man … was it ever hard. We made a number of short stops on the way up to have a sandwich and catch our breath. Although it was quite a windy and cool day, this managed to keep us from overheating and probably, in part, how we did make it all the way up. As we climbed, the view got better and better all time. It was a great feeling to finally reach the top. By that time my calves were shaking from the exertion (and I like to think that I’m in reasonably good shape.) Honestly, if there had been one more switch-back, I may have had to finish the hike on my hands and knees. The view from the top was wonderful though and certainly made up for the climb. I’ve posted a few pictures here. The way down was certainly easier on the heart but no less hard on the body. By the time we reached the bottom, neither of us could feel our knees anymore.

A couple of times it looked as if it was going to rain, and we did get a few drops on the way up but the real rain managed to hold off until the minute we got back to the car. Talk about timing.

After that we went for a short drive into Magog for a relaxing stroll along the main drag and a rewarding pastry and cup of tea in a little local café.

My plans for a long bike ride tomorrow evaporated somewhere up the hill today. I’m going to take thing a little bit easier and stick close to home. I will probably head into Old Montreal to spend some time at The International Flora Festival. And then to end my lovely 4-day long weekend off on the perfect note, I will get my massage and then melt into bed.

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Note: just did a little online investigating and found this site. Just so you know, this is not what is there now. Maybe they did have this at one time but certainly not in 2007.