Yesterday, we thought it might be nice to re-visit the Mont St. Hilaire biosphere and try a few of their easier hiking trails. We had no illusions that we could hike to the top of the mountain in 29 ̊C weather. Mont St. Hilaire is a short distance south of Montreal. It’s one of those mountains that seem to be an afterthought on the fertile plains all around it. Mt. Bruno and Mt. St. Grégoire are the same. It’s like God said, “Hmmmm….. that is a bit boring. Too flat. I think I’ll place a little mountain there …… and there ….. annnnddddd there.” Sort of like real-life Minecraft.
As you wind your way counter-clockwise up the mountain, apple and pear orchards take advantage of the southern exposure. Apples are starting to ripen and the roadside stands were getting busy.
I envy the views that folks in this part of Quebec get to enjoy. Just look over your barn roof and there is a mountain.
Sometimes impromptu visits to mountains that you’ve visited before work out and sometimes they don’t. Mt. St. Hilaire was FULL! They limit the number of people entering the biosphere now. It makes sense. We’d never be able to preserve the natural beauty if it got beaten down by tens of thousands of footsteps. We need to tread lightly on this beautiful land. We sadly accepted the fact that we weren’t going to see that mountain.
But, here there is beauty everywhere and we’d seen that there was an outdoor pottery sale on our way up. Switching from natural beauty to human-made beauty, we found an elusive parking spot and checked it out.
And, looking up, we could see what we’d missed earlier in the morning. Do you see the people on top of Mt. St. Hilaire?
With four people in the truck, all having put their Adventure Hats on, we soon came up with Plan B. CIME - Centre d’interpretation du milieu ecologiquue du Haut-Richilieu.
Perfect day to climb, or try to climb, a little mountain.
Three of us made it 90% of the way up. The other one, the one whose camera wanted to take panoramic shots from the summit, continued on
There were tantalizing glimpses of the land below here and there.
Every Quebec village has its own church with its silver steeple.
This young man was born in Portugal and then lived in France. One parent is Portuguese, one French. He’s got a work VISA in Canada and part of his job is to walk up the mountain once or twice or three times/day. When I asked if I could take his picture, he made sure his top shirt button was done up and threw to the ground whatever he was carrying in his hand and smiled. The first thing he said, when he heard that we were from Ontario, was, “You must be sad.” He was referring to the death of Queen Elizabeth.
These travel buddies share our desire to never drive the same road twice. A couple of times it took three of us to figure out where to go. We never did find the old part of Mont St. Hilaire. (Maybe it is an illusion. Maybe Ted and I never saw it a few years ago, we just dreamed it up.)
Hwy 20 leads north into Montreal and our campground. In the morning, we saw that Hwy 20 north was closed for construction on the tunnel. We wondered if they would let local traffic go through to the park, or would we need to drive around to one of the bridges going over the St. Lawrence and access it from the north? The guard told us to drive with our 4-way flashers on and at 10 km/hr. Yay!!! Time to get that perfect shot of the city that on any other day would be a blur!
And, time to enjoy a bit of sunset given to us before we head east in the morning.
Often, I pore through GoodReads quotes from famous people to end my stories. Yesterday, quotes were presented to me - in the truck.
“I’m beginning to think we are living in a have-not province.”
And, the best one:
“I met my goal. I got to the top of a mountain!”
This morning's adventure was to drive from Boucherville to Deschaillons-sur-Saint-Laurent. Cap a la Roche campground.
Quebec will never win the prize for best roads. Oh my. It took us about an hour longer than we ever dreamed of to get to the Godefroy market. Not sure why I didn't take any more pictures. Love this market. There are some individual cheesecakes sitting in the fridge, waiting to be enjoyed for dessert tonight. Oh my!
And, our view for the next three days! The mighty St. Lawrence!
It looks like we may be in for a nice sunset this evening. If these clouds hang around, it will be great!
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