Hiking Montreal - only $15!

The weather has been beautiful the last few days - upper 80s, clear and sunny. So on Saturday, we headed North of the city to Lanaudière for a hike. The land is beautiful - the hills spring up from the flat plains without warning, and everywhere we drove there were little farms with roadside stands featuring fraises (strawberries), bleuets (blueberries), and even a little farm with rows and rows of different flowers. We bought a dozen ears of sweet corn - and the 10 year old manning the stand gave me a refresher course in French numbers.

We found the trail (Parc Régional de Chutes Monte-à-Pein-des-Dalles), but the gate attendant was adamant that we come back tomorrow - it was already almost 4:00, the park closed at 6:00 - and she could not in good conscience let us waste our money. We took the information, agreed to return tomorrow and promptly made a wrong turn on a dirt road. Once we circled back to the park entrance we had changed our mind, so we paid our entrance fee and made our way in.

Sam promptly found a new life's purpose as a snake hunter. He also has a bite first, take pictures later attitude on snakes, so our pictures feature them quickly slithering away. But, we think that it was a Northern Ribbon Snake, as below:

The falls and views were fantastic.

Even though we only had two hours, we got a good hike in and were plenty worn out by the end.

On our way back, we drove through quaint little villages like St. Beatrix, and innumerable little lakes.