WINTER CALLING ME AGAIN AT CAP SAINT- JACQUES:

                                  BACK AGAIN EXACTLY A YEAR LATER
It was sunny - just as it was February 18^th one year ago - almost to the day. Once again, I was greeted with smiles and assistance. Christine, who is in charge of rentals right inside the welcome centre fit me out with Rossignol cross-country skis and boots. I tossed the ones I had brought from home into their inner room. I felt great knowing I was using the park’s top-of-the-line skis and was not fearful of going alone on the trails (last winter Diego, one of the park guides) accompanied me. This is one park whose signs of where you are with different trails (rabbit, beavers and squirrel) are well indicated and in colour.

In this office, I also met Eric, who grooms the trails. What an interesting guy! He’s a tree man, an arborist who also reads a lot about them. In fact, he’s right at home in this park, since the Cap is laden with them.  many are being tapped for maple syrup season.

The trails aren’t hilly but still form fun gentle mounds for a gliding that give a hint of an adrenaline rush. 

 The snow was melting; it was kind of crispy-sugary. I fell at one point on a small icy spot and couldn’t get up. Celine, whom I met on the trial five minutes earlier tried to pick me up. She too fell at the exact same spot. Fortunately, a young woman appeared and hoisted me back up; I was amazed at her strength. She blurted out laughing, “I’m a fire fighter. You have to be strong.” When I got back to the welcome centre, another woman who had seen it all, told me the fire fighter fell about a minute later. 

                                                                We laughed.

I took the yellow beaver trail that’s just a bit more than 6 kilometres. I was glad to see how much snow there was, to see the lakes again that give expansive views to other towns, including Oka.

Here I was, only 30 minutes from Montreal, but the relaxed treed landscape , cut through by winding trails edged in stream and lakes,  transported me into a realm of peace, prettiness and awfully friendly folk inside the park.

Read about last winter and summer at the park