2003-10-15 - Trail O' Butt Work-Out!


This past holiday Monday, the boy and I went hiking in Gatineau park to this "trail" which is more like a path straight up a mountain. It's 4.4 km round trip according to that map and it took us about 2 hours. It was like using the stair master on level 10 for an hour and 15 minutes. Yes. Many stops to catch our breath. Damn I am out of shape! The altitude is 300m high. I tried to take some pictures of the amazing colors of the leaves but I don't have my good camera back yet so the colors aren't very vivid. There's also a waterfall the whole way but there was hardly any water going down due to the season. I've been in the springtime and the sound and sight is amazing. So relaxing.

Pics:

The one and only bridge and stairs. The rest of the trail is rocks (read: boulders), dirt, and tree roots.

A (small) waterfall.

I tried to get a picture showing just how steep it was. It didn't turn out well but oh well. You can see a girl in the bottom left.

This is me about 1/3 of the way up. There's this great place with an amazing view of the surrounding farms etc.

At the very top of the trail (the goal!) is a firetower which ironically burnt (burned?) down last year and they had to rebuild it.

I saw a cool inukshuk along the trail.

And lastly, this is the view of the mountain from the bottom. I marked our path with an arrow. The firetower is up and over the top.

Funny. We made a mental note of all the people we saw on this trail. Lots of families, couples, older (in shape) people. There was even a blind lady with a guide dog! Yet no overweight people. Which came first, the chicken or the egg.

[edited for those who are "fat-attack" sensitive]
* I hope you all realize what I meant by my observation. I thought it was great to see so many people out (especially families) enjoying the weather though we saw no "overweight/unfit" people. If they DID go out and enjoy it, I am sure their lifestyle would be very different. My family will be out doing activities like that as often as we can. As a fanily, being healthy. Lifestyle, health. Chicken, egg.