Everyone on the mountain
Saturday had such great weather that hundreds of people flocked to Mount Royal, and it looks like Sunday to Wednesday will be as pleasant.
I was out walking around Saturday. Streets were crowded too, and when I took a bus, it felt like traffic was also nuts for a Saturday. I guess we all know we’ll be cocooning soon enough.
EmilyG 11:28 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
I was on the mountain on Friday. I had a good time.
MarcG 11:34 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
I was there on Friday as well and was surprised at all of the blocked paths due to work being done. Not exactly a relaxing atmosphere but the colours were nice. Looking at the mountain today from Verdun it looks like there’s a lot more red even a few days later.
Kate 13:04 on 2024-10-20 Permalink
They’ve been fighting a losing battle against erosion for a long time. People persist in barging off paths and through fragile undergrowth so they need to block access to some areas till plants regrow.
MarcG 06:56 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
At least in one case they were building a bridge/walkway over a mucky area.
Tim S. 09:09 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
As of last winter they were still cutting down ash trees. Wood chips and sawdust are really not great on a cross-country ski track, especially downhill.
Kate 12:55 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
MarcG, there are wooden walkways over wetlands in some of the more far-flung nature parks on the island of Montreal, and on Île Bizard. Here’s a photo I took in the Île Bizard nature park a few years ago. That’s all rushes and marsh around the walkway. So maybe they can arrange something similar for parts of Mount Royal.
carswell 14:18 on 2024-10-21 Permalink
A wooden bridge was already built over part of the Mount Royal wetlands, replacing a section of one of the main paths that lead to the part of the park below the east outlook. About a decade ago IIRC.
On the east side of the mountain, there’s really only one wetland for most of the year, The water comes from a spring at the very foot of the east face, visited by wildlife, police horses and the occasional hiker.
The fences are necessary because the environment has been severely degraded over the years by a number of factors, such as Drapeau’s clearing of undergrowth in former gay cruising areas, heavy off-trail foot traffic, mountain bikes and “gatherers” (have seen people descending the mountain with huge bouquets of wildflowers, including trilliums, a threatened species).