On Saturday we went out to a monastery to do the hike there. The monastery goes back to 1881 and was actually started in Oka. They're not living without though, we walked past the dorms and it was super modern with spacious balconies off each room. They also had a little shop where they sell local goods, a lot of it was made by the monks. I did a little bit of shopping there, chocolates and kombucha before our hike.
The trail, like many others in Quebec, doubles as a cross country ski trail so it was really nice and wide. It was a little bit confusing since there were a lot of private property signs up and we ended up skipping part of the trail because of that.
It was really nice to see all the green coming through though. Especially with all the wild flowers in bloom. We saw a couple of little ski shacks and a few shacks that might have been something else. This one was right on the river, had an old woodstove and a loft inside. It was well insulated and had a big '1941' sign above the door. We imagined it being the home of someone who wanted to escape the busy city.
We stopped for a picnic in a nice big field and enjoyed the sunshine. It was super peaceful and we didn't see a whole lot of other hikers. But then a plane kept flying back and forth and ruining it.
It was a super warm day after a colder week and it definitely took a toll on us. We were all feeling a little sluggish and didn't mind that we had to cut a loop out of the hike. I think I'm going to put this on my list for skiing in the winter.
