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| - I went to Montreal over a year before writing this for a week long birthday vacation with my boyfriend. Growing up in the Midwest, United States, I spent most of my life deprived of mountainous regions. Before we even arrived to the city, I was determined to climb my first mountain - Mont Royal.
After experiencing a few days of the city, we made the venture from our hotel in Longueuil to the park (after a brief stop for meat pies at Tourtiere Australienne! YUM!!). Never one to follow conventional wisdom, (or previously marked trails, for that matter) I - the trail guide for the day - decided to bush-wack our way up the side of the mountain. About half-way up, without a trail in sight, we realize that we've gotten ourselves into a bit of a situation. Above us was steep, crumbly dirt that was still wet from the rain from the last couple days. Below us was a slightly less steep drop, but jagged rocks, broken glass bottles, the few trees we'd been using to pull ourselves up, and just as much crumbly ground. With no choice at that point but to continue on, we scaled the side of the mountain by digging into the dirt until we finally found a path to continue on to.
From the grounds around Chalet du Mont-Royal, you can see the whole city spread out in all of it's glory below you. We arrived just before dusk, so we had the immediate transition from the sunny scenery, to the rosy glow lending its light to the vista below.
We found our way in the quickly departing light to the Croix du Mont-Royal - the peak of the mountain, and while I was busy taking pictures of the cross at night, my boyfriend was rummaging through his bag. I turned around to see what he thought of the view as he was getting down on his knee with a small box in his hand. He asked if I would climb more mountains with him, then he asked me to marry him!
The Parc du Mont-Royal, and its namesake mountain will always hold a special place in my heart, but even if you don't have the same sentimental experience, it's still a great place to see!
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