Nice night for climbing

Living near Mont Royal means going out for some after work/evening hill climbing is easier than cooking supper.

And there's the whole "sunsets are beautiful" thing.

We like to do these two things together to give us a big dose of "it's fucking great to be alive." It's such an enjoyable experience that we do it again and again and again.

But for the montrealer/quebecer/canuck eventually summer ends and winter arrives. We pass the time doing snowshoe during winter blizzards. This is fun, but before too long winter ends. This is both sad and woohoo!

Woohoo because spring means getting to ride outside again, and lucking out when we get amazing weather, like 2012. (lucking out, or alternatively, more evidence that that we're doomed)

Anyway, after a few rides we figure it is time to get on with it, and climb some hills. Specifically the splendid hill of Montreal's Mont Royal. So tonight we got our fat ass over to Mont Royal.

Since tonight was our first time of 2012, we took it easy. Too easy... So we went back down and climbed it a second time, and passed two dudes. And of course we got passed a lot too. It is a popular place for cyclists, and there are plenty of lightweight dudes who can really climb. Also Arthur told us to do laps, and so we always do laps. Yes, this is fun.

We wanted even more fun (and a lot more sunset), so we went over to the Oratoire St-Joseph on the sunny and sunset-oriented west side. This is the best place for a sunset in Montreal.

Then we came back via the Poly hill -- and if you have not climbed the Polytechnique hill, you are not yet a complete "Montreal" cyclist -- and then we finished up our supper substitute superduper semi-summer-season sunset ride with a most excellent dessert selection: the deceptively easy looking Salle Claude Champagne hill.

The very top of the Salle Claude Champagne hill is steeper than bikes were meant to climb. Which is what makes it fun to climb. And it teaches you something about what it means to be alive. Alive... and on two wheels, which is one of the best things to do for the quite short period of time when you are alive and sentient.

This is a lot more fun than running/walking/crawling laps on the 256 step staircase below the Mont Royal Chalet/downtown lookout. Which we also do and recommend because reaching maximum cardio ability over and over again on stair laps is highly excellent bike training, and is sort of fun (as in... when is over).

We love summer sunset rides.