running in a winter wonderland

In the last few days, Montreal has gone from clear sidewalks, residual snow, and warm temperatures to snow everywhere, really icy sidewalks, and a bit of a biting wind. But the good news was that yesterday it was sunny. And on the beautiful sunny day, we ended up running in a winter wonderland.

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When the sidewalks ended up being an icy and slippery mess, we ended up re-hashing our planned running route and headed up "the mountain." We figured the packed snow of the paths there would be a better alternative to the slick sidewalks. Sure, it meant a lot of uphill, but the scenery was so very worth it and I was disappointed that I hadn't brought my camera.

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Sharing the paths with walkers, runners, dogs, kids, snowshoers, and cross country skiers (no bikers today, but I ran into some on the same paths last winter) was kind of cool. All sorts of people out enjoying the winter weather in their own ways. We also may have run into Canadian royalty of sorts. We're pretty sure we saw Justin Trudeau and his family enjoying a sunny Sunday in the park.

By the end of the 11 miles my legs were definitely feeling the hills and my stabilizing muscles are still feeling the effects of having to work extra hard with the slippery conditions (and my right ankle is a little sore from stepping on the wrong part of a crunchy piece of ice), but the fresh snow on the branches of the trees and the sun hitting the snow on Mount Royal definitely made it all worth it. No sleigh bells though...

Is there a part of your city that ends up being more beautiful when winter comes?