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no one complained, and even the Executive was blamed sharply for making nasty insinuations about "Poor George." The Investigation Committee was called the "Committee of Mutts." It was suspected that the ladies had taken a hand in the matter.
All this happened two winters ago. Things have not changed very much since then, save that Willie Murphy has moved his house from the foot of
Murphy's Hill to the foot of George's Trail, just to stay with the crowd, and two sign posts have been erected at the junction of the trails to the mountain. One says "George's Trail," the other "Murphy's Hill." On one side, ruin and destruction; on the other, comparative safety. On one side, a sea of bumps, a maze of curves and tricky passes, through dark trees, and over scantily covered cliffs, with here and there little oasis of refuge where nerve-shattered and horror-stricken stop to collect themselves before resuming their fateful journey. On the other side, the straight bush road and Murphy's Hillgood, honest, innocent Murphy's Hill, but quite as virgin of ski tracks to-day as in those far-off times when the Laheys, the Keogans and the McGuires trod this ridge on their home-made snowshoes.
On the sign board pointing toward George's Trail someone has scribbled these words, taken from the inscription on the gate of Dante's Inferno: "Leave all hope behind, all ye who enter here." And yet they do not look much worried, those who enter this narrow and difficult pass. They know that some day the trail will get them, they know that somewhere, some day, on one of the bumps or at one of the curves, something will snap-a ski or
a bone. They know that if they should succeed in coming through unhurt a
whole season, they may yet fall a prey to that dreadful disease called George's trail disease," - a sudden collapse of nerves in the spring that leaves one weak and powerless for the summer, but who would not take the risk, for the exhilaration of "Shooting George," as they call it?
So the smashing of skis and the maiming of ski-ers still goes on merrily over George's Trail, but if many a ski has been broken over these bumps, many a good ski-er has been made. And to George's Trail, perhaps, the Ottawa Ski Ciub owes the winning of many championships.

C. E. MORTUREUX, President,
Ottawa Ski Club

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Georges Trail Marker from Ottawa Ski Club trails 2003.2.8
1945