Mathieu Godin
The author taking in the view
Words by Mathieu Godin @pathfinder_overland
Created in 1895, SÉPAQ’s oldest and largest park–Parc national du Mont-Tremblant, is open all year and is only a two-hour drive from Ottawa. While Mont-Tremblant is well known for its ski resort, its national park is the place to go if you prefer to enjoy some solitude in the mountains.
I first visited this park back in 2009, and returned each season since except winter. This changed when I decided that I was in need of a winter adventure. I wasn’t into roughing it with winter camping so I contacted SÉPAQ and booked a cabin mid-week, when it would be less busy. The park personnel recommended one of their Compact cabins in the Pimbina sector for a comfortable stay and some superb snowshoe trails. The park is divided into three sectors, however, snowshoe trails are only spread over two sectors. While I was familiar with the Diable sector, I had never explored the Pimbina sector, so it sounded like a plan.
With more than 115 km (71.5 mi) of snowshoe trails, designed for families or those looking for more of a challenge, you have plenty to explore within those two sectors. Snowshoeing is only one of many activities to enjoy during the winter season as you can also go cross-country skiing, backcountry skiing, winter-hiking, Ski-vel (wheelchair skiing) and Fatbiking.
During winter, the campsites for RVs are closed, but you have many options in terms of accommodations. Why not leave the RV behind to sleep in a cabin within the Laurentian Mountains?
With a total of 887 campsites, mostly opened between May 10 to October 14, and with many accommodating RVs – Parc national du Mont-Tremblant is a great destination for RVers.
The five Compact cabins in the Pimbina sector are perfect for a family of four. The units have electricity and are fully-equipped with everything you need for meal preparation, as well as a washroom with shower.
You basically just need to bring your food and linens.
As my departure date was getting closer, I suspected that a long-time friend would be willing to accompany me. How could he say no, I’d look after the whole logistics, he’d only need to bring his sleeping bag.
As expected, my buddy was up for it. Unfortunately, we left Ottawa later than expected and arrived too late in the afternoon to do any snowshoeing, but the weather forecast looked good for the next morning– only it was going to be a little on the cold side. We woke up with the outside temperature showing -23C (-9.4 Fahrenheit), but it was going to be a sunny day, so we knew we’d warm up during our snowshoeing trip. The plan was to leave by 9:00 am so we could return and vacate the cabin by noon.
One of the other recommendations from SÉPAQ was to complete the L’Envol trail. It starts from the Pimbina Visitors Centre and is only a 5 km (3 mi) round trip if you turn around at the lookout. Rated as moderate in terms of difficulty, it seemed to be a reasonable objective considering the time we had left.
The snowshoe trail was already packed from the passage of visitors days before with only about three inches of fresh powdered snow on top. I opened the trail, but the fluffy snow didn’t add to the challenge. Around us was a landscape covered in fresh powder, with the snow acting as an insulant– all we could hear was our own breathing. Going uphill, we quickly warmed up. Our efforts paid off though and once we reached the first lookout, we had a stunning view of the park’s rounded mountains from the observation deck.
We couldn’t have asked for a better day, the weather was great, and since we hadn’t met anyone on the trail– it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves. After taking a short break, we continued uphill a few feet to the second lookout. We then turned around to go back and since we were going downhill, the effort was not as physically demanding, and we did get a little cold from the sweat we had previously built up. I was glad I had a second pair of gloves as my first pair had frozen solid when we took our break.
It was only when we returned to the Visitor Centre’s parking lot that we saw other visitors who were getting ready to follow in our tracks. We were happy to be done early and returned to our cozy cabin for a nice, warm cup of coffee.
For more information on Parc national du Mont-Tremblant, visit the website at www.sepaq.com
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Mathieu Godin
The Compact cabin has everything you need
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Mathieu Godin
Lookout at L'Envol
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Mathieu Godin
Lookout at L'Envol
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Mathieu Godin
The trek begins