Wilderness and Waterfalls: Québec City — Women’s/Femme Identifying

We’ll pick you up in the morn­ing at Jean-Lesage inter­na­tion­al air­port (YQB) or our rec­om­mend­ed hotel in Old Que­bec. Then we are off to Saint Ray­mond, the sec­ond sec­tor of the Val­lée Bras-du-Nord trail net­work, for more action-packed fun!

Once at the trail­head, you’ll want to check out the local bike shop, Frenette, and pick up some VBN swag to help sup­port the local trails (and look super cool, too). We’ll hit the trails on Sen­tier du Roque­mont and La Mon­tée du Belvédère with all the new­found skills and con­fi­dence we’ve acquired from the past few days, before let­ting go of the brakes on the grin-induc­ing Grand Eggan. We’ll do a lap of the XC loop l’Écho des Julien before wind­ing down on Mon­sieur Roland. We’ll end up at the Roque­mont Brasserie for lunch and a tast­ing tour of the brewery.

We’ll wake up this morn­ing to the sound of birds chirp­ing and the sun ris­ing above the moun­tains. The trails in Val­lée Bras-du-Nord are bound to leave you speech­less and dumb­found­ed by their sheer beau­ty. So wild and rugged is the land­scape, you’ll have a hard time believ­ing we’re just an hour away from bustling Que­bec City. Plus, being steps away from the trails in our pri­vate eco-lodge, we’ll be able to take full advan­tage of the day ahead of us.

We’ll dis­cov­er the Neil­son North and South trails which, linked togeth­er, form an undu­lat­ing rib­bon of per­fect­ly carved sin­gle­track along rag­ing rivers, strik­ing water­falls and gran­ite cliffs jut­ting from the for­est floor. Per­haps one of the coolest aspects of these trails is that they were built in part­ner­ship with Pro­jet Jeunesse, a pro­gram that puts shov­els and pulask­is in the hands of at-risk youth and pro­vides them with valu­able skills and mean­ing­ful work through trail build­ing. As we break by the Neil­son riv­er, we’ll gain an under­stand­ing of why this land is so sacred to the Huron-Wen­dat First Nations of the area. A spec­tac­u­lar catered lunch awaits us on the banks of the riv­er where we’ll feast on local and tra­di­tion­al del­i­ca­cies and sit stunned by our mag­i­cal surroundings.

This after­noon, we’ll begin a short ride on the super-fun La Boréale and the mind-blow­ing Légende, which fea­tures a mas­sive slab ride next to a plum­met­ing water­fall that cul­mi­nates with a stun­ning panoram­ic view of the val­ley below. Then it’s onto the clas­sic Chute à Gilles, where we’ll cross the very same water­fall from below, before mak­ing our way back to our idyl­lic lodge. It’s time to cool down in the riv­er, crack open a beer and cheers to an unbe­liev­able day. In the evening, we’ll enjoy a BBQ din­ner togeth­er before crank­ing some clas­sic Québé­cois folk around a bon­fire (where maple whiskey is known to flow gen­er­ous­ly) and talk about the days accomplishments. 

We’ll dri­ve 90-min­utes out to Lac Delage and head to Empire 47 (which sits at the 47th parallel). 

Empire 47 is well-known as the world’s pre­mier fat­bik­ing cen­tre, but rest assured the sum­mer­time sin­gle­track is just as wor­thy of admi­ra­tion as the groomed win­ter loops. Before div­ing into the trails, our guides will go over a few key rid­ing tech­niques and prop­er rid­ing posi­tions as we ses­sion the super fun flow trail and pump track. Once prop­er­ly warmed up and briefed on what to expect, we’ll ride a nice mix of green and blue trails like Flowren­tide, Huron and Belzébrute where berms, flow lines and stun­ning vis­tas await.

Back at the park­ing lot, we’ll clean up, load up bikes and grab a bite at near­by Pas­cal le Boulanger for a won­der­ful selec­tion of char­cu­terie and fresh pas­tries. Once bel­lies are full and thirst quenched, we’ll check in to our trendy hotel & resort for the next two nights, Entourage sur-le-Lac, over­look­ing beau­ti­ful Lac Beau­port. Once set­tled in, join your guides for a scenic pad­dle around the lake on stand-up pad­dle boards, before unwind­ing over din­ner and a well-deserved glass of wine.

We’ll wel­come a won­der­ful yoga instruc­tor at the lodge to help us breathe, stretch and get our mus­cles warmed up for the day ahead… and what a day it will be. After a hearty break­fast at the resort (be sure to try cre­tons!), we’ll hit the road for the myth­i­cal Mont-Saint-Anne (don’t miss sight of the 83-metre tall Mont­moren­cy Falls on the way!). Mont-Sainte Anne has deep roots in the moun­tain bike rac­ing world dat­ing back 30 years, and it’s where our fear­less leader Marie-Ève cut her teeth before ris­ing as a nation­al down­hill champ! It’s also the per­fect train­ing grounds on which to push and progress our skills as rid­ers, and we’ll take full advan­tage of MSA’s amaz­ing facil­i­ties and breadth of trails.

Our expert guides will offer valu­able advice and point­ers as we go through drills and ses­sion a few inter­me­di­ate-lev­el fea­tures. Then it’s time to apply those fine­ly-tuned skills on bermy, flowy and rocky trails like La Bout­taboutte and La Grisante that are sure to leave you smil­ing from ear to ear. Plus, with Marie-Ève’s gen­tle coach­ing and insight­ful advice, you’ll find your con­fi­dence soar­ing to new heights! We’ll break for a deli­cious, healthy catered lunch at the foot of a mag­i­cal water­fall to soak in the scenery and refu­el on carbs.

In the after­noon, we’ll keep the laughs going with a few mel­low jump lines and high-speed flowy sec­tions on l’Adorila and La Cairn, before clean­ing up to head into Old Que­bec City for din­ner. You’ll walk back in time as you stroll down cob­ble­stone streets, peruse shops, catch some live music and dine at one of our rec­om­mend­ed restau­rants for clas­sic Québé­cois cui­sine or fresh local gas­tronomie. We’ll regroup to head back to Lac Beau­port for a calm­ing soak in the hot tub fol­lowed by a good night’s rest.

Today, we’ll dri­ve a short dis­tance to the famed Sen­tiers du Moulin where rocky ter­rain and mod­ern-day trail build­ing blend to make for an unfor­get­table des­ti­na­tion. We’ll tour the brand new, state-of-the-art wel­come cen­tre and learn about the fas­ci­nat­ing his­to­ry of the area’s rid­ing scene. The trails here of all lev­els have been built thanks to a ded­i­cat­ed crew and over 10,000 hours of vol­un­teer work. You can’t help but feel the pas­sion, devo­tion and deter­mi­na­tion etched into every berm, bridge and rock garden. 

We’ll start off on the crowd-pleas­ing Raph before hit­ting Quebec’s most pop­u­lar trail, Super G, a roller-coast­er-of-a-trail with tons of cool fea­tures, steep slabs, wood­work and techy lines, most of which have ride arounds and alter­na­tive options. After a round of high-fives, we’ll head to the Tour­bil­lon sec­tor and if we’re lucky, we’ll hitch a ride in pick­up trucks to save us the grunt-of-a-climb to the top (some­thing only our local guides can pull off!). We’ll roll into Slab City, a mas­ter­piece-of-a-trail that flows like one giant piece of Cana­di­an Shield. Despite sev­er­al off-cam­ber sec­tions, you’ll learn to trust how grip­py your tires are on the gran­ite! We’ll then regroup for a deli­cious trail­side lunch made up of baguettes, local cheeses and a boun­ty of pro­duits du ter­roir. Rejoice!

After all the adven­tur­ing from the past few days, it’s time to kick back, relax and get our spa on at the near­by Spa Sibéria. Nes­tled in nature, the Scan­di­na­vian-inspired spa is the per­fect spot to unwind and soothe any ten­sion by alter­nat­ing between hot and cold baths, saunas and relax­ation areas. Feel­ing divine­ly reju­ve­nat­ed, we’ll hop in the van before pack­ing up bikes and bid­ding our farewells. We’re off to the air­port for 4:00pm for those catch­ing a flight, and then back to Old Que­bec for those extend­ing their trip. Quel beau voyage!