Hiking on Mont-Sainte-Anne in Beautiful Beaupré

The beautiful town of Beaupré has been in existence since the beginning of the New France colony. Located along the Saint Lawrence River and Route 138 at the mouth of the Sainte-Anne-du-Nord River, it has captured the attention of Breton sailors in the 17^th century when they landed on the coastal plains of Québec. They reputedly exclaimed, “Oh, le beau pré (Oh, the beautiful meadow)!” And that’s how the name came to be, which I think is just perfect.

Its most famous landmark is Mont-Sainte-Anne, an 800-meter high mountain that is part of the Laurentian mountain chain. With a vertical drop of 625 meters and an average of 475 centimeter natural snowfall at the summit, it has become a popular ski resort in eastern Canada since 1966, though skiing here actually goes back to the 1940s when volunteers cut the first trail in the fall of 1943 and the first skiing competition was held three years later.

In those days, the competitors had to climb the mountain by foot while carrying all their equipment. Now, the mountain is owned by a resort company and several improvements have been made – new trails, lifts, a gondola, and buildings with amenities for food, accommodations, and equipment sale. It now boasts of 71 trails, including a skating trail, and two snow parks spread across the three sides of the mountain, as well as a “boardercross” run and four trails of alpine touring. After sundown, 19 trails are illuminated. It is also now renowned for the highest vertical drop for night skiing in Canada, the high quality of its snow, and the daily grooming of its slopes.

My husband and I are not skiers, so we had not really thought of going there in the winter when it is crowded with winter sport enthusiasts. However, the mountain is a four-season resort that offers plenty of activities the whole year round, with or without snow.

Once summer arrives, the internationally-renowned ski resort becomes a complete outdoors activity and summer destination. You can go hiking, mountain biking (cross-country and downhill), camping, golfing, canyoning, paragliding, swimming, and more. We were there one summer for some hiking.

We booked a room at Château Mont-Sainte-Anne, a four-star hotel complex located directly below the mountain. We arrived at around 9 o’clock at night (from Québec City), and the first thing we did was to head to the restaurant for a very late dinner. It was a good thing we called ahead of time, confirmed that they could still accommodate us, and reserved a table. We heard that the resort community out there has a strong reputation for gourmet food and I must say, the quality of our meal and the excellent service of the staff that night exceeded our expectations.

The restaurant is called Bistro Nordik, and as the name suggests, it offers Nordic cuisine. It is inspired by the new Nordic movement introduced by Chef René Redzepi of the restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, which highlights local harvests and puts emphasis on freshness and nutrition on every dish executed with refinement.

I went for their “create-your-own-four-course-meal-from-the-a-la-carte-menu.” My first course was a comforting bowl of creamy vegetable soup followed by a succulent Far North crab cake appetizer with lightly-spiced pumpkin sauce and honey-lime arugula.

For my main, I ordered tuna tartare that came with chips and salad and ended the meal with ginger crème brûlée. My husband ordered elk medallion steak with baked potatoes and my son had the kid-sized prime rib steak with French fries. Everything was superb!

When we went to our assigned room, we were delightfully surprised to find we had a penthouse suite in the newly-renovated Espace wing. It was spacious with an open, industrial design. There was a cozy living room with a fireplace and a double sofa bed, a balcony overlooking the mountain and the pool area, a dining table that seats four people, a full kitchen with stainless steel appliances and state-of-the art kitchen gadgets, including a Nespresso coffee machine and a Nespresso frother (a much-welcomed bonus), and a spa-like bathroom.

The bedroom with a King bed was upstairs on a loft overlooking the living room. There was an extra powder room there (so one doesn’t have to go down in the middle of the night to use the washroom) and a laundry room with a stackable washer-dryer combo, ironing board, and plenty of closet space. The room also came with two wide-screen television sets – one downstairs, and one upstairs facing the bed.

My husband looked at me and asked if we were in the right room and I said that since our key fob worked here and it’s the same room number as the one written on our check-in sheet, we probably were.

You see, I booked this room online and at the time of the booking, the website only had studio suites available, which was really more than enough for us (King bed, double sofa bed, one bathroom, fully equipped kitchenette, and a dining table for two people). Since we were only there for a couple of days and we’d be out exploring most of the time, we had no need for any luxury amenities. He jokingly asked what I had to do to get this penthouse suite for a studio suite price. It turned out we got a free upgrade due to our late check-in. This was the only room left when we arrived. Well, sometimes, tardiness could bring some nice surprises.

We decided we were all going to sleep on the King bed since we didn’t want our little boy (six-years-old that time) to stay by himself downstairs on the sofa bed, no matter how comfortable it looked. And since we arrived so late and so tired, we took it easy and slept in.

The next morning, I felt so spoiled having some good quality coffee. There was a stash of Nespresso coffee pods in a variety of flavours. I lazily sipped my brew on the balcony while taking in the fresh morning air and enjoying the view. My boys enjoyed their breakfast of cereal and bread leisurely. We didn’t have to rush so much. We had 1 ½ bathrooms at our disposal, so our morning preparation was less hectic.

My husband spent the morning talking to the concierge and getting brochures and information about the hiking trails. After studying the maps and checking the schedules, he decided that they (him and our son because I already begged off from the hike due to the heat and humidity that I could tolerate due to my respiratory allergy) will do one of the difficult mountain trails that go from the base to the summit. He calculated that if they started their ascent by 1:00 p.m. at the latest, they should be in time for the last gondola trip down the mountain at 4:00 p.m. I, on the other hand, will take the gondola to the summit then do a couple of summit trails while waiting for them.

And since we have a bit of time before the proposed hiking schedule, we drove around the neighborhood for a while to look for a bakery to replenish my husband’s fresh bread supply and get some lunch. We found one right at the corner where Boulevard du Beau Pré merges with Boulevard Sainte-Anne. It was conveniently beside an Ultramar gas station, so it worked well for both us, and our car.

The small family-run place is called À Chacun Son Pain (To Each His Bread) and it’s a café, boulangérie, and pizzeria all rolled in one in a cozy little building. They have a variety of bread straight out of the oven, delectable pastries, wood-fire pizzas made as you order, freshly-made sandwiches and paninis, and a selection of locally-produced food items from some Charlevoix region producers, such as smoked salmon and trout, salmon mousse and rillettes, Basque-style duck confit and foie gras, organic meat, rabbits and exotic poultry (guinea fowl, quail, pheasant), cheeses, sausages, dehydrated wild mushrooms and wild mushroom tea, goat’s milk from goat raised on top of the mountains, ciders, jellies and jams, natural drinks made from tea and raw honey, honey and other bee products, lavender products, homemade barbecue sauces and steak spice, fresh produce, and even beer from local microbreweries. So much good stuff in such a tiny place!

My husband bought a loaf of their old-fashioned white bread and some country bread rolls. He was going to eat them for lunch with our take-along roast beef slices and German sausages. I spied a couple of terrines – rabbit and duck – that were on sale for half the price because they were expiring the following day. I got both since I was going to eat them for lunch anyway.

And of course, our son wanted a pizza. He ordered the La El Pépé, because it had pepperoni galore on a bed of homemade tomato sauce and homemade cheese blend. We watched as the pizza was being prepared from scratch and our curious boy fired questions at the friendly pizza guy who happily answered in broken English as he was kneading the dough. And as he took out the pizza from the wood oven, our pizza connoisseur declared, “Ah, nothing like good quality homemade pizza cooked in a wood oven!” 

And true enough, the aroma made me wonder why I didn’t order one for me, but then I realized I wasn’t going to be able to finish my bread and terrine plus a whole pizza.

We headed back to our hotel and enjoyed our simple lunch. After a brief rest, we walked to the back of the hotel to look for the starting point of the hiking trail.

My boys wanted to do the Le Sentier des Pionniers, which is a three-kilometer difficult hike up the mountain that takes about one and half to two hours. There are five more mountain trails that start from this side of the mountain, one being easy, another one on the same level of difficulty as the one that my boys have chosen, and three that were labelled as “very difficult.”

The grounds were well-marked, so it did not take us too long to find it. I reminded my boys to be careful and to make sure they get to the summit before 4:00 p.m. as I was not planning to walk all the way down the mountain. After I kissed them good-bye and told them to have fun, our little explorer sped off right away to follow his Dad.

I headed to the gondola station and bought my roundtrip ticket and two one-way tickets for my boys. There was hardly anyone there so I got on the gondola right away and I had it all to myself. The ride to the summit took 15 minutes. I ignored the apprehension I felt at the beginning for though I enjoy gondola rides, I felt a little bit isolated there. Apart from myself, I saw only a couple of cars with passengers and down below, I saw only a lone biker navigating the rocky bike path and a trio of hikers walking along what I guessed was the extremely challenging Le Gondoleuse trail.

When I reached the summit, the place felt all the more isolated. There were only two maintenance guys at the gondola station and a handful of people. There was a family with two small children heading out to one of the summit trails, a small group of tourists taking pictures on the Observation Deck, and a few bikers.

I headed to the Observation Deck first to survey the area and enjoy the 360-degree panoramic view from the mountain top. From that vantage point, I saw several paths from all sides of the mountain, – some for bikes, some for hikers, some for skiers in the winter, and some shared ones – leading down, all with wooden signs that indicate their name and level of difficulty. After taking a few photos, I went down to check my trail options.

There were three summit trails – Le chemin des Belvédères which was a 1.6-kilometer trail that could be completed in 45 minutes, the 0.7-kilometer Le Panorama that could be completed for ten minutes, and the Le Charlevoisien, 0.6 kilometers in length and could be done in 15 minutes.

I started with the first one which was quite a nice walk, partly in a wooded area that was shaded by the trees, and partly on the edge of the mountain overlooking the Charlevoix region, the Saint Lawrence River, and Québec City beyond. There was no one on the trail and the paths were easy to trudge, so I savoured the peace and quiet it provided, apart from the occasional tweeting of birds and rustling of the leaves from the cool breeze which made my walk even more relaxing.

I eventually stumbled upon the Chalet de la Crête, a lodge and lookout point with an amazing view.  Apparently, this is the site where paragliders and hang gliders jump off.  There was no para or hang gliding that day, though, and the place was empty, save for a couple of fellow tourists. They offered to take my picture and I offered to do theirs. They are from Texas visiting some family in Québec City and are enjoying this region very much. I bid them farewell and a pleasant rest of the trip as I made my way back to the trail which I finished in no time. And since I still had the time and energy, I decided to do the other two trails as well.

When I was done, I walked back to the Observation Tower and made my way to the building called Summit Lodge that houses the restaurant and bar, plus a few other amenities. I kind of guessed that they were closed since it was off-season (and I thanked heavens that I brought enough water) but I was hoping I could use the washroom. A lady with a huge backpack who was walking ahead of me had the same intent and we were both disappointed to find out that the building was locked. We tried all the doors – front and back – but were out of luck. We gave up and just walked back to the gondola station for we were pretty sure they would be washrooms there.

She told me she has been hiking since early morning. She took the longest and most difficult trail from the base which was 8.8 kilometers long for four and a half hours, and after a brief rest, she did all three summit trails. Oh my! Right before me was Wonder Woman personified. From her relaxed look, save from the few cuts that she had cleaned and bandaged herself, one would never have guessed she tackled all that! On the other hand, there was me, panting my lungs out and looking like hell from my summit walk. How can some people make it look so easy?

The lady also told me that there are a couple of trails at the base of the mountain. The first one is the Le chemin des chutes, a 3.9-kilometer trail that crosses three wondrous cascading falls of different heights (12, 19, and 41 meters respectively) collectively called Chutes Jean-Larose. It includes 400 steps and two resting areas that lead you directly to the base of the falls. The second one is called Mestachibo which runs for 12 kilometers and would take almost five hours to complete. Following the course of the Sainte-Anne-du-Nord River through a mature forest of spruces and pine trees and interesting rock formations, it offers breathtaking views and leads you to the Saint-Férréol-les-Neiges Church.

I asked her if she had done these trails and of course, she responded, “Several times!” Perhaps we could do these next time, but on this particular trip, my husband and son were bent on doing an ascent hike all the way to the top. She ran off afterwards to descend the mountain by foot. Why was I not surprised?

My boys had not yet arrived at that time. It was around 3:20 p.m. and I was starting to get worried. I tried calling but my husband was not picking up the phone. There was nothing much I could do, so I sat at one of the picnic tables, ate a granola bar, and finished my water while praying that they get there before 4 p.m.

By 3:30 p.m., I decided to chat with the gondola guy who was quite friendly and funny. I casually mentioned that my husband and son were on their way to the summit and that I was hoping he could wait till they had arrived before he’d shut down the gondola. He told me he could wait for ten or so minutes if they get delayed. Still, I was on the verge of panic. I stood by the window at what I thought was the finish line of the Le Sentier des Pionniers, waiting and waiting. 

At 3:45 p.m., I saw my boys emerging from the path and I immediately beckoned for them to proceed to the gondola entrance right away. As usual, my last-minute husband was unperturbed by the time. He gave me a smile and a thumbs up and declared that our son is definitely a certified wilderness hiker now.

My son was scampering beside him while munching on a sandwich, as if he just came from a stroll at the park. He told me, “Mom, I had to do No.2 in the forest. Daddy had to dig a hole and then we had to cover up it up. Isn’t that cool? I am a wilderness boy now!” 

And before I could say anything, they ran to the Observation Tower and shouted, “Be right back!” I ran after them and reminded them about the gondola closing time. My husband pointed up and said, “There are still people up there. Don’t worry, we’ll be in time for the last gondola ride.”

Don’t worry? Didn’t he realize he had less than 15 minutes left? Geeesh! Sometime I wonder how my husband can live like this…waiting for everything till the last minute and thinking it’s all going to work out fine.

At 3:55 pm, I started yelling their names frantically and I soon saw them coming down the stairs of the Observation Deck and running towards the gondola station with the other people (a group of teenagers and one family of three). I checked with my gondola friend and confirmed he knew that people were coming. He told me not to worry because he would make sure everyone got on, unless someone elects to hike down the mountain instead. He was still locking up the ticket booth and packing things up when the late comers arrived, so my boys even had the time to go to the washroom. But, man, that was really close!

As we boarded the gondola, my husband proudly said, “See? Plenty of time!” I wanted to smack him big time.

On our ride back, our little boy pointed at the trail below us and proudly said, “I was there, Mommy!” and something like, “I climbed that rock over there, Mommy,” when he’d recognize a landmark.

He was all giddy until he remembered to mention an incident with a dog. Apparently, a fellow hiker had a big dog with him and at one point, the dog decided to chase our son and he panicked, ran, and tripped on a small rock. All was well though. He didn’t get hurt and the owner explained that the dog was really friendly and just got excited. I joked that maybe the dog smelled his bottom because he just did some interesting business. My son did a fake frown and corrected me by saying that the “call of nature” happened after he said goodbye to the dog.

My husband told me that our fearless son climbed like a mountain goat and he was quick to note that that trail they chose is quite steep and was dotted with large rocks amidst a lush forest, and that I probably made the right decision to not come along. Well, yeah! I was honest enough to admit that I wasn’t in the best shape to do any rock maneuvering for three kilometers uphill!

When we alighted from the gondola, we explored the base of the mountain for a bit. There are a lot of activities offered by the resort for all ages and all physical fitness levels. One can never run out of options to stay fit. For bikers, there is a pump track where you can practice doing a series of banked turns and roller waves which allows you to gain speed without pedaling. Next to it is a balance bike track for toddler bikers who would like to practice first before getting on the pump track.

There is a booth occupied by Aerostyle, the paragliding school that takes you up the mountain via the gondola and then teaches you how to fly like a bird on a vertical drop of 2,050 feet from the west side of the mountain. They also offer tandem flights where you can board a two-seater plane with a qualified instructor and enjoy the view from up in the sky.

We saw the sign for Canyoning-Québec, which offers an amazing experience of rappelling in the Jean-Larose Waterfalls. There is a section cordoned off for sacklining, apparently a relatively new sport done on webbing that is secured between two anchor points, usually trees, where one can develop balancing skills. There are arrows pointing to Forest Parkour, an adventure-filled trail perfect for adults and children who want to incorporate hiking with a family game of obstacle course. There’s the Canine Village where you will get the chance to meet 65 Nordic dogs and do some dogsledding, but since it is summer, it’s not operational.

My son spotted the playground and immediately rushed there. While he was playing and letting out some more energy leftover from the hike, my husband and I sat and watched. However, fruit flies soon started swarming us and we got out of there in no time.

As we were walking, we saw signs for golf, a multi-purpose track, and camping. Within the premises is Le Grand Vallon golf course, a four-star, 18-hole, par 72 course set against the breathtaking backdrop of Mont Sainte-Anne. With 40 white sand pits, four lakes, and hilly terrain, it is said to be the most challenging golf course in Québec. We are not golfers, so we cannot judge this. My son, however, enjoys mini-putt games. Too bad, there’s none here.

They do have a unique kind of game called “disc golf” which is a 12-basket course played in the same manner as traditional golf, but with the use of a disc that you throw into chain baskets. We didn’t get the chance to try this, but it sounded interesting.

The multi-purpose track, on the other hand, is part of the cross-country ski trail network of Mont Sainte-Anne and is along the Rang Saint-Julien in Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges. It is an asphalted four-kilometer loop that could be used in different sports – running, cycling, rollerblading, etc. And nearby, the campground lies seven kilometers away from the alpine ski area. It features 166 large camping sites, both shaded and open, and has a lake and a main lodge that offers wi-fi service.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed by the huge, glistening pool. My son asked if we could go swimming the next day and we said we could if we’re back early, as we were planning to spend the morning and afternoon at Canyon Sainte-Anne. My boys actually ended up swimming at the indoor pool in the hotel basement after our excursion. It was busier the following day and when my son saw the indoor one with less people, he insisted they go there instead.

Back at the hotel, we put our tired feet up and took turns in the shower. My boys, as usual, had another round of snacks.

We decided that we were going to eat in that night. After all, our suite has a nice kitchen and it would be a shame if we didn’t use it. So, we drove to the nearest grocery store and shopped for dinner food.

My husband found a nice piece of beef for roasting, and I found a pack of Portuguese-style sausages and a pack of chicken-broccoli-cheddar sausages. We also got pasta, a small bottle of olive oil, garlic, and canned clams for the clam aglio e olio spaghetti dish I thought of making. We also bought some prosciutto and local cheese for the appetizer plate to go with the tart cherries we got from Île d’Orléans earlier. Everything went well with our “home-cooked” dinner, except for the bottle of house wine which I bought from the same grocery store, just because it was the only brand that came in a smaller bottle. It was so bad it tasted like old vinegar. I should have bought a regular-sized bottle even though I am the only wine drinker in the family (my husband has fructose-intolerance and therefore cannot have wine or grape products, and obviously, our son is too young to have alcohol).

We spent the rest of the night stargazing on the balcony and watching out for shooting stars, then retired early for the night.

It was a short and sweet visit here, but we can always go back. I imagine this place has a different vibe in the winter when the mountain is covered with snow and the crowd is composed of avid skiers and snowboarders. Perhaps, we should…and perhaps we can develop a liking for winter sports. We can start with snowshoeing and go from there. I think our son would enjoy that.