Mont-Tremblant – Day 6 – St-Jovite, Sentier des Cimes, Centre des villégiature Tremblant

It was already hot by the time we were ready to ride from the apartment this morning. There are two buildings and a swimming pool on the site. The one behind us has outdoor staircases, but ours does not.

We were heading for Sentier des Cimes, a tree top walk in Mont-Tremblant National Park. It is about 20 km south of where we are staying. We realized as we headed out that the last time we rode this section of the trail there had been a detour. That detour is gone so we were able to do a small section of trail, which we haven’t done before.

This is a very nice section of the trail. The asphalt is of good quality and there are lots of views and little villages.

We stopped in St-Jovite for coffee at 83 Nord, named for the fact that it is at the 83rd km from Saint-Jérôme on the P’Tit Train du Nord. The last time we were here we were worried we would get frostbite in our fingers and toes because it was 1°and raining , and we didn’t have our winter cycling gear with us. We recreated the scene.

It’s a lovely café with great coffee beverages and baked goods. It’s also an upscale grocery store. They have an interesting reading material. With only be 40k to ride, we lingered.

There is a nice park adjacent to the trail in St-Jovite wth a playground, splash pad, seating, and shady spots.

We are still trying to figure out what this is. It was by a small weir.

Even when the trail is ascending it is often gentle enough, especially when the pavement is smooth, that we have discussions about whether we are going up or down.

This is such a lovely setting. The chicken coop, which unfortunately I failed to capture, matched the house.

When we rode this section of the trail in fall 2021 we stopped briefly here and read a sign which indicated that this is the Ancienne Pisciculture, but everything was closed. Last fall, days after returning from the P’Tit Train du Nord I was served an ad on Instagram for Sentier des Cimes and was shocked that I could have missed it on the horizon. It is right off the trail.

The first thing I asked when I purchased my ticket was, when was it built, and it transpires that it was after that trip, and it opened last June. I felt better.

The park was built by the federal government during the depression to teach about fish culture. During the 1950s it would host over 150,000 visitors a year. It was downloaded to the provincial government, and then to the upper tier municipality in the late 1990s. It was costing the municipality over $100,000 annually to maintain the property, so two years ago they partnered with the German company AKI, which has many parks like this in multiple European counties. This is the first outside Europe. They pay the municipality to lease the land. Last summer they had up to 3000 visitors a day. Thankfully today, which seems to be the off season, had only a few tens of visitors.

These pictures were displayed in the visitor’s centre.

We were excited to find P’Tit Train du Nord jerseys in the gift shop as the one in Prévost had already closed last fall when we were there.

The entry was $31 for an adult. It seemed reasonable given the major investment to build the treetop walk of over a kilometre and the spiraling viewing structure.

There were fun little diversions along the way.

It was a very robust walkway. We asked them how they do winter maintenance and they replied that they have a snowblower that gets driven along the path and up the spiral.

This lichen is so pretty.

It reminds me of The Vessel at Hudson Yard in New York City, but it is no longer open for climbing due to low railings and several suicides. The railings here were chest height on me.

And up we go. The were only 5 other people in the structure as we climbed. And a few others as we descended.

There was a net, which the daring were able to walk on, over the open space in the centre, 40m off the ground.

It was a fun experience.

The cashier in the cafeteria was lovely and so proud of what had been accomplished here. She is the one who gave us the history of the property.

The food was good but expensive. There were plenty of tables and umbrellas for shade, which we needed, as it got up to 31°.

We stopped again in St-Jovite on the way back , checked out the bike store, and then tried a different coffee shop called 900 Tremblant.

From where I was sitting, I could see the bus stop and recalled that the bus within Mont-Tremblant National Park is free. We had talked about cycling from the village where we are staying to the resort where the ski slope is tomorrow, but when I saw the bus stop, I thought why not bus to the ski resort and then ride back to our apartment today. So we finished our coffee and a few minutes later were sitting on the bus. The bus driver, and one of the passengers, both commented that we were professionals, putting our bikes on the rack.

The ride took about 30 minutes. We toured around the resort which is something we were unable to do last time because of how cold and tired we were by the time we got there. That time, when we got there, while we were having lunch, the waiter told us about the bus. We took the bus back to St-Jovite which meant that Cindy was able to meet her goal of transporting her bike on a bus for the first time. It also cut out a some riding on a long, cold day.

We headed back through the woods in the direction that we rode to the resort last year. After about 10 minutes of riding uphill, we were faced with a fence saying that the bridge was closed and no detour was listed. Two young guys on fat tired E bikes came out from behind the fence and told us we wouldn’t want to go through there with our bikes because it had been damaged in the winter.

We told them where we wanted to go and they lead us right back to where we started and then pointed us off in another direction. We were both doubtful but did end up back along the route about 15 minutes later that we recognized.

This water foundation worked and water the plants in the hollowed out log.

We stopped at the grocery store in town and picked up a couple things and passed the very busy public beach, where there were still crabapple trees blossoming.

We carried our bikes up to the room got into our bathing suits and cannonballed into the pool. It felt amazing.

Once again, we prepared dinner in the apartment, and spent the evening recovering from the heat and our efforts.