FRANCAIS

Fees: $8.75 or SEPAQ access card Level: Difficult Parking: Yes Services: Yes

This is an 12.6 KM hike with 850 m elevation gain located in the Parc national de la Gaspesie . The drive from Montreal is roughly 8h15m or 6h from Quebec City. The access for the trail is at the Mont Albert Discovery and Visitors Centre . Depending when you’re planning to visit also note that departures are authorized only between 10 a.m.and 2 p.m. and to protect the caribou, this trail is open from June 11 to October 10.

This is an in and out trail and one of the reason that it’s considered a difficult trail is the constant ascent. The trail is also very rocky and I would strongly recommend hiking boots and hiking poles. Bring also plenty of water, I had brought 2 liters and had to ration myself to finish the trail.

The trail is beautiful and even before reaching the summit you will have some nice view points. It is a hard trail and if you have different levels of hikers in your group and split up I would suggest a rendez-vous point at the top. We did this trail on June 26th and there was also still snow. We had to cross a river covered with snow at one point and a field of it 150 m before reaching the summit.

The views from the summit are great and different from what you normally see. The summit is a big valley and if you’re looking to do more than 12 km you can continue. When I was there that part of the trail was still closed. There is an observation deck from the top where you can try to spot some caribou in the distance. The view when you look on the other side are just mountain tops after mountain tops.

The trails are well maintained and identified and it’s another of those trail where the efforts paysoff when you reach the summit.

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BY SEBASTIEN ROBILLARD