Quebec Trails

[CarolinaCrawler]

My family and I are going up to MSA for the world cup in October. We decided to go up for the week and make a family vacation out of it too. We are planning 2 days in Quebec city for the touristy stuff and 2 days of riding before the race. Our plan was to ride La Massif both days but I would love to ride some of the local (free - not trail center) trails the other day. The original plan was to ride at MSA but at this time of the year the trails are only open on the weekend and we were wanting to ride on the weekend.

I am very interested in these trails. We have ebikes (which I heard are legal pretty much everywhere up there) so climbs are not much of a problem. Any trail names or routes I can look up on trailforks? Preferably on the Quebec City/Beaupre side.

 

[Stihldog]

Welcome to the forums.
Cheers

 

[Guyt]

I didn't see you question earlier, I hope you had a great time in the Québec City area.

Here's some general info on the local trails, just in case I could be useful to future visitors.

Mountain biking is very popular in my area, so there are quite a few MTB centers to choose from. E-MTBs are accepted everywhere, but expect to pay for daily usage (avg 25$ CAD) . Here are the main centers, east to west.

Le Massif de Charlevoix:

Great downhill mountain biking, but I would not recommend it for E-MTBs, unless it's an ultra light one. To take the gondola or the chair lift, you have to hook the bike yourself, and I take a lot of strength, because the hook is high. There is a club med, not sure if it's open year round, but you don't want to stay there, it's too far east. Keep Le Massif for skiing in the winter.

Mont Sainte-Anne:

MSA offers a wide variety of trails opened 7 days/week, but the gondola that brings you to the top of the mountain may be closed on weekdays. Still a lot of traditional trail riding available when gondola closed.

Sentier Du Moulin:

70 km of trails for all levels, but SDM is very popular among advanced riders, as it offers quite a lot of challenging trails.

Empire-47:

Probably the most popular center in the region, as it is a family-oriented center and offers great trails for all levels

Vallée Bras-du-Nord

Divided in 2 sectors St-Raymond and Shannahan, the later offers incredible views and great trails. A must.

Overall, the Québec City area is fantastic for mountain biking and I would think it's by far the best MTB venue on the East Coast. In fact, I met a young couple from Utah at Empire-47 and they were stoked.

Should you have specific questions on the region, the best is to ask it on a dedicated facebook group. Of course, they are in French, but we're always happy to reply in English. My favorite one for E-MTB is "Communauté E-MTB Québec":

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[CarolinaCrawler]

I didn't see you question earlier, I hope you had a great time in the Québec City area.

We got back last Wednesday from out trip. It was busy but fantastic. We really enjoyed the area.

We rode La Massif one day. It was beautiful weather and a little chilly at the top but not bad. I had be told it was best to park at the bottom so you were not stuck at the bottom after the lifts stopped. It was a pretty awesome place. The gondola was down for maintenance do we had to ride the chairlift. It was the longest chairlift I've ever ridden. It took 25 minutes to get up with something like 300 chairs. I loaded the family's bikes so there wasn't a problem there. I brought my downhill bike. Big mistake. It was also the longest downhill runs I've ever experienced. We rode all day and the family only made 3 runs and I only made 2 more before we ran out of time.

We later rode MSA. I absolutely love MSA. Pretty much the opposite of La Massif. La Massif was nicely groomed, mostly flow type trails and MSA was great technical trails that were not groomed. We rode one day and I feel like I only scratched the surface of it. I would love to go back a few more days and explore.

 

[Guyt]

Carolina Crawler, I'm glad you enjoyed your visit. Le Massif is great indeed, MSA is a completely different experience, so are the 3 other centers (E-47, SDM and VBN), so make sure you come back and let me know, I'll be more than happy to give you more info. I live in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (10 min. from MSA). it's a great place to stay, 30 minutes from Quebec City and same distance to go to the Massif, where I ski in the Winter:

I am familiar with North Carolina, my wife and I are primary windsurfers, so OBX has been our spring destination for the past 15 years. We stopped mountain biking in Brevard 2 years ago and loved the vibes. But now we have E-MTBs and most trails don't allow them (National Forests policy), so didn't go this year. But I hear things are changing, Bend (Oregon) were experimenting allowing EMTBs on National Forests land.

Cheers!

 

[CarolinaCrawler]

Carolina Crawler, I'm glad you enjoyed your visit. Le Massif is great indeed, MSA is a completely different experience, so are the 3 other centers (E-47, SDM and VBN), so make sure you come back and let me know, I'll be more than happy to give you more info. I live in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré (10 min. from MSA). it's a great place to stay, 30 minutes from Quebec City and same distance to go to the Massif, where I ski in the Winter:

We stayed in Saint-Tite-des-Caps about halfway between La Massif and MSA. Beaupre was by far my favorite town. We would go down to the IGA for grocery's and we ate at Radio Cafe and Chez Bolduc regularly. Really enjoyed that area. We will definitely be back. I want to ride SDM and VBN. I also really want to check out Bromont while I'm in that area too.

I am familiar with North Carolina, my wife and I are primary windsurfers, so OBX has been our spring destination for the past 15 years. We stopped mountain biking in Brevard 2 years ago and loved the vibes. But now we have E-MTBs and most trails don't allow them (National Forests policy), so didn't go this year. But I hear things are changing, Bend (Oregon) were experimenting allowing EMTBs on National Forests land.

That's great that you guys come this far down! Next time for sure bring the bikes. There's plenty of ebike friendly riding around here. I'm around 1.5 hours from Brevard and Ashville and ride there regularly. If you make a trip down let me know and I'll be more than happy to help in any way I can.