Bromont : D+, getting worse
Construction of condo on the mountain killed most of the easy trails, overall lack of trail maintenance, owner investment are null, they live by their reputation that is no longer really applicable. They had to lower the season pass to 99$ to keep the riders coming, and they opened 2 fast chairlift this season. It’s killing the other stations that are charging regular access price.

Mount St-Anne: B-, statu quo
Trail access issue, average quality of XC trails, most interesting trails are maintained by locals that don’t share those because they were built illegally, without consent of the mountain owner. The owner is not interested at opening new trails and put the minimum at keeping what exist open. Locals are working hard over there to keep the place interesting. Downhill is deserved by a single gondola.

Camp Fortune: B+, improving
Huge work from Dominique Larocque and her team had lead to nice improvement to the trail network. One of the only official freeride place in the province. Chailift opened every weekend of the summer.

ToboSki / St-Félicien: B+, statu quo
Opened since 8 years, the trail network is 100% official. A single trail builder maintain the whole 80km of trails. Some of the best trails in the area, but very remotely situated. This is one of the very few references to take example from. They also built a race circuit with other regional mountain with the collaboration of Devinci Cycles.

Coaticook: A-, statu quo
Short official trail network situated on SEPAQ land. The parc is actually in-town. The trail access is legal and the fee are minimal. The trails are maintained by 2 local bike shop owner. They don’t have the time to complete the work and many peoples ride there each week. We are planning a trail maintenance weekend for 2006. Big mud issue and many bridges are dead.

St-Bruno / Mount Trinity: D+, getting worse
Illegal trail nearby a golf course. Very technical trails but massive lack of maintenance. These trails where build in the ’70 by local hikers. We did some work there but only to patch and keep access to local riders. Not to be advertised.

Mount Rougemont: F, statu quo
This mountain is about 30 minutes from Montreal and visited by about 150 riders every weekend, despite the fact that the trails are totally illegal and on the southern side of the hill, the land manager are hunting with guns the riders that goes on their properties. The parking actually used is a sugar shack, where the owner don’t really care of the situation because the only part of the network on his property is the parking. All the trails are built on his neighbor properties. Cross-country skiing is strong over there and they managed to open 10 feet wide trail everywhere. ATV and skidoo is also a big issue to land owners because they damage the forest and destroy their maple line (used to bring down the water to the sugar shack). Hiking is extremely popular because of the proximity of Montreal. We are working with the municipality, land owner, local organism and bike shop to legalize the trail network which would be used anyway. They are on a 7 years cycle where they hunt down riders, than realize the trail maintenance we do, invite us again, then it start over again. This is a very big issue and it will take time to reach something where everyone will be pleased.

Prevost: C+, getting worse
Illegal, not very long but nice trails. Good technical level for night rides. Close to Montreal so used by many bike club over the week. It grew from few locals to over 200 riders/week in 2 years. Lack a bit of maintenance. Most of it is on private property. Access is free.

St-Anne-des-Lacs: B-, getting worse
Same as Prevost

Bellefeuille: C, getting worse
Trails were built by local racers for training over the week in their backyard. Since then, most of them moved to freeride so the trails were abandoned. Most stunts of North Shore type need massive work, but are perfectly calibrated for newbie. The trails are known by the municipality and tolerated but not legal. Most of it is on private property. Access is free.

Charlesbourg: B+, improving
Near Quebec city, this trail network is built by locals in their backyard on public land mostly. Need to be officialized and properly mapped. Quebec area have a huge problem with the mayor (which don’t give a shit about bike in general – see comment at the end).

Mont Royal (Montreal): F, statu quo
The hill is situated in the middle of the town. The place is used by thousands of wannabe hikers / bikers to get some air. The access road that goes up is 40 feet wide in stone dust. As soon as you get your tire on the grass, you’re fined 180$ by policeman on horse. Despite that, many stunts and few trails were built. Of course, all of those are strictly illegal. The land owner prefer building condos, and the mayor is not interested in biking.

Montebello: B, getting worse
The upcoming highway 50 will cut this network in half by 2008. Also, local maintainer is getting tired of working alone. The place is legal, properly financed by the municipality and part of the local economy even if it’s relatively small. Denis Rochon, west Quebec IMBA rep, is working on this issue.

Mount St-Hilaire:

Gatineau park: D-, getting worse
The National Parc Commission decided unilaterally to transform every bike trail in a 8 foot wide, stone dust covered, XC skiing path. We can’t really do anything about it. They’re looking for hybrid-type bike, not Mtb.

Panoramique Park (Chicoutimi): B+, improving
The mountain is owned by Alcoa that gave the municipality the right to develop one of the sweetest trail network in the area. The trails are legal, each trail is maintained by an assigned builder, and supporting infrastructures were built at the trail head. They have pic-nic tables, toilets, drinkable water, bike hanger to clean-up the bikes, and everything else you may need. Locals built some of the craziest North Shore stunts. Even those are legal. A nice example of local riders implication, authorized from land manager, with support from the non-riding community. Still, the place have major mud issue but the trails are only 2 years old.

Brossard Bike Park: B+, improving
Official bike park, some dirt jumps and easy north shore stunts. Close of Montreal. Need some investment because the possibilities are impressive. Fees are assured by the locality.

Orkus (indoor skate park): A, improving
The owner answered the request of the riders and opened the doors to Mtb each Monday night. Fees are minimal and fun is maximum. Locals riders are organizing few events there each year. Probably the reference in indoor park in the eastern Canada.

South Park (indoor skate park): F, statu quo
Now closed to Mtb following an incident between skaters and Mtb/BMXer

Central Park (indoor skate park): B-, statu quo
Definitively skate and bmx minded, not for Mtb. Still, open for bike 1 night per week over the winter. The only indoor place in the Trois-Rivieres area.

Ugly Ass Bike (indoor skate park): B, improving
Way too technical for most riders because it was conceived for BMX. Legal access 1 night per week or on reservation. Cheap access because maintained by a local bike shop. Few events each winter.

St-Émile: B-, getting worse
Massive lack of maintenance considering the huge stress this place is under. New trails appear each week, some disappear. This land will be used in 2-3 years to build condos and there’s nothing we can do about it. The trail developers were aware of this fact. We have access until then. We just hope it will take a few years.

Parc du Domaine Vert: C+, improving
The park management decided recently to invest some big money. If we move properly, we have a chance to develop something very nice there. For now, the trails are mostly abandoned.

Lorraine: C, statu quo
Need serious love. The trails are used in winter for xc skiing. No maintenance is done in summer by locals.

Mont Glen: B-, improving
Closed to be legalized, but massive lack of maintenance. Total absence of signalization so you need to go with a local the first time.

Batiscan Park: C-, getting worse
Very average trail, but legal access. Lack of maintenance cause the river to take some part of the network each year. Could be salvaged relatively easily.

Mauricycle (La Tuque): B-, improving
Promising since the local bike shop decided to invest in the 70km of trails they have. They now organize trail building days and similar events. The trails used to be shared with ATV but some nice singletrack appeared this year. Free legal access, map are free at the bike shop. The trails are built on the land of the only industry that keep this town alive – paper wood transformation.

Oka Park: B-, statu quo
Officially accessible trail, but expensive for what you get. A single loop of 7km over 1 hill. An illegal singletrack was built and the SEPAQ is aware of that but tolerate it. Close to Montreal and used by many newcomer to the sport because it’s not too heavy.

Dorval (Alma): C, improving
Got recently approved for a forest development plan funding. Nice potential but need a lot of work. In the process of being legalized.

Bec-Scie (La Baie): C, improving
See Dorval

Le Relais : F, statu quo
They opened last year to bikers, invested, but the locals did not supported them properly. They got sick of spending and having no return of their investments. A single girl of the area decided to build 3 stunts but made them weak. This place is now officially closed and it will take some time and local collaboration to rebuild what was destroyed.

Val David: D, getting worse
Most access are not closed because of a single condo contractor that really don’t want to see any bike on his property. We are working on this issue because the municipality is really not pleased the way things are turning and they want to expropriate the contractor. If it works, we could gain legal access under major approval, which is a forest lover. This might be a good success story over the next year…

Sentiers de la Presqu’ile: C+, statu quo
Legal, very easy trails, and free access over the summer. These trails are used in winter for XC skiing by locals. Over the summer, the place turn in a swamp and mosquitoes are keeping everyone away from this place. A good place to initiate someone before the bugs comes out.

Valcartier: E, statu quo
Still used by some locals for a single event in summer because it’s on a military base. Legal access only during this event. Every other time, you risk being shoot!

Mont Tremblant: F, statu quo
Officially closed. Local club maintain the trail that used to be there before Intrawest bought the place. They are fighting with the region to gain back what they built. So far, nothing work. I’m helping them to find out solutions but in my opinion, this is a lost cause. Intrawest transformed the place in a tourist trap where horseriding and hiking is reserved to those who can afford the excessive rate.

Vallee Pruneau: F, statu quo
Officially dead.
This used to be one of the most promising place in the province. A bit like Camp Fortune. I’ve worked there for 2 years developing trails. In the end, we had 13 downhill track, 20km of XC and the biggest North Shore in the East of the country. The land manager stole 15 000$ and disappeared in Florida for the winter. We lost everything. The situation took months to get cleared in front of the tribunal. The station closed because of that and for the lack of proper insurance available.

Overall, peoples are not aware of the impact they cause on the trail system. Some are trying to mind the others but the mentality is currently “I’ll ride my backyard until it close, then I’ll go see my neighbor”. The vast majority is not ready to put a single day of maintenance in a whole season of riding. This attitude is causing major issues when we try to get trail access because the land manager know the trail will last a time then fade out.

For all these reasons, I gave a “D, getting worse” for the Quebec situation.