Monts Valin Quebec For 5 Months of Trail & Backcountry Riding…
Monts Valin Quebec – Click on photo to view tour article
Sometimes as early as November, riders begin flocking to snowmobile Monts Valin Quebec for a Quebec snowmobile tour or snowmobile vacation. Often, they continue riding there when everything else is closed in April or later. Typically, Monts Valin provides a reliable and consistent, six-month sledding season. This is among the very best in eastern North America. As we found out that first week of January, that’s why Monts Valin is such a popular destination. It’s good for first, last and in-between Quebec snowmobile tour riding.
Snowmobile Monts Valin Quebec – Where is It?
Monts Valin photo © by Craig Nicholson
Monts Valin is located in the Saguenay–Lac-St-Jean Region of Quebec. It’s an easy three-hour drive north of The City of Quebec on the newly four-lane Highway 175. From the major population centres of the Saguenay heartland, Dan Carty, Darren Clissold, Glenn King, Don Webb and I towed our Triton trailers to the north side of the Saguenay Fiord. The elevation almost immediately began climbing to our staging destination, Auberge Carcajou near Saint-David-de-Falardeau.
Climbing to Snowmobile Monts Valin Quebec
Monts Valin Lookout photo © by Craig Nicholson
“Climbing” is the operative word on this Quebec snowmobile tour. Many parts of Monts Valin range up to and over 900 metres above sea level. That elevation, along with Saguenay’s northerly geographic location, generates the colossal amounts of snow that make Monts Valin such a snowmobiler’s paradise.
That term, “Snowmobile Paradise”, applies to the entire Saguenay Region. But the south side of the Fiord is lower ground that usually opens later and closes earlier than Monts Valin. The altitude on Monts Valin also accounts for one of the area’s new attractions for snowmobilers. They call it the Summits Circuit.
Ride The Summits Circuit to Snowmobile Monts Valin Quebec
Monts Valin Summits Circuit photo © by Craig Nicholson
There are five of summits. Pic du Mont Victor-Tremblay (780 m), Pic du lac du Syndicat (800 m), Pic du lac Boivin (900 m), Pic du Le Dos de Cheval (900 m) and Pic des Monts Sainte-Marguerite (920 m). The Saguenay snow trails map clearly marks each one. Each is also easily accessible by snowmobile from a main trail, with a parking stop at the top for sightseeing.
Doing the five summits was part of our mission on this Quebec snowmobile tour. And we did. Except that as the luck of the draw had it, very low clouds delivered fresh snow all day. This storm also socked in the summits, obscuring all the spectacular views. Oh well, that’s something to go back for. And forced to choose, I’ll take snow over sights any time!
For more on this Quebec snowmobile tour + itinerary, read my Early and Late article as published in Snow Goer Canada snowmobile magazine. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for more great Quebec snowmobile tour destinations, check out the rest of my Quebec tours.
View Saguenay Lac-St-Jean/Monts Valin Trail Map
Riders should reconfirm the routes and services mentioned in this Quebec snowmobile tour article as they may have changed since publication.
The tips and advice in this blog are the opinions of the author, may not work in every situation and are intended only for the convenience and interest of the reader, who has the personal responsibility to confirm the validity, accuracy and relevancy of this information prior to putting it to their own use.