The Happy Camper: Escaping to Aiguebelle, Quebec’s Rugged Wonderland
I just returned from a week exploring Aiguebelle National Park in Quebec’s Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and I’ll be returning, that’s for sure!
The park is situated in northwestern Quebec, close to the Ontario border, and a hop, skip and a jump from Temagami. Driving there is kind of odd. You’re going north, real north, but the landscape between the top shore of Lake Timiskaming and the park itself resembles southwestern Ontario, with hay fields and cows. This out-of-place landscape is tilted the “Little Clay Belt” and is full of quaint villages linked with history-covered bridges. Once you reach Aiguebelle, however, the view is changed to lush boreal forest with elongated deep lakes lined with billion-year-old, red-tinged cliff faces. It’s like an Amazon rain forest surrounded by flat pastureland. Incredibly unique to say the least.
My plan was to hike and paddle as many of the trails and lakes I could during my stay. Aiguebelle offers 30 kilometres of well-maintained trails, ranging from easy walks to challenging hikes. With rain in the forecast 90 per cent of my time at the park, I could only take on a quarter of what Aiguebelle had to offer. That’s why I want to go back.
First up was a night spent in one of their rustic cabins spread out across the park. I arrived at the southern access, Mont-Brun reception area, just after 4 p.m. The drive north took a lot longer than Google Map allocated; 10 hours from my home near Kingston, Ontario, rather than seven. Road construction was the culprit.
A late start only gave me a half hour to drive the narrow gravel road to the Lac Patrice parking area, and to hike the 300 metres into the cabin I had booked. Pelting rain, and a key code that didn’t match the lock on the cabin, made for an interesting first night in the park. But I endured by pitching my tent beside the locked cabin and enjoyed a P&J sandwich washed down with a cheap blended whisky.
It rained through the night, and a constant drizzle continued while I walked back to the parking lot and took a quick hike on the 1.2 kilometre Sentier-L Elan with a ridge top overlooking the boggy Lac Patrice. I spotted a moose feeding along the shoreline and a red-shouldered hawk catching a thermal above the hilltop that I had clambered up to. It was an idyllic scene to say the least.
The next stop was a drive to the north portion of the park (24 kilometres on a curvy but paved road) to Lake Loïs. There’s a mini (Ojibway) campground at the access, but I had booked a backcountry site instead. I was about an hour’s paddle to one of the two cluster campsites the park has established on the lake.
It was obvious when I arrived that the sites were hardly used. A small poplar tree was even growing in the middle of the one of the fire pits. So, if you’re looking for solace, this is the place for you. My entire two nights camped here, I saw two motorboats buzzing along in the distance and spotted four bald eagles.
My plan was to go out and catch myself a walleye (Dore) for dinner. The rain hadn’t slowed down, however, so I had another P&J sandwich and whisky for dinner and read a book inside my tent.
I was up before 6 a.m., paddled back to my car and met the park’s nature interpreter, Axel Bertrand, at the main visitor center just before 9 a.m. He had volunteered to hike with me along Aiguebelle’s signature trail—the 3.5 kilometre La Traverse. The young naturalist was great company. Axel knew so much about the origins of the billion-year-old rock we treaded on and many of the diverse flora and fauna that call the park home.
There were various lookout platforms that gave amazing views of the pristine Lac Haie and the massive cliff faces that encircled it. The elongated lake engulfed by reddish-tinged rock faces was formed by a massive fault line billions of years ago. It’s a geological phenomenon.
There were also gigantic potholes to gaze down at and darkened granite crevices to squeeze through. But the absolute highlight of the trail was the suspension bridge that stretches over a dramatic ravine and hangs 22 metres above the Lac Haie. It’s not for the faint of heart, but the views while you scrabble your way across are beyond breathtaking.
If you want to extend your hike here, there’s a much more challenging 9.5 kilometre loop around Lac Haie, titled L’Adventurier. It makes for a long day hike or you could book the rustic cabin for the night, positioned at the halfway point.
My hike with Axel on the La Traverse Trail took longer than expected. It usually takes about an hour-and-a-half, but the energetic park naturalist was adding so much information about the park along the way that it took us double the time to complete it. It was a real bonus having Axel along. His enthusiasm for the natural surroundings had an addictive quality to it. But it also meant I had to alter my plans for the afternoon and only choose one more spot to visit before paddling back to my site on Lac Lois.
Lac Sault was my choice to end my day. A 12 kilometre trail—Les Versants—circles the entire lake but there is a shorter two kilometre trail—Les Paysages—that takes you to an amazing viewpoint of the lake. It’s equipped with a 13 metre high spiral staircase that lowers you back down from the lookout. Unfortunately, this portion was under construction at the time, so I decided a paddle across the lake would suffice. I had my own canoe, but rental canoes and safety gear are stored at each access if needed.
Just as I took my canoe off my car racks, the weather turned for the worse. The morning drizzle had now turned into a hardened downfall. So, I left Lac Sault for another day and escaped back to my remote campsite back on Lac Lois. Under a sodden tarp, I once again had a simple dinner with a wee dram.
I left Aiguebelle National Park early the next day. Rain continued through the night, and I packed up a very wet tent and paddled back to my car at the campground. On my drive through the park to reach the southern exit, I saw signs for more rustic cabins to rent, more places to paddle, more places to pitch a tent and a lot more places to hike, including the infamous Mont Dominant Trail that reaches the highest summit in the park and the Le Garde-Feu that reaches the old fire tower that park wardens would use to watch for forest fires.
Both trails were on my hit list for when I return—and I will return!
Check out the video of my trip to Aiguebelle National Park, Quebec’s Natural Jewel, on my KCHappyCamper YouTube channel.
