What we traditionally refer to as Far Hills is now officially known as “Parc Régional de Val-David–Val-Morin – Secteur Far Hills”. The Far Hills chalet is at the eastern end of the regional park. The western end is called Secteur Dufresne and has the Anne-Piché chalet located at the entrance. The Anne-Piché chalet is where we set out from when we do our annual Val David hike in the fall. The trails run between the two chalets.
I had not been to Far Hills for a few years, so it was a treat to finally get back there for a ski outing. As we pulled into the parking lot of Far Hills shortly after 9 am on Sun morning, the parking lot was already surprisingly crowded. Much of that was likely due to the ski lesson programs they run there — we saw kids of various ages forming into groups and being shepherded by instructors.
It’s been a cold winter and last Sun morning at Far Hills was no exception. It was -15 C as we got our skis ready. But it was sunny and there was fresh snow on a thick base, so the conditions were looking to be ideal. We were 13 Beaver Tailers, including one new person trying out the club for the first time. We formed into four groups of 2, 2, 3, and 6 skiers. I set out with Glenn K, John P, Helene C, Cheryl and Sue-Anne.
Our group resolved to do a big clockwise loop of the trail system. (Refer below to the trail map with our route marked in green.) We set out south with a long descent on the 5, which we immediately paid for with a long climb
back up. We took the 3 across Lac Amigo, and then took the 7 to the 11. On the 11, we came across the black 13, which goes up to the lookouts on Mont Condor. We debated for a moment whether to ski past it, but we reasoned that with snow conditions this good, what better day day to take the more adventurous trails. The trial was groomed all the way and the views were worth the climb!
Back down on the 11, we intersected the black part of the 1, which is a sharp, twisty descent. But once again, we decided the snow afforded ideal conditions and so down we went. Sure enough, all of us kept in control down a trail that is reminiscent of an Olympic bobsled run! We then followed trails 33, 27 and 23 to get to the black 15, the trail that goes around the backside of Mont Césaire. There was quite a long and challenging climb about 1 km into the 15, but after that it was a tranquil and bucolic trail through the woods. The 15 brought us back down to trail 33, which we took east back towards the Far Hills chalet.
At this point we decided we would like to loop around north of the chalet and return through the small section of trails east of the chalet. But the only way to do that was to go for a ways on the “hors piste” trail 4. It was not groomed but there were tracks from skier traffic. There were some “interesting” sections up hills and under tree trunks. There were also some beautiful sights: an old church in a field of snow, a homemade hockey rink on a frozen lake. We successfully rejoined the main trail network and took trails 8 and 10 back to the chalet. We skied 15.5 km in 3 hours — not a fast average speed, but it was a very hilly route!
It had warmed up to -8 C by the time we were done. Our four groups all arrived back within minutes of each other and we got together in the upstairs lunch room to enjoy hot soup and sandwiches. Everybody, including our new prospective member, confirmed that they had had an excellent day of skiing at Far Hills!