Mont Rigaud – L’escapade Hike – December 4, 2016

Report by Jan W
We had 21.5 two-legged hikers (Ken hiked only the middle half of the trail with us…) and two happy 4-legged canine hikers covering the 13.5km trail Le Haut-Lieu, starting near the Sucrerie de la Montagne, south of Rigaud. The temperature was a bit below the freezing point when we started, but it was sunny with little wind, comfortable hiking weather. Most of the loop has a wide trail with quite gentle hills. However there are a couple of ascents, the larger one between the 8.5 to 10.5 km marks on the southern edge of the loop, with the last part fairly steep. Well, if it’s steep, there had better be a view somewhere at top of it (Hiker Trail Design 101), and there was, mainly towards the Saint Lawrence Lowlands to the south, so it was a good area for a rest and snack stop. From there is was a comfortable 3.5km hike back to the parking lot.
The trails here are fairly well marked, but there are a couple of intersections in the first 2km not shown on the trail map, so care is needed to follow correctly. The full loop hiking time was about 3 hours 40 min for the main group, with a smaller group finishing earlier. It was a nice hike, and now it’s time for the snow to fall…