Nature in the Spring on the Trans Canada Trail in Quebec : Montréal to Ottawa

“Conservation begins with attention.”

 

Simone Weil

 

Montréal to Ottawa

 

When we returned to the Trans Canada Trail in Quebec in the spring of 2022, the province felt different yet again. Our first crossing, from Edmundston to Rivière-du-Loup in November 2019, had taken place at the outset of winter. Our second trek, from Baie-Saint-Paul to Montréal in the fall of 2021, had been shaped by autumn colour, Snow Geese, the St. Lawrence, and the gradual approach of colder weather. This time we left Montréal at the end of May and headed inland, eventually turning north toward the Laurentians before bending south again toward Gatineau and the Ottawa River.

 

The differences between each trek were not subtle. This year, spring transformed the experience once more. Instead of bare trees, frost, and the silence of late fall and early winter, we found warm temperatures, humidity, insects, green corridors, wetlands, rivers, frogs, turtles, Wild Turkeys, groundhogs, warblers, flycatchers, and birds calling long before we wanted to get out of bed. It was also the final section of Quebec left for us to complete, although after everything that had happened since 2019, we were trying not to think too far ahead. For the moment, we were simply glad to be under way once again.

 

Leaving Montréal

 

We set out from Montréal (unfortunately) in the pouring rain. Our first day took us through the city, across parks, along sidewalks, and eventually toward Laval. After weeks of hiking across Spain on the Camino de Madrid, Camino San Salvador, and Camino Primitivo, being back on the Trans Canada Trail felt both familiar and strange at the same time. Montréal gradually gave way to urban greenways, hydro corridors, residential neighbourhoods, and boardwalked natural areas, and the following day the rain eased enough for us to begin looking around more carefully.

 

Between Laval and Saint-Jérôme, we passed through one particularly impressive green space and birding area where the trail crossed wetlands on boardwalks. The contrast with the surrounding subdivisions and roadways was immediate. One moment we were moving beside traffic and houses; the next we were surrounded by vegetation and water. It was an early reminder of something we had repeatedly found while crossing Canada.  Namely that nature did not disappear simply because a trail passed through a populated region. Sometimes the best wildlife habitat was tucked directly between neighbourhoods and infrastructure.

 

By Saint-Jérôme we reached the beginning of one of the trails we had most looked forward to walking in Quebec - the P’tit Train du Nord.

 

Onto the P’tit Train du Nord

 

Leaving Saint-Jérôme, the route initially felt more urban than wild. The pathway was busy, exposed in places, hemmed in by subdivisions and highway noise, and heavily used by cyclists. Even so, the old railway corridor provided a remarkably consistent route north. The grade climbed gently rather than abruptly, former stations and murals appeared regularly, and long off-road stretches carried us beneath trees, through forests, or beside waterways.

 

The following day, between Saint-Adèle and Sainte-Agathe, the natural side of the trail became much more obvious. The pathway followed a river and marsh for extended periods, which was amazing.  The trail was almost empty compared with the weekend, which gave us far more time to stop and listen without constantly stepping aside for cyclists. With that said, it was the blackflies and dragonflies rather than rare birds that made themselves most evident.

 

The spring landscape also felt increasingly alive in ways that went well beyond birds and insects.  Groundhogs appeared beside the trail. In addition, as we walked from Sainte-Agathe toward Saint-Faustin, we were moving through long tunnels of trees, seeing Wild Turkeys, groundhogs, and what we can only describe as “tons of birds”.   Much of that day passed through a wildlife corridor, and with relatively few people around us, it was one of those stretches where birding became part of the walk rather than a separate activity.

 

Lakes, Turtles, Frogs, and Spring

 

Around Mont-Tremblant, the trail changed character again. More people appeared, golf courses and cottages became part of the scenery, and the route grew busier again. Yet once we moved beyond the village and began circling Mercer Lake, wildlife returned almost immediately to the foreground. Snapping Turtles were on the trail, frogs seemed to be everywhere, and the shoreline created a completely different pace from the crowded village we had just left.

 

That evening we camped near Labelle, with a roaring waterfall on one side and a shorebird calling repeatedly from the other. The night itself was difficult, and a storm eventually soaked almost everything we owned, but it felt wonderful to be fully out in nature. The following morning, while trying to dry our gear, we found several small Snapping Turtles near the falls and evidence of beavers nearby.

 

North of Labelle, the P’tit Train du Nord became narrower and rougher. The surroundings alternated between exposed sandy stretches and rocky cuts that reminded us of the Canadian Shield landscapes farther west in Ontario. We found a cold snake on the trail and moved it out of danger, and nearby flowers caught our attention as well, including what we thought might have been Lady’s Slippers. Even on difficult days, there was always something along the edge of the path that made us stop.

 

Warblers and Flycatchers Near Nominingue

 

The route between Rivière-Rouge and Nominingue became one of the stronger birding stretches of this final Quebec journey on the Sentier Transcanadienne. We had been awakened at four in the morning by extremely vocal geese near our campsite, and once we finally packed up and returned to the trail, the landscape itself gradually began to feel more Boreal.

 

That resemblance brought Newfoundland back to mind almost immediately. The forests, wetlands, waterways, and quieter trail corridors felt familiar in a way we had not expected, and we spent several hours deliberately slowing down to enjoy nature and to watch birds. Warblers and flycatchers were numerous enough to stand out clearly through much of the day. Unlike the previous treks in Quebec, when most migrants had already disappeared (or were in the process of doing so), spring now filled the same province with song and movement.

 

It is amazing to see how the experience of a place can shift so dramatically depending on when you are there.  Hiking previously in November had shown us bare woods and hardy resident birds.  Our next trek in October had brought Snow Geese and autumn migration along the St. Lawrence. Now, late May and early June brought returning songbirds, frogs, insects, turtles, and vegetation pushing rapidly toward summer. The province was revealing a different natural character because we had arrived at a different moment in the year.

 

Marshes, Bitterns, and Deer

 

The landscape around Nominingue and Lac-Saguay continued to reward us. Deer seemed to be everywhere, and a groundhog appeared beside the trail early in the day. Beyond Lac-Saguay, the route moved through marshy landscapes that again reminded us of Newfoundland, and we spent a long time birding instead of simply pushing onward.  One of the more memorable sightings was a bittern we heard calling out and then spotted in the wetlands.

 

Those marshes slowed us in the best possible way. After days when progress had been measured in kilometres, determined by weather, and how far we needed to walk before dark, a bird half-hidden among reeds could still interrupt the schedule completely. That was why we had started #Hike4Birds in the first place. We were not crossing Canada simply to see how quickly we could reach the other side or to build some huge list of rare birds. The point was to remain open to what the trail passed through.

 

From there we continued toward Val-Barrette and Mont-Laurier. At our campground near Val-Barrette, geese, songbirds, and a murder of crows began calling around four in the morning and continued their noisy conversation outside our tent for nearly two hours. By then, being awakened by birds had become almost routine. Along the TCT in Quebec, sleeping beside water often meant an exceptionally early start whether we wanted one or not.

 

Nature at the Edge of Mont-Laurier

 

Approaching Mont-Laurier, we stopped at a rest area that proved much harder to leave than expected. Birds were active all around us, including a woodpecker, a thrush, and a Winter Wren. With nowhere urgent to be, we stayed longer than planned and simply watched.

 

Even more surprising was what happened closer to town. The trail passed aggregate operations, construction areas, and a lumber-processing facility, and we assumed that the most interesting natural part of the day had ended. Instead, beside the river near the industrial landscape, we found a deer drinking at the water and turtles sunning themselves on rocks!  That small pocket of life stood out precisely because of where it was.  It would have been easy to dismiss the surroundings as ruined or uninteresting because industry dominated the immediate view. Yet the animals clearly had not abandoned the place. We had seen the same pattern many times on the Trans Canada Trail: wildlife did not arrange itself according to the categories people use for landscapes. Forest, town, wetland, roadside, industrial edge, city park - all could hold something worth noticing when we take the time to really look.

 

Turning South

 

At Mont-Laurier we reached the end of the P’tit Train du Nord and began the long turn south toward Maniwaki, Gracefield, Wakefield, Gatineau, and eventually Ottawa. The quality of the route became more variable – more so than it had been anywhere in the entire province of Quebec. Smooth rail trail gave way to dirt roads, ATV tracks, washouts, stretches on roadways, and rougher surfaces.  All the while, heavy rain repeatedly complicated our plans.

 

Regardless, the wildlife continued.  Near Gracefield and Low, the trail frequently ran close to marshes and low water. Mosquitoes became overwhelming in places, blackflies followed us for long stretches, and butterflies repeatedly landed on us and on our backpacks. The insects were not a minor detail of the walk - they could make an hour feel endless - but they were also part of the spring landscape we had come to experience. At campgrounds and rivers, bird calls frequently began before dawn, while along the trail wetlands repeatedly drew our attention away from the rough surface beneath our feet.

 

One day between Gracefield and Low became exceptionally long. A washout forced us through water, the trail deteriorated into sand and rough stone, blackflies followed us relentlessly, and the route eventually dead-ended at a highway. With a storm approaching and daylight fading, we continued another twenty kilometres toward Wakefield, bringing the day's total to almost sixty kilometres. We arrived exhausted, but also knowing that only a few days remained before the end of Quebec – a province that had become an unexpected complication in hiking the TCT from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

 

Wakefield and Gatineau Park

 

After a storm forced a rest day in Wakefield, we resumed our walk toward Chelsea.  We began beside the covered bridge and railway tracks, then followed boardwalks before climbing away from town and into forest. Almost immediately the trail became wet and muddy. Expanded beaver dams had flooded sections of the pathway, and the forest floor held far more water than we expected.

 

Gatineau Park brought a completely different character to the final days. The route climbed through rolling forest beneath a dense canopy that gave us welcome shade as temperatures rose. Chipmunks seemed to be everywhere, and Wild Turkeys appeared repeatedly throughout the park. We passed large lakes, wet areas, and trail junction after trail junction as the Trans Canada Trail wove into the broader network of pathways and cycling routes. The landscape was beautiful, but navigation was difficult. Storm damage and muddy conditions had closed sections of trail, forcing reroutes and repeated consultations with maps. Even so, compared with the open road walking and rough ATV corridors of the preceding days, being back beneath trees felt restorative.

 

By the time we reached Chelsea, Ottawa was close enough to appear on the horizon.

 

The Last Day in Quebec

 

Our final morning in Quebec began quietly in Chelsea. We followed the network through Gatineau, sometimes on older Trans Canada Trail alignments, sometimes on newer routes, and sometimes around closures that made navigation far more complicated than expected.

 

For much of the morning we remained under tree cover in city parks, climbing and descending through shaded pathways. Black bear warnings appeared along the route, although we did not see a bear – nor could we imagine one in the Capital region. Near several marshes, however, we encountered exactly the kind of habitat that could still stop us even on the final day of a provincial crossing. Birds were everywhere, and turtle populations seemed to almost crowd each other amid the wet areas around the trail.

 

Gradually the natural corridors gave way once again to Route Verte pathways, flooded sections of the capital trail system, industrial stretches, city green spaces, bridges, and views across the river. Ottawa and Parliament came into sight. Cranes stood near the water as we approached the provincial crossing.  After weeks of rail trails, forests, marshes, lakes, rivers, towns, blackflies, birds, turtles, and frogs, we walked across the bridge into Ontario – connecting our treks across the country on the Trans Canada Trail.

 

Birding from Montréal to Ottawa

 

This final hike in our journey across Quebec turned out to be very different from the generalized (possibly idealized) spring passage we might have imagined before returning to the province. It contained plenty of specific natural moments: remarkable birding along the river and marshes north of Saint-Adèle, Wild Turkeys and groundhogs along the rail trail, Snapping Turtles and frogs around Mont-Tremblant, shorebirds calling beside our campsite at Labelle, warblers and flycatchers around Nominingue, a bittern in the marshes near Lac-Saguay, a Winter Wren and thrush near Mont-Laurier, geese and crows waking us before dawn, butterflies and dragonflies along the route, and the chipmunks, Wild Turkeys, birds, and turtles of Gatineau Park.

 

Yet, for us, what made this stretch memorable was not the absence of spectacle, but the variety packed into a relatively short period. We began in a major city, moved through suburban wetlands and greenways, followed a former railway deep into the Laurentians, passed lakes and marshes, returned to the boreal, then turned south through rougher trail corridors before finishing in the forests and wetlands surrounding the national capital.  Trekking in spring is also a huge difference. The same province that had seemed almost silent in November 2019 now felt full with life.

 

Reaching Ottawa also means something larger for our walk. Quebec has taken us three separate journeys to complete: eastern Quebec in the approaching winter of 2019, the St. Lawrence and Charlevoix in the autumn of 2021, and finally Montréal through the Laurentians to Ottawa in the spring of this year (2022).   As a result, we have not experienced the province in one continuous line, and in the end that gave us something we would not otherwise have had - the chance to see the same province under three very different seasonal conditions.

 

By the time we crossed the Ottawa River, after three years of trekking and multiple attempts to complete the province, the Trans Canada Trail in Quebec was finally behind us.  Next comes the West Coast and our push to the Pacific!

 

See you on the trail!