Mount Tremblant

Saturday, June 5, we headed out of Montreal to the west about two hours to the Mount Tremblant ski area. Now, for those of you who ski in the Sierras or Rockies, you wouldn't find Mt. Tremblant extremely intimidating as the mountain (the highest in the region) only rises 2,100 feet! Although, some of their runs are pretty long. But, of course, in June there was no snow, just hectares and hectares of maple, birch and pines in the upper elevations.

Club Intrawest has a pretty setting overlooking Lac Tremblant and our one bedroom unit was large, with a good sized kitchen and sitting area, covered porch looking out on the lake, and to Carolyn's delight, a deep bathtub in addition to a two person, two shower head, shower. There was a nice golf course adjacent although I didn't partake and a small pool and several jacuzzis.

Carolyn and I spent the week sleeping late and taking trips into the new village, or the small town of St. Jovite (7 km away), or the national park, or Le Scandinavian Spa.

St. Jovite was the Cook's Corner of Mt. Tremblant with scores of French speaking Harley Davidson riders converging for brunch, lunch or drinks before or after their rides into the national park. We ended up having several meals here over the week as well as buying groceries at the IGA (Carolyn's favorite grocery store - a cross between a Gelson's, Trader Joe's and Henry's. And then there was the required purchases of postcards and a new carved Woodpecker door knocker that will soon be installed on our lake adjacent abode.

The Village of Mt. Tremblant reminded me of the mountain villages of Telluride or Whistler with shops and restaurants lining a sloping public walkway that feeds you up to the bottom of the ski hill. On our last day there, they had the open gondola working that took you from the bottom of the village directly to the top where the quads and ski gondolas waited. The village was also the scene of my ultimate defeat at the hands of Carolyn "Tiger" Hutchins who smoked me on the last two holes of the mini-golf course to win by four! And that was after two incredible holes-in-one (a combination of billiards and divine intervention).


Carolyn in Mt Tremblant 

One afternoon we made our way out to the national park to try our hand at kayaking. The park only charged $3.50 CDN for entry and was sparsely populated mid-week. They had canoes and kayaks for rent and we tried the two-person kayak for an hour or so (enough time I assure you). Besides trying to keep the boat going in a straight line we were accompanied by dozens of small black flies that hovered about our hats and heads annoying the heck out of us and occassionaly biting. Their welts are still reminders of our trip. But it was fun to be out on such a large lake with few others around and surrounded by trees, trees, trees. There really are a lot of shades of green!

Our most indulgent day was spent at Le Scandinavian Spa which offered the Nordic approach to relaxation. Choose something hot (steam, sauna or jacuzzi) and bake/sweat for about 7 to 10 minutes, immediately followed by something cold (Nordic falls, cold plunge at 47 degrees, or the river) for a few seconds to slam your pores shut, and then relaxation for another 10 to 15 minutes (lounge or hammock). Then repeat. Sometime during the afternoon we each had an hour Swedish massage with a primarily French speaking masseuse which made it somewhat hard to communicate especially with your face in that little donut-thing on the massage table. But we managed! A day worth repeating closer to home.