Walk between beautiful Laurentians towns on the P’tit Train du Nord trail

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The P’tit Train du Nord Linear Park through the Laurentians has been popular with cyclists for years. After all, the trail is closed to motorized vehicles, it’s largely flat and it takes you through some spectacular scenery over its 234-kilometre length. And if you start at its northernmost point (in Mont-Laurier) and ride to the southernmost point in suburban Montreal, you’ll usually be going gradually but pleasantly downhill.

So, of course, I decided to walk it and go north.

Just to clarify: I didn’t walk all of the P’tit Train du Nord, a recreational path that follows the route of a now-dismantled railway line. I love to walk, but I’m not a masochist with unlimited travel time. With the help of the good folks at Tourism Laurentians, I tackled a three-day stretch on the southern, less hilly part of the trail. That seemed like the most suitable section for a pedestrian walking alone, as the distances between communities are shorter than they are in the northern section.

Even so, if you want to follow in my footsteps, you’ll need to be comfortable walking up to 16 kilometres a day, including up to 6.4 kilometres between bathroom breaks. (And I use the term “bathroom” loosely. If you hate port-a-potties, you probably won’t enjoy this walk.)

Not discouraged? Read on! This really is a wonderful walk that I highly recommend if you’re at least moderately fit. I tackled it at age 59, after a few months of walking at least five kilometres most days of the week, and I did just fine.

Disclosure: I received free accommodation and other assistance from Tourism Laurentians, which neither reviewed nor approved this post. All opinions are my own. Some links in this post are affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase something by following the link, I will receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Starting my walk along the P’tit Train du Nord in Prévost

I began my trip in the town of Prévost, about two hours’ drive northeast of Ottawa and about an hour’s drive north of Montreal. (For details on getting to Prévost, see the “Transportation” section at the end of this post.)

I highly recommend popping into the information office, located in a former train station, before you set out on the trail. There, you can ask questions about the trip, learn about the trail’s history, pick up a map and tourism brochures, put the P’tit Train du Nord app on your phone, fill your water bottle and just get generally psyched for the walk ahead.

The office also sells the trail Discovery Pass, a travel journal where you can jot down notes about your hike and get stamped at stops along the way. At the Prévost office, you can also buy other trail merch, like some seriously stylish cycling shirts. (They work well for walking, too—I tested one.)

After getting my bearings at the information office and changing into my new t-shirt, I set out on the trail shortly before noon. See how fresh and keen I look?

A word about luggage

The observant among you will have noticed that, in the photo above, I’m not wearing one of those giant backpacks that usually mark the long-distance hiker. That’s because the P’tit Train du Nord has a very civilized shuttle service, Autobus Le Petit Train du Nord, that will convey your luggage from inn to inn. I loaded my little suitcase into a van at Prévost and found it waiting for me at my accommodations at the end of the day. That is my kind of hiking.

A very short history of the P’tit Train du Nord

As I mentioned, the trail follows the route of the P’tit Train du Nord railway, which was constructed between 1891 and 1909 to link Saint-Jérôme to Mont-Laurier. From the beginning, tourists heading to ski resorts in the Laurentians were the backbone of its business.

But by the 1970s, highways such as Autoroute 15 were bringing large numbers of visitors to the region by car, and passenger traffic on the rail line dwindled. The last passenger train travelled the tracks in November 1981. The rails were later removed, and the P’tit Train du Nord Linear Park opened in 1996.

Doe, a deer, and other diversions

On this first day, I would walk 12 kilometres from Prévost to the Mont-Rolland sector of Sainte-Adèle. The first few hundred metres were paved, but the trail soon morphed into the crushed-stone surface that would predominate for most of my trip.

Every kilometre is marked with a prominent sign like this, which is very handy when you’re pondering vital questions such as, “How far am I from dinner?”

After 45 minutes, I’d covered about four kilometres and was quite ready for lunch. I knew from my pre-trip research that the restaurant near this point in the trail wasn’t open that day. (Word to the wise: If you want access to the widest variety of services, walk during the summer and/or on a weekend.) So I had packed a lunch, which I enjoyed at a sunny picnic area at kilometre 18, near the Rivière du Nord.

The river parallels the trail along much of this section, and there are lots of places where you can stop and admire it while taking a breather. And, sometimes, you just stop dead in your tracks because one of the denizens of the surrounding forest has come out to pay you a visit.

This young deer was having her own lunch beside the trail about a kilometre past the picnic ground. She was quite fearless, and I was able to carefully get about three metres from her before she raised her head, clocked me and hot-footed it back into the woods. That was one advantage of doing the trail alone and doing it on foot: because I wasn’t whipping by on a bike or chatting with a walking companion, the local critters often didn’t hear me coming.

Stopping in Mont-Rolland

Shortly after 3pm, I arrived in Mont-Rolland. Including my picnic stop, it had taken me a little over three hours to walk 12 kilometres. So I wasn’t going to set any land-speed records, but that wasn’t my goal. In fact, I had quite enthusiastically taken the trail’s slogan to heart. “Osez ralentir” urge signs on many gates along the trail. Translation: “Dare to slow down.”

(A note about language: While much of the signage along the trail is in French only, maps and the trail website are available in both French and English. As an anglophone who reads French decently and speaks it haltingly, I had no trouble navigating my way along the P’tit Train du Nord and communicating with folks along the way. If your knowledge of French is limited, you should still be able to get around with the help of Google Translate or a similar app. Also, many employees in restaurants and hotels along the route are bilingual—but it’s polite to at least start in French, if you can.)

After three hours on the trail, I was very glad to see that the Café de la Gare beside the trail in Mont-Rolland was open for business. It wasn’t a scorching day, but I’d worked up a thirst anyway. A tall glass of ice-cold lemonade hit the spot. The café also sells hot beverages, sandwiches and baked goodies.

My thirst slaked, it was time to head to my home for the night.

Auberge le Clos Rolland in Mont-Rolland

I must admit that after three hours on the P’tit Train du Nord trail, I was a bit disconcerted when I saw the steep hill from the café up to the Auberge au Clos Rolland inn.

But hey, I was doing this trip for the exercise, right? And at least I wasn’t toting a heavy pack.

It really wasn’t as daunting as it appeared at first glance. Within five minutes of leaving the café, I saw the sign for the inn, which was partly hidden in a grove of trees.

Auberge au Clos Rolland is located in one of Mont-Rolland’s oldest homes, built around 1904 for the manager of the local paper mill. It has been beautifully renovated and is now a bed-and-breakfast inn, complete with a chatty cat on the porch.

I opened the screen door to see my little blue suitcase sitting among a cluster of luggage in the foyer at the foot of the stairs. I could really get to like travelling like this, with someone else transporting my bags.

Au Clos Rolland has five guest rooms, each with private bath. Each room has a name and mine, La Flemmardise, is quite large, with a couch and a desk as well as a queen-sized bed tucked under the eaves. But the highlight of the room for me, after a day on the trail, was the two-person bathtub. I filled it and slipped into it gratefully for a long soak before dinner.

After changing into fresh clothes, I meandered downstairs to the large living room, where the inn’s other guests were perched on leather couches and armchairs, chatting about the day’s adventures. They were all cyclists who were on their way south from Mont-Laurier, and they were intrigued by my pedestrian trek north. A mix of Americans and Canadians, they all looked terrifyingly fit. We had a great conversation before the inn’s manager announced that dinner was ready.

Breakfast is included in the room rates. If you’d like to have dinner at the inn, it costs extra, and you need to let them know at least 48 hours in advance. I was glad I’d booked dinner, as the thought of trudging back down the hill again in search of sustenance didn’t appeal. And I was doubly glad I’d done so once the food arrived.

The inn serves a set menu each evening, which changes regularly. That night, it included a green salad with beets, feta and candied walnuts, followed by haddock and shrimp for the main course, and a miniature sugar pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I happily ate every last tasty morsel, including the beets, which I normally despise. Then I toddled off to sleep like the dead in my very comfortable bed.

Breakfast the next morning was a yogurt parfait, a berry smoothie and a ham-and-cheese toasted sandwich with fruit. I felt well and truly fortified for the day ahead. Having left my packed suitcase in the hallway earlier, I sauntered out around 10am, said goodbye to the cat and returned to the P’tit Train du Nord.

The trail to Val-David: 16 kilometres that turned into 20

I meant to stick to the trail on my second day. Honestly, I did. After all, I knew this 16-kilometre day would be my longest leg.

But about three kilometres after I got back on the path, I saw a waterfall off to my right, with a side trail leading to it. I’m a sucker for waterfalls and I was still feeling fresh as a daisy, so I veered off the main trail and headed for the cascade on the Doncaster River.

The four-kilometre loop added about an hour to my day—partly because it was much hillier than the P’tit Train du Nord and partly because I was taking lots of pictures—but I had no regrets about the side trip, even if the waterfall didn’t look quite as spectacular close up as it had at a distance.

Back on the trail, though, I started to feel the cumulative effect of the extra kilometres. My back started to ache, as it is wont to do on long walks because I don’t have the best posture. And I became increasingly aware that this was the most isolated stretch I would encounter on my walk. I wasn’t afraid—there were still lots of cyclists going by, including members of the trail patrol—but walkers were few and I was starting to wonder whether this whole escapade had been a good idea.

I ate my packed lunch on a picnic table near the trail somewhere between kilometre markers 32 and 33, knowing that I still had 10 more kilometres to walk. Then I hauled myself up from the bench and kept going.

The Rivière du Nord had picked up speed and sound by this point, burbling as it rushed over walks and small waterfalls. Occasionally, I’d spot a tiny island.

At kilometre marker 35, rocky cliffs reared up from either side of the trail, likely artificially created by the railway builders with chisels or explosives.

Then, just before kilometre 37, I spotted a heron biding his time in a small marsh, waiting for something tasty to splash by. That perked me up a bit, as did the knowledge I just had five more kilometres to go.

Within a kilometre, the river had widened. And just before kilometre 39, I saw the hiking trail equivalent of an oasis: a potable water tap. I eagerly filled my water bottle.

I was now on the outskirts of Val-Morin, and the trail changed from crushed stone to asphalt. It also filled up, with kids, moms pushing strollers and seniors walking dogs joining the clusters of long-distance cyclists.

I spotted this sign, which was either warning me that frogs jump across the path while singing, or exhorting me in a poetic way to enjoy life more. Perhaps, 18 kilometres in, I was starting to hallucinate a bit.

At kilometre 42, I reached Val-David proper, where yet another old station serves as an information centre. I didn’t feel a pressing need to gather more information, though. I was more interested in finding my digs for the night: a low-key but lovely gîte called Les Passionnés, a short walk from the trail on a quiet site beside the Rivière du Nord.

Winding down at Les Passionnés in Val-David

There’s really not a great translation of gîte in English. Sometimes it’s translated as “hostel,” but Les Passionnés was more comfortable and more private than that implies. I’ve also seen it translated as “self-catering holiday rental,” which comes closer but doesn’t quite capture it either, as guests can book individual rooms rather than the whole building.

It’s like a holiday rental in that I entered the building using a code. I had also received a code to open a small storeroom at the back of the building, where I found my suitcase, deposited hours earlier by the shuttle driver. Cycling guests can also stash their bikes there.

The three guest rooms, each with private bath, are located on the second floor and accessed by an outdoor staircase. Chambre Marie-Cordélie, where I stayed, has a king bed, wooden beams, a Nespresso coffee maker and a large shower (which I availed myself of immediately). In the shared corridor is a station with a microwave, fridge, kettle, tea, coffee and dishes.

The ground floor of the building houses a restaurant with a large terrace overlooking the river. The restaurant is currently open for lunch and dinner from Wednesday through Sunday, but since I was visiting early in the week, I had to venture off property for dinner.

Fortunately, a small brew pub called Micro-Brasserie Le Baril Roulant is just down the street from Les Passionnés. I climbed the steps to the second-floor terrace and was soon settled with a cold craft beer and a dish of pasta topped with some of the biggest mushrooms I’d ever seen.

Did I feel as though I’d earned my feast of carbs and beer? Oh yes, I did.

Walking back to Les Passionnés, I took a moment to relax in this pretty pocket park beside the river.

Then it was back to my room, where I think I was asleep before the sun had fully set.

Onward to Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts

The next morning, I got up early and packed my suitcase so that it would be ready for pickup. (The first two days, I was racing to get my bag to the door by pickup time, which was usually between 8am and 9am. That day, I was determined to be ready on time, and I was just carrying my suitcase down the stairs when the van pulled up.)

Since this day I would be walking “only” seven kilometres along the P’tit Train du Nord, I lingered in the inn’s backyard for a while with my travel mug of tea, watching the river burble by.

Eventually, I ambled into the village for breakfast and landed at a café opposite the trail information centre. Shortly after I visited, it changed ownership and is now known as Chez Louis Café. The menu is still packed with high-energy fuel for cyclists and hikers—ham and eggs, pancakes and fruit, burgers, pasta, and more. It has a pleasant second-floor terrace where you can watch the world go by as you eat.

After breakfast, I poked into a few of the shops along the main drag, rue de l’Eglise. Fortunately for my budget (but sadly for my kitchen), I didn’t have enough room in my small daypack to carry any of the dishes, jams, cookbooks and other tempting items I came across in the Magasin Général Val-David.

By noon, I was back on the trail and on my way to Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts.

Compared to my long walk the day before, this day was a comparative stroll and quite uneventful. I did spot a charming poem-on-a-sign along the way.

I noted how well marked the trail’s road crossings are.

And I also had time to just sit on a rock by the river and daydream for half an hour or so.

Even with that break, I arrived in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts around 2pm. In fact, I arrived in such good time that it was too early to check into my hotel. So I meandered around the town for a while, popping in and out of shops such as Station des Saveurs, where I spotted more tempting local food products (including, intriguingly, duck cassoulet in a jar).

Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts is a busy tourist town, with lots of shops, restaurants and holiday condos, many clustered around pretty Lac des Sables.

It was about a 25-minute walk from the trail to the Auberge de la Tour du Lac, my hotel for the last night of my trip. Part of it took me up a long, gradual hill, but it was nothing like that steep road in Mont-Rolland.

The inn feels very much like an old-school Quebec establishment, which indeed it is. Constructed in the 1890s as a convalescent home, the building has been an inn and/or restaurant since 1986. Today, each of the 12 guest rooms—four in the original Victorian building, and eight more in a separate building behind it—has a fireplace and a jetted tub.

The hotel had recently come under new management when I visited. The new owners had started renovating the guest rooms to update the decor and repaint the faded wooden exterior. While mine was one of the still-to-be-renovated rooms, it was spotless, spacious and comfortable, with a partial view of Lac des Sables. And the tub worked like a charm.

The inn is perhaps better known for its restaurant, which offers a six-course (!) table d’hôte in the evenings. The huge, screened-in porch has a nice view of the lake.

Dinner guests have several choices for each course, and I was delighted with the garden-fresh green pea soup in one of the early courses and the lemon sorbet with strawberry coulis for dessert. Sometimes the chef seemed to aim for the stars and slightly miss the mark; putting crunchy beet chips on top of the shrimp linguine was a decidedly weird choice. But I waddled out of the dining room at the end of the meal happy and stuffed to the gills.

The end of my P’tit Train du Nord journey

A small continental breakfast was included with my room, but in the name of research, I decided to investigate the breakfast options in town before heading home.

After peeking into several restaurants, I picked the one with the biggest crowd and was not disappointed. Restaurant Julio is a casual diner with a no-nonsense menu and kind servers. My French toast came with lashings of fruit and copious dots of whipped cream, and it was delicious.

I’d had fantastic luck with the weather on this trip, with temperatures hovering around 20C and beautiful, clear sunshine. This last day was no exception, and I spent a happy morning kicking around Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts window shopping and taking photos. But, soon, it was time to meet my ride and head back to Prévost.

It took only half an hour on the autoroute to drive the distance it had taken me three days to cover on foot. As patches of woodland and glimpses of river flashed by the vehicle’s windows, I wondered about all the hidden jewels I’d unwittingly driven past on similar highways over the years. Just beyond the asphalt ribbon, there are deer and herons, poetry and pastries, quiet rivers and pretty lakes. And along the P’tit Train du Nord, all you need is a bike or a good pair of walking shoes to discover them.

Practical tips for walking the P’tit Train du Nord

Transport

Starting the trip

As mentioned at the top, I began my walk in the town of Prévost. However, you might want to start in Saint-Jérôme, which is a bit closer to Montreal and a 170-kilometre trip by car from Ottawa. There are many more places to leave your car overnight in Saint-Jérôme than there are in Prévost.

Alternatively, you can travel to Montreal by VIA Rail or one of several bus lines, then take the Exo commuter train from Montreal to Saint-Jérôme.

If you don’t want to walk the 14 kilometres along the trail from Saint-Jérôme to Prévost, you can take a bus to Prévost from several places in Saint-Jérôme, including the train station at 280, rue Latour. The trip takes about half an hour on the TAC bus (route 1001) and about 20 minutes on the l’Inter des Laurentides bus. Hop off either bus at the corner of Route 117 and rue de la Station in Prévost. The P’tit Train du Nord information office and the trail itself are one block east of the bus stop.

Ending the trip

I had arranged a ride from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts back to my car in Prévost. If you are cycling the trail, you can book a ride back to your starting point with Autobus Le Petit Train du Nord. However, the shuttle service is only licensed to carry luggage, bikes and cyclists, so you can’t take it if you don’t have a bike.

Fortunately, a l’Inter des Laurentides bus connects Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts to Prévost and Saint-Jérôme. The trip back to Prévost takes about 50 minutes; the trip from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts to Saint-Jérôme takes about an hour and 15 minutes.

You can catch the bus at various locations in Sainte-Agathe-des Monts, including the corner of rue Brissette and rue Demontigny, about two blocks from the P’tit Train du Nord information centre. Look for a sign like this.

Accommodations

In this post, I’ve mentioned the places I stayed along the P’tit Train du Nord trail. If they’re booked up or if you want to explore other options in the area, you can use the map below to find an inn, hotel or vacation rental. (If you book a stay anywhere in the world via the map, I’ll receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting this site!)

Visitor information

For more details about walking or cycling the P’tit Train du Nord, visit the trail’s bilingual website.

And you’ll find lots more information about visiting the Laurentians on the Tourism Laurentians bilingual website.

Looking for more tips on things to see and do in and around Ottawa? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or order a copy of my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100-km Getaway Guide.

As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.