Montréal · Easy · Circular

Le Pain de Sucre, Mont Saint-Hilaire

A loop through the old forest of the Gault Nature Reserve to the bare rock top of the Pain de Sucre, back over Burned Hill.

Distance
6.0 km (3.7 mi)
Ascent
261 m
Time
About 2 h 15 min
High point
387 m
Grade
Easy

Line © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), checked by Global Adventurer.

0 km2 km4 km6 km387 m124 m
Move along the height chart to see each point on the map.
Le Pain de Sucre, Mont Saint-Hilaire
Jiaqian AirplaneFan · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The walk

From the main car park of the Gault Nature Reserve, walk up past the welcome pavilion to the Lac Hertel path. Take the yellow trail (Sentier du Pain de Sucre) west, climbing through old maple and beech woods to the bare rock top of the Pain de Sucre (Sugarloaf), which looks over the Richelieu valley towards Montréal. Come back down a short way to where the orange trail crosses, and follow it south over Burned Hill and down east to the Lac Hertel path and the car park. The loop goes anticlockwise.

It is 6 km round with 261 m of ascent; allow about 2 hours. The grade is Easy: forest paths, steep and rocky near the top.

Day access, $8.96 plus tax for an adult, must be bought online in advance: it is not sold at the gate. Under-18s go free. Pets, bicycles and drones are not allowed (guide dogs excepted); keep to the marked trails. The trails are open from 8 am to 6 pm, and to 7:30 pm from mid-April to the end of August. The summit has unfenced drops, and the rock is slippery when wet or icy.

The main-entrance ticket includes parking at 422 chemin des Moulins, Mont-Saint-Hilaire, about 35 km east of Montréal off route 116. The reserve opens every day.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.

Good to know

  • Mont Saint-Hilaire is one of the Monteregian hills, igneous intrusions that rise abruptly from the flat St Lawrence plain
  • McGill University has protected the mountain's old forest since 1958, and it became Canada's first UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1978
  • The Pain de Sucre is a bare rock summit looking over the Richelieu valley towards Montréal
  • The reserve is about 35 km east of Montréal, off route 116

Summits on the way

  • Sugarloaf 408 m · passed close by
  • Burned Hill 308 m · passed close by

Getting there

Start: Gault Nature Reserve car park, chemin des Moulins. 45.53575, -73.15631

Directions to the start

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Places to stay nearby

Rooms in and around Gault Nature Reserve car park: Booking.com → Expedia → Hotels.com →

Affiliate links: if you book, Global Adventurer earns a small commission at no cost to you.

Paths change, and the weather decides the day. The line and figures come from OpenStreetMap and our own checks; take a map, check the forecast, and turn back if it isn't right.