Rivière Doncaster Regional Park
Region : Laurentides (Qc)
Start : Parking lot
Distance from start : About 10km for the whole park
Parking : Big Parking lot
Fee : Hike adult 6$/Fishing adult 13$ Click here for more information
Trail Markings : Numbers at intersections & ribbons on trees
Difficulty : Easy
Washroom: At the start and at the end of the trail
Map : Click here
Website : http://parcdoncaster.com/
Notes : Dog Friendly
Dates of hike : March 16, 2013; December 11, 2013; other summer dates
About the place
This is one of my favourite easy hikes. Accessible year round, options to simply hike in the woods and a couple of nice lookout points.
Throughout the year, the park ranger sows the lake with Trout from april to september. Locals, just as much as tourists, love going to fish on the edge of the river. They get the fish from a quebecker trout farm.
They don’t rent the equipement but they sell worms.
Hiking
We tend to stay away from the “main road” which is handicaped/stroller friendly. It’s not really for hiking. There are intersections with it where you can stop for a picnick on tables. Even though the hiking trails are short, I like hitting this one in the beginning of the season to get me into it. When you’re all bent out of shape from the winter, this is just what you need.
Even though the trails are well marked, we got to a point where we had to stop. I think that they wanted us to stay there forever. We were rebels and went left!
The view from one of the lookout points!
My friend confused at the directions? Where do we go? Up?
Winter hiking
Even though their official website states that there are only 2km of trails that are mechanically plowed, everytime we went, all of the trails had been padded down by snow shoeers. All of the trails are usually available.
The park is only open on saturdays and sundays from 8am to 6pm, where you have access to heated refuges.
Since you can’t close nature down, we usually go on our days off on mondays and, if the weather is good, there are still people in the park. There is no ranger during these times so stay away from the moving water!
Doncaster river during the winter
The view from the trails at Doncaster
How to find it :
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