Quebec - Canada's Next Mountain Biking Powerhouse

Quebec's building revival is turning 'La belle province' into a mountain biking powerhouse.

- Ryan Stuart

A trail name can say a lot. About who built it, the history and culture of its region, the pain and joy to come, or where it will take you. La Yable, a trail at Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec, tells more than most.

It starts off spooky: on a bench, thick with spruce trees blocking just about any light, the trail name spelled in moose bones. The  foreshadowing would be creepy if I knew what yable meant, but I don’t yet. Instead, I forget the sign and concentrate on chasing local Christian Marchand and photographer Ryan Creary toward the light, where the trail emerges from the gloom.

One, two, three. We drop over the lip, down the slope and pick up speed ripping across a deep, in-cut section to the first banked corner. One after another, we rail along the lip, flyout the bottom and pop off a couple tabletops. Another banked corner and we’re whipping the other way. Small drop, tabletop, small drop, corner. Repeat. The spindly maples, beach and birch trees blend into a blur. The trail begs me to go faster. I oblige, hang on, sit back and focus on the wheel ahead. A couple turns later we roll out of La Yable onto a road, with Joker smiles on our faces.

"So, what does La Yable mean?” I ask as we spin toward our next adventure.

“It’s Quebec slang,” says Marchand, a smile shifting his salt-and-pepper goatee. “It comes from the devil, lediable. But in Quebec yable means good. Really good.”

That trail was definitely yable. As was our entire week of mountain biking in Quebec.

As the word suggests, Canada’s French-speaking province is unlike anywhere else. It’s a little bit France, a little bit Canadian and only an hour by air from New York City. So, while visiting most of Canada is not that different from visiting a distant state, traveling in ‘La Belle Province’ feels foreign.