About an hour east of Montreal is a large area called the Eastern Townships, the “Cantons-de-l’Est”. It’s a popular year-round recreation destination, known for its lakes, hills, ski resorts, and numerous farms. Sherbrooke, with a population of ~200,000, is Quebec’s sixth largest city and the Townships’ anchor city. There’s terrific running in the Eastern Townships, with several lakefront paths, 250 km of multi-use trails, and several large mountain parks terrific for trail running. We’ve also created a separate running guide for Sherbrooke, a city of 200,00 and the unofficial capital of the Townships .GORGEOUS IN AUTUMN!
Working our way from west to east, there’s nice running around Lac Boivin in Granby, beautiful trails in Yamaska National Park, and several muti-use paths that run between Granby, Waterloo, and Lac Brome. In Magog, there are some nice paths along the lake. Several sections of the Route Verte, Quebec’s long-distance cycling path, pass through the Townships — we’ve mapped a route between Lenoxville (just south of Sherbrooke) and North Hatley. There’s fabulous trail running at Mont-Orford National Park and Mont Sutton, with something for everyone. There are also numerous quiet roads passing by farms for runners to create their own route.
Runner Notes: The area’s winters are very cold and snowy – the Townships are a major winter recreation destination. This might affect road and trail conditions — in fact many trails are used for XC skiing. The paths might be very muddy and not runnable in early spring.
