Self-supported traverse of La Grande Traversée des Sentiers de l'Estrie, Glen Sutton to Richmond, August 29 to 31, 2026. Solo, accompanied by my dog.
Started at Glen Sutton on August 29 at 06:38 EDT. Finished in Richmond on August 31 at 17:14 EDT. Total elapsed time 02:10:36:16 (2 days 10 hours 36 minutes 16 seconds), including two nights of sleep on the route.
Day 1 (46.5 km): Glen Sutton over Round Top and the Sutton range, then Écho and Singer, down to Bolton, arriving 17:53. Stopped at a store in Bolton for snacks. Camped in Bolton.
Day 2 (56.0 km): Departed 06:25. Bolton to Parc national du Mont-Orford (Orford summit, sentier des Crêtes, pic de l'Ours, mont Chauve). Stopped at a store in Eastman for snacks and filled my bottles with Gatorade. Got hit by one massive storm in the Orford section. Arrived 20:50 and camped in Orford.
Day 3 (45.3 km): Departed 07:33. Trois Lacs, Kingsbury, and the final section to Richmond. Finished 17:14.
Style: self-supported. No crew, no pacers, no caches, and no assistance from anyone during the effort. I carried my gear from the start and resupplied only by purchasing snacks and drinks at stores open to the public in Bolton (day 1) and Eastman (day 2). Water was filtered from lakes and creeks. My dog ran the route with me carrying her own food in her own pack. I did not use her pack for any of my own food or supplies.
Route notes: Trail conditions were good. Several sections of the official track were closed due to private property, so I took detours around them. The most significant was in the last section at Kingsbury, where the only bridge across the river was closed. I don't have a full list of the closures off the top of my head, but the detours are visible in the GPS tracks and added distance rather than cutting it: total tracked distance was 147.8 km against the route's 140 km, about 7.8 km extra.
GPS: Three Strava activities, one per day. The watch was stopped at each overnight camp and restarted from the same spot the next morning, so the tracks are continuous end to end. Links: strava.com/activities/19955675241, 19970268841, 19982576147. GPX files attached.
We are extremely lucky to have a route like this in our backyard. It was an amazing experience and I'd recommend it to anyone.