• Parking Stationnement du Centre plein air Mont Kanasuta 48°10'31.4"N
  79°24'07.7"W
• Circonflexe RécréOsisko 48°14'21.9"N
  79°00'57.0"O
• Circonflexe Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi Abitibi-Ouest 48°48'12.312"N
  79°12'18.108"O
• Circonflexe Maison du Tourisme Amos Harricana 48°3'28.87978"N
  77°47'36.96644"O
• Circonflexe Coop de L’Arrière-Pays 47°19'58.512"N
  79°26'15.108"O
• Circonflexe Parc du Belvédère à Malartic 48°8'1.86"N
  78°7'25.068"O
• Circonflexe Participarc, LaSarre 48°47'35.9052"N
  79°12'29.7126"O

Access Rights

Free, no welcome center.
Pets are allowed.

Directions to the starting point

From Rouyn-Noranda, take Route 117 North. After about 20 kilometres, turn right to stay on 117 North (signs for Kirkland Lake). Turn right on the Kanasuta Mountain Path and continue to the mountain.

Coordinates : 376 Mont Kanasuta Road, Rouyn-Noranda | WebSite

Parking: Free.

Markings : Orange ribbons hanging from a few branches or girding a trunk at the edge of the track and some signs.

• Some passages (scree, beaver dam) may require the use of a walking stick.
• Route not recommended on rainy days making the rocks slippery, especially when crossing the path of Éboulis.
• Some good levels.

Flora

The Kanasuta area, a long-time resource-rich area, has become a symbol of local environmentalists' struggle against clear-cutting. It is precisely this small mountain - Mount Kanasuta - that gave its title to the most recent album by the fervent Richard Desjardins. Certainly, in terms of forests, the site cannot be considered exceptional, except for a small stand of "large-toothed" poplars, an extremely rare species at this latitude, awaiting official designation as "Exceptional Forest Ecosystem" (EFE).

History et legend

Historically, the Mount Kanasuta area has had different spiritual meanings for the Algonquins in the region. One summer day in the year of grace 1884, when a small wind from the northwest was cooling this day which was nevertheless announcing as candlelight, the Oblate missionary: Father Paradis, sitting comfortably in a canoe up the lake Opasatica, Asked Okoushin, his faithful Algonquin guide, named after two twin mountains whose singular cut cut strangely into the horizon; "Kamasuta Kamatwesing, the place where you hear a sound," was the answer. The place where the Machi manitoo swing," said an Ojibwe from Mississippi. "The place where the spirits dance," rose by a third. In short, it emerged from this exciting debate on toponymy that the place was sacred and that for several moons future shamans were enthroned at the top of what would become cartographic English; "the swinging hills". In addition to these Indian legends, Father Paradis brought back from his expedition a delicious watercolor of the Kanasuta mountains and a repellent with the evocative name of "maringouinfuge" whose disturbing composition: lard, liquid tar and all the same lemongrass, was totally restrictive in marketing. Two centuries earlier, crossing the portage of the water divide at the foot of the Kanasuta mountains, the Knight of Troyes with his commando of 100 strong men determined to push the English out of his counters in the James Bay, would certainly have appreciated the deterrent effects of the Maringouifugation.

Towards the end of the 19th century, a natural resource exploitation worthy of the name was established in the area around the two mountains. First, the forest cuts prefiguring "The Boreal Error" by Richard Desjardins, then came mining. They are still being practiced. As for the massif itself, it was not really put to use until the 1960s, with the creation of a ski centre on the slopes of K1.