Camilla Faragalli, LJI reporter

A sea of quads filled the Pine Lodge parking lot in Bristol on Saturday morning for the Pontiac Quad Club’s sugar shack tour.
Following a scenic ride on local trails, Quad Club members indulged in a traditional sugar shack brunch at the lodge, followed by a wagon ride down to the sugar shack for a tour, where a warm campfire crackled and busy hands kept a continuous stream of fresh maple taffy on offer.
“Our mandate is to inform people of the beauties of the Pontiac,” said Pontiac Quad Club director Diane Barrette, explaining that a third of the 75 people present that day came from outside of the region.
“We’re doing what we can to promote the area.”

Isabelle Gaudreau, a Quad Club member of less than a year from the Gatineau area, said she attended the event to familiarize herself with the area.
“I like to do the organized events like this since I’m still new to the club, just to know where the trails are and meet new people,” she said, adding that she had purchased her new quad to pursue her love of the outdoors.

Locals enjoy the quad magic, too.
Mark Racine of Otter Lake has been a Quad Club member since 2018. He shared similar sentiments to Gaudreau.
“It’s a way to see the scenery, it’s a different way of doing it,” he said, adding that he and his wife have seen bears, deer and partridge on their quad excursions.
“You can go all over the Pontiac with it [a quad] if you want. You can do that with a car too, but it’s kind of boring,” he said.

Barrette said that members had been requesting a sugar shack excursion and that Pine Lodge had agreed to open a week ahead of their regular season to realize their vision.
“There aren’t very many [sugar shacks] but I’ve heard it’s a tradition here [Outaouais] that goes back generations,” Barrette said, “and Pine Lodge is just superb.”
“It’s been a really early season. Normally we wouldn’t start until next weekend or the following weekend,” said Adam Thompson, who co-owns the Pine Lodge with his family and hosted the club’s sugar shack tour. “But with the spring we’ve had we got started early, so we already had about 1,000 gallons of sap ready to boil.”