‘You want me to go up there? You’re joking.” A hunk of Canadian Shield lay exposed to my left, sheer but for a scattering of lichen growing in the thin crevices and glacial striations. The Land Rover I’d been driving all morning over heart-stopping hill and dale hadn’t toppled over yet, but this?
“You can do it. Make a hard left – just go as slow as possible, and as fast as necessary.”
That was my instructor’s favourite phrase – he’d said it a few times as I pushed this solid-steel LR4 HSE Luxury through the terrain of Land Rover Canada’s only driving school course in Canada. It’s hidden in the wilds of Quebec’s enormous Kenauk wilderness area found at the beginning of the Laurentians, an hour west of Montreal – or an hour east of Ottawa. In a corner of this privately owned estate, originally bequeathed by the King of France to the Bishop of New France in 1674, all-terrain enthusiasts come year-round to learn the right and wrong way to drive off-road.
I was trying to remember everything I needed to know before making that left. Not that I needed to worry too much – my instructor, Jean-Benoit Cousin, sat shotgun, talking me through the more stomach-dropping moments: When only two of four wheels are making contact with the Earth, you’re grateful for every word.
Punching the “mud and ruts” 4WD button for me, Cousin reminded me to check the side clearance – cameras under the rear-view mirrors make that easier. Another useful tool on the LR4’s media screen is a diagram of the wheel suspension that lets you know exactly what position each tire is in. That was helpful earlier when Cousin hopped out to help me navigate. I’d just clambered up a forested ridge and stopped briefly to look for deer.
“They’re so used to the cars now, they often just watch us drive by,” Cousin said, before he turned to ponder the steep, muddy, boulder-strewn descent ahead.
“I think we should probably close this trail,” he mused, mostly to himself. Uh oh. I was ready to let the ruts cradle and guide me down – just as we’d done on another obstacle. But the ground here was too soft. The vehicle’s 10-plus inches of ground clearance wouldn’t be enough this time. He needed a new line, or track, down the trail. And I’d have to do it alone – just me and the Land Rover’s instrument panel – while Cousin stood below motioning where to put my wheels.
That he trusted me not to run him over actually gave me confidence. After 10 years as a Land Rover instructor, he knows how to read drivers.
Throughout the morning, Cousin guided me safely through a run of 1.5-metre (36-inch) deep potholes and talked me through 35-degree angled runs.
“It’s normal to feel like you are going to fall out the window; that’s why we close them. It’s safer,” he said. Funny how that didn’t technically reassure me.
But I was out of my element. Expedition-style driving isn’t my every day. Normally, I’m behind the wheel of a nine-year-old Corolla navigating the rush of a big city. Here, I was one of three cars on an expansive wilderness course, trying to calm the rush of adrenalin.
The day had started out so calmly. The driving school adventure begins in one of the log-cabin outer buildings of Fairmont Le Château Montebello – a resort hotel in an even bigger log cabin, the biggest in the world, to be precise. The Land Rover office is beside the log-cabin curling rink and a short walk from the enormous indoor pool, housed in another log cabin with a 40-foot, coffered, Swiss-style hand-painted ceiling and a sunroof. If Bavarian chic is a thing, this is its Canadian incarnation.
I was taking the two-hour class. It began with a gentle, leisurely drive from the hotel, through the village of Montebello – past the fromagerie, the chocolatier, the boutiques and Manoir Papineau, the Parks Canada historic site – and then we were in the countryside, farmland, horses, cattle and rolling hills; this is where the Laurentians begin their climb. Soon enough, we turned into the 65,000-acre Kenauk wilderness, which, when you’re not crawling up muddy mountains in a 4WD, offers more than a dozen cabins for rent, many on their own private lake.
The two-hour expedition gives drivers enough time to try the popular wilderness course, the wicked sand pit and, maybe, a growl through the short, tight demonstration trail once you get back to the hotel. (This nail-biter is essentially a walking trail barely wide enough for the LR4; it’s what hotel guests who sign up for a $25 demo get to try – from the passenger seat. But once you’ve mastered the skills course, your guide might let you take it as an off-road digestif.) Land Rover’s full-day course lets drivers master the official course before moving on to more technical, hard-core trails; families on the full-day adventure can give everyone (of driving age) a chance behind the wheel. Want to try blind off-roading? Just ask your instructor. I wasn’t up for it. Full-day programs also include a box lunch from the Fairmont kitchen eaten by one of the 70 Kenauk lakes.
I wished I was by one of those quiet lakes now instead of figuring out how to drive up the kind of hill sensible people would use as a toboggan run. But I’d been behind the wheel of this powerful beast long enough to know it could be done.
“As slow as possible but as fast as necessary,” Cousin murmured.
I took a deep breath, turned the wheel and put my foot on the gas.
If you go:
Canada’s only Land Rover Experience Driving School runs year-round out of Fairmont Le Château Montebello in Montebello, Que., located halfway between Ottawa and Montreal. Land Rover owners can take a three-hour course for free. With only six current model cars available, the driving school books up quickly. Expect to drive either a Range Rover, including the Evoque and Sport, or a Discovery Sport. The Montebello course is hidden within the 65,000-acre Kenauk wilderness area: There will be mosquitoes and blackflies in spring and gorgeous colour in the fall; in the winter, courses are slippery, more advanced and maybe even more fun. Lessons start at $250 for one hour.
In the United States, look for more Land Rover courses at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., Quail Lodge and Golf Club in Carmel, Calif., and Equinox Golf Resort & Spa in Manchester, Vt.
The writer was a guest of Land Rover Canada and Fairmont Le Château Montebello. Content was not subject to approval.
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