Hi Everyone, Gilles Morneau here, Biscut followed your advice and wrote to me, let's share the answer:
"Opening: Usually, we open the trails in mid-may. And yes we are buried under snow like never before, so maybe opening can be delayed. But there is no automatic correlation between amount of snow and mud season. Depends way more of the kind of spring we have. So if i were you, i'd plan for last week of may, or hold off for July. (less mosquitos in may).
Accomodation: We have a really cool hotel/pub/microbrewery called The Roquemont Hotel where bikers hang out, in the village of st-raymond, at the trailhead of one of our two hubs.
To stay more into the wild, you have options at the Shannahan trail hub:
Cottages for 6 to 12 people, fully equipped, one has a nice garage to store bikes
camping, where you have toilets but no running water and no showers.
we also have nice Yurts, but you cannot park your car there, you have to walk/ride a few kms, so less popular with bikers.
Language: Not speaking french was "not a problem" when i asked to guys like you coming from the States, after tehir stay. the staff of the Valley is bilingual, riders are, some citizens in St-raymond are a bit less educated but you'll manage to get and do whetever you need. will just add local colour to your experience."
For Canadmos who wondered if we close trails in case of rain: We do it only in extreme situations. We have closed the trails for maybe 2-3 days in the last whole 5 years. We know you are coming from far away so we don't want to ruin your vacation by closing at the first rain. However we rely on your judgment, you know it when it rains so much and your wheels create ruts that will need hours of maintenance. You understand that if our crews spend their time repairing the trails, they spend less time opening new trails. We prefer opening new trails, you like new trails, so be wise!
scoop: our signature trail The Neilson will be upgraded with a new section this summer, which will make it EPIC.
