40-mile cross-country hut-to-hut skiing tour through the remote Chic Chocs Mountains of Quebec’s Gaspésie National Park. For me, though, the most important encounter on this trip was with myself.

French is spoken in the Alps-style chalets, which line the International Appalachian Trail as it forges 63 miles (101 kilometers) through Gaspésie National Park. The peaks themselves seem to hail ...