The Coast

As I mentioned in my previous post, whenever I go snowmobiling, I really like to take advantage of opportunities to get off of the main trail and explore. As a teenager, I used to do this all of the time, and my favorite spot was up riding up in the mountains between Mutton Bay and La Tabatiere. When there is enough snow to get up to the top of these mountains, you can then continue along the top for many miles. There are no trees, and the snow gets packed down pretty hard by the wind, so it is a pretty good for snowmobiling. Of course, you have to be very careful of hidden cliffs, and small avalanches, but if you know your way around, it can be great fun.

This winter when I went back to the Coast for a snowmobiling vacation, I was definitely hoping that I would get the opportunity to explore the mountains and hills above an area called Bear Gulch again. After a couple of days of riding the lakes and rivers, I felt confident enough that the time was right to try to go up through Bear Gulch again. The photo below was taken from the road that runs down through Bear Gulch, and you can see the mountain that was my end goal at the end of the valley, just above the snowmobile.

At first I thought that it was going to be difficult to get off of the main road, and up into the hills, since the path that I used to take, had grown up over the years. Luckily, right next to it, there was a hill where the snow was hard packed, and it was relatively easy to climb with a bit of a head start. After that, there were a few spots where the snowmobile sank down in snow that was covering some small bushes, but overall it was relatively easy to reach the upper part of the valley. The photo below was taken at the top of the first big hill, before heading back down into Bear Gulch for the final climb to the top. As you can see, it was a nice sunny day and we have a beautiful view of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

After taking the quick break for the photo above, we continued on down into bear Gulch. This can be a pretty dangerous spot beacuse of a number of cliffs, but there is a nice ridge that you can follow down into the small valley, which is not very steep. Once you get down to the bottom, it is very flat with hard packed snow, and it is very easy to ride up through the valley to the top of the mountain. The photo below was taken at the top of the valley, and it is pretty much like this all of the way down to a small pond at the bottom. The lower parts are relatively steep, so we didn’t try to go down to the pond, in case it would be too difficult to get back up.

From Bear Gulch, we continued on up to the top of the mountain, to take some additional photos, and to see how much farther we could ride. It was relatively easy to get around at the top, but there wasn’t a large amount of snow this year, so we did have to maneuver around some rocks and boulders on the way up.

The photo below was taken at the top of the mountain facing West. As you can see, it is relatively easy to continue riding along the top from this point and you can go for many miles without too much trouble. Of course, it is also

easy to get lost up here, since the wind can quickly cover your tracks, and things start to look the same after awhile. We were happy with just reaching our destination, so we decided to head back to the village of La Tabatiere to warm up, and have a drink.

I also took some video of our ride, which I will post at a later date.

The Route Blanche Snowmobile Trail stretches from Kegaska on the western most end of the Lower North Shore, of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, to Old Fort Bay in the East. The trail connects all of the villages on the coast, and most of the trails are around 20-40 km between the villages. This is nice, since you can ride for a few hours, and then stop at one of the villages for a snack, or to buy gas. As I pointed out in my last post, most of the villages do not plow their roads in the winter, so you can just ride your snowmobile up to the restaurant or gas station, which is very convenient.

The trails are marked and are well groomed, so if you are in a rush you can make really good time on the lakes. The photo of the trail below is at the end of one of the portages on the trail, and gives a pretty good idea of what most sections of the trail are like. As you can see the trail itself is optional for many people, and if you are familiar with the area, there are lots of regions that you can explore off of the main trail. Of course this can be very dangerous if you are not familiar with the region, since there are a large number of rivers and rapids near sections of the trail.

The Lower North Shore is an isolated region, and it may take time for someone to find you, if you run into trouble on the trail. Because of this, there are several small cabins on the longer sections of the trail, that can be used for emergency shelter. The cabins have a wood stove, are stocked with wood, and would not be a bad place to spend the evening. It is recommended to bring an axe, and some matches with you, since I don’t think these are available in the cabins.

On this particular vacation, I stayed in La Tabatiere and just did day trips on the trail between Tete A La Baleine, and St. Augustine. I prefer this over trying to ride the entire trail, since it allows me to take shorter day trips, and then spend more time exploring sections off of the main trail. Also, by doing it this way, you don’t need to worry about rushing to make up time, if you get delayed because of bad weather.

Luckily, I had some great weather on this trip, which is common in mid March, and the riding was great. As you can see from the evening photo below, which was taken between St. Augustine and La Tabatiere, I spent many hours exploring the trail each day.

I went back to the Coast for a winter vacation, which I haven’t done in the past 10 years, and I had forgotten how much fun this region is in the winter. Although I have enjoyed my past few summer vacations on the Lower North Shore, going around on snowmobile in the winter is really a blast. It’s the combination of the beautiful scenery, and the fact that you are riding this high tech snow machine, that makes it so much fun. All of the new machines are of course very comfortable, and powerful, and if you need to get somewhere in a hurry, it is not going to be a problem.

Although riding the newer snowmobiles is fun by itself, having pretty much unlimited trails makes it better than just riding on your typical snowmobile trail. First of all, it is just an adventure to ride around trying to explore new locations. Even riding in the villages is fun, since the roads aren’t plowed in the winter, and you end up riding your snowmobile everywhere. If you need to buy groceries, you go on your snowmobile, if you want to go to the bar, you also take your snowmobile (and walk back of course). Why fight winter, when it is more fun to take advantage of it?

As you can see from the photo below, the roads in the villages are covered with snowmobile tracks.

I recently went back to the Lower North Shore for a winter snowmobiling vacation, and  I have started uploading some of the photos I took, to the Lower North Shore Web Site. We really had a great time, and I had forgotten how much fun the Coast is in the winter. There are lots of things to write about, and I will be adding many new Blog entries once I catch up on a few other things.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos.

I am currently planning a winter vacation to the Lower North Shore. It will be the first time that I will be back on the coast, during the winter months, in over ten years. I can’t believe how fast time flies, but I am really looking forward to going back again. I have fond memories of late winter, and early sprring on the coast, and I am going to try to visit the region when the snow is still around, but the days are getting longer.

I doubt very many people in Canada are planning to go further north for a winter vacation, but I do enjoy winter sports, and I can’t wait to go for a ride on snowmobile. The great thing about most of the villages on The Lower North Shore in the winter, is that everyone uses snowmobiles to get around, since the roads are not plowed. There are also lots of trails, and portages that make it easy to explore the lakes, rivers, and hills near the villages. There is also usually more snow up there, so it should be pretty easy to get around.

I am really hoping that it is going to be like the photo below from La Tabatiere:

In any case, I will take lots of pictures while I am up there, and add them to the Lower North Shore Web Site when I get back.

Just after starting the second Lower North Shore web site a year or so ago, I received an e-mail from Bob Belvin. It was actually interesting that he had tracked me down via the web, since we originally met at a tourism conference in Saint Pauls River around 1997/98, and I was actually there to present information on how the web could be used for tourism. I remembered Bob from the conference, since most of it was pretty much a waste of time, except for the discussions that I had with Bob and Dwight Bilodeau, regarding the hstory of the Lower North Shore. They both knew some very interesting facts about the history of the area, including many things that you will never find documented anywhere.

In one of our e-mail exchanges last year, Bob informed me that he had just completed a new book on the Lower North Shore. I immediately tried to order it from Amazon.com, only to find out that it had not been published yet. This was a little disappointing, since I was living in California at the time, was feeling a little homesick for Canada and the Coast, and the timing of the book could not have been better. I was at least happy that people from the coast were able to track me down via the web site, which was the main reason that I had started it up again.

A year later, I was back in Canada, and Bob sent me another e-mail telling me that his book had just been published, and was titled “The Forgotten Labrador”. I again tried to order the book, this time from amazon.ca, only to find out that the expected delivery time was 6 weeks. Luckily, the book ended up showing up a few days later, which was just in time to become a Christmas gift for my parents, who were visting for the holidays.

It turned out to be a great choice for a gift, since the book was a great discussion topic right from the time when they unwrapped it, and immediately went through the photos pointing out the people that they knew. As we started reading the book, it became clear that Bob had done a great job of collecting historical information on the coast for this book. It was great combination of historical facts combined with a true perspective of the coast. it was also obvious that only someone from the Lower North Shore could have written this book, and Bob’s position as archivist, and historical researcher had also obviously served him well for this book. I immediately order 5 more copies to give out to other people from the Coast, that I knew would appreciate the book.

The first thing that I learned from “The Forgotten Labrador” was how lucrative the fishing and sealing rights were to the original settlers along the coast. The first surprising quote was from Admiral Bayfield, related to my great great grand father, stating that “Robertson a lord of these parts lived in a neat and comfortable mansion and that for lunch they were served bread, cheese and a good port of wine. He received the the newspaper and had a personal library”. This was definitely not the way that I had expected the original European settlers of this remote region to be living in 1834.

Another fact highlighted by Bob’s book was that the Basque and Breton fisherman had outposts in the Lower North Shore before Jacques Cartier had discovered the Saint Lawrence. Thinking about it now, it makes sense, since it was clsoer to Europe, but it is still interesting none the list.

I could go on, but if you have read up until this point, I would just suggest going out to get a copy of the book.

On the fourth day of our Lower North Shore vacation my uncle was kind enough to take us out on his Long Liner to look for whales. This worked out really well, since it is a very large boat, and the kids could run around a little. We decided to try our luck near the island of Gros Isle, which is where we had seen whales on our last vacation.

As you can see from the photo below, near the wharf in La Tabatiere, it was a nice sunny day, with very little wind, which is perfect whale watching weather. We got going early in the morning. It wasn’t fisherman early, but it was early for all of us, and especially for the kids. I may have lost the early morning start gene, but I definitely know hat I have salt water in my veins, when I experience mornings like this on the ocean.

We left the wharf in La Tabatiere, and steamed out through the small island outside of the harbour, where I took the photo below. The fact that the weather was so nice, and the gulf was very calm, reminded me of our last whale watching expedition. I was hopeful that this was a sign that we would also see whales on this trip. I of course know very little about the migration patterns of whales, but I would imagine that they can appreciate a beatuiful day too.

My uncle’s long liner is a working boat, and is mostly used for snow crab fishing, but it actually works well for whale watching with kids. First of all it has a very high railing going all around the stern section, which prevents them from falling overboard, which is always a good thing, and also keeps everyone sheltered from the elements. There isn’t really anything for them to break, since things need to be heavy duty for fishing. The main deck is also very open which also allows them to run around, and stretch their legs, as you can see from the sandwich break photo below.

After steaming around Gros Isle, we saw our first whale on this trip. As with the first whale sighting of any vacation, there was a great deal of excitement. It was also the first time that our kids had ever seen a whale, so they got extremely excited everytime one surfaced.

We actually saw a large number of whales that day, or maybe it was the same whale many times. I took quite a few photos of the whales, but I never really did get a great picture. You pretty much need to guess where they are going to surface, and then take the photo as soon as they come up, but I could never quite get the timing right. The whale in the photo below seemed to be coming straight for the boat, which was the most interesting one that I captured.

At least it was fun trying……….

Whenever we go to the Lower North Shore in the summer, we always try to make it down to “the cabin” for a day or two. For people unfamiliar with The Coast, many people have small cabins on the islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence which they visit most summer week-ends. As you can see in the photograph below, this are pretty basic accomodations, with no electricity or running water - except for the advanced aqueduct below : ) I think thie Coaster tradition of going to “The Cabin” started with the original settlers having fishing camps on the islands near where they fishing during the summer. Since people would have to row or sail to their fishing grounds, it made sense to live on the islands where they were fishing. These days, almost all of the cabins are recreational, and with power boats, they are only about one hour away from the village.

The islands are mostly hard rock, and the hills are covered with a thin layer of bouncy moss. It makes the hiking very easy, and if you trip and fall, the moss USUALLY cushions your fall. A hike to the top of one of the hills will usually reward you with a nice view of the ocean, and other islands. Our kids also like to roll down the moss covered hills on the way back.

This would definitely not be considered an adventure vacation, but it is just really nice to go to an island where there are no other people, and no distractions, and relax. It is hard to describe, but it is really nice when there are no phones, cars, T.V., or any of our modern “conveniences”. I am not a Luddite, and we have our cell phones, Black Berries, Ipods etc, but not having any of these items around really does force you to relax. For example, a typical day at the cabin will involve a hike over the island, collecting mussels at low tide for lunch, drift wood for a fire, and maybe picking some berries for dessert.

Another advantage of the islands in the summer, is that lack of many trees, and the breeze from the ocean, means that there are not as many flies as there are on the mainland. This is a big advantage in the North, and probably also helps to explain the popularity of a cabin on an island in the summer.

In any case, there is getting away from it all, but going to the cabin is really getting away from it all.

We moved back to Canada from California this summer, and took a long overdue vacation to the Lower North Shore. We had not visited the Coast for over 5 years, and we were really looking forward to going whale watching, visiting old friends, and also going hiking. After going through the stress of a big move, it turned out to be a great way to unwind, and catch our breath, before getting started on our new life in Canada.

The two photos below show the moving vans in front of our old house in California, and the Island of Gros Isle, just outside of the village of La Tabatiere, which shows the start and end of our summer adventure. The island of Gros Isle is about two kilometeres long, and the Southwest cove has the beautiful beach that you see in the photographs below. It is a difficult beach to reach by boat when it is windy, but it was unusually calm during the day that we went, and we were able to spend the entire day on the beach. The kids had a great time looking for sea shells, and playing in the sand. We also took a short hike up the nearby hill, where I took the photograph and lit a small fire for lunch using the driftwood on the beach. The icing on the cake was the fact that we saw a bunch of whales on our way back to La Tabatiere.

The day on Gros Isle was absolutley perfect, and excellent weather for the entire vacation. were probably the main reasons that we ended up purchasing a small house in Mutton Bay. Whatever the reason, it seemed to make sense at the time, and we now have a cottage on the Lower North Shore . Since we are not going to be using it very much right now, we are going to rent it for the rest of the year. This is just the first post in a series related to our vacation, and I will be adding more posts later.

As the name suggests, the Lower North Shore is the most North Eastern portion of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The region consists of 15 villages starting with Blanc Sablon on the border with Labrador in the East, and ending with Kegashka (Kegaska) in the West. The remaining villages, listed from East to West are Lourdes De Blanc Sablon, Brador Bay, Middle Bay, Saint Pauls River, Old Fort Bay, Saint Augustine River, La Tabatiere, Mutton Bay, Tete A La Baleine, Alymer Sound, Harrington Harbour, Chevery, and La Romaine.

Most of the villages in the region are isolated, and can only be reached via airplane, or ferry. You can take a Ferry from Saint Barbe’s in Newfoudland, to Blanc Sablon, and drive west to Old Fort Bay. The Relais Nordik is a combination ferry and freighter that makes a weekly journey starting in Rimouski, and ending in Blanc Sablon. Air Labrador offers flights from Montreal to most of the villages on the Lower North Shore, and is the fastest way for most people to get to the Lower North Shore. Finally, Provincial Airlines offers flights from Newfoundland to Blanc Sablon.

While we were in La Tabatiere last summer, Premier Jean Charest was in the village to announce that route 138 would be extended through the Lower North Shore. If past experience is any guide, I will probably still be a very old man before all of the villages on the lower North Shore are connected to the outside world via a road. It was a good gesture, but I also suspect that it was mostly tied to some announements for hydro electric dams which were announced in parallel. I will have more to say on this topic in a later posting.

For hundreds of years, the economy of the Lower North Shore has been based on the fishing industry. The original explorers and settlers came to the region for cod, whales, and seals and made a very good living on the region. Unfortuantely, over the years the mismanagment of the fishing industry by numerous levels of government, has resulted in a severe decline in most fish stocks. Currently, the remaining fishermen are focused mostly on Snow Crab, Shrimp, and there are also smaller fisheries such as lobster. I will also have more to add on this topic in future posts too.

Because of the decline in fishing industry, the region has had a severe impact on the local economy, and many people, myself included, have had to leave the region to find employment. I have noticed that more and more former Coasters are returning to the Lower North Shore to retire, or for vacation. Many of them are also involved in new and interesting projects to document the history oif the region, and also help promote region for tourism. Bob Belvin’s recent book “The Forgotten Labrador” , is an excellent example of this, and is highly recommended for anybody interested in the history of the Lower North Shore.

You can find more general information on the region at The Lower North Shore Web Site .