The Coast

Since I enjoy winter and snowmobiling, we decided to go back to the Lower North Shore for a vacation this year. We had a great time snowmobiling on the Route Blanche Snowmobile trail, went to the Saint Augustine Carnival, and got to watch a hockey game.

The conditions were great since there is so much snow this year. I also think that the season will last much longer than normal, since it will take some time to melt. If it does turn out this way, there will be some excellent spring snowmobiling on the Coast this year.

I will be adding more details on our winter adventure soon, and I have also uploaded some of our photos on the Lower North Shore Web Site too.

On my recent vacation to the Lower North Shore, I met Alexandra and Karl who are walking the entire length of the Route Blanche, from Kegaska to Blanc Sablon. They are from the Quebec City and Lac Saint Jean regions, and I am not quite sure what made them to decide to undertake this adventure, but they seem to be having a great time.

We met them between La Tabatiere and Saint Augustine, and it had been four months since they left Natasquan. Once they reach Blanc Sablon, they plan to take the Relais Nordik, which is the local ferry, back to Sept Iles, or Rimouski. They were making good progress, but still had a few weeks to go until they would reach Old Fort Bay.

I really like their approach, since they were trying to keep everything as traditional as possible. Karl actually made their Komatics himself, and much of their clothes and gear was also traditional or hand made. They did not take a radio or satellite phone with them, and they got their weather forecast and news from people stopping to talk to them on the trail. They spend most of their nights in a small tent that was heated with a wood stove.

They will definitley be in good shape once they reach their final destination, and I am sure that they will have some interesting stories. i am looking forward to hearing from them again, once they get back to “civilization”.

I have been going through the latest issue of the Chevery news, and have been reading about some of the activities planned for CoastFest 2008. A year long festival like this is a great idea, and hopefully it will encourage more former Coasters to visit the Lower North Shore next year. Every time I go back for a visit I have a great time, and I seem to be getting hooked since I am going back more frequently.

I was living in California for a few years, and during that period it was difficult to visit the Coast. I ended up not going back for 5 years, which I always regretted since we had such a great vacation on the Coast, just before we moved. When we went back in 2006, we enjoyed it so much, that we ended up buying a small house in the village of Mutton Bay. It is funny but paying our own bills and getting the place fixed up, helps us feel closer to the Coast even when we are not there. It is also great to have our own place when we do visit, and we can personalize it with some of our favorite knick knacks. We actually refer to the house as our cottage, although it is definitely not a traditional cottage location (as you can see from the photos below).

Since the vacation in 2006, we have been going back more frequently, and we went back once in the summer, and also in the winter this year. It was the first time that I had been back for a winter vacation in a long time, and I really enjoyed riding on snowmobile again. It is also a great time to visit, since there are lots of carnivals and hockey tournaments, and you can meet more people during these events.

I wish that I could spend more time on the Coast during the winter, but because of time constraints we take most of our vacations in the summer. This is the best time to go out on the islands in the gulf to see the whales and porpoises, and to pick some berries if they are in season. We spend most of our time hiking around the hills, riding on my father’s boat, and eating fresh seafood. The summer vacations are always very relaxing, and we always come back feeling well rested, and energized.

I would encourage anyone thinking of visiting the Coast, to take advantage of Coast Fest 2008 and to visit next year. Hopefully, some of our recent experiences are helpful in helping you to make up your mind. Maybe you will end up buying a small house too. Here are a few additional pictures to help make you home sick.

For more information on CoastFest 2008, you can go to the coastfest web site, or read more in the Chevery News.

How Canadian is this? While on vacation on the Lower North Shore, we rode our snowmobile to an outdoor hockey game in La Tabatiere. We also parked it at the side of the rink, so that we could sit on it while watching the game.

It was a beautiful clear evening, and not very cold, which made it perfect for playing and watching the game. As you can see from the photo below, which was taken between periods, we also had great front row seats.

This was just a friendly match between the second team in La Tabatiere, and the USL team in Saint Augustine. USL is a construction company, which I believe is mostly based in Toronto, but has a large number of employees from the Lower North Shore (especially from Saint Augustine). This is why the team is funded by, and named, USL. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the team from La Tabatiere.

The game itself was very enjoyable, and fast paced. You can see this from the break away photo below, which was taken during the second period of the game. It is clear that everyone on the Coast takes their hockey seriously, and that the region has some very good hockey players.

After the game, I went to the local bar, where both teams went for a beer after the game. Since I had to leave the game early, I asked what the final score was, but it turned out that nobody in the bar was sure what it was either. I guess it was a friendly game.

During the conversations after the game, I also found out that they will probably be building a new indoor rink in La Tabatiere soon. Both a new rink, and community hall are needed in the village, so they will combine both buildings into one, to save on the building and maintenance costs. A covered rink will also mean fewer cancelled games, a longer season, more practise time, and warmer fans.

I will personally miss the outdoor games, and watching them from my snowmobile.

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 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.