The Coast

For this vacation to the Lower North Shore, we decided to take a new flight that Air Labrador as added from Montreal to Chevery. Instead of the regular smaller plane, they are using a Dash-8, which goes from Montreal to Chevery without the need to get off the plane in Sept. Iles. The nicest part about this change, is that the flight does not leave Montreal until 11:10 a.m. Last year, we had to leave at 6:30 a.m., which meant that we had to get up really early to catch the flight, and had to stay at a hotel near the airport. On this trip we decided to stay at a friend’s house on the South Shore the night before, spend a nice evening with them, and then and have a nice breakfast before we went to the airport.We still made the usual stops in Quebec City, Sept. Iles, Natashquan, and finally Chevery. The flights from Montreal to Sept. Iles were not very full, and we were able to change our seats around so that all of the kids could have window seats. After we landed in Sept. Iles, the remaining seats filled up with people speaking with people from the Coast. Hearing their Coaster accents again, always makes me feel like I am just a little be closer to home. Because the plane was starting to fill upto fill up, we moved back to our assigned seats. This turned out to be a waste of time, since nobody paid seemed to pay much attention to the seats on their boarding passes, and everyone just grabbed whichever seat they felt like.

Besides that, the flight from Montreal to Chevery was uneventful, and we arrived at all of the towns on time, or early. The kids also handled the multiple hops very well, and were very well behaved except for a few arguements about whose turn it was to have the window seats again (after Sept Iles.)

To get from Chevery to La Tabatiere we needed to take a smaller Twin Otter, and after landing in Chevery we were told that fog was starting to close in around Tete a la Baleine, and La Tabatiere. The first flight left for Tete a la Baleine, but could not land because of fog, and had to return to Chevery. The report from La Tabatiere was that the weather was holding, so we were still hopeful that we would be able to make it to our final destination today. On all of our previous flights to La Tabatiere, we had not been delayed, so I was also hoping that maybe we would also bring some good luck to this attempt to land.

Just before leaving the airport in Chevery, there was an announcement that we might not be able to land in La Tabatiere because of fog, and if that if we could not land, then the plane would continue on, and we would then land in Blanc Sablon. All of the other people flying to La Tabatiere told us that this was still our best chance, since even if we had to fly to Blanc Sablon, there is a flight from Blanc Sablon to La Tabatiere first thing in the morning, and we would still arrive earlier than if we stayed in Cevery, which is actually closer.

I was actually thinking that it might be a good idea to stay in Chevery, since there were some friends and relatives in Harrington that we really wanted to see, but had not had the time for a stop over in Harrington on this trip. If we stayed in Chevery, and the weather was clear tomorrow, we could take the helicopter over to Harrington, then spend the following day there, and then fly back to catch our afternoon flight. I also knew that if we did make it to Harrington, there was a ride on Jim’s sail boat waiting for me, which would have been great. After thinking about it for a few minutes, we decided that since there was a 50/50 chance that we would make it to our final destination, we might as well try the flight to La Tabatiere.

We flew over the fog all of the way down the coast, and after about 30 minutes, we started to slowly decend down through the fog. I kept looking for a break in the fog, and I could see a few black patches of ground, but could not make out any details. I guess the pilots were having the same problem, and they pushed the throttle forward, and we started to ascend again. One of the pilots came back and told us that we would be flying on to Blanc Sablon, since it was too dangerous to land in La Tabatiere. It was interesting that I had actually exchanged a few e-mails with our pilot a few months ago, since he had posted some twin otter videos on Youtube, and I had asked him to post some on the Lower North Shore web site. I was glad that he had agreed to do that, since the Twin Otter is such an important part of the Coast, and it was nice to actually meet him in person on this trip. I spend much of my spare time building web servers, and creating web sites, but I am always amazed at how prevelant the Internet is now, and how it allows people with similar interests to connect with each other.

The rest of the flight to Blanc Sablon was uneventful, and the lady at the Air Labrador desk in Blanc Sablon, made reservations for us at Motel Blanc Sablon. The motel is a nice place, and has a great gift shop with lots of nice souvenirs from The Lower North Shore. We purchased some Tee shirts, sweatshirts, and a some stuffed baby seals for the children. We also met someone that we new from La Tabatiere, and her younger daughter had a great time playing with our kids while we were in Blanc Sablon.

The nearest restaurant was Pizza Delight, which was a 5 minute walk from the motel. It turns out that this restaurant is part of a chain in the atlantic provinces, which was a surprise, but it was very nice inside and the service was excellent. We were also told that the seafood dishes were made with local seafood, which met my requirements for my first meal on the Coast. The seafood pasta was excellent, and was even better with a few beers to wash it down. The kids ordered kitty cat pizza’s, which came in the shape of a cat’s face, and even had licorice on them for whiskers.

When we got back to the motel, the room was a little hot, so I opened the window and we could actually hear the ocean across the road. There wasn’t much traffic on the 138 in front of the Motel, and the sound of the ocean, and the cool breeze allowed us to sleep like babies.

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 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.

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.