The Coast

When I was growing up on the Lower North Shore, the best time of the year was when there were carnivals and hockey tournaments in the winter. Of all of the Carnivals, the one that you had to go to was the Saint Augustine Carnival. It always seemed to be the most lively, and the most fun.

This year when I was on vacation, I found out that the Saint Augustine Carnival was taking place during the first week-end that we were visiting. I called my friend Lloyd up, and he offered to allow us to stay at his place while we were in Saint Augustine, and then we were off on Ski-Doo.

The ride down was great. There was a light snow, but it was a relatively warm day. The trails along the Route Blanche are groomed, and very nice to ride on. I rode on my mother’s new Ski-Doo, which has hand and thumb warmers which makes it even more comfortable. We took our time, and stopped at several of the survival cabins for refreshments. We even stopped to talk with Alexandra and Karl, who are walking along the Coast.

The trail is also great, especially since a large portion of it runs along a river, which is ideal for snowmobiling. As you can see in the photo below, it is just a nice long flat winding trail.

An update on the hockey tournament from Nicholas.

The Dream Team has arrived and were greeted by the village of St.Augustine with open arms. Many thanks going out to Derrick Martin Vice President of USL for convincing these former NHL players to come to our small community and to play in our hockey tournament, and also to the former NHL hockey players, they made our dreams come true . Last night was a night to relax and have fun for the former NHLers, They played some exibition hockey with the local fun league players from St.Augustine,La Tabatierre and Pakua Shipi and also with the St.Augustine Devils. They also took time out to take photos with our minor hockey teams. The official tournament starts tonight at 5:00 pm. From my perspective our local teams in the A division will have a tough time competing against the Dream Team, but i’m sure they will not go down with-out a fight.I will keep you informed as the tournament progresses.

Note that all of the photos can be found on the Lower North Shore Community Web Site, or by clicking this link.

I just received the following from Nicholas Shattler

On the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of february there will be a traditional mens hockey tournament that will be held in St.Augustine on the Lower North Shore of Quebec. A tradition that is nearly sixty years old unites teams and villages from Blanc Sablon to Chevery. People traveling by snowmobile from as far as 200 km away to a small village with a population of 850 people. St.Augustine which is located in the center of the coast normally has a large turnout for their tournaments and this year will be no exception. There will be a company team coming from Toronto Ontario this year with some noticable names on their roster. The company Underground Services Ltd. has in their line-up players like John Druce ( NHL career 12 years, Washington Capitals), Gilbert Dionne (NHL career 3 years Montreal Canadiens), Rick Natress (NHL career 13 years), Craig Muni (NHL career14 years) Jim Thompson (NHL career 10 years) Tom Fergus (NHL career 8 years) and John Graham (NYI training camp). And to top it all of the coach for this team will be Craig Patrick previous manager of the Pittsburg Penguins who has won 2 stanley cups under his management. This surely will be an exciting weekend

I have created a page on the Lower North Shore Community web site to track the progress:

http://www.thelowernorthshore.com/2008_St._Augustine_Hockey