Farewell Le Fleuve, G’day Gulf: Gaspé from the Laurentians to the Appalachians

 

Sunrise in Bic National Park

July 21 – Aug 3

 

First, I wanna talk about mooses. I have a theory about them. My theory is that way back when, we used to call them mooses. Then all the mooses got together and said you know, when you call us mooses it makes us sound kinda silly, and we’re not silly – we’re noble and majestic and we’re on your coat of arms and from now on, we want to be called moose, even when there’s more than one of us.

And the deers heard the mooses talking and they said HEY we don’t want to be called deers anymore either because it’s bad enough that we have a name that makes us sound all cuddly and cute and BY THE WAY MOOSES we’re also on the coat of arms and from now on, we shall be known as deer, even if there are more than one of us.

The sheeps said Oh, uh, I guess we better change our name to sheep too then.

The goats, on the other hand, were their usual stubborn selves and said Nup, you keep calling us goats.

I could go on explaining all the other animals’ names BUT we have a blog to get through here. After exploring the Laurentian mountains and Charlevoix area north of Le Fleuve, our travels were taking us now to the Gaspésie peninsula in Quebec, and 10 days of hiking and camping. This required a bit of a backtrack east, through Quebec City, before once again heading west along the Bas-St-Laurent (Lower St Lawrence). Time for another map!

From Pic to Bic

Ever since COVID it seems that camping (actually all accommodation) books up well in advance. We booked the Gaspésie campsites two months ago, which meant we just had to book it and hope the weather worked out.

First stop was Bic National Park, right on the edge of le Fleuve. Given how strange a name 'Bic' is, we had thought maybe there would be some interesting background to it, and asked a server at a gin distillery we found ourselves in one afternoon (more on that later). After first admitting that she actually had no idea where the name came from, she quickly checked with some colleagues and came back with the somewhat anti-climactic news that it came from the French word for peak (Pic), which over the years had morphed into Bic. It was called Le Pic initially because as the first European explorers navigated their way up the Fleuve it was the only hill of any kind for miles.

The main draw for coming to Bic Park was to experience the Grand Tour, a coastal walk/rock scramble that can only be done at low tide. Unfortunately, the dates we’d been able to secure for camping corresponded to either a super-heavy-early-morning low tide requiring a 4am wake up, or a late afternoon low tide coupled with hurricane-force winds and rain. Neither sounded particularly appealing to Al, but we managed to compromise on a 5:30 am start, which allowed us to complete the first half of the hike before the tide came back in. The other bonus of leaving at this time was we had the entire park to ourselves. Well, aside from a group of three guys trail running it for the second time in two days. 

Wow, such incredible views. This park was definitely one of the highlights of a highlight-filled couple of weeks.

The other plus of doing the hike so early in the morning was that we were finished by about 9am. Which worked out well, because the night before we’d had a pretty fierce, and unexpected, thunderstorm that put our camping gear to the test. We gave it a six out of ten – definitely some water ingress, but to be fair the rain drops were coming down so hard they were rebounding off the ground and under the fly into the tent. But still… with another storm forecast for later that afternoon, we ran for the cover of a warm, dry hotel rather than stay and battle another night of torrential rain. Yep, lightweights but wow that was a good sleep!

Retreating to a hotel in Rimouski meant we made a few discoveries:

• Pointe du Pere near Rimouski has a great gin distillery which has an excellent cocktail bar and an even better food truck run by a local restaurant which was churning out excellent food truck fare. La Distillerie du St Laurent’s speciality is gin infused with seaweed, which gives it a colour not dissimilar to a mix between urine and lime cordial. And yet tasted like neither. (Wow, way to sell it).

• The Pointe also has an interesting maritime history, as this is the spot where the big trans-Atlantic ships would be met by pilot boats to steer them up the Fleuve and into Quebec City. They also lay claim to being the site of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, one of the largest maritime disasters in Canadian history. (A bit odd to want to lay claim to that, when it actually happened 20km further up the coast)

Tallest phare (lighthouse) in Gaspe

The actual site of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland

• Our server told us about another restaurant near Bic that we won’t be able to go to, but we’ll share with you all in case you ever find yourselves out his way: Restaurant Chez Sainte-Pierre.

Farewell Le Fleuve, G’day Gulf

Our old friend Le Fleuve is getting decidedly saltier at this point. Salt spray in the air and seagulls abound. It’s quite shallow and the large tides reveal all kinds of rocks. None stranger than at the Centre d’Art Marcel Gagnon. A small gallery with an outdoor display of sculptures that emerge as the tide recedes. Reminding us of one of Al’s favourite ‘Dene-isms’: when the tide goes out, that’s when you find out who’s not wearing any pants.

Al's first lobster roll of the trip. Not bad, but more research needed

Rivers of Salmon

We had booked a couple of nights in the coastal town of Matane with no real expectations as it was just to get sorted before a week of camping. Quite literally the only place to eat in town (other than Tim Hortons) was a craft brewery. And yet the line-up was justified– the food was amazingly good.

We also stumbled on a salmon ‘ladder’ observation centre that had been put in place to provide salmon a path up the river after a dam was put in. They have a cool monitoring station where you can look through big glass windows at the pools where the salmon are making their way up.

Penguins do love their fish

We’d just commented on how odd it was to have a long ladder attached to the town bridge that went down about 40m to the water which were strong rapids. Luckily a local provided the answer a few minutes later as he made his way down the ladder, into the rapids and threw out a line to fish for salmon. I mean, we like salmon but that’s a little extreme.

Gaspésie Provincial Park – Hiking the Appalachians

We’re planning a trip to Patagonia next year, so we need to get our legs trained up for some long hikes. So, with our stay in Gaspésie Provincial Park we had a number of long-ish hikes planned, and were hoping to dodge the raindrops at the same time. (Still carrying some scars from the Bic park weather)

On the day we arrived it was clear weather so after setting up camp we drove out to the eastern end of the park and did a 12km hike to Pic de l’Aube. Great hike and again had the place to ourselves.

The next day was a super exciting 8km hike on Mont Jacques Cartier. Its claim to fame was it is home to the last remaining herd of caribou south of the St Lawrence. They feed on the lichen found on the tundra, which itself is very unusual at such a low latitude. We caught the first bus to the trailhead in the morning and absolutely legged it up the mountain to be some of the first to arrive there, in hopes of catching sight of the elusive beast. Alas, the tundra landscape on the summit was very cool but no reindeer cousins on this day.

This is the highest outhouse in Southern Quebec

On the final day in the park, rain was forecast for the afternoon so we did a short ‘family friendly’ 7km hike up to the Chute du Diable (‘The chute of the devil’??) which was a very picturesque waterfall not far from the visitors centre in the park. This was also our last chance to visit a Sepaq shop, as this would be our last provincial park in Quebec. I guess we must be fully merched up, because we couldn’t find anything else to buy there.

After which we sat huddled in our campsite under a tarp as thunderstorms rolled around us. We may have cracked the code on how to stay dry in the rain (without resorting to a motel) – we spent a very pleasant afternoon watching the rain, playing cribbage and drinking G&T’s.

One of the things we’ve learned from our 10 days in the Gaspé north shore is that weather forecasts are even more of a guide than usual. The only thing you can rely on is that at some point, when you least expect, gale force winds will come out of nowhere and a thunderstorm may well start. Fortunately we survived with just a few minor repairs to a sleeping mat and the tent.

(Before the rain obviously!)

On to the next campsite at the very tip of the Gaspé peninsula, Forillon. But not before a final visit to our latest food discovery: the amazing bakery/café Marie4poches where they make excellent, nay incredible, baguette sandwiches and so many delicious looking baked goods it’s hard to choose. Also the best coffee on our trip so far. It’s in the cute town of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts.

Here we met with the lovely Sarah and Catherine who during COVID set up an artisan business. We’d seen their cool coasters shaped like giant buttons in the bakery before we went into the park, so we’d emailed to ask if they had more. They made some to order for us and met us at the bakery to hand them over, having just finished glazing them. The two of them then rode off with their dog on an electric mountain bike (and I can’t believe we didn’t get a picture of them riding off). They’ve just won a grant to expand so maybe you’ll see some of their things in Canada www.projetsequoia.com

The girls had also told us about a local artisan market up the road where a group of local artisans get together each summer to rent out a space to sell their wares. Le Petit Marché Boutique d’Artisans. We may have bought a few other things…

Sainte-Anne-des-Monts to Gaspé

The drive along the coast from Sainte-Anne-des-Monts to the town of Gaspé is spectacular. One of the joys of not doing too much research on a place you’re visiting is sometimes finding yourselves in a stunning landscape you weren’t expecting. We’ve been following le Fleuve all the way from Quebec City, but never has it been more dramatic than here, where it opens up to the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Gaspé peninsula narrows, suddenly the Appalachians are being crowding right up next to the coast. We were driving next to, and staring straight up at, black volcanic rock slides with disturbingly no protection.

The Forillon National Park is the tip of the Gaspé peninsula and also the very start of the International Appalachian Trail (or the end depending on your POV). Quite a spectacular spot to start or finish an overland trail. Looking out to the Gulf of St Lawrence which now looks more like the open ocean than the river we’ve been following.

Our campsite!

We did see quite a few seals playing in the waves but they are shy and didn’t like their photo taken it seems.

This is it - the pointy end of the Gaspe peninsula!

The Percé Rock

Our last few days in Quebec we swapped the tent for the luxury of a real bed in Percé, where a remarkably large number of people flock to see a rock and some birds, and then to Carleton-sur-mer where families frolic on the ‘sandy’ shores of the Gulf bwahaha.

Foraging for food and other goodies

The Gourmand Gaspésie magazine has been a very handy guide to find all kinds of treats, but the directions it gave for a store selling spices and dried mushrooms sure seemed a little suspect. Google had us drive out of town, down a gravel road, onto a still smaller gravel road, and abandoned us in front of an unmarked gravel driveway, no sign of any sort of shop. We decided to give it a go and as we drove up a smiling middle aged couple hauling firewood greeted us under the watchful eye of a huge Highland bull, a dozen geese and a very protective Labrador, Gaston. Catherine and Gerard seemed quite bemused that we had managed to find our way to their place but very happy to show us their products which are all made from plants they forage from the forest. From teas and dried mushrooms to spice rubs and algae, they had an amazing range. They have huge drying racks where they slowly prepare the various plants they’ve foraged. Much of it finds its way to local food producers and restaurants, as well as the Société Secrète distillery that makes gin from… mushrooms

Gaspésie Sauvage Produits Forestiers

We did manage to sample some very good local food in these last few days.

Beer with maple smoked turbot at Gaspe Microbrasserie

Pudding stone cream liquor made with local mushrooms

Lobster meal at La Maison du Pécheur

La Société Secrète distillery

Au Revoir Quebec  

Everyone we’ve come across so far in Quebec has been very friendly, relaxed and quick with a smile despite our very faltering French. I’m sure they’re all saying to themselves ‘C’est quoi, ca??’ but they don’t let on.

And so after a spectacular, delicious month in Quebec, it’s time to say A Bientot to Quebec and head to Cape Breton where more hiking and a couple of much-anticipated rounds of golf await.