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Saturday, 31 August
Our plan for today was quite ambitious - making the Cabot Trail day look like a modest warmup. The plan was to circumnavigate the Gaspé Peninsula in a counter-clockwise direction. Google Maps indicated it was likely an 8 hour drive. Trying to research more on driving the Gaspé Peninsula found fewer guides than we found for the Cabot Trail.
The Bas-Saint-Laurent – Gaspésie Tour is a legendary scenic drive that loops around the huge Gaspé Peninsula. In 2013, National Geographic Traveler included this region on its list of Canada’s 50 Places of a Lifetime, while the renowned Michelin Green Guide has given it 3 stars.
https://en.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Gaspé_Peninsula
With 8 hours of expected driving, plus stops, golf was not part of the plan today. Probably just as well as the winds started strong in the morning, and became more so as the day went on.
Maybe in anticipation of a full day of adventuring, we were both up with the sun. After our normal morning routine, we were underway at 7:20am, which became 6:20am after 3 miles down the road when we crossed the bridge in Campbellton into Quebec and changed from Atlantic Daylight Time to Eastern Daylight Time.
Shortly after heading out this morning, Sprinty crossed a major milestone: 50,000 miles since being adopted by Kris and Darrell in February 2017.
As we traveled the Acadian Coastal Route yesterday towards the Quebec Province, more and more people were primarily speaking French. Yesterday in Campbellton, it was the unusual to hear a conversation in English. Last night in the campground, we only encountered two conversations in English.
The drive on the east side of Gaspé Peninsula was quite nice, with speed limits of 90km/hr except as we passed through small villages and town.
It seemed as if every village and town had a Halte Municipale (roadside rest area), usually with a restroom and picnic tables. And many of them with nice views. Too many to stop at each one, especially given our ambitious travel plan for the day.
Early in the day, Kris commented that it did not seem like Labor Day weekend. I replied that this is the first Labor Day weekend that we have not been race committee at Deep Creek Lake since 2006. We also experienced very light traffic for a weekend, even more so for a holiday weekend.
One of the iconic stops along the Gaspé Peninsula route is the village of Percé. The major feature is the arched rock in the rock island just offshore.
Percé was the first village we saw that was obviously a tourist destination with small inns, motels, large RV campgrounds, and tourist trinket shops.
As we headed out of Percé, the terrain started to get more mountainous. At one point, rock formations above the road reminded us a bit of Utah or southwest Colorado.
When we arrived in the city of Gaspé, we stopped at the Visitor Center. After four hours of driving, we needed an extended stretch break. The information center was not much help as almost all the information is exclusively in French - and while some words are familiar from elementary school French and our Italian, we don’t know enough French to pick up the details.
Along the “west” coast, we had over 70km along the Bay of St Lawrence. The highway was right along the water, at the base of towering rock hillsides. It reminded us of driving the California coast. The wind-driven waves (the Bay was frothy white with whitecaps) were crashing on the sea wall enough that Sprinty got several doses of salt spray.
Before turning south on Quebec 299, we did some of our travel planning for tomorrow in a roadside park in a small village while we had cellular service. Knowing that our campground for the evening was inland 20+ miles and in the mountains, we assumed (correctly) that we would not have cell service or WiFi.
Our destination for the night was “Parc National de la Gaspésie”. Despite the title, it is a Provincial Park, not a Canadian Park. It was established in 1937 to permanently protect the endangered Gaspésie caribou; to preserve the beauty of Mont Albert, the McGerrigle mountains, and the Rivière Sainte-Anne salmon; and to promote the development of tourism in the Gaspésie region.
The hiking trails in the park seem to be a big draw. There are 19 trails in the park, most rated difficult or expert.
Le Mont-Jacques Cartier, at an elevation of 1,270 meters, is the second highest peak in Quebec. The hiking trail to the summit is rated “Difficult”, and the rangers enforce strict rules about hiking it. Hiking is a only allowed on trails, is authorized only between 10am-4pm, no early departures allowed, and no departures permitted after 12pm. Primarily because Mont-Jacques Cartier is a critical habitat in the home range of the Gaspé caribou.
The Le Mont-Albert trail is rated expert with similar restrictions.
We arrived at Mont Albert - Gaspesie Provincial Park Campground, Mont-Albert, QC, at about 4:30. We found our campsite, but missed that check-in was at the park information center, 2km back down the road. We went back to properly check in.
Our campsite was a no-services campsite - no hookups, a central water spigot in the loop, a central dump station near the exit, and a central restroom facility with pay showers - four quarters for four minutes.
The travel today was a very scenic drive. It had some similarities to Skyline Drive, Blue Ridge Parkway, Big Sur, and Natchez Parkway. In the morning, we enjoyed a tailwind which helped Sprinty get almost 21mpg for the first four hours. The afternoon was hillier, and we bucked a strong, gusty headwind most of the way. Sprinty still averaged 19mpg for the day. The odometer says we drove just over 350 miles in just under 8 hours of driving time.
As we traveled, we picked up on the French words for typical signs, and learned some new ones like “travaux” for road construction, “arret“ for stop; “firme” for closed; “ouvert” for open; “sortie” for exit; and “maison à vendre” for house for sale. Our perception is that the three Provinces we were in earlier in the month (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) were bi-lingual, and people seemed able to seamlessly change language in mid-thought. As we traveled through the Acadian Cape of New Brunswick, French became more prevalent. As noted above, our travels in Quebec today found English on signs very scarce - almost exclusively in French. And in Quebec, English seems at best a second language. For example, when we called for a tee time tomorrow, we got shuffled to three people before we got someone who could speak enough English to make a tee time. While checking in at the Parc National de la Gaspésie, the lady at the desk spoke English in a way that suggested she was not as fluent in English as we experienced earlier in the month. Not complaining - it’s just a difference we noted. It is part of the adventure of the travel experience.
Tonight’s forecast low temperature is 41 degrees. We are breaking out the window insulation and setting up the Alde heater for the first time since back in March.
Sunday, 1 September
Last night, Sprinty officially added his fifth Canadian Province camped in to the list, to add to his 36 U.S. states camped in so far. As Canada only has 10 Provinces and 3 territories (although there was an article last week indicating Canada may have added another territory), achieving half the Provinces is something.
We woke up to the coolest morning of the trip at 41 degrees. Sprinty’s Alde heater worked like a champ, just as it did the last time we used it. Imagine the delight of getting up and having your bare feet land on heated floors.
Yesterday, we made a tee time for 11am at Boule Rock Golf Club in Métis-sur-Mer, QC. There were few choices along today’s route, and the weather forecast for Métis-sur-Mer was marginally better than the forecast for Metane - a couple degrees warmer and less wind. Google Maps indicated it was 2 hours away, and Storm Radar indicated temperatures would be in the mid-50s by tee time.
We broke camp before 8am. As we entered the town of Saint-Anne-des-Monts, we saw the back of an impressive church down by the water. We missed seeing it last evening as we turned away from the water and were focused on navigating.
As we have been traveling west on Quebec 132, most of the small towns and villages have a large church, and many of them are quite impressive in appearance.
We made a quick stop in Matane for milk. When we arrived at the golf course, we found the parking lot fairly empty. Perhaps being a holiday weekend and chilly, people were not as motivated as we were to get an early start. We both hit a bucket of balls on the range - although later, we are not sure it helped.
The pro shop said we could go off early. We both got off the first tee okay, but Kris’ second shot found the water hazard. The rest of the front nine was similar - Kris was just a bit off this morning. Maybe the cool temperatures? Maybe too much hitting on the range? Darrell was ahead at the turn, with both of us only having one par each and neither feeling we were playing to our potential or our expectations. The course was in nice shape with excellent (and fast) greens. Some of the views helped take our mind off the shots we wanted to forget.
We both played the second nine better, although it was narrower than the front nine. Darrell took honors on the day.
After golf, we stopped at the next village for a caramel Iced Capp for Kris. Our destination for the evening was the Bic Provincial Park Campground, Le Bic, QC. Our navigation aids wanted to put us on the main highway, Quebec 20. We elected to take the more scenic route along the river shore by staying on Quebec 132. A very pleasant drive.
Checking in at Bic Provincial Park was pretty easy. Our site was in the Tombolo section, 4.2km from the entrance. Shortly after leaving the entrance station, the road to the campground turn to dirt. Along the way, we stopped at the bay where there were supposed to be seals. We did not see any, but enjoyed the view.
Continuing down the dirt road also served as a reminder that this was good practice for our Alaska trip next year.
Sprinty had a very nice site that is surrounded by woods. The sites are well spaced out, and we even had electric tonight.
We were close enough to the main roads to have one bar of cell signal tonight. We also had mosquitos - the most of any campsite of the trip. As we sat with the sliding door open, the mosquitoes were in a queue to land on the screen door hoping to get inside Sprinty. At one time, we counted over a dozen on the screen. Hopeful little buggers.
Monday, 2 September
When we laid out our travel plans four months ago, we tried to balance seeing some more of Canada (than just the caravan route) and making the crossing back into the U.S. after the holiday weekend. As we executed the plan, Darrell wondered what he was thinking to plan such long driving days.
Today was another ambitious day - in part because there are few, of any, Provincial parks along the general route. An advantage of the Provincial parks is the ability to make on-line reservations in English. There are other campgrounds, but trying to make reservations in early May for this weekend, in French, seemed ambitious.
Leaving campground, we had the choice to turn east to go back to the the entrance we came in, 4.2km away, of which 4km was dirt road. Or continue west to a different entrance, 1.8 km away. We chose to go west, and in about 100 meters from the campground loop, enjoyed a paved road out to the main highway.
Once back on Quebec 132, we traveled through farm country. The latter part of yesterday was also farm country. Most striking were the fields of grain that had turned light yellow. Reminded us both of the phrase “amber fields of grain.”
We chose to drive Quebec 132 instead of getting on Quebec 20, an interstate type highway. Along the road, we saw more variety of house architectural styles than in other places. Traditional mixed with simple cottages mixed with modern, contemporary. Often we were traveling along the Bay of St Lawrence.
We had planned to drive Quebec 132 West for about three hours before getting on Quebec 20/TransCanadian Highway. All of a sudden the road was closed for construction. Conveniently right at an entrance to Quebec 20. And within minutes of getting on the highway, it started to rain. And rained for the rest of the day.
We enjoyed light traffic until we got near Quebec City, then the traffic was like I-85 in North Georgia (two lanes, everyone in a hurry to get somewhere) on a holiday weekend - heavy traffic at speed with periods of stop-and-go. This continued to Drummondville, where we turned south. The traffic on this section was very light, similar to driving on I-16 in Georgia.
Early in the day, we both commented on the lack of vehicles with license plates from outside Quebec. For the rest of the afternoon, over 200 miles, often in heavy traffic, we saw one license plate from New York, one from Massachusetts, three from Ontario, two from New Brunswick, one from Nova Scotia, and one we could not make out.
Our destination today was Lac Fraser in Mont Orford Provincial Park, near Sherbrooke, QC, just north of the Quebec-Vermont border. A nice gravel pad site, very level, which made getting Sprinty settled in the pouring rain a piece of cake.
From what we can see from our campsite, camping season is about done. After dinner, we took a walk around the campground. By our estimate, there are fewer than 30 sites occupied out of almost 300. In our loop, there are only four sites occupied. A contributor may be that we are in a non-serviced site - no electricity, no water, no sewer. But the serviced site loops were just as empty.
The restroom facility was among the finest we have seen in a National, state or Provincial park. We also saw a park staff member going around to all the vacant sites to pick up anything left behind by people who checked out today. If this is what they do with daily access fees, we are supportive. Quebec Provincial parks charge a daily access fee in addition to the camping fee - like some states do such as Michigan. New Brunswick Provincial parks did not assess a separate daily access fee.
For the day, Sprinty traveled 330 miles and averaged 18.9mpg. A long day, making us feel pretty good about scheduling a long drive day on a rain day. Pretty remarkable since we planned the stops on this part of the journey almost four months ago. BTW, no golf was sacrificed for the day’s plan, although we passed several golf courses and even saw some folks more hard-core about golf than us.
Tuesday, 3 September
A very quiet night. It rained a few times. We were both up with the sun. First project of the day was to cross back into the United States. Checking Google Maps, we found a backroads border crossing for non-commercial vehicles about 20 miles west of the crossing at Stanstead, QC on I-93. In addition to being able to travel the back roads, we thought it might be less busy.
When we got to the border crossing, there were no vehicles in line, and we drove right up the the border agent. We handed him our passport. He asked for our license plate number (hard for the, to see with their cameras as we have the bikes on the back). He asked where we lived, then asked if we had a place nearby. The he asked if we bought anything - we replied we had just bought food and one ball cap. And we were done. Three minutes maybe.
Crossing back into the United States completes Sprinty’s Canadian adventure that began a month ago on the 3rd of August when he crossed into New Brunswick, Canada, at Saint Croix. Four Provinces visited, many new friends made and a whole bunch of treasured memories made. And Sprinty adeptly handled every challenge put before him.
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