To The Cȏte-Nord—Finally

We are currently traveling to the Cȏte-Nord region of Quebec. It is the North Coast of the Saint Lawrence River and Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

We originally planned to take this trip last year during the fall migration season, but my dislocated shoulder put and end to that. Then we hoped to do it this past spring, during the spring migration, but we had guests during that time. We finally decided that we would do it as soon after as we could and just make it a meandering drive to the end of the road at Kegaska and back. It will probably be about 2300 miles, round-trip, with nearly 600 miles along the Cȏte-Nord.

It should look something like this:

The intent is to make short(ish) drives and multi-day stays at campgrounds along the way—with no reservations, starting with a few one night stops to get to Quebec.

Speedy started out on Sunday, June 16th, on the first leg...to Freeport, ME. After the obligatory stop at LL Bean, with that done we drove to nearby Bradbury Mountain State Park. We've stayed there many times in the past. It is a simple park with no serviced sites, but does have showers. At this time of the year there were plenty of sites to choose from.

Ellen's old friend, Judy, who lives nearby, brought with pizza for dinner and we had a good evening of catching up. It was good pizza, from OTTO in Portland, and there was not much to clean up.

Monday morning we headed north with our planned stop at Aroostook State Park. We arrived around lunch time to a cloud of bugs. We realized that out next planned overnight in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec was only two hours away and we could do without the bugs. We had lunch in Speedy by the lake at Aroostook and continued on to Canada.

After an uneventful border crossing at Van Buren, ME/ St. Leonard, NB we took the highway to Rivière-du-Loup and its municipal campground overlooking the Saint Lawrence River. None of the campsites actually overlooked the river and ours was at the top of the campground and wasn't quite level, but was paved and had electricity. The campground also had brand new washrooms and showers. It had individual shower rooms along the outside along with wash-up sinks, but the toilet situation was a bit unusual.

There was a single door into the toilet area with rooms off to the right and left of the doorway. The rooms had no doors but stalls and sinks in each one. They were unmarked. The right side had urinals, though. I guess there are no gender worries here.

After burgers for dinner we took a walk down to a park along the river which was quite pleasant, lots of flowering trees and a collection of singing birds, but few to be seen.

After a quiet, but humid night, we took advantage of the new showers and headed off to the ferry dock for the Rivière-du-Loup to Saint-Siméon ferry across to the Cote-Nord. We arrived fairly early for the noon ferry. The ferry pricing is based on length and was a large array of length ranges and prices. The attendant came along to measure Speedy and wrote up a ticket for 6.5 meters.

The price was $52 for up to 6.4 meters (automobiles), but $90 for 6.5 meters. I looked askance and asked him if Speedy really wasn't just 6.4 meters. He put his finger to his lips and gave a wink and wrote up a new ticket for 1 automobile.

The ferry was fairly large and we were not able to stay in Speedy during the crossing, about an hour. Unfortunately, we left our binoculars in the van and didn't get good views of the alcids we sailed through along the route, but we were able to see Beluga whales, small white whales that normally live in the Arctic, but there is a small population in the Saint Lawrence.

After arriving in Saint-Siméon, it was a short drive to the free ferry across the entrance to Saguenay Fiord from Baie-Sainte-Catherine to Tadoussac. This was a large open ferry and only about a ten minute crossing, so we stayed in Speedy. This should be the last ferry for 900 miles.

We are staying this evening at Camping Tadoussac. It is high up overlooking the Saint Lawrence, but there were no sites with a view available, but we have one with electricity which is good as the afternoon temperature went to the mid-80s and the AC was welcome.

Tommorow, we will finally meander north with stops along the way (First stop Boulangerie artisanale la « P'tite Cochonne »("Li'l Pig" Artisanal Bakery) in Grandes-Bergeronnes about 20 minutes away). We will travel for as long as we feel like it and then find somewhere (hopefully, on the water) where we can stay for 2-3 days.