From: v057gu3j@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Harold)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.rides
Subject: Bas-Saint-Laurent, Charlevoix, and Manicouagan, Quebec (long)
Date: 15 Sep 92 14:41:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41


   This is a description of a ride that a friend and I took over the 
Labor day weekend in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, Charlevoix, and 
Manicouagan regions of Quebec.  All distances are given in kilometers and 
are approximate, as I don't have a trip computer on my bicycle.  I will try 
to give French terms for things that I don't remember seeing signs for in 
English, though I apologize in advance for any spelling mistakes I make, 
and I won't even try to put in accents.  

   First, a little orientation.  In Quebec, north is east and south is west, 
because all directions are given relative to the St. Lawrence River which is 
defined to be flowing east-west at all times, regardless of its actual 
orientation, which is almost always more north than east, especially in 
Montreal, where the sun rises in the south and sets in the north.  So on 
Saturday morning we headed out on  Autoroute 20 from Montreal, east 
towards Quebec City.  After about four hours of driving, slowed 
considerably by a lot of construction and extra Labor day weekend traffic 
(it's a holiday in Canada too, though it's Labour Day there) we stopped in 
La Pocatiere, a town on the south coast of the  St. Lawrence about 135 km 
east of Quebec.  There is a tourist information center there where you can 
pick up maps and brochures in English, and most importantly for us, a 
bilingual guide to all of the campgrounds in Quebec.  We parked the car at 
the local bank (Caisse Populaire) and loaded up the bikes with sleeping 
bags, a tent, some food and plenty of warm clothing (which we actually 
didn't need too much of).  Now to the ride.

	We started east (est) on route 132, which winds its way along the 
river, pretty well isolated from the busy Autoroute 20.  There wasn't much 
traffic, but even though the speed limit is 90, the cars go by a lot faster; 
there were very few trucks, as most stay on the 20.  We passed through 
several towns on the 90-km trip to Riviere-du-Loup, including 
Kamouraska, which has a museum and interpretive center dedicated to 
fishing and the structures built by the residents to limit erosion, though we 
didn't stop.  The next town was Saint Andre, near which there was a nature 
interpretive center with public bathrooms, though without potable water, 
though they will sell you a small bottle of Evian for 75 cents.  Most of the 
space in between La Pocatiere, Kamouraska and Saint Andre was filled 
with wide open fields, without anyplace to stop either for water or to 
answer nature so make sure you have enough to drink, but not too much; 
there are convenience stores (depanneur) in the towns and at the gas 
stations along the road.  Most of the ride was very flat, though there are a 
few up and downs, but nothing like the other side of the river (more on that 
later);  you are very exposed to the sun for most of the time, so remember 
sunscreen if it's a nice day.  About ten km before Riviere-du-Loup one has 
to make a choice, the masochists who enjoy big hills and despise beautiful 
seaside towns will continue straight on 132, but the rest should turn left 
towards the village of Notre-Dame-du-Portage, a lovely little summer 
resort town with plenty of inns (auberge) and cottages.  You can stop and 
read the story of the village name on a statue near the middle of town.  
You might also wish to stop for a nice meal, if you have the time, at the 
Auberge du Portage on the river, which serves three meals in a dining room 
that overlooks the river.  Fairly expensive (~$20 per person without wine 
for lunch), but when we ate there, on our way back on Monday, it was 
worth it.

	About 5 km from Notre-Dame-du-Portage, mostly uphill, is 
Riviere-du-Loup.  We had planned to continue on to Trois-Pistoles, about 
60 km more, but it was about 7 pm so we decided to stop for there for the 
night.  There are two camping grounds around Riviere-du-Loup, one was 
close to the center of town, and the other was close to the ferry, so take 
your pick, they both charge about the same.  The man at our campsite told 
us that the sunsets there were the second most beautiful in the world, next 
to Hawaii.  I don't know that I would go that far, but it was pretty 
spectacular watching the sun set over the hills on the other side of the river; 
we may have seen some seals but it was hard to tell.  We had some dinner 
at La Gourmande, a good cafe type place, and got to sleep early so that we 
could take an early ferry the next day.

	There are two ferries (traverse) across the St. Lawrence in this 
area, one from Riviere-du-Loup to Saint-Simeon in Charlevoix, and the 
other connecting Trois-Pistoles and Les Escoumins in Manicouagan further 
east.  Our original plan, like I said, had been to continue to Trois-Pistoles, 
cross over in the morning to Les Escoumins, ride down the coast (west) to 
Saint-Simeon, stay over there, then recross to Riviere-du-Loup and go 
back on Monday, but it was not to be.  So our revised plan was to catch 
the 8:00 ferry for Saint-Simeon and ride as far east as we could in half a 
day, then come back and return to Riviere-du-Loup for the night, thereby 
relieving us of the burden of carrying our tent and sleeping bags during the 
day.  Alas, things did not work out quite so well..  We did take the ferry 
($11.25 per person w/bikes), and heard a lecture on the whales (baleines) 
of the St. Lawrence, and we managed to see a few belugas.  We then went 
about 5 km west on Route 138 to the town of Port-au-Persil for breakfast 
at Auberge Petit Madeline, where I had some great blueberry crepes, just 
the thing to start a wonderful day.  

	There is one thing that I have been putting off mentioning, namely 
that this region, the Charlevoix, on the north shore of the river is hilly, 
mountainous really, well actually, I think deadly would be a better 
description.  As my biking partner put it, in her heart-breaking Quebecois 
accent, "If you want to say to someone that you have done a big thing, then 
tell them that you have gone on the 138 in the Charlevoix on bicycle."  
There are big ups and big downs; sorry I don't know exactly how far up or 
down, but I saw a number of warning signs for trucks on the downs that 
showed 12 and 13 % grades for several km.  I am not ashamed to admit 
that I didn't have the gears or the legs for some of the hills, though I did 
see people without any baggage on ultra-light road bikes make 
it up the hills that I had to walk, so I'm sure that some of you Page Mill and 
Rte 84 people would have no trouble.  It is about 40 km to Baie Ste 
Catherine and the Saguenay fjord; yes, you heard right, a fjord in Quebec.  
We rode about half way, then ran into some heavy construction, there was 
only sand and large gravel in sight for several km when some very nice 
people offered us a ride to Baie Ste Catherine.  Whether it was oxygen or 
glucose deprivation I do not know, but we then decided that since we 
wouldn't have to do this 20 km, we would keep going all the way to Les 
Escoumins, take the ferry to Trois-Pistoles and ride back to Riviere-du-
Loup that night.

	At Baie Ste Catherine you have to take a ferry across the fjord, 
there is no bridge, and the road just ends.  On the other side is the village 
of Tadoussac, a pleasant tourist town where we stopped to sit on the beach 
and eat lunch.  You can also take whale-watching cruises (crosieres aux 
baleines) from there, including a pretty wild one on a zodiac.  Just east of 
Tadoussac is the largest steepest hill that I have ever tried to ride, even the 
super bike studs could be seen walking up it.  We admitted defeat early and 
walked up an even steeper, though shorter, street that starts down in the 
town and meets 138 about two thirds of the way up the hill.  Take heart 
though, once you pass this one, the road turns away from the river and it is 
mostly down hill, with only a few up and downs, to Les Escoumins.  The 
ride from Tadoussac to Les Escoumins is a pleasant, mostly flat 35 km that 
goes by a succession of small lakes  with cliffs on either side, but no towns 
(so bring water) until you reach Petit and Grandes Bergeronnes, where the 
whale is king, and you can stop at the little blue information stand to use 
the bathroom and fill up your water bottles.  The climate is the taiga, with 
tall coniferous trees, made relatively bare by acid rain, and moose-crossing 
signs on the road (no, I'm not making this up), but on a 23 degree summer 
day, all is beautiful.  After Grandes Bergeronnes, the road turns back to the 
river and there are several government run parks for whale watching, 
especially the larger whales, who come close to the cliffs here because of 
the deep harbors.  

	From there on it is very uneventful until you reach Les Escoumins, 
which was a frightening imitation of Cicely, Alaska, including the 
storefront radio station.  It got pretty cold and windy there about six pm, 
so I guess I was glad I packed the heavy clothes.  We asked a young boy if 
there were any restaurants around, and he said no and pointed us towards a 
convenience store where I fully expected to be met by a French-speaking 
Ruth-Anne.  Then we took the other ferry to Trois-Pistoles ($10.75 per 
person w/bike) and the ride was not a pleasant one, with both of us not 
looking forward to a 60 km ride in the cold and dark.  The ferry arrived at 
about 9:00 pm and we were pleasantly surprised by the ten degree 
difference in temperature and lack of wind on the south shore of the river, 
maybe it wouldn't be so bad, yeah right.  It was only then that my friend 
mentioned that the Autoroute ended 40 km west of there, so that we would 
have to ride with all of the speeding cars and trucks for most of the trip on 
the 132.  There is very little that compares to a large truck hurtling by you 
at 120 kph in the pitch black, except perhaps a car doing the same at 140 
kph, since you don't have as much time to get off to the side of the road.  I 
thought at the time that the road was pretty flat, since I rode the whole way 
in one gear (terror and adrenaline are wonderful things), but now that I 
reflect upon it, there were a few up and downs, but nothing like the other 
side of the river.  Hitching was not really an option, since by the time a car 
saw you, they would be long past.  One interesting note: all of the workers 
in the 24-hour gas stations have Anglicized names, during our trip, we saw 
a Tony, Mario, Steve, John, and strangest of all, Doug.  The road seems to 
stay along the river, though looking at a map, I now see that it did turn a 
little inland.  If you ride this way in the daytime (which I recommend) you 
may want to take the short ferry to Ile Verte, from of all places, the town 
of L'Isle Verte.  I can't tell you if it is actually all that green, it just 
looked sort of black to me.

	The last 20 km of the trip came very close to making up for the first 
40, after all of the cars and trucks got on the 20, we were left almost alone 
riding through the well-lit streets of Cacouna, a very quiet town; though 
my brochure talks about "the grand hotels of days gone by" (it sounds less 
corny in French) now there are only small inns.  What you do see, however 
are some magnificent views of Riviere-du-Loup at night, which was, as I 
said, almost worth the price of admission.  From there, it was mostly 
down-hill into Riviere-du-Loup, where we arrived at about 12:00 am, and 
in a rare moment of Anglo-Franco unity, we simultaneously headed for the 
hamburger stand at the Mini-Putt.  One tip for all of you flesh-eating types, 
in Quebec, a cheeseburger is not "hamburger avec fromage" which got me only a 
blank stare, it is a "cheese."  Who said that French language and culture
in Canada are dying out?  

	Well, the next morning the weather turned foul, the sky was dark 
and the wind was really strong, right in our faces of course.  The camping 
ground manager repeated a phrase that we had heard before, whenever we 
told someone where we were planning to ride, "bon chance."  We planned 
to ride back to Notre-Dame-du-Portage, eat breakfast and then continue on 
to La Pocatiere, but when it took us almost an hour to go the 10 km to the 
Auberge du Portage, and when we found out that they had finished serving 
breakfast, and that lunch didn't start for another hour, and with my friend 
starting to say things like, "No, no, you go ahead, leave me here, I'll be all 
right, if I die before you get back with the car, just set me adrift in the 
Saint-Laurent," we needed an executive decision, so she made one.  We 
napped on the beach until lunch, then had some wonderful sole, locked up 
our bikes at the hotel and started to walk up the road hoping to hitch a ride 
to La Pocatiere.  About fifteen minutes later, past the point of no return, it 
started to rain, and if this were a Sartre or Kerouac novel our bodies would 
have been found in the spring, if the beavers hadn't gotten to them yet.  
But, unfortunately for dramatic content of this narrative, it stopped raining, 
we got a ride to La Pocatiere, walked the last km to my car, returned to 
pickup our bikes, and made it to Quebec in time for some sightseeing in the 
old city at sunset and dinner at the Crazy Pig (Chacoun Dainge).

	So what were the totals, if we had ridden the whole way, lets see:

	La Pocatiere-Riviere-du-Loup	90 km	a few hills, nothing 
						major
	Saint-Simeon-Baie Ste Catherine	40 km	extremely hilly, 	
						painful
	Tadoussac-Les Escoumins		35 km	one really big up, then 
						mostly down
	Trois Pistoles-Riviere-du-Loup	60 km	mostly flat
	Riviere-du-Loup-La-Pocatiere	90 km	same as above in 
						reverse

	Total				315 km

	of which we actually did about 225 km, well it may not set any 
records, but I really enjoyed it, and I would recommend it heartily to 
anyone interested in biking and/or camping. If you continue east past Trois-
Pistoles you get to the Gaspe Peninsula and New Brunswick, which I hear 
are very nice, there are also several longer ferries to towns on the north 
shore, where the whales are more plentiful.

	One question that you may ask is do you need to speak French to 
do this trip, and I think the answer is no.  Of course, it is easy for me to 
say that since I was traveling with a Quebecois, but all of the people at the 
tourist information, camping sites, and ferries speak English, and in most 
restaurants in the summer tourist towns, they will be bilingual.  The only 
problem you might have would be in the depanneur (convenience stores) 
though in my experience, most conversations there are carried out in an 
international grunting language anyway.  Some simple phrases wouldn't 
hurt, like where is the toilet and I want a cheeseburger, but overall I don't 
think that you'll have any problems.

	I hope you enjoyed this description as much as I enjoyed the trip.  If 
you have any questions about riding in the area, send me a message, or 
contact:
	Tourisme Quebec (800) 363-7777 or
	VeloQuebec (514) 847-8356, the Montreal chapter of the Quebec biking 
		association. They do speak English.

Also, if you want any information about cycling here in Buffalo or Niagara 
Falls, in the US or Canada, send me a note, and I'll be glad to share what I 
know.

Harold Litt
harold@ubmed.buffalo.edu

SUNY at Buffalo 
School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Department of Biophysical Sciences
Cary Hall 120
Buffalo, NY 14214
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.rides