| June 6/22 to Sept 17/22 | Cycle Newfoundland 2022 |
| Sept 18/22 to Nov 4/22 | Cycle and Paddle Gulf of St. Lawrence to Saguenay |
| May 17/23 to July 9/23 | Cycle and Paddle Saguenay to the Ontario Border. |
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It was now mid-September and I was a long way from Saguenay, Quebec where I planned to leave the canoe for the winter. Getting there would initially require the use of the Gulf ferry as there is no road along the coast. When booking the ferry I decided to go further than the beginning of the highway. I chose Sept Iles as my departure location, a distance of more than 800 kilometres.
The Bella Desgagnes services the communities along the north coast of the Gulf Coast. In that role, it also serves as a passenger ferry. They’ll take your car too but it will be loaded into a container first. The ferry makes a bi-monthly run from Rimouski, Quebec to Blanc Sablon and returns. That round trip is sold as a mini cruise ship type excursion which usually sells out. The fare, with cabins and meals included, is in the $2000 range. None of that included with my fare but late in the season there were only a few foot passengers and there was no problem finding private enough floor space for my sleeping bag.
The canoe and bike were loaded into a container. Thanks to a willing shipping agent, an empty container on the dock also served as a dry spot for me to spend the night. You can be sure I made sure no one could shut the door with me in there.
Red sky in morning! Dawn on the morning of our departure. There is a good reason for this sky to look so ominous. Hurricane Fiona was about to make landfall on the coast of Nova Scotia. It was too distant from here perhaps to be the reason for such a colourful sunrise, but it certainly added to the drama of the hurricane’s approach.
Port aux Basque in Newfoundland sustained the worst damage from Fiona.
The ferry managed to outrun Hurricane Fiona. Only because it was heading northeast and our route was west. We also skipped past two intended stops. This is as bad as it got, likely much less than a typical stormy Gulf day. Notable was how effectively the ship’s stabilizing technology controlled the roll.
The Gulf of St. Lawrence has a ship speed limit of 15 knots (28 kph) to help protect the Right whale. How’d you like a $250,000 speeding ticket? We abided.
A stop at Anticosti Island, a place that few would ever get to visit. I certainly had no expectations of ever going there. It has a human population of only 200 but the introduced white-tail deer population now numbers 120,000! Passengers were allowed to go ashore during the two-hour stop. I headed for the nearest patch of bush to see if I might spot a deer. Likely it would be more difficult to head to the bush and not see a deer. In 2023 the entire island was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site for its unique fossil-yielding geology.
The ferry arrived in Sept Iles at midnight. The canoe and bike wouldn’t be unloaded from the container for a couple of days. The only plan I had made for a place to sleep was to look at Google Maps satellite photo to find the closest bit of suitable bush to pitch the tent. I was walking the main road away from the docks when a pick-up truck stopped and asked what I was doing, where was I going? When I told him my intent he kindly offered that I could come and stay with him as long as necessary. Merci Jean Pierre! When I asked him what he was doing that late at night he explained that he had been fishing for lobster. Fishing for lobster?? Indeed you can catch lobster with a fishing rod he explained. There is no hook, just a tiny felt bag that holds a bit of pork fat that the lobster ingests. Then the line is tightened just enough to encourage the lobster to walk in the direction of the pull until they can be picked up from the water.
At the home of Jean Pierre. Jean had worked in B.C. for two years in the ’70s and still had very good English. He said watching American football also helped. His unsolicited hospitality was to be repeated by many more Quebecois during my visit to La Belle Province.
Finally, I am getting a chance to paddle in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I am leaving Sept Iles but I will need to return. The bicycle is not aboard. I’m having a completely new rear wheel built in Montreal due to a no longer available freehub that after more than 5000 kilometres of canoe pulling, has served its last. Nice that it held together until I reached Blanc Sablon! I am not able to pedal but the Gulf obliged with a picture-perfect paddling day. I would paddle, as the weather allowed, until the wheel rebuild was completed, and then ditch the canoe in the bush and hitch back to Sept Iles to retrieve the bike when it was ready.
The weather did not allow paddling on this day. Note the huge boulders along the shoreline. At low tide, when I arrived the previous night, they were so thick it wouldn’t have been possible to drag the canoe up the beach past them. Not ideal either for getting ashore with high water if conditions deteriorated. Not a problem with yesterday’s calm but it’s something I hadn’t considered. Looking at a satellite photo, taken with them covered at high tide, you’d not know such a hazard existed. Fortunately, they ended before dark.
At one in the morning, I’m half asleep when I feel the foot of the air mattress lift and drop. That had me out in the moonlight in a flash. The pounding surf had managed to reach the tent and there was still fifteen minutes until high tide. I grabbed a few things and put them into the canoe, preparing to move the tent. But then I wondered if it might be better to defend against the wash instead. I have a small plastic scoop shovel I use to level beach tent spots and I started frantic digging. The second wave, which had enough push to reach the tent, washed away my initial diggings and hit the tent. By the time the third one arrived, it was able to wash over my dike a little but the ditch behind it absorbed all the water. After that I had enough sand moved to stop everything. It worked, but I’ll recommend going the extra yard in selecting a tent spot as the better option. It wasn’t the first time a king tide (full moon) made a knave out of me.
A new rear wheel for the bike, fresh from being built from scratch in Montreal. Wow, this is one super wheel. The old one had 28 spokes. This one 36 and the rim is double walled too.
With the bike repaired, I am back on the Jacques Cartier Highway. No more paddling. It is late October and I can’t chance wasting time sitting on a beach wind-bound. The highway is in great condition; smooth pavement with a very generous shoulder width. It is though, very much a roller coaster of a grade. Plenty plenty of ups and downs. A sign at the top of this hill warned downhill trucks that the grade was 12%. Approaching it from the bottom I didn’t know the grade but looking at it I knew that it would not be possible to push the fully loaded canoe up this hill. It became the only hill anywhere that I have had to ‘portage’ to get the bike and canoe up. I loaded at least forty pounds into what I could carry in one trip and walked that load to the top of the hill before returning to push the bike and canoe to the top.
At an 8% grade hills are too steep for me to pedal up. At sixty-three, when I started my travels, I was able to pedal up 8% but ten years on it’s not so doable anymore. Walking steep hills and pushing the bike with the canoe attached still requires great effort. I usually count my steps, 40 two leg steps being my usual before it’s necessary to stop and catch my breath. The brakes hold the canoe easily enough on any hill but getting going again does take extra push. That was my concern with this hill and why I first hauled a load to the top. I might not have been able to get the load moving again. What then? How would I hold the canoe from rolling backward? It is too risky to chance.
It’s a wrap for both the canoe and my 2022 season. My 435 kilometre canoe pull, bike ride to Saguenay is complete. The canoe is stored at warmshowers.org hosts 5 km out of town. The bike will spend the winter in Saguenay at a different warmshowers host. The reason is I need the bike to get me back to Saguenay. From there I caught a bus to Quebec City but arrived there three days ahead of my flight back to B.C.
