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Snowmobiling
in Lac-St-Jean Quebec
Courtesy of www.slednews.com
For as long as I’ve snowmobiled, I'd heard tales
about just how great the riding was in Quebec. The
week of January 13 to 17, 2003 I got to my chance to find
out, that 'they'... were right.
My trip began
with a flight to Bagotville with stops in
Toronto and Montreal. Some 1,200 air miles from Thunder Bay
and about 250 miles north of Montreal, this is beautiful
country. The snow conditions were fantastic and with
an elevation of over 3,000 feet, the Monts Valin area
was spectacular.
Unique to this trip was the
opportunity to experience dog sledding, the mode
of transportation long before the snowmobile or moto-neige
as they call it in Quebec. One thing I learned
about the Quebec people on this trip was that they
don’t do things in a small way.
Our dog sled ride began
with the choosing of the teams of 5 dogs for our three sleds.
This was an interesting time with 60 howling dogs anxious
to get chosen for the trip in the -25 celsius weather. Our
guide was Deighten, an experienced 25 year old outdoorsman
who loved the sport. The dogs were huskies, malamutes, and
alaskans. The malamute is not as smart but strong.
The alaskan is for racing. The departure speeds of the dogs
were 25 to 30 km per hour.
After a hour
their speed drops to 12 to 15 km per hour. Each
week the company, Les Chiens et Gate au Grand Nord
does 5 or 6 trips with their three guides.
The cost is
$100 per day which includes lunch. You can go on 1 day to
5 day trips in which you stay overnight in tents.
“ There was no fishing because we have our trips in a private
park. We’ve got some camps and a tent with us. We just need
trees to build the tent,” states Deighten Chouinard. “
The dogs eat
four pounds of meat per day at the end of the day. We have
Americans, people from South Martinique, England, Germany,
Sweden, and Australia.”
Our trip was
30 kilometers and lasted 5 hours on the trail with
an
hour for lunch for the mushers ( that’s us!). It was made
on a fire
started on the side of a lake and consisted of meat pie with
vegetables.
“You can
go 100 km per day but the dogs will
be tired. We feed them everyday but they can go three or
four days with no food. It’s not like a snowmachine then,”
laughs Deighten. The trip on up and down terrain , lakes and
tight trail conditions was really fun.
The musher had
to control the dogs and help them up the slopes, meaning he
got a physical workout.
The dogs sometimes
decided to take a short cut on the trail and this resulted
in one of the media on the trip falling off the sled into
deep snow. Our sled got caught up on a tree one time and brought
us to an abrupt halt!. It was fun to see the dogs perform
as a team with only a little fighting amongst themselves.
Also during
our lunch break they slept in the frigid weather getting ready
for the 15 km trip back.
The teams picked
up speed on the way back, probably anxiously anticipating their
reward, a 4 pound frozen block of chicken, which they would
devour in 30 seconds.
I was glad
we were going back to the La Pourboire du Cap au Leste, our
lodge for three days and their great food from chef Francois.
The “Cap au Leste” is a rustic resort with a main lodge for
meals and several large three story cabins. Each one with
a fireplace,main seating area and up to ten bedrooms
complete with bathroom and a spectacular view overlooking
the Fjord.
The unique part
of this area is that the fjord consists of sea water Sea water
comes into the fjord because it’s a glacier valley. Three
quarters of Canada is created by glacier. This is the Canadian
Shield where a glacier dug up the river.
A fjord is a
glacier valley but connected to the sea. So that glacier valley
runs into the sea and both are at the same level.
“ We have four
tides here because it is very narrow and there is lots of
salt water. At the surface the water is at 16 grams
of salt per liter for the first 31 feet.
From there to the bottom, 300 meters, the water is 36 grams
of salt per liter, just like every sea or ocean in the world,”
states Regis, operations manager of Quebec Circuit
and our guide for most of the week.
“The fish here
would live in the sea like cod. There are 54 kinds of fish
that can survive with less salt. No fresh fish can handle
salt, but some salt water fish can live in a less salt water
environment. Whales can also live in fresh water
as they are mammals and breathe air. There are
13 species of whales in the region. The Buloga whales live
here and four species of seals as well. The other whales come
here in the summer migration.
Some arrive
early, some late etc. In the month of August all 13 species
of whales and four of seals are here.” There are also sharks. The
salt water freezes at -15c and it was -28c during
our trip.
The tide system
operates every six hours. It lifts the ice up and
down 6 meters each time. There are two low tides
and two high tides.
The ice lifts
everywhere but you only notice it on
the shore lines.
You can drive on the ice like a ramp in a shallow bay however
in a
steep area there is open water. On a full moon
the tide is bigger.
The water is
300 meters deep and the same depth everywhere because of
the glacier. The fjord is deeper that the ocean. In the summer
people come to see whales, either sea kayaking and or in zodiac
boats.
Our guide Regis
is a graduate of the University of Montreal in
Aeronautical Engineering, but choose to get into the adventure
guiding business because he has more fun.
“Programming
satellite systems, with Spar Aerospace, all day long wasn’t
that interesting. It’s my own business.” smiles Regis. “We have
a lot of Americans visit here although they use their own
snowmobiles. The Europeans use guides.
Our highest
cost guided trip is 5 day snowmobiling where we stay
at good hotels costing $5,000 without the plane
fare. I’m happy when they come for 7days and forget
what day is it. They quit their lives for a while. They forget
everything. When I accomplish that, I’ve done my job.”
Snowmobiling was what I was looking forward to and
we were not disappointed with a great two days of riding.
Our first day began helping Regis start the 2003 Ski Doo
Skandic 550 Fan sleds after a cold night.
Although I
am used to a liquid cooled higher performance sled
these machines ran very well and I enjoyed our trips on them.
Their top speed was 100 km per hour, with a smooth ride and
pretty good acceleration.
Our trip with
five riders and our photographer began from the Cap au Leste
and soon got us onto the world famous Quebec trail system.
Two of our riders
were first time on a sled and the other two
were very experienced plus our guide Regis who was a very
good rider. In fact one of the media on the trip normally
rides a Yamaha RX 1 and puts on 8000 km in a normal
year. After a 65 km ride we stopped for lunch on the trail
at a very unique restaurant. In the summer it was church and
in winter a restaurant for snowmobilers only.
“There are a
lot of cabins for people to pass their vacation
and they attend the the church,” states Regis.This
day of riding I saw more police on the trail than ever before.
It seems the Quebec police were out training officers
from across the province to become eligible for snowmobile
patrol. There must have been 30 plus police on snowmobiles
, with many at the restaurant for lunch.
In a winter Regis and his company,
will guide 500 people snowmobiling.
“I have some incentive groups where the
boss pays or their best clients or sales staff to go on
a snowmobile trip.
Sometimes it’s a
short trip or it can be several days. On some
of these trips we will have up to 6 guides and 60
people. We have one snowmobile rental dealer for
the people at Cap au Leste and we have 6 sleds ourselves.
With big groups our sleds become guide machines,”
states Regis.
A one
day guided trip like we were on for a driver is about $ 275
per day including machine, gas, oil, suit and lunch. If
you are a
passenger it is $ 75.00 per day.
“We have lots
of families so you can have your kid or wife on the back,
“ stated Regis. “ Normally the one day trip is 130 km. We
have some 3, 4 and 5 days trips on trail and some off trail.
In March we
will cross Western Quebec James Bay to Moosanee
in Ontario. We will spend two nights in native
villages in the bush and two nights in a hotel,”
Many of the riders are first time snowmobile riders.
“ 90 % of our clients have never ridden a machine.
50% have never seen snow as they are from Europe : including Italy
and the South of France.
Typically there
are 30% of groups who ride motorcycles and
they dream of snowmobiling, as it is a kind of motorcycling
on snow. Those guys get quick pretty fast.” says Regis “I
guide in kayaking, zodiac rides, canoeing ,skiing and snowmobiling. I
don’t guide for fishing.
The only thing
I don’t get bored of is snowmobiling. I do
it in my own vacation. I love it. The people from France,
Switzerland and Spain like the normal on trail
trips. The Switzerland people want off
trail trips.
The Germans
want a special trip like in Nunavik. It’s just not
groomed trails to cabins. One machine has
passed the route maybe a week ago.” says Regis.
High performance
sleds are available but in less demand as a rental sled.
For example you could rent a 2003 Arctic Cat F
7 for $200 per day with no gas etc. A 2003 Ski Doo
Skandic 550 Fan is $140/ day for just the sled.
“In the renting business you need to be booked
for 30 days to break even. At 40 days you make good
money. High performance sleds don’t usually make
their 30 days,” states Regis “.
We have reservations
for 35 days this year already. After two years we sell the
sleds.The guide machine ( a Ski Doo Skandic
20 inch track) always goes out. In a good winter it can go 10,000
km. We change the regular sleds normally at
5000 km.
The length of
the snowmobile season is 22 weeks from Nov. 1 to
last of April usually.”Ski Doo is coming out with a
chip made for the renting business and for families according
to Regis.
“A guy will get two or three computer chips
so he can block the speed at 80 km and
then take the open chip when he rides.”
The speed on
the trails in Quebec is 70 Km. The local
Caribou
Snowmobile Club has 2'000 members and the cost of a
trail permit is $180. Normally the temperature at
-15 Celsius
Our second day of riding was even more spectacular
with our
destination the top of Monts Valin. This park has an
elevation of over 3000 feet and we were able to travel to
the top for a great view. The snow was at a depth of 8 feet
here and will rise to 16 feet by the end of March. This was
great riding and the heavy snow covered trees were very beautiful.
“It was out
of this world, a fabulous experience like I was in a sugar
plumb fairy land. It was like walking in a forest of coral.
It was amazing,” stated Guy of Tourism Canada who reached
the peak of Mont Valin by snowshoe with some of our
group.
After a great
day of riding we were off to our final nights stay at the
Auberge du Battoire, a very nice hotel overlooking
the Fjord. This was luxury with Jacuzzis in the rooms and
a great restaurant overlooking the place where tomorrow we
would try our hand at ice fishing.
Unique in this
area is the salt water and we were to ice fish
in one of the 5,000 huts on the fjord, for red sea perch.
This area is known for winter ice fishing, and as I had not
done this for many years, I had a lot of fun in the hut with
four lines, listening to some great fishing stories.
We did not have
lots of time before we had to leave for lunch and the Bagotville
airport for our trip home. It was a great week and one
that I’ll always remember. I hope to be able to go back and
see the whales in August.
