Marie-France Piche and her husband Gaetan Lemoyne did the heavy planning for this trip. They did a wonderful job, making it easy for us “Yanks” to participate. They live in Quebec City and had paddled part of this water trail before. Bruce, Alan and I met Marie-France and Gaetan on the 2007
Making sure everything fits on Gaetan’s front yard. Photo by M-FP
Great Hudson River Paddle. We had kept in contact since then. The planning for this trip developed over the course of a year. Marie-France, who did most of the planning, was forced to drop out because of a work emergency, a circumstance that both she and we were very disappointed about.
We paddled the full length of the fjord. The Quebec National Park’s Fjord Maritime Trail lists “compulsory” kayak camping circuits. The circuit under “as planned” is one of the compulsory circuits, and the one we chose. Our concern with using this circuit was that the last day’s paddle was over 18 miles long, passing through the junction of the fjord and the St. Lawrence River and ending at a marina at Baie Sainte-Catherine on the St. Lawrence. We were concerned about wind, tides and currents in this area. It was also where we expected to see Beluga and Minke whales. We knew we would want to linger to experience this wonder, but were also concerned about covering distance and the effects of weather.
A chance discussion with a guide in St. John (L’Anse Saint-Jean) convinced us to call the authorities and attempt to alter our route. To our surprise, we were able to shift our use of Anse a` Tidee to a day earlier, and substitute Anse aux Petites Iles for Anse de Tabatiere. The net effect was to put our longest day in the middle of the paddle, with a short day at the end. I guess the routes are only sort of “compulsory”. Thank god for Gaetan, who eased our way through the language issues as a fluent French speaker!
We ended our trip in Tadoussac, a small resort village at the mouth of the fjord, where it meets the Saint Lawrence. This was not in our original plan, but another chance encounter with yet another guide (Bernard) convinced us to pull into Tadoussac and take the free ferry to Sainte-Catherine to pick up our cars.
SAGUENAY FJORD CAMPING ITINERARY
AS PLANNED/AS PADDLED
Day 0**
Au jardin de mon pere
Au jardin de mon pere
Day 1
La Baie to Anse a` Didier*
La Baie to Anse a` Didier
Day 2
Didier to Anse Gros Rousseau
Didier to Anse Gros Rousseau
Day 3
Anse Gros Rousseau to Anse Delta
Anse Gros Rousseau to Anse Delta
Day 4
Anse Delta to Anse de Tabatiere
Anse Delta to Anse a` Tidee
Day 5
Anse de Tabatiere to Anse a` Tidee
Anse a` Tidee to Anse aux Petites Iles
Day 6
Anse a` Tidee to Baie-Sainte-Catherine
Anse aux Petites Iles
to Tadoussac
*Anse: a small bay, cove or inlet
**Day 0: It’s a three hour drive from Quebec City to La Baie. We drove there the afternoon before our departure date and camped overnight to be ready for an early start on Day 1.
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