Ferrying Across the St. Lawrence River

La Martre Lighthouse | Visiting Pointe-au-Pere National Historic site | Hiking the Chutes Neigette Trail | Taking the Ferry Across the St. Lawrence River from Trois Pistoles to Les Escoumins | July 2024

Today we had all day to travel only about 3 hours to reach Trois Pistoles, where we would board a ferry and cross the St. Lawrence River in the late afternoon to the village of Les Escoumins. Even though we would be arriving in the evening, we weren’t too concerned about finding a place to sleep on the North side of the river as there were plenty of boondocking sites, even a free municipal area just outside of the village.

That being said we didn’t linger too long at our seaside roadside park. It was a great place for two nights, but we didn’t want to overstay our welcome. Rather than eat our breakfast here, we moved down the road to another roadside park at La Martre Lighthouse. It was quiet, breezy, and cold for the season, and Charlotte enjoyed sleeping in the grass next to the lighthouse.

Once we had finished our morning chores we continued down the coast. There were lots of small villages that all blend together now, and we didn’t stop again until we reached the town of Rimouski. Here we stopped along the coast again at the collection of historic sites that comprise the Pointe-au-Pere National Historic site.

This was honestly probably the busiest location we encountered during our entire stay in Quebec, and the morning was heating up. Charlotte lead us to some picnic tables and whatever shade she could find while Jess and I took turns walking around the different historic sites. The St. Lawrence at this point is the beginning (or end depending on your perspective) of the St. Lawrence Estuary and is historically known for being very difficult to navigate from this point to Quebec City, and so this area became a center for maritime activity. The center piece is the Phare de Pointe-au-Pere (Point-au-Pere lighthouse) which is probably one of the most unique looking lighthouses we’ve seen. The tower features flying buttresses and is quite tall making it quite architecturally pleasing. The tower, built in 1906, was part of the local pilot station where pilots would embark/disembark on ships going up towards Quebec.

The historic site also features a museum for the RMS Empress of Ireland – a tran-Atlantic steamer that sank just off the coast in 1914, and had a higher death toll than either the Titanic or the Lusitania. There is also a museum Submarine, the HMCS Onondaga. The Onondaga was commissioned during the Cold War and is comparable to some of the US subs, though non-nuclear. She’s on blocks which gives a fun perspective showing just how large modern subs are.

After hanging out in the sun, we decided to going inland a ways to a waterfall hike and lunch at Chutes Neigette. The town of Rimouski quickly faded behind us and we were soon well in the country. The land seems to be owned by one of the Hydro power plants (of which Quebec has many) but fortunately they leave the waterfall and even some of the highlands open to the public, and free to visit.

We had a light lunch in the pavillion (and did our best to communicate to other first time hikers that we also didn’t really know anything about the area) we followed a wide flat trail towards the sound of rushing water. We soon were on a bridge right over the waterfalls. Charlotte wasn’t too keen on crossing though and after a quick forced photo op we let her lead us back the way we came. But we still had time to kill so we followed some other…less established…trails to the base of the falls. There were a lot more people here and several rock climbers but all on the opposite side of the river. This view of the falls was worth it, despite the tricky trail. The falls were tall and very full. After some more photo ops we tried to follow a trail back up to the bridge only to find it to be quite steep with very difficult ladders. We picked up Charlie for the worst of it and then hurried back to the car as it was getting quite warm.

We returned to Rimouski to run some errands and stock up on supplies for our time on the North Shore, then continued down the road a short ways to Trois Pistoles where, after some bad English, worse French, and a good helping of pantomime, we boarded the ferry.

There are several different ferries that cross the St. Lawrence, and the main reason why we chose this one was because they supposedly were dog-friendly and Charlotte would be able to sit outside on the deck with us. However, through the difficulty in communicating, they told us to leave her in the van. I was concerned about her being by herself in the back of the van, and spent the whole ride thinking about her, but in the end we did think she was more comfortable in the van than she would have been on the deck. While we waited for the ferry to arrive and to board, I set up the bed in the back of the van, making it as comfortable as I could for her. We turned on the overhead fan and another 12 volt fan, put her food and water up there, and made a barrier with pillows on the edge.

We boarded the ferry, and soon enough we were embarking on our ride across the St. Lawrence. The ride was about 90 minutes long. We started out on the back deck, watching the skyline of the tiny town of Trois Pistoles disappear, and scanning the sea looking for any signs of whales or other fish. Sadly, we didn’t see any during our crossing. The wind and waves picked up, and so we moved inside to warm up, then went between going inside and out for the rest of the ride. At some points, the waves felt strong and made the boat rock back and forth, and I couldn’t help but worry about Charlotte and how she was feeling.

As we were nearing the North shore, we went to the front of the boat to get a better view of the coast as we were approaching. When we arrived, we returned to the van to our VERY excited puppy who was very vocal about how she felt about us leaving her. But besides that, we were very pleased to see that despite the boat rocking quite a bit, everything in the van looked just as we left it — no cabinets open, nothing fell, none of Charlotte’s water even spilled! We exited the ferry, and drove right to the free campground in Les Escoumins. We found a spot right at the beginning of the campground, set up for the night, and I made dinner. We were treated to a bright double rainbow and a very colorful sunset that evening — a promising start to our time on the North shore!