Snowmobile Bas Saint Laurent for Stellar Trails & Scenery…
Snowmobile Bas Saint Laurent – Click on Photo to View Article
Is it time for you to snowmobile Bas Saint Laurent on your Quebec snowmobile tour or snowmobile vacation? Over the years, I’ve visited many different snowmobiling destinations. It’s hard to surprise me anymore. But the Bas-Saint-Laurent and western Gaspésie regions of Quebec certainly tickled my fancy last winter.
We snowmobiled over 1,700 kilometres on terrific trails on our Quebec snowmobile tour. They took us from ice riding on the mighty St. Lawrence River to breathtaking peaks in the high backcountry. Our snowmobile magazine crew – Don Webb, Craig Irwin, Johnny Biasi, Jim Heintzman, plus Marsha and I –agreed that every rider should experience this appealing, accessible and oft-overlooked Quebec snowmobile tour destination. Go to my Eastern Quebec Snowmobile Planner for all the info, links and contacts you need to organize your own tour!
Snowmobile Bas Saint Laurent Quebec – Where Is It?
Translated as “below St. Lawrence”, Bas-Saint-Laurent is located on the south side of that river. Rivière-du-Loup, Rimouski and Mont-Joli are its major shoreline towns. Bas-Saint-Laurent extends south to New Brunswick and also abuts the State of Maine. It’s sandwiched between the adjacent Quebec regions of Chaudière-Appalaches to the west and Gaspésie to the east. Like these neighbours, Bas-Saint-Laurent comprises flat farmland along the St. Lawrence shore. In the interior, farms are characterized by rolling hills where the high country is part of the Appalachian Mountain range.
The Bas-Saint-Laurent and western Gaspésie regions really have their snowmobiling act together, as you can see in the snowmobile video below. The trails are well groomed and uncrowded. Accessible lodgings, restaurants and gas stations are plentiful enough for worry-free riding. Best of all, the regions can usually count on abundant snow conditions throughout the winter. But pick your day to snow machine along St. Lawrence shore because prevailing winds can sometimes leave these exposed trails drifted over or with skimpy snow.
Snowmobile Bas Saint Laurent – About Our Quebec Snowmobile Tour
For this Quebec snowmobile tour, we rode three days in the Bas-Saint-Laurent and three more in western Gaspésie. Both are part of the larger tourism region known as Le Quebec Maritime. Most snowmobilers have heard of Gaspésie. Many have made the popular trek to ride around its famous peninsula, but the name Bas-Saint-Laurent isn’t as familiar.
Yet when riders start their Gaspésie tours at Rivière-du-Loup, they’re actually in Bas-Saint-Laurent. And that’s where we stayed for three nights, staging out of the very snowmobile-friendly Hotel Universel. But instead of deadheading east on Trans Quebec 5 for Gaspésie, we had other explorations in mind…
For the rest of this Quebec snowmobile tour story + itinerary, read my Tickle Your Fancy article as published in Snow Goer Canada snowmobile magazine. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for more great Quebec snowmobile tour destinations, check out the rest of my Quebec tours.
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Riders should reconfirm the routes and services mentioned in this Quebec snowmobile tour article as they may have changed since publication.