My pilgrimage to Lac St Jean - Seguenay River Fjords, QC

SwampDonkey · September 09, 2007, 09:13:21 PM

Alma area up near Lac St Jean in the upper Saguenay Valley.

100's of acres of prairie-like dairies and grain fields (corn, soy, canola, wheat, barley). This was after traveling 2 hours through the boreal forest of the Laurentiens from Quebec city. It's like mountains were here and all the sudden we were in flat-as-prairie farmland.

Here are some farms to show for now. Also, lots of churches that stood out as beacons in every town and village.

These are fields of canola.

It took 8 hours from home to reach this oasis in the wilderness, quite literally.

The highways were great, a little twisty in the mountains though.

More to come. ;)

Mooseherder · September 09, 2007, 09:25:09 PM

You've been to Foley Brook and now a Lac St. Jean, names like that got water association. What no fishing Poles? ;D

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 05:59:56 AM

Chicoutimi River Valley in the Laurenchiens of Quebec. You can see some harvesting on some of the hillsides. Some of the hills are almost straight up and down, no harvesting on those slopes. The road was good and they seem to be upgrading the road by taking turns out and widening. This was a lookout area. Hard to see the river because of the trees. Most trees are black spruce with fir and white birch mixed in. A few mountain ash with foliage turning scarlet color. The mountain ash were quite a big shrub. Lots of parks and looks like some camps can be rented there. Never inquired, but they were built the same and painted the same color. Lots of snowmobile/wheeler trails signed.

more to follow

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 06:28:34 AM

Lac St Jean in the Alma area of the Saguenay R Valley. It's something like 300 km around the lake. Certainly not as big as any of the Great Lakes, but viewable from space I bet. ;D

Some lake and beech shots. ;D

More to come. ;D

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 06:34:36 AM

Warf on a small stream that enters Lac St Jean. Notice the float plane in the back ground and a boat house to the right of it. ;D

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 06:56:24 AM

Down town businesses

Statue of whales of the region and fountains.

Saguenay River and walking bridge, car bridge in distance. The water looks very deep and dark. It seems there is a bit of tide here. It's about 80 miles from the St Lawrence River.

More shots from the water front park.

Nice wide boardwalk along the river front. Places for biking, roller blading and skate boarding are designated in different areas. There was a pavilion building on the water front. It wasn't open, but i think it was an arts building.

more to come ;D

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 07:12:06 AM

Sea Port Town of La Baie, PQ on the Saquenay River.

Low tide.

Ship being loaded with Aluminum ingots from the Alcan plant.

Rocky bluffs of the Fjords along the Saquenay River.

One of the many churches of the region.

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 07:25:18 AM

Ferry crossing of the St Lawrence to Riviere De Loup.

We're on our way across the St Lawrence. I was looking for whales or porpoises.

We have to loop around this island.

Approaching Riviere De Loup in the distance. The ferry ride is 75 minutes long.

That's all folks. ;D

sawguy21 · September 10, 2007, 10:15:55 AM

I enjoyed that. Had no idea there are prairies in Quebec.

Jeff · September 10, 2007, 10:16:05 AM

Beautiful areas for sure. Love the whale. ;D Donk, you speak of "pilgrimage" is there something of heightened significance to you about this area?

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 10:55:02 AM

Jeff, no significance, just curiosity. I do intend to go back in the future. I could spend a lot of time there. I'd like to fish salmon there maybe. I bet the place is chalk full of Atlantics. ;D

The towns that border the lake shore have a lot of trailer parks and camps. You can tour some farms if you like to do such things and their is a big cheese factory up there to. Sure have lots of milk with all them dairies.

It sure does remind me of prairie sawguy, even the gullies cut through that flat ground reminds me of them. Of course they would have been wooded originally, where prairie was grassland. All looks similar when it's in farms. ;) You think of gullies on hillsides, these are through flat land. The farms are nearly flat, as flat can be. It is very much similar to the dairy areas east of Quebec city. The area looks very prosperous to me. There are many rest areas and picnic areas in Quebec all well kept.

My grandfather was up in there before there were roads, followed the Saguaney R across from Riviere De Loup. He and grandmother went up with a Priest from the area. No one can remember much of a story behind it. But you sure don't expect to see such an area after traveling north so far through rocky hills and boreal forest.

Actually, the river valley is part of the St Lawrence Forest Region, but the surrounding vastness is boreal forest. I did see a few sugar maples in the wild along the valley, but they were very few. I saw lots of red maples, some yellow birch. The landscape is dominated mostly by white birch, aspen and spruce-fir, some pines (red, white, jack). Leaves have started to turn a bit more than here.

Seen several pulp mills and sawmills, most sawmills seemed idle with old weathered wood in the yards. Alcan has several operations up there including a new $3 Billion smelter in Alma built between 1998-2001. One each in La Baie and Chicoutimi as well built in the late 70's-early.

There is also railroad up there, I think it comes from La Baie to Alma to get stuff down to the port village of La Baie. It was leased by Alcan Aluminum in 1975 from CNR to service it's industrial complex in Alma and to service other industries.

I took my GPS for getting through Quebec City, worked perfect with Streets and Maps 2006. Even used it in Chicoutimi, not that you would get lost for long. 8)

SwampDonkey · September 10, 2007, 07:57:02 PM

Economic development of the Region

SwampDonkey · September 11, 2007, 12:16:14 PM

The Greenland shark is found in the Saguenay River ;D

buck5611 · January 17, 2008, 12:07:26 AM

There is no atlantic salmon in the Lac St Jean area. Only landlocked salmon. There are some on few saguenay river like the Ste Marguerite. If you want good fishing for atlantic salmon, go to the Gaspé péninsula. The Bonaventure river is one favorite in the Bay des Chaleurs.

SwampDonkey · January 17, 2008, 07:17:36 AM

Where did the Salmon go? I've always heard of salmon fishing up there. There are no dams from the mouth to La Baie at least, are there dams up above? Ships go up there. Did they fish them to extinction? There are adds for fishing up there. The Bay of Chaleur salmon are fairly prosperous. The Matepedia was always a good salmon river, a tributary of the Restigouche. We were not allowed to harvest adult salmon in NB since 1980's. George Stephen built a fishing lodge up east of Rimouski. I think grandfather fished in the Gaspe river.