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Gaspe trip.


GrizzlyGriff

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This is the year. My brother is retiring and going south. One trip to Gaspe before beaches and shuffleboard. Looking for destinations and loops etc. If you did it right please share. 

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Hoping to finally do the Gaspe this winter!  Following this with interest...

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Our group has done the Gaspe 6 times since 1996 with the latest being in 2017. We did four 7 day rides and two 5 day rides. We started on the south shore at Quebec City the first 2 times and at the Hotel Universal in Riviere Du Loup the other trips. I would recommend the Hotel Universal as it is an excellent place to leave your rig in the locked compound + has locked sled compound as well as rental indoor garages for the sleds and is right on the trail.

One important thing we learned the first year is to fuel when you see fuel. The big centres are a longer distance from trail 5 in many cases as are some of the small villages especially on the north shore. You can end up riding 6-8 km. return on sometimes ungroomed trails to get to fuel in the small villages.

The north side and central Gaspe are the most scenic in our opinion. 

Matane is an easy first day from RDL. 2 good hotels are the Riotel and  the Quality Inn and Suites. The Riotel is fancier but harder to get to with some street riding and ungroomed sections. Quality Inn is easier to get to with fuel across the road. Both have good food.

When you head east from Matane, you will get into the really scenic mountains with views of the Gulf. There are 8 (I think) mountains that you will go over. You climb from a valley up one side , across the top area and down the other side into a river valley (usually with a village at the coast) and then repeat the same  7 more times. Take time to stop at the look outs for the views.

We liked to get an early start from the Quality Inn and end the day at Grande Vallee (325 km.) staying at the Grand Vallee Des Monts. The food here was awesome.

I'll add to this post when I get some more time.

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On my bucket list as well for this winter.  From what I've read favorites to ride are 587 (south of Amqui), 595, club trail from relays de la cache to Murdochville, 597 south of Murdochville and the TQ 5 along the north coast from Perce back to Matane.  This makes for a 1200 km loop staging from Matane.  Hotels I've heard good reviews on are 

 

- Riotel

- Hotel Le Francis

- Motel Fraser

- Auberge Le Caribou 

- Village Grande Nature Chic Chocs

 

Hope this helps some.  Looking forward to what others post here on this topic.

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1 hour ago, PISTON LAKE CRUISER said:

Our group has done the Gaspe 6 times since 1996 with the latest being in 2017. We did four 7 day rides and two 5 day rides. We started on the south shore at Quebec City the first 2 times and at the Hotel Universal in Riviere Du Loup the other trips. I would recommend the Hotel Universal as it is an excellent place to leave your rig in the locked compound + has locked sled compound as well as rental indoor garages for the sleds and is right on the trail.

One important thing we learned the first year is to fuel when you see fuel. The big centres are a longer distance from trail 5 in many cases as are some of the small villages especially on the north shore. You can end up riding 6-8 km. return on sometimes ungroomed trails to get to fuel in the small villages.

The north side and central Gaspe are the most scenic in our opinion. 

Matane is an easy first day from RDL. 2 good hotels are the Riotel and  the Quality Inn and Suites. The Riotel is fancier but harder to get to with some street riding and ungroomed sections. Quality Inn is easier to get to with fuel across the road. Both have good food.

When you head east from Matane, you will get into the really scenic mountains with views of the Gulf. There are 8 (I think) mountains that you will go over. You climb from a valley up one side , across the top area and down the other side into a river valley (usually with a village at the coast) and then repeat the same  7 more times. Take time to stop at the look outs for the views.

We liked to get an early start from the Quality Inn and end the day at Grande Vallee (325 km.) staying at the Grand Vallee Des Monts. The food here was awesome.

I'll add to this post when I get some more time.

What Piston Lake Cruiser said. Two trips, 2014 and an incomplete 2019. You need to factor in that if they get hit with a storm, you can be at your hotel for more than 1 day (2019.) Look up some of my videos on youtube. apexltx56 for some helmet cams. 2019 I rolled heading back to the Quality inn in Matane, and severed my quad tendon. The storm also caused the rest of the group to cancel trying to go to the Chic Chocs.

Don't count on small town gas being open on Sunday. you will experience fantastic grooming and "that is a SNOWmobile you are driving" after some snow falls.

2014 we did the big loop. (But as said, south side pretty boring, I'd stick to the North shore and just go both ways.) Route Stops Final is the 2014 trip with your distances.

2019 trip also attached.2019 Gaspe Plan.pdf

This year our trip is also QC, west side. I'm telling everyone to have some emergency "lunches" with them, in case some town has nothing for us. (2019 - eating a slice of pizza in the gas station as the restaurant didn't bother to open for lunch that day.)

 

We hope too try and re-create the 2019 trip in a year or two - minus the slowest roll-over in the history of snowmobiling. End of trip roll over 2019 Gaspe

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Route Stops Final 28Jan14.pdf 31069808_2019GaspePlan.pdf

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7 hours ago, PISTON LAKE CRUISER said:

Our group has done the Gaspe 6 times since 1996 with the latest being in 2017. We did four 7 day rides and two 5 day rides. We started on the south shore at Quebec City the first 2 times and at the Hotel Universal in Riviere Du Loup the other trips. I would recommend the Hotel Universal as it is an excellent place to leave your rig in the locked compound + has locked sled compound as well as rental indoor garages for the sleds and is right on the trail.

One important thing we learned the first year is to fuel when you see fuel. The big centres are a longer distance from trail 5 in many cases as are some of the small villages especially on the north shore. You can end up riding 6-8 km. return on sometimes ungroomed trails to get to fuel in the small villages.

The north side and central Gaspe are the most scenic in our opinion. 

Matane is an easy first day from RDL. 2 good hotels are the Riotel and  the Quality Inn and Suites. The Riotel is fancier but harder to get to with some street riding and ungroomed sections. Quality Inn is easier to get to with fuel across the road. Both have good food.

When you head east from Matane, you will get into the really scenic mountains with views of the Gulf. There are 8 (I think) mountains that you will go over. You climb from a valley up one side , across the top area and down the other side into a river valley (usually with a village at the coast) and then repeat the same  7 more times. Take time to stop at the look outs for the views.

We liked to get an early start from the Quality Inn and end the day at Grande Vallee (325 km.) staying at the Grand Vallee Des Monts. The food here was awesome.

I'll add to this post when I get some more time.

This is a continuation of the above previous post.

Signfan and Gadgetman have added valuable information. 

If you are going for the first time, many people want to see Perce. If you are going to Perce, I would suggest continuing  on trail 5 and taking 597 north to Mourdockville if the southern part of 597 is open which can be hit or miss. Its a pretty awesom trail north from trail 5. There is only one place to stay in Murdockville which is the Hotel Copper. It's not fancy but food is Ok and has a neat sled museum downstairs. If you get a chance to take the club trail 595 west through the Chic Chocs from Murdockville be sure to do it. If you leave Murdockville with the sun behind you, it is hard to beat some of the views on the way to La Cache. 

The alternative is to take Piston Alley back north from Murdockville to trail 5. Nuff said LOL.

Gadgetman's 1191 km. route in the bottom pic  is  basically what we have done 3 times. You miss out on trail 587 which Signfan mentioned but if you had the time, you could always head down through Amqui and do it and loop back to Amqui, stay there then take the club trail west and catch 5 again up near Mont Biencourt ski hill.

We've ridden a lot of areas over the past 30+ years but Gaspe is the most scenic without a doubt.

Hope this helps.

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19 hours ago, GrizzlyGriff said:

This is the year. My brother is retiring and going south. One trip to Gaspe before beaches and shuffleboard. Looking for destinations and loops etc. If you did it right please share. 

Pm me your email address and I will send you our trip files that Sledjunk made for us, it is very detailed.

 

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This is the route we have done a few times.

About 1,500 km over 5 days.

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Chic Choc trail between Murdochville and LaCache, a must doIMG_1707.JPG.3a5364a624918cf32b6a9d9592eeb92d.JPG

Warming hut on Chic Choc trail

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Mont St Pierre on the north shore.

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One of my favorite pictures from near LaCache.  The big storm in 2019 stopped us from taking this trail that trip.  The North Shore and through the mountains are a must.  One day went from Perc'e Rock to Murdochville to LaCache To Matane.  Was one of my favorite days of sledding.  We had a beautiful sunset and were forced to follow two moose for quite a while as they would not get off the trail into the deep snow.  We kept stopping so as not to push them.  Got to the Quality Inn in Matane just before they closed the kitchen and had dinner. 

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32 minutes ago, AC+YA said:

One of my favorite pictures from near LaCache.  The big storm in 2019 stopped us from taking this trail that trip.  The North Shore and through the mountains are a must.  One day went from Perc'e Rock to Murdochville to LaCache To Matane.  Was one of my favorite days of sledding.  We had a beautiful sunset and were forced to follow two moose for quite a while as they would not get off the trail into the deep snow.  We kept stopping so as not to push them.  Got to the Quality Inn in Matane just before they closed the kitchen and had dinner. 

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Ah yes, the Gaspe storm of 2019, Feb. The end of my trip roll over. Here are some pics on why anyone considering doing the Gaspe should build in a contingency day (or two). No one was sledding for 2 days with that storm. Can you find the trail sign in the sunny picture?

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38 minutes ago, signfan said:

So is Perce really worth the stop / extra distanceto get down to it?  Or is it just another magnetic hill tourist stop?

I would say yes, great to see and get some nice pictures, there was no gas or anywhere to eat when we went through though.

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35 minutes ago, signfan said:

So is Perce really worth the stop / extra distanceto get down to it?  Or is it just another magnetic hill tourist stop?

We've been twice.  It is about 40 minutes off the main trail.  It has good places to eat and stay.  The Rock is cool to see, but I will only do it again if I am stopping there over night, but have been there twice already.  

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1 hour ago, signfan said:

So is Perce really worth the stop / extra distanceto get down to it?  Or is it just another magnetic hill tourist stop?

Its the voyage, not the destination. :-)

So, depends on if you want to say you've done the big loop, or just want to the Gaspe.

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The 2019 storm came when we were in New Brunswick and had to hold over for a day and then we pushed on for a tough day to get back across the river north to Quebec.  It was a long day with many stuck issues.  Even the groomers were getting stuck trying to open some of the trails.  The motel warned us to move the sleds to where they are in the picture the night we arrived based on the wind predictions.  It was bare pavement we pushed across to park next to our rooms and then decided they could be right and went back out and moved the sleds.  The hallway was walled with windows and they covered over the next morning as we watched.  Perce rock and other places along the way back on the Gaspe are shown.  Some pics don't want to stay vertical, sorry.  This was a long ride from RDL down through NB and back up to finish the Gaspe Loop.  As I mentioned earlier the plans were changed by the storm and we missed some of the mountain trails that trip.  We did mountains in NB in winds which tried to push you off your sled.  Fantastic experience because we worked together to make it out.

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This was after making it back across that frozen river from New Brunswick the night before in the blizzard.  The tree line had been blown away and there was a 20 foot high drift along the south side of the river we had to dig down by hand to finally get the sleds through/over.  It was dark and we were told to aim for the lights barely visible at times.  We took the roads once climbing off the river.  Long day.  Same spot as seen in the previous post by Gadgetman.  Beautiful view of New Brunswick from Quebec.

Gaspe17.jpg

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Ever look at a picture and say " Ah, Arctic Cat" 😁 

 

That trip, with family, must be a great memory. Thanks for sharing.

 

Snow covered sleds at hotel, wow! Those memories almost make Perce Rock look ' ordinary ' 

 

Thanks again for posting. 

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3 hours ago, AC+YA said:

The 2019 storm came when we were in New Brunswick and had to hold over for a day and then we pushed on for a tough day to get back across the river north to Quebec.  It was a long day with many stuck issues.  Even the groomers were getting stuck trying to open some of the trails.  The motel warned us to move the sleds to where they are in the picture the night we arrived based on the wind predictions.  It was bare pavement we pushed across to park next to our rooms and then decided they could be right and went back out and moved the sleds.  The hallway was walled with windows and they covered over the next morning as we watched.  Perce rock and other places along the way back on the Gaspe are shown.  Some pics don't want to stay vertical, sorry.  This was a long ride from RDL down through NB and back up to finish the Gaspe Loop.  As I mentioned earlier the plans were changed by the storm and we missed some of the mountain trails that trip.  We did mountains in NB in winds which tried to push you off your sled.  Fantastic experience because we worked together to make it out.

Gaspe1.jpg

Gaspe7.jpg

Gaspe2.jpg

Gaspe3.png

Gaspe13.jpg

Gaspe14.jpg

Gaspe16.jpg

Gaspe8.jpg

Gaspe9.jpg

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That was my favourite trip of all time lots of good memories ! Thanks for letting me tag along!!

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Patrick and I were talking about your trip in Dub, just Sunday night. Lynne told him, we would love to go, on the next one, if it would work out. Ski

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13 hours ago, 1049 said:

That was my favorite trip of all time lots of good memories ! Thanks for letting me tag along!!

That trip was changed by the storm!  In so many ways it brought everyone together in the struggle to get back into Quebec from where we were stranded in shut down Caraquet, New Brunswick.  It seemed it had cut into a fabulous long trip at first, but breaking through the drifts and finding our way as the trails could no longer be found in the mountains and finally being caught between the monster drift at the south edge of the river and getting onto the ice has burned the way we worked together to get everyone across into my head.  No one was tagging along and I am grateful for your help, Patrick's, and everyone else.  Digging the drift down by hand with all doing a share to get sled's over and the rest of the do or die situations still the next day, will always be in my memory.  It is also a favorite of mine.  Thanks again Mark.  Here you are helping Kip.

Gaspe4.jpg

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Love seeing the pics and itineraries of the trips out there. Looking to make a trip there this year for the first time, we always do at least 2 a year to Cochrane/ Northern Corridor but would like to do 1 somewhere different this year.

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I’ll second what everyone said.

We did it in 7 days, some extra time for play. 

You will love it. You will enjoy the trip. 

Hate to add this but beware of covid situation. 

 

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On 10/14/2021 at 9:33 AM, AC+YA said:

That trip was changed by the storm!  In so many ways it brought everyone together in the struggle to get back into Quebec from where we were stranded in shut down Caraquet, New Brunswick.  It seemed it had cut into a fabulous long trip at first, but breaking through the drifts and finding our way as the trails could no longer be found in the mountains and finally being caught between the monster drift at the south edge of the river and getting onto the ice has burned the way we worked together to get everyone across into my head.  No one was tagging along and I am grateful for your help, Patrick's, and everyone else.  Digging the drift down by hand with all doing a share to get sled's over and the rest of the do or die situations still the next day, will always be in my memory.  It is also a favorite of mine.  Thanks again Mark.  Here you are helping Kip.

Gaspe4.jpg

Where were you crossing the river?  

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