La Tuque is a big town in a bigger forest. It sits on the upper Saint-Maurice River, in a municipality that, by area, ranks among the largest in Canada, a sprawl of lakes, spruce forest and hills that stretches far beyond what you can see from the main street. The name means woolly cap, after a rock formation near the river that early voyageurs thought resembled the hat, and the town grew around the railway, the pulp and paper mill and the timber trade.
The river is the thread of its story. For many years, lumberjacks cut logs in the winter, stacked them on the frozen river and sent them downstream in the spring flood. The drive could reach the mills at Trois-Rivières after weeks of dangerous work. The sound of those drives has long gone, but the memory remains in names, songs and local museums. The Atikamekw people have lived in this territory for centuries, and communities such as Wemotaci lie upstream, with their own language, crafts and history, adding a deeper chapter to the story of the forest.
Route 155 brings you here from the south, and it is a road for long days. The highway climbs and falls through the forest in long, easy bends, the Saint-Maurice appears and disappears on your side, and the scenery is a steady mix of conifers, lakes, hills and big sky. There are few villages, and traffic can be thin, though logging trucks run all day. Wildlife is a real factor: moose are common at dawn and dusk, and a collision with one is serious, so keep an eye on the ditches and slow down. The riding season is short, roughly June to September, and nights can be cold even in summer.
With around nine and a half thousand residents, La Tuque is the main service town in this part of the Mauricie, so fuel, groceries, restaurants and motels are all here. Use the stop to rest, check your layers, and fill up before you head north toward the lake country of Lac-Saint-Jean. Try to be on the road in the early morning, when the forest is fresh and the mist hangs over the river.