Gaspesie Route 132: Rimouski to Gaspe

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Rimouski

   Rimouski stands on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, where the river has widened into an estuary so broad that the far shore, forty kilometres away, is a blue line of mountains. The sea is only a taste of salt and a tide here, but it changes the weather, the light and the character of the town. About forty-two thousand people live in this lively regional capital of the Bas-Saint-Laurent, with a university, a long waterfront and the unhurried feel of a place that most visitors pass through on the way to somewhere further east.

   Read the complete Rimouski write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rimouski is where the day begins. Next is Matane.

2. 2. Matane

   In Matane, the fish run uphill. Every summer, Atlantic salmon swim up the Matane river, and the town has built a viewing station at a dam with a glass window into the fish ladder, so you can watch them fight their way upstream. It is a small, quirky sight, but it says a lot about the place: this is a working port on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, where the river is so wide that you can hardly see the north bank.

   Read the complete Matane write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Matane comes up about 211 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sainte Anne des Monts.

3. 3. Sainte Anne des Monts

   Sainte-Anne-des-Monts is the gateway to the Gaspésie National Park, on the north coast of the Gaspé Peninsula, where the St Lawrence River widens into the Gulf and the Chic-Chocs mountains rise abruptly behind the shore. The town is a pleasant, working place of about five and a half thousand people, with a church, a fishing wharf and a main street running along the coast. Behind it, the road to the park climbs into the mountains, where a herd of woodland caribou, the last south of the St Lawrence, survives on the high plateaus.

   Read the complete Sainte Anne des Monts write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 414 km into the recorded legs you reach Sainte Anne des Monts. Next is Gaspe.

4. 4. Gaspé

   Gaspé is a town of around fifteen thousand at the eastern end of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula, built around a deep bay where, in 1534, Jacques Cartier is said to have come ashore and planted a cross claiming the land for the French king. Mi'kmaq people and Iroquoians of the St Lawrence had long lived and fished here, and the name itself is a Mi'kmaq word for the end of the land. It is a good start for a ride around the peninsula on Route 132, which in this area means a loop of nearly a thousand kilometres right around the coast and back.

   Read the complete Gaspe write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Gaspé closes the day.