Rena Ellingwood considers herself fortunate to live in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont with her husband Mark. They are both avid snowmobilers and enjoy the outdoors. Rena is a former teacher and is now employed as a Director for Client Services and Outreach for Homecare Services. Mark is self employed, volunteers as treasurer for the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers and is a groomer operator. Together they enjoy over 3000 miles of snowmobiling yearly. For them, nothing is more important than family, friends and snowmobiling! In 2006, Rena and her husband won the “Win a Dream Snowmobile Vacation for 4 in Québec maritime” contest.
First of all, let me say that we had already visited the Gaspé Peninsula before winning this vacation. In fact, before entering the contest, we had a trip planned to New Hampshire and Maine. I told my husband that if we missed out on the contest by not participating, he could go on our planned trip alone... Not only did we enter the contest, but we won it! Talk about convincing someone to do the right thing!
There is only one word to describe that trip and it’s “AWESOME!”
We’ve been so happy with this vacation that we’ve been promoting it since then to our friends and other snowmobilers. We have lent out our maps many times since.
This vacation for four enabled us to bring along our close friends, Rachael and Dave McFadden. It officially included overnight accommodations and breakfasts. However, in many places, dinner ended up being complimentary.
There are a lot of things to say about this vacation, but let’s start with the trails. First of all, they are very well signed and groomed. It’s quite easy to get to any point or facility. We even had the chance to stop at some local clubhouses along the trails where we were warmly greeted and offered assistance, if needed. At one place, the manager, Patsy Babin, even gave us her phone number just in case. I don’t recall the last time this happened elsewhere!
I do have to point out that you must be prepared for any conditions. We had some sun, some freezing rain and 15 inches of fresh snow overnight!
The scenery was grandiose and so diversified from one area to another. Sometimes, we would come out of the forest and have a breathtaking view of the St. Lawrence River and its vastness. Another time, we just were amazed by the Chic-Choc mountain range or Percé Rock. We even suddenly passed beside huge windmills. That was an unusual sight!
Did we sleep and eat well, you ask? That’s certainly one of the reasons why we know we will be back there! The owners and staff of the lodging facilities were always very accommodating. The food was varied and exquisite.
We didn’t really go out in town since we found all the services and amenities where we stayed, including spa treatments. At one place, when we inquired about souvenirs, the inn owner where we slept had a seasonal gift shop opened just for us! On a previous trip, my husband’s snowmobile broke down. It was repaired overnight! Who could ask for more?
About other issues or concerns one might have... Even though we were in the province of Québec and in a region where the majority of the population is French-speaking, we didn’t have to speak it (our high school French being long lost), because we always managed to be served by somebody bilingual or referred to someone who was.
We also had access to a computer every evening, which made it easy to keep in touch with home. However, the cell phone coverage was average.
Credit cards and US dollars were accepted everywhere we went, so we didn’t even need to get Canadian money before leaving on our vacation.
All in all, we highly recommended a snowmobile vacation to the Gaspé Peninsula! Anybody who owns a snowmobile should do it at least once. I know we will be back there sooner rather than later!
Summer 