The 50th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 50 degrees north of the Earth’s equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. At this latitude, on this day, at our location of Sept-Îles, the sun was visible for more than sixteen hours and the morning and evening twilight lasted about 45 minutes each. So when I awoke and saw the light peeping from behind the curtains, I thought it was about 7am but it was actually 4am. Unable to get back to sleep, the rest of the family dead to it, I decided to go for a walk. Needless to say there was no-one about.
The Côte-Nord (North Shore) region is home to about 100,000 people and more than 80% of that population is concentrated on less than 1% of the territory, along the coastline from Tadoussac to Sept-Îles, with half of that number living at Sept-Îles or Baie-Comeau.
Sept-Îles is among the northernmost locales with a paved connection to the rest of Quebec’s road network, however it wasn’t until 1961 that Route 138 extend that far. It was extended again in 1976 to Havre-Saint-Pierre, then to Natashquan in 1996, and as far as Kegaska in 2013. At the eastern end of the Côte-Nord, another section of Route 138 extends from Old Fort to the Newfoundland and Labrador border near Blanc-Sabion. A gap remains between Kegashka and Old Fort and the isolated communities are accessible only by coastal ferry. Come winter, however, the White Trail appears, more than 450km of snowmobile track right up to Vieux-Fort, making these otherwise locked-in places accessible by land.
Until 1910 there was only one street in Sept-Îles, called 1st Street and renamed Arnaud Street in 1952. At the turn of the 1950s the Iron Ore Company of Canada launched a major project at Sept-Îles that was immediately followed by the construction of houses and roads, and soon after new companies, services and neighbourhoods started to crop-up. These first streets were named in alphabetical order A-L from the shoreline heading north; and from M-V heading east to west.
Sept-Îles has a subarctic climate bordering on a humid continental climate. Winters are long, cold, and snowy with a January high of −9.8 °C and a January low of −20.9 °C, and summers are mild with a July high of 19.6 °C. Spring and autumn are very short transition seasons lasting only a few weeks. Driving to/from the city were bay-side properties and beach-side RV parks reminiscent of California and Virginia. People were swimming, sun-baking and sitting on their deck chairs in the sand and shallows.
In the brief time we spent there, I must admit I found the city of Sept-Îles industrial and uninspiring; however I suspect the district of Sept-Îles is quite interesting and yet again, we wish we’d had more time to explore. A bit of trivia, the city is home to the most highly attended recreational sport event in the province of Quebec: the Tournoi Orange, volleyball tournament, which consists of 405 teams and close to 800 volleyball games.
Everyone was still asleep when I returned to our hotel room. We left Sept-Îles early to drive to Godbout and catch the ferry across the St Lawrence to the Gaspésie.
Five for the Road 