Special to The Star-Herald
Room reservations must be made early for the February 2008 Maine to Quebec Winter Carnival Caravan according to Sarah Brooks, co-chairman for the caravan. The caravan will leave Ashland for the Quebec border Feb. 15 traveling through the Maine woods shortly after dawn. Along with Tim Crowley, co-chairman, Brooks is attempting to book a block of 50 rooms at the Quebec Hilton. Next year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City by Samuel de Champlain in 1608, and the Winter Carnival is the first big “kick-off” event for the 10-month-long celebration, so rooms will be at a premium. Trip reservations and further trip information, excluding hotel reservations, may be had by calling Northern Maine Community College at 768-2760. On payment of the $25 fee, registrants will receive a packet containing information concerning the trip.
Plans at present call for the caravan breakfast Feb. 15 at the Ashland Motor Lodge at 6:30 a.m. The breakfast charge is $7.50. At present, it appears that the caravan will make the Quebec border crossing at S. Pamphile, Quebec, as last year.
Officials from the Maine Tourism Association have state that this year, the state of Maine will have a facility, probably a tent on the Plains of Abraham, where much of the carnival’s activities take place. Maine-made products will be on display and Maine lobster will be served. Maine will also have an entry in The International Snow Sculpture event, where artists from around the world display their talents created with snow. Ice Sculptures are displayed throughout areas of the city during the carnival. A reception for caravan members will be held at the Quebec City mayor’s office on Saturday morning, Feb 15. Gifts will be exchanged between city officials and caravan leaders.
It has been 51 years since the first Maine caravan trip was made in 1957, and next year’s will be memorable with historic-walled Quebec City throwing wide its gates and rolling out the red carpet for millions of visitors who will be attending the celebration that will rock the tourism world. The Winter Carnival itself will run from Feb. 1 – 17, with canoe races across the Saint Lawrence River. Canoeists will jump onto ice cakes in the river and drag their bateaux to open water and go again. There will be two night parades. The living snowman, Bonhomme, who is over six feet tall and is the Winter Carnival mascot, will have a special, carnival ball at the city icon, Chateau Frontenac. Music and entertainment will be presented on an almost continuous basis at the Ice Palace at Place Loto. Some crazy people will jump, barely clothed, into snow banks for a quick “bath”.
Last February 64 people made the trip over a great woods road from Ashland to St. Pamphile, Quebec, with a lone customs agent on the entry gate. The caravan was nearly an hour making the crossing in below zero temperatures. Dr. William “Bill” Forbes of Washburn, a geologist and paleontologist, and a former instructor at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, gave a running commentary concerning the geological history of the various areas the caravan was traveling through. His comments were carried over two-way radios in each vehicle in the caravan.
