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Back in Michigan after the 16 hour drive, but worth every mile to ride the world class trails of Quebec. I had the wonderful opportunity to visit or ride with folks from New Hampshire, Ohio, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ottawa, England and of course Quebec. Great friends and great times, lifetime memories for sure. A very special thank you to all the groomer operators and volunteers and others who give of their time so we can enjoy this sport. It's hard to fathom what it takes to put a trail system like this together, but every year it just seems to get better. Again thanks! Only downside to this sport is you just can't get enough. I rode 8 days, 1600 miles, have been home less than 24 hours and all I want to do is get out on that sled and ride. Everybody enjoy the rest of winter and be safe out there. Dave

Back in the saddle. This trip was my the brainchild of my boss. Hey if your boss said “do you want to go to ride in Gaspe 2 days or stay here and work?” (And you like your boss). What would Iceman do? Survey says? I’ll take go riding to Matane for $1000 Alex. You betcha. Well the plan was to leave the shop by 1pm Thursday to make the 5 hour run to Quality Inn in Matane. Well we did pretty good. We left at 2:30. Phone was ringing all morning Thursday, ching ching$$$$$$, so after it quieted down enough we left the other crew to handle things and we pinned the trailer. My sled was already at the shop as we went to get it the day before. Loaded up and off we go direction Matane. Rain all the way after RDL is started mixing and by Mont Joli all snow. Surely it rained during the day a bit but now snow. My boss can drive and we made super time considering conditions 5 hours on the nose. Tanked the truck checked into hotel unloaded sleds and gear and it’s 8pm. Lots of sleds here. I’m putting my gear in the room and getting ready to cover my sled (already locked it). Guy from room next to us comes over and asks me in French if we can park somewhere else cause he has friends coming and they all want to park together. Huh? I want a lear jet and my own cruise ship but I don’t think I’ll ever have those. This guy is wasting his breath. I aint moving. I mean come on. Anyway. I never stayed here but I like it and tge restaurant was good too. Ate in the bar. Bed early at 10:30. I only slept 4 hours the night before as I got home at 6:15 on Valentine’s day. The one year I have actually been with my wife on Valentine’s day. I figured I would take her out for a nice dinner. I get cleaned up and 6:45pm i got my hand on the back door to head out. Yeah no. My phone rings. Never good this time of night. Well its back into work clothes and off to Trois Riveres to a big shopping center there with a blocked sewer. Happy Valentine’s day baby. After doing battle there till 11:30pm. I got home just after midnight. Showered and now need to pack my gear as I need bring everything with me to leave from the shop later today. 1:30 in bed up at 5:30. Back to it. So long story short I owe the lovely lady a nice dinner. Left Matane this morning at 7:30 am. Half an inch of snow here overnight. Follow a group out on the feeder trail gang of six. Go west, Go west yes they go west. We head east for the 595. Boss is on point as I am happy to let him set the pace and I’ll take some practice riding in the snow dust. TQ5 is nice real nice. We roll. He spanks that Grand Touring he got and let me tell you I aint had someone ride a Grand Touring in front of me like that since I caught up to GT Rider and Mrs Gt Rider a few years back. Getting it done. Hammer down. Sweet ride to 595. Seen no sleds so far. Up 595 and its just lovely too. 20 km in see a Moose off the right eating some trees. Bon appetite. Maybe 20 km from La Cache i see another moose, then a group of 4 sleds. More new snow her but only 2” or so. Just a little further is a dead moose. Not even a year old I’d say. Tough to see being the animal lover I am. Not dead long. Looks like it just was sick and froze to death. Bummer. Circle of life my friends. Into La Cache for fuel and a quick break. We got all day to go not far. Met Melissa and Will who work at La Cache for the New Owner. Was another nice lady too. Dee I think but sorry if I got it wrong. Anyway as many of you know, nicely renovated there and clean. Very Vital Stop here, please encourage this new owner. After talking a bit we leave on what my boss and I know as the trail out of here. Well sorry its a goat path this can’t be right. Back we go and now I meet the new owner of La Cache, Josh. We talk a bit and he explains to me the detour due to a bad bridge. No one on QR gave a heads up on that. Wish i knew before. So it 20 km around to the Murdochville trail then back to 595. All good trail less. New snow going down to New Richmond. Just before ski place dead deer in trail. Then real live ones, this area is teaming with them. On down to gas in New Richmond and a arrival Early as planned at Motel Francis. Super trails and great temperature today. Great day of riding. No big miles but it was fun and nice to look around and take in the scenery. Tomorrow back up to Murdochville then MSP to St Anne des Monts. Having a great time with Alain and look forward to riding many more miles together. Until next time......ice out. Trying to transfer photos by wifi to Ipad but my patience is worn out. So have to wait for the photos i took. Yes i stopped and took pictures.

Looking good Don & Alain! Enjoy! The conditions are excellent in Gaspesie currently. I was at la Cache on Tuesday & met Josh, Melissa (cutie), Dell & Lin. All good people who speak great English. We are very lucky to have la Cache open again! Very very important location to be in business & sell fuel. Let’s all support their efforts. Josh bought the place last year. They have been putting in a lot of money on renovations. All the rooms have been renovated. House was sided. Interior was gutted & renovated. We didn’t eat. Just gas & go. I suggested installing a larger fuel/gas tank. That’s when Dell told me the story about running out of gas the Saturday before. What a nightmare getting there on a snowmobile and not being able to get fuel! That makes for a lot of walking later that day. They said it didn’t come to that. People brought in containers of fuel by car/truck to service the snowmobiles that needed gas. Lucky sledders!!

The fuel pick up issue seems to have been resolved. Prior to disassembly, I had been running out of fuel at about the 7.5 gallon mark, most of the time, Leaving an already smaller 9.4 gallon tank ...2 gallons shy. Not good when you are in the bush counting on every ounce😉. The brass pick up screen was missing from the end of the fuel line, this caused it to float around and get into unfavorable positions. The screen acts as a line weight as well. One mystery solved👍

I can't take it anymore. All you people talk about is how GREAT it is to be riding, I know I have already rode 1350 miles this year but IT'S NOT ENOUGH. And to top it off it's 75 degrees here in North Carolina. How can someone dream about riding their new snowmobile when its 75????? Then to top it off I have to come in to the office and read about what a great time everyone is having. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. So........ with that said I guess I'm going to just have to go back in March to see just what the hype is all about. HAPPY TRAILS EVERYONE AND MOST OF ALL BE SAFE!!!! SEE YOU IN MARCH!!!!!!

Foxy Lady! https://g.co/kgs/ZHsxKn

I believe I remember talk,of a bridge out. Watch the first step it is a dosie

Day 3 Friday. A busy morning. Get Jason's car situated and leave what we don't need in the car, get the rental sled. Nice sled, 600 km on a 2018 Grand Tour. This isn't even broken in yet. Get the luggage loaded and off we go. It cooled off overnight so the slush from the rain has froze. Trail 3 is even groomed. I never would have thought they would groom with as warm as it was overnight. Icy but pretty smooth. About ten miles out and the ice is gone and there is fresh snow on the trail. This must have been the rain snow line. 3 is good. It reminds me off trail 5 south of the river that follows the power lines. 3 does the same on the north side. It has been a few years since we have rode 3. A little choppy in places but overall very good. 3 gets a lot of city traffic on weekends. I'm glad we are on it Friday. Some nice scenery up here. Sandi, Jason and Yushen below. A little rustic relais on the trail looks like the spot to stop and have lunch. Quebec plated sleds here. The locals always know where the good places are. Relais Le Grenier it is. About 5 miles west of the cutoff to Clermont. The lady behind the counter is taking orders and there is one guy in the back putting the food together. I notice that she is not only taking the orders but she is also bringing the food to the tables and running the bar on the other side of the room. She is moving. We got our order in about 10 minutes. I look around and there are 40 - 50 people here and he made food for everyone in about 20 minutes. Wow! It doesn't look like much from the outside but a good spot.

Yes, renovated rooms with cable TV and WiFi nice people. English not a problem for those who don’t speak Frenglish.

Posting from Pourvoirie Lavérendrye...trail is like a hardwood floor around here(incredible). Yes it's time to get back to Maniwaki before the thaw.

She is some Foxy !

Day 2 Thursday, we are heading to the Four Points to meet Jason and Yushen. They are driving up from CT and renting a sled for three days. We leave the Delta and head east on 83 and then take 368. 368 is perfect. What a nice ride. We turn left on 23 and buzz on down to Apica. We have chocolate chaud at Apica. Only a few sleds here. The middle of the week and it is quiet. Back on 23 to L'Etape. So nice and smooth. A few sleds heading north. L'Etape has sleds but it can accommodate a lot of people. Lunch it is. Oh no! They don't have chicken pot pie anymore. I was really looking forward to that. Instead, Sandi and I split a club sandwich. Now its time for trail 369. We haven't been on this in a long time. Years ago we would truck to Lac Beauport and sled out of there. That Auberge has since been torn down. 369 is groomed and fine. The weather is warm and there is light snow in the air. We get to the split where the trail to the left cuts over to trail 3 or to the right stays on 369. We decide to stay on 369. The upper section is fine but as we get near Lac Beauport, I forgot how twisty this trail gets. After so many miles of great trails, this gnarly stuff, left right, up down back and forth gets old real quick. Six miles of torture and we finally meet trail 3. Straight trail but it is drizzling now and 3 is rough. Tough it out. There is only about 5 miles of this to the Four Points. We make it in and we are also the first sleds here tonight. A few more pull in right after us. We even beat Jason and Yushen. A great ride today other than the tail end of it. A shout out to MikeRider. You mentioned duck at Levesque the other day. That made me willing to try the duck here. The Four Points duck is also fantastic. Not something I would normally order but it was good! Jack & Sandi

We met Foxy, she loved our chicken wings.

Good news we can pound more drifts.

Owwwch! Lol well it is what it is. Thanks for the imput. I definitely feel better making the run up. Sitting at Roquemont now drinking some beers waiting to go tomorrow!!

Sandi and I are back on the trail again. We trucked to the Delta Tuesday. I've been looking for a pair of those big furry mitts and Bill said Bilodeau in Normandin is the place to check out. So Wednesday morning the groomer map shows green on much of 93. Off we go. We ran over to Spence SkiDoo first but they didn't have anything to fit my big hands. So north we go. Across the two bridges and thru St Ambroise. The map showed that 93 around Alma was not groomed so we grab the local trial up to Relais du Lac and get on 328. This brings us to 367 to St Monique. Like MrGutz says, 9 and 10 all the way thru. No bumps and no traffic. Thru Peribonka and back on 93. Nice riding up here. This doesn't get much traffic and the trails are fun. We get into Normandin and pull into the Sconic to gas up. Bilodeau is just around the corner but the "trail" doesn't go there. We can either go down the road, not much snow on it and its busy, or we can follow the local tracks and hope for the best. So we opt for the local tracks. Bilodeau is not even 1/2 mile from Sconic. We wound around behind the houses and popped out on one of the side streets. I look up and down route 169 and don't see it. A car comes up the street with a couple of young guys in it. I ask them where is Bilodeau and they say follow us. They turn right towards the center of town and we follow them on the sidewalk. Two blocks down and there it is, Bilodeau. A big wave and we are here. The store isn't huge but impressive. They had a big selection but most of the mittens had the fur laying toward the finger tips. I wanted the fur going back toward my wrist. Sandi has a pair with the fur going toward the finger tips and snow gets packed into the fur while she is riding. The sales person at Bilodeau said that beaver is the warmest and they can make up a pair for me. I don't know how long it usually takes but she said they would be ready next week. Out comes the credit card. We take the same trails on the way back to the Delta. Still great. A fantastic first day of the trip. More to come. Jack & Sandi

Day 2, Saturday February 9th. -18F, 161 miles Ok big day for us. Off trail all the way to Chibougamu, we have been planning this for some time. Not being really sure of the conditions we pick a 6:30 breakfast time for a 7:30 departure. Junior from Barrage Gouin leading the way with his GPS, tracks, SAT phone and the boss's Freeride towing a sleigh with 8 full gas cans ready to go! Everyone has spare gas on the sled too. 5 other GPS’s up and running also as you can never have enough data. The other sleds were (2) 850 Back Country’s, 850 Renegade XRS, 900 Renegade and a 1200X. Solid team, solid plan and sleds ready to go. 3 years ago we tried this trip but we encountered way too much snow and not enough gas. This time we will not fail, I hope. The first part of the adventure was 50 miles or so on the reservoir to Roselins place, Nimotekan, (N48° 48.343' W74° 34.411'). They serve local walleye and moose meat. They had fish nets set up on the Gouin! You have to book 2-3 days in advance to stay or eat there. Bummer the reservoir was not kind to our gas cans on our sleigh. It may have been the huge drifts, or it may have been towing it at 75mph instead of Johnny’s recommendations of 60KM maximum I don’t know but we were now possibly going to have a fuel situation again so we have to be careful. We topped them off in the front yard of Roselins, then took some more drone shots before heading onto the Gouin for a bit more. After getting off the reservoir we headed into the bush for the next 50 miles. Lots of snow, lots of snow, lots of snow. Mostly summer roads and unused logging roads. A few bus size drifts strategically placed to make sure you are awake and paying attention. I scared myself on a few of them for sure. Did I say we haven’t seen any sleds all day, cool……. The next 40 miles are completely untracked power lines. Super wide and you go anywhere you want. We had a few stuck sleds, a few ricochet off an unfriendly evergreen tree but otherwise no issues. It was lunch on the trail for everyone today as there are no options out here. Really pretty and scenic ride so far for us. Best I can tell Junior is having a blast and at times I’m not sure who is guiding who. We are close to Chibougamu now and we have to ride the next 10-15km on lightly plowed logging roads as we can see no other option. We jump on the 93 for the last 10 miles and we are into the Nordic for 3:30PM. Johnny thought we would make it between 5:00-7:00, (we may have exceeded to recommend off trail speeds at time, opps). As it turns out we had an abundance of gas, nice. When checking in she asks if we want the heated garage for $10 per sled. What don’t ask me twice where’s the door. A few minutes later we are stacking in 6 sleds, nice. The rooms are awesome and way nicer than I envisioned! A drink, a shower, and a short walk to the restaurant down the street. We get back early and (4) of the team members are crashing hard. Randy and I head over to the Bar Le Cabaret which appears to be only a bar now which is fine for us. TV, Internet and bed by midnight….. One of the most fun days this season by far. Tomorrow we will make a few adjustments to the ride back to Barrage Gouin. We were asked by the person who figured this out to not share these tracks. This is not completely;y uncommon as I have been asked this before when riders give me tracks, (some folks guard this data very close for varying reasons). I have given my own tracks out that I have figured out myself to those that request many times. I will ask again, no worries.

We did the same thing last Thursday. Our GPS showed us going along the boarder cut for some of the trail. We even saw a sign showing a trail to the Perry Pond trail on the NH side of the cut. We too had first tracks all the way to 523. We had lunch at the store-resturant in Chartierville. Crossed at Pittsburg and beat it back to Colebrook. It was a great ride.