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This snowmobiling thing....has never been a sport for saving money!!! But it is worth every penny when: you are the first track, on a freshly groomed trail, for 70 miles, at -10°, beautiful sunny morning, going whatever speed you want!

Chenail du Nord is off the beaten path but there's plenty of fuel there to get you back !

Day 1, Friday, March 9th 2018, 365 miles. We decided to start at the Sheraton Four Points in Quebec City. Nice rooms, nice food and huge parking. If you are trying to go north it is a better option for us than the St Foy area. We debated on starting more north in La Malbaie but voted unanimously against it in favor of more miles on the sled and less in the truck. We woke to a fresh 4 inches or so outside and it was still snowing. Breakfast at 7:00 and then out to unload 5 sleds, Me, Jay, Randy, Dave and Greg. On the trail at 8:00 or so. We found awesome conditions on the power-lines in Quebec City. No rocks and tons of snow. They fully recoved from the rain and warm. No water, no missing snow bridges, nothing ! A few snowmobile bridges redone since last season and some fresh signing, it was nice. There were lots more 30km maximum signs in town so we took it very easy. Most of route 3 was freshly groomed and really nice until Relay Mont St Anne. It stayed nice until the 369 La Tape turn off then the snow started picking up and for sure no groomer had been here in a bit. Big snowdrifts and hard going all the way to Relay Michelieu at the Baie St Paul turn off. They have 2 huge gas tanks there now that I have not noticed before. No worries we don’t need gas and continue on. It is obvious that the groomer has been here recently which was nice. A few small trail reroutes since last year but it was all nice. A bit choppy before the ferry as it usually is. Snowing heavy now and WINDY……. We got off a bumpy Tadousac ferry ride and headed to lunch at Restaurant Chantmartin a few minutes up the trail, (I was wishing I put the peanut butter on my toast for breakfast because I was HUNGRY!). We met some folks there that were calling it a day because of too much snow and hard going. We finished an awesome lunch and marched on. Both gas options on the trail in town are no longer open and we did not want to get the one off the side street so off we go. We bypassed Pelchat and got gas at Relais Escoumin. I know guys had issues with bad gas early in the season here but we took our chances and all was well. We told the lady in the relay where we were going and she said something about good luck and crazy Americans. We wrestled the sleds on the Route 3 bypass due to the locals tracking it up every which way playing in the deep snow. Our plan was to get to Chenail Du Nord at 5:00 with 320 miles but with all the new snow and a few excursions we were not going to make that. We arrived in Forestville at 6:45PM to get gas. I looked at the Chenail Du Nord side trail on the way by and there were no tracks and now the fresh snow was in the 12-18 inch range and still snowing. We leave at 7:00PM after grabbing (3) empty windshield washer jugs for tomorrow. I shoot a note to Benoit we are running a bit late. We doubled back the few kilometers to the side trail and off we go. Fresh tracks for 1KM then off a huge bank onto a plowed back road, hum....... We go a short distance and hook a left back onto the side trail and are ready for the remaining 60 miles. Lo and behold someone had ridden it pulling a sled and it’s perfect! Benoit has this section pretty well signed to his door. I have GPS tracks if anyone needs them. It’s dark now but we could easily go 65mph+ on sections of this trail. We arrived at 8:30PM with 365 miles on. Long day and the only over 250 miles day this year, but sometimes to get to the interesting places you have to pay a bit. We had new snow the whole way and everyone was happy to be there! Benoit came out to greet us and get us set in our cabin. He said he would go wake the chef and dinner would be ready at 9:15. Quick unload, shower and off to eat. The new chef was awesome. She is a local Floresville woman living in the bush here for the winter. The meal was awesome as was visiting with Benoit for the evening. He took out his calculator and said 600KM in 12 hours in this fresh snow, and you got gas, and you ate lunch? We said yes, he said crazy Americans. We've heard that before. Lots of snow today and everything open for business. I can't see this much snow melting quickly so head on up. Quebec City is a great place to leave from when the conditions are this good.

Doing us proud!

Thank you Jim! again, it was a real pleasure to meet you and Gemma at the clubhouse, you are very kind pair of sympatics, solid experienced sledders. I admire how strong you are at riding just the 2 of you in some remote area that I would be scared to go alone, and you succeed once again this last time on the north shore. All this with real time ride report: I raise my helmeth to you two very high and hope to have some other chances to meet you on the trails in the future. By the way...we had to get gaz in La Cache when we were there and had really wanted to follow your recommendation so when we had push at the fuel tank we asked for premium: they replied: our premium is empty, we just have regular!!! oups.... We had no choice and top with the regular and fortunately had no problem after... but I will make a fuel filter replacement this summer as a preventive care, I had not touch that since i have the sled and I figure it can be the accumulation over the time that would lead to a completely clogged filter. Take care!!! Thank you groomer!!! coming from a good photograph like you Kristine is even more proud of those catch! Again thank you and keep the good work even over the trails than at sharing your beautifuls pics! Thanks P Hardy! especially for you and groomer... Thank you actionjack! Was a real good trip even with rugged trail "texture". Have a good summer too, but... it's too early to talk about summer!!! lets enjoy the spring riding! Thank you Tom! Were you in Murdochville on Tuesday 6 at noon? Yes your equation is right, it's part of our game, but what a nice game!!! Thanks Jean-Guy! as for spectacular scenery, very hard to beat for sure! Thanks smclelan! the small the Lumix is not an high end camera, it's a "bridge"type with a fixed lens of 25-600mm at F2.8 which mean acceptable zoom for near and very good zoom for far and lens big enough to let enter pretty much light. We had a good "reflex" type camera few year ago but it can get expensive to play in this ball game especially with the lens and after having being unlucky with a lens dropped on a ceramic floor, I had prefered to go with the bridge Lumix that give and all around good package for us. Hahaha, very funny Playhard!!! I had get myself a new nick name lolll my Pleasure Hparaptor! Thanks!! Thanks Quebec Bob! I had kept the 2 last Yammies 40000kms/25000miles each which was 5 years for each, we ride a little less we are in our fourth season with this one. The Boivin rear skid have around 55 000kms right now but have been heavily maintenanced and modified. I will do an other season or two with this setup, love the setup I have, it will be very hard to replace because the boivin skid are discontinued and no more sold since many years so I will need to look at something different. Thanks 4ws XRS! yes, I'm the lucky guy that have the best one! We realize we are a bit less tought than we were both as we get older... I remember doing 300miles rides on a Polaris XLT600 95 single place with Krikri litterally stick on my back with her legs fold in half and she was still asking for a detour before coming back home!!! now she don't ask for the detour...loll Thank you revct1! You bet, and we have to realize how lucky we are to be able enjoy it years after years the way we do... Thanks Grumpysanta! yes we can have everything... but not always!!! loll take care Alain

Just back from a week in the Gaspesia area accompanied by our friend Snowcruiser. We left home after dinner by car on Saturday March 3rd and returned home on Saturday the 10th in the late afternoon, a trip of 700 miles by car and 1040 miles by sled. This was our 4th time in Gaspésia, the last one was back 4 years ago The mild temperatures that we had in the last weeks are certainly related with the poor trail conditions we encountered on a large part of the trip. I was expecting that with the warm temperatures but it was a notch worse than expected, no offense to you Groomer, the Tq5 in your area was nice!!! Luckily, our relaxed vacation pace gave us an easy 160 miles/day average which was just enough in these conditions especially for my passenger. Here is the trail path of our trip: Our drop spot in Gaspésia was in Mont-Joli at the motel "Mon Joli Motel". We slept there Saturday night before leaving by sled and finally Friday night when we came back before going home the next day. This was our third time at this location mainly for free parking and their recovery service in case of problems: we leave them our car keys and in case of problems they can come pick us up with our rigs at our request. A service we have been fortunate to never use up to date but still provides a significant peace of mind for the trip. In addition the place is nice, beds are comfortable and the food at the restaurant very good.We had a very cloudy week but a bit of sun in the first 2 days. I hesitated to make a ride report on this trip, doing it as I usually do would make a too big project for the moment(I have a lot of photos and videos) so I'll go differently with what marked us more than a detailed story . To begin we headed south via the trail # 5 on good trail conditions (Mont-Joli is the place where the trail#5 come back on itself as the road #132 that goes around the Gaspésia do ).I had left a message to Groomer. Being in his backyard and having never met in person, the opportunity was too good to not going shake the hand of the best photographer in Gaspésia! So we went having our lunch at the Albertville Clubhouse where he came to meet us. Our lucky star gave us a big bonus having Mr and Mrs Gt riders in persons, Jim and Gemma were there at the same moment. It was so nice to have a great talk with all those passionate peoples. a real great add-on to our trip! I know JG you are more at ease on the other side of the camera but thank you for having been willing for the group pic with us here outside before leaving This day we had went to sleep at Pointe à la Croix and the next day we continued on #tq5 to New Richmond. Here the New Brunswick on the other side of the river Many deers in that area.Enough for having to pay more attention. I watched a lot for deer tracks in the woods as in this one where there was a good flock. We powered the Lumix with the zoom and made some good shots, really beautiful animalsWe then rode north on the #595 to La Cache where we spent the night. Probably the most rought trail of our trip that had not seen the Dozer for a very long time. During a break to our surprise we saw a mosquito on the venture cab! if the mosquitoes come out at this time here I won't imagine what is it in summer!The next day, leaving La Cache we saw the only moose of the trip ... I would have liked to see one in better shape but it is what we got! It left just his coat that had been moved by wild animals during the night.We then headed for the Chic-Chocs trail toward Murdochville. During our climb we were impressed by these snow blades on the trail side A little further, while we were stopped on the trail side to take pictures of the rear view, another "virtual friend" recognized us and came to meet us. It was a pleasure to meet you in person "Je me souviens"While we were talking with him, a little fox appeared in the back sceneryKristine got the Lumix out and made a series of good shots of this little curious When I parked my sled on the side of the Cooper infront a window in Murdochville. A knocking on the glass make us realize our friends Coyote and Jocelyn with whom we did our Chibougamau annual trip 6 years ago were just inside at their table for lunch!!! Another great surprized meeting that put some shine on our trip! After our lunch, we went down the #597 toward south. I stopped for a short break around sixty miles from Murdoch at the spot where the dozer turn around(club change) because I remembered having seen gray jays the last time we went there 4 years ago. Well there were some still there and not fearful at all. they came to get their treat in our hands and stayed there a long time pecking and watching usWe went to sleep at Grande-Riviere and continued to Perce the next day. Seeing the famous Rock is a must in GaspésieAfter Perce we wanted to keep going north but the TQ5 was closed because of a river so we should had to turn back and retrace our steps to take the #597, a pretty big detour. Because we have hard heads, we decided to go to see by ourselves. It was not ideal but very feasible to cross especially north as we did. There was about 6 "of water on the right side. Here seen from the other side toward south direction, it would have been more difficult because the skis could go under the ice and the approach was steeperWe continued toward the north side and went to sleep in Grande-Vallée. There was an annoying high frequency ripple 4 to 6 inches deep on a very large portion of this last segment, we had the feel of riding on a railway.. after several hours it get really tiring. The next day we continued west. Those who already did gaspesia know it: most of the mountainous spectacular scenery is from Mont-Louis to Ste-Anne des Monts and in between Mont-St-Pierre is an icon in this area. The point of view of the hang-glider platform is a classic but I put here some others points of view of this same spot that we like alot And on west side For fun, from this same place Kristine tried a full zoom with the Lumix of the hang gliding platform on the other side: impressive! The trail condition was among the best of the trip in this area up to St-Anne des Monts. I had booked the evening before a cottage in St-Octave de l'Avenir at the Village Grande Nature where we went for the night. Here the view from the auberge on the Chic-shocks mountains with our chalet just down right. The top mountain view was chopped by the cloud line on this pic A different experience in a cottage, relaxing near the wood stove after a sledding day was magicI don't know if they followed us or if we attract them but I saw gray jays on the porch on the next morning! I went out with a bit of lunch and yes they let themselves be tempted once againFor our last day we went west on #TQ5 and then went down south via #591trail and finally took #587 to La Rédemptionon pretty good trail conditions to see the Montagne St-Pierre. Although less spectacular than some other times we had seen it, the frost was present and the scenery very whiten We then went back to Mont-Joli, gave a break to the Yammy in the trailer and passed one last night at Mont Joli Motel. We did the car black trail ride home the next day on Saturday. A trip of a bit more than 1000 miles that went well, the Venture which have now 14500miles act in an exemplary way and my old ADBoivin skid who took a good beating had pass throught without flinching. We would have like more sun, colder weather and better trail conditions but having the chance to ride during an whole week with my best half and a good friend, enjoying the nature beauties in such great area, meeting old friends and making new: I think I'm really blessed, life is good! Alain

Pourvoirie Lavérendrye posted on facebook this morning (march 14th) stating Le Domaine-Val d'Or has been groomed and they will groom every week.

I hope your pension was well funded!

Sucks for you Eddie she put me in Stephenie's cabin😍

I thought there had been a huge sale on rouge!

Hi Alain, Yes we were in Murdochville last Tuesday March 6th at noon! Took gas & had lunch at Hotel Copper! Were you eating at Copper also? Tom

14 March 1c. Stil snowing maybe another 1.5” since last report. Very wet stuff.

Team Vermont....gets it done. Nice run. Benoit is awesome.

We were there sat nite , for the second time this year .She put us in the cabin to the left , looking at the lake . love staying there. Her helper stephenie not shabby to look at either. lol

Parking in Maniwaki Friday riding to Mekoos. We have been watching the weather and recent snow, riding should be ok. Lots of daylight and cool but not below 0 are the best part of March riding.

...and this area (Mt Tremblant, St Agathe , St Donat) has been hurting with all the prior closures , they have been working hard to reroute and try to reconnect those trails so the economy can pick up once again! I was there a few weeks back and there was talks of possibly connecting the 317 in 2019 and also north of St Donat to 63 thru the park once again, the 43 in this area is already disconnected so this is another blow to the area, if you cant ride thru an area the long trippers and saddlebaggers are not going to come to the area!

Just got back from the Spring Run, southern area is closing up shop. Shawinigan and North is still open for business. I'm beat tired, story to follow. GutZ

Cool running Gentleman !! That kind of high daily mileage is nice to see without incorporating the 85 miles of Rail Bed on 93..

We stayed there one night. Decent rooms w/ small kitchens. Weird bar policy, had to pay for each drink right away, no running a tab. Food was just OK for dinner. Spa was real nice though ($20 CAD extra per day to use it though). Ate lunch there a few days later, 2 choices burger or hot dog. They also don't have a cooked breakfast unless there's a large group. If not too many people just a "continental breakfast". As far as I can tell the La Sagueneenee looks good to me for what our group wants.

I understand all the math, just it is a shock to start adding up oil and premium gas, when you never had to buy it. I just spent 196 dollars on oil on a 1 week 1500 mile trip, 200 dollars for oil and another 90 dollar premium for gas. I can afford it, and I do realize when a guy is retired, and can ride a lot, 300 dollars over 4 or 5 weeks of riding is 1500 dollars. Ski-Doo is spending a ton designing their 4 strokes and the return looks good, they are everywhere, the big attraction...cost of operation and reliability. I love my 850, but like Sno Horse says...if you want to play you have to pay...very true!!

Thank you for the update Don.

Great to see you Mike and the Long Island guys too ! We had a blast here. For sure...we got one wild ride home to Maine in this mess today ! We will be back next year without a doubt.

In hopes of saving my reputation, the mouse story has been deleted. I will stick to trail reports. mike

Will do Friday Mekoos Saturday Relais 22 Sunday to Chibougamau Matagami Monday, gonna ride west side till Wednesday then head back. No boycott here.

That fox looks so at ease. Super nice photos.

David and I bought 850 renegade and they are a blast ride. As for oil another friend of mine bought an 850 over replacing his 1200. Now this his words. When he took it to the dealer for an oil change it cost him 160 dollars, his words. Buy a lot of oil for 160. Now for us we put oil in every day and at that time the belt is checked and a general look over. I know people have said they never look under the hood. I believe blowing a belt could be the start of something not good or start something not good. As for gas a good bottle of wine or a few cocktails will match a day of riding and the fresh air is better for you. Go play around in a twin engine boat for a day. Snowmobiling is cheap. And more fun IMO. Be safe everyone.

MR, I need you to write up the night Monker told me to take him riding with me. "F you! You're a stuffed animal!!"... "F you! Take me with you!!"... True story. (And that was WAY before Trudeau made weed legal!)

Mike, I know just what you are saying, I rode a Yamaha vector, 3 cylinder 1000, 10 k miles, all in Quebec...and changed the oil 3 times, never changed the belt, spark plugs, or for that matter ..anything, track still looks new and the sled does not have a single scratch anywhere, but it is 14 years old and probably just broke in!! Now I have a 2018 back country 850....a ton of fun...but premium fuel, less gas mileage....and a quart of oil every tank and a quarter, probably never be anywhere near as dependable...but it is fun to ride and I love the Linq system. I hear you about the cost of operation and we all know, but never talk about how much they depreciate. Other than the members of this forum most of us could not give our sleds away to someone else.I will never tell my wife how much this thing costs to run, but i will tell you that 1500 miles in Cote Nord 2 weeks ago was ....PRICELESS!!

And stay at the Delta your first and last night!

Eating those “special” brownies ??

Apparently there are too many mouse lovers on QR or my writing skills and story telling are pretty bad. All mouse tales have been deleted. Thanks for the honest feedback. I will stick with trail reports only. mike

hi northbound !!! forgot about lackey ......maybe jones you re talking about is mike jones from pa...saw that guy a few times in pq .. in 85 when i went to binghamton ,ny ...took pics of broc glover ( yamaha )...with a 8.95 $$ camera ....sent them to yamaha in california...replied to me a few months later..he was gone in europe for sx races !!! few pics from canadian riders ...back in the 80's and 90's !!! i was at the clubhouse before noon.....rain ...snow...windy right now...still grey sky !!! jean-guy

Nice report and pics. like usual , too bad about bumpy trails but i hope u enjoyed the week off with your partners. I was off to mt. laurier and further north for 3 days last week and the trails were groomed smooth as u could ask for , good snow but not much sunshine.. u can't have everything..

Very, very nice. This is why we go snowmobiling. The scenery and the friendship says it all. Thanks. It is always a pleasure to read your posts. Jack & Sandi

oui monsieur !!!

Nice pics! Your wife's a trooper, riding buddy wants to take his wife. We just got back last night as wanted to beat the storm at home in Massachusetts.

Great trip and pics Alain, only 14500 on the venture, not even half done!!

very nice.

Nice pictures and report. Thank you for sharing.

Wow wow wow! And you're quite the Jay-whisperer! Thanks for sharing!

Great ride summary. The zoom on that camera is impressive, the picture of the hang glider buildings from the other side tells the tail.

Nice ride and pics Alain, the Gaspe is le creme de la creme.

Thanks for sharing Alain & Krikri. Great report & awesome pictures! We rode the Gaspesie last week also. Might have passed you guys on the trails! Warm weather, too many sleds, not enough grooming equals a definite workout eh? Best, Tom

Towing, Great pictures, and it sounded like a great trip, even with the trail "texture". Thank you for sharing and have a good summer Jeff and Sandy

awesome pics alain and kristine !!! nice ones of the fox and the deer !!! jean-guy

Amazing pictures

Great Pictures, I especially like the fox!

Hi Alain, Wow some really beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing them with us. Tell the photographer merci beaucoup. Your reports are always a joy to read. I know what you mean about the warm weather. I road my trip wearing glove liners but for 1 day. While its not always possible to have a perfect trip we are glad you came home feeling blessed. Best Jim & Gemma

Yes Jack, wish we were piling into the truck in a few minutes and going to the Levesque to eat duck. mike