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Day 3, Sunday, March 11th 2018, 202 miles. We woke to blue skis and it stopped snowing, yeah! With only 200 miles back to the truck we weren’t in a big rush. Mont Vilian does not start breakfast until 8:00AM, a bit of a pain under normal conditions. All was good with the food and the cabin but the poor to no internet is a show stopper for me. We were expecting the worse as the last 5 miles in was all ice and no fresh snow. As soon as we hooked a left towards Alma we could see they had gotten plenty of snow this last storm. It was perfectly fresh groomed and we were first tracks all the way to Alma! Best I have ever seen these trails. We crossed the bridge, meandered through town and stayed on the 23 all the way into Mont Apica. The trails were in really nice condition and the traffic was not too bad. A few of us grabbed a splash of gas and off the Le Tape for food and gas. I think overall better food and much quicker service. 23 to Le Tape was a tiny bit bumpy in the turns but mostly really nice. The side trail to Le Tape was very good considering the traffic as we got closer. After lunch we grabbed the 369 back to Route 3. I would say the 369 may have been the best I have seen it ever. It’s amazing what a pile of new snow and grooming will do. We did jump on the 304 to avoid the last twisty part of 369 through the mountains. We were dreading Route 3 but it was totally fine for a warmish Sunday afternoon all the way back to the Hotel. High 5’s and hugs all around and a successful 780 mile trip in the books. No sled or rider issues. Gas, oil and go, just the way we like it.

OK, blah blah, no drama, season goes fast, but '18's been a great one. Day One, Thurs 3/15) Kept with a no-trailering trend this year and rode right out of the garage at Moto Thibault in Trois Rivières. Plan was to drive north early enough and get in an afternoon ride to position at the Roq for an early Friday run up to the lake. After sloshing thru the puddles around the industrial park it was groomed all the way door to door. Except the .3mi of lumpy bunny trail coming off the water behind Au Chalet en Bois Rond cuz the groomers can't get in there. No complaints! Need to stretch our legs once in a while right? "Spring forward" and got to St Raymond, gassed up, checked in, and hosed off all all before sundown. Live tunes, excellent chow, & friendly service in the brewery. Truck parking is packed, sled corral is not.

That's hilarious Mike! I wanna try some of your wine the next time we get together.

Pregame ride:

We are 5 riding out of RDl on Monday the 19th, hope to see lots of QR's on the trail......no, wait....this just in.......you should all stay home on your couches because conditions will be all mud, no gas at any of the gas stations, LaCache will be closed, the Rock has sunk, all the surfacers are broken down, Internet and electricity will be down across the peninsula, Groomer will be on vacation in Barbados, views of the Chic Chocs will be horrible due to volcanic activity, Policia will be radaring everyone riding across the muddy fields, a North Korean EMP will render all sled ignition and fuel injection systems useless, Trudeau banned snowmobiles over 2 horsepower, and Trump plans to close the border after we cross on the 18th. Much better to stay home and not risk it ;<)

I gotta retire. Work gets in the way of everything.

We're jealous! The life of the retired snowmobiler looks good. Enjoy the trails and have one on us. Jack & Sandi

200 mile trip looping around easterly. Cold and blustery out and lots of new snow. Like midwinter conditions. Trails amazing, Probably 60 to 70 miles freshly groomed that were NOT on the grooming map at 7:30 this morning. With cold temps forecast for the next several days, riding should be as good as it gets. mike

GuyZ and GalZ The Team just did our final run of the Season *** South and South West of Shawinigan they are pulling up stakes (Literally), North should still be good. 650 Miles 1 Working Rear Suspension Spring 300cc ETEC 1 half working secondary clutch Priceless Memories!!! So we sometimes don't get to branch out to new areas (for us). This last run we were "lets try going West-Ish". I called the Drakkar (Have not been back for a couple years and was not sure what to expect) and got us a room for last Friday and Monday Nights. *** Wow, what a nice rejuvenation of the place. It is not the same Safari Motel with just a coat of paint. Reggie is a great guy too. Rolled in, parked the trailer unloaded the sleds and started packing. Next thing you know Mario, Christine, Frank, Chuck (Newbie) and his wife ride in. We BS for a while and All go across the street to the Pizza Place for Dinner. More BS'ing ensues..... When all of a sudden, in comes IceMan for a quick Meet and Great! (It was nice to finally meet him, got some stickers too) Saturday AM we hit the Gas Station and off to 23 West. (Yes, Saturday....) We saw more traffic on Saturday than we saw all season. It was a beautiful day and the miles rolled on, stopped at La Glacier for a late lunch then up to 63 and Rouge Matiwan (Small Outpost). I told the old guy we were going west to LSJ for the night and asked if it was too much farther.... He almost fell over..... We both had a good laugh. Through the park and down the railtrail towards Mont Laurier. Being that it is Saturday the trail had 30 miles of washboard little bumps. This is when the partially severed air line to the front/ rear shock failed. Little bumpy but bearable. Stayed at the Best Western, nice enough and sled security. Sunday we start off by going up on Devil's Mtn. Great view. On our way back south the left rear spring on the 1200 (2011 with 17000 miles) gave up. We unloaded all the extra weight to the ETEC and Enduro and with 2 inches rear travel and only 200+ miles to go off we went towards Lac Carling. Great day, smooth trailz! (Thanks to the Snow Gods!) Forgot this was Sunday... The small villages roll up the sidewalk at 5 (also time change for DST), including gas stations..... We landed at the hotel and did the happy dance. Who says 1200s cant get good gas mileage, I beat out the 900 ACE and 600 ETEC!!!!! both took gas from the spare tank. Lac Carling was a nice place and seemed to have some nice facilities. The Filet was perfect, room was spacious if not a little dated, Breakfast was a buffet and the staff was very accommodating. Went to start the 1200 and no gas. Maintenance brought us a few gallons of gas and off we went. Monday started with us looking for gas. Route 3 was not really marked and after a couple of loops and back tracking we found gas! The trail markings were just not poorly placed we found someone picking up the markers and sticks a couple miles up the trail. Again another great day! About a 150 miles out of Shawinigan the Secondary Clutch on the ETEC would not close all the way, so it started off in 3rd gear. Trails are SOFT but smooth. About 100 miles out the ETEC looses a coil or plug. Most likely it is from pulling the high gear. CRAP. If we keep above 50 its runs generally well. We roll back in to the Drakkar under our power and no one is being towed. I am beat tired, 400 miles on one working suspension spring. All the weight of the 1200 on the skis, like loosing the power steering on a old truck. A great time was had! Good Night. Later GutZ

Molly and I drove up from Vermont yesterday and landed at Berniers in Levis. Plan is to run two days up the Nord side of the St Lawrence, take the ferry from Godbout, and run two days back on the Sud side. The shuttle picked us up at 8am this morning (asked for earlier pick-up, but 8 was the quickest they offered??) At 8 on the dot our ride across the creek arrived. Out of the gate from Colibri the trails were groomed flat and fast. A layer of ice had formed on the newly groomed trail. We were running first tracks for the first 30 or so miles and loving every bit of it. We eventually caught up to a few 'tour' groups, but they were easily picked off and our pace improved. Ran hard all the way to Relais Le Michelieu where we stopped for fuel and a quick snack. Kept east on the 3 trail and was mostly good for another 65 miles until St Simone where we topped off the tanks. Did see an Iceman sticky on the jct sign before the gas, so I knew we were headed the right way. This is where hell broke loose! The next 45 miles up to the tadoussac ferry were sack smacking, kidney punching miles. Obviously, there is a groomer strike going on in this vicinity. After the ferry, the trail is groomed fresh as far as Sacre Cour, and then the remainder of the ride to Pelchat in Les escoumins is fast, but bumps in every corner. Overall, a pretty good day, but overshadowed by the 45 ass kicking miles! Pulled into Pelchat at 5pm with 261 miles, not bad considering. Plan to be on the trail early headed to the boat in Godbout for the ride across to Matane.

Oh oh!!! I think I smell a 900 turbo tailing the 850. That is such a nice run with lots of regions and diversity in the trail. Great job getting to Gotbout ferry on time and tell Molly there’s nothing wrong with feeding those 🐴 a little, giddy up! 😉 Old man winter hasn’t left the building yet.

Nice run boys. Good timing.

Good to see Mr. Vinner on the trail again ! You gave him the big bore machine on this one. He is moving up nicely.

Wapishish is Accessible from bras Louis and is quite the donkey path into the relais. They have 91 octane, good beer/food and even offer lodging. They mentioned that they hope to be on Quebec map in the next year or two. Sounds like they have been busier this year then in previous years. We stopped their on our way back to valin after riding Cote Nord. We had started that day after a great stay at Chenail Du Nord, and were lucky to have Benoit confirm our handmade Gps track west to Wapishish. It’s worth the adventure and our group would go back again.

No rouge, but was bored at work today and my mind wandered......to Gaspe. Groomer, I think you can groom sand on a beach in the off season......at night, no sunshine ;<) Eric, thanks for breaking the trail so the surfacer s can prep the trails for a proper ride. I’m with Iceman, if my butt is off the seat, something’s wrong. But you got to take some iffy trails to get to the gems sometimes. Thanks Tom, I see you had some great rips this season as well, giving the Yammi some exercise. will start a new thread when we hit the trails Monday happy trails to all

I think i recall Scorpionbowl may have visited there a few years back but, don’t think he slept there.

hey partner...i will be blasting off monday morning from the universal,,on another epic adventure.will be thinking of you guys on this one alot.thanks again tom..all the best to you and yours

Looking good guys. We're following along in our armchairs wishing we were still riding but maybe not in the deep stuff. Jack & Sandi

hi nh-moose !!! hahhaha...you should have known ...i hate sunshine !!! jean-guy

Don’t eat the brown acid. No Bueno.

I’ll be risking it. Leaving Matane Thursday Morning. Thurs night Carleton sur Mer. Friday night Chandler (short day) Saturday night Saint Anne des Monts. Sunday quick run back to Matane.

I found an RV sales/storage facility in Saguenay A. S. Levesque 450-691-5860 ext 3301 Serge LaBelle (large company with many businesses/locations throughout Quebec) that will store a 2 place trailer in their secure RV facility for $375 for SIX months, about 60 CAD/month. You could possible leave your sled/trailers in November and just pick them up when you come up to ride. Than take them home after last ride. Beats hauling if you come 2-3 times/season. You could even fly to Bagotville/QC and rent a SUV to haul them to wherever you're staying.

I am sure this team member was not dooright.. Nice read again !

A nice read guys. Why shouldn't your last ride of the season have a few mechanical issues? You wouldn't have a good story without them! Already thinking about next season. Jack & Sandi

Thanks for putting that back on Mike. Sandi and I had missed it the first time. It is hilarious! Red Monkey? Seems to me I saw that on another post. Hmm! Hopefully you won't be banned from QR. Worse case scenario, maybe Yamaha or Polaris is looking for a new writer for their next year's ad campaign! Jack & Sandi

Day 2, Saturday, March 10th 2018, 212 miles. Did I say the free WIFI worked excellent here at Chenail du Nord! We woke to an additional 6 inches and still lightly snowing. We cleaned the sleds off then headed to breakfast at 7:30. Breakfast was awesome and while we ate Benoit loaded the tracks for the off trail connection to the C-900 Pelchat trail into the GPS’s. He has a new way this year as both of his ways last year have portions that are plowed, sanded and logged this year. We took a few pictures, filled the sleds, spare tank and the windshield washer jugs with gas. One of our team members expressed concerns about the miles, the deep snow, gas and getting stuck so we put him at the back. Move on we must. These are snowmobiles after all and they do go in the snow. We packed our stuff and off we went into the abyss. The snow was deep and no one had ridden this trail since the all the new snow and there was a lot of it. It was fun bombing through the snow on the way to the C-900. For the most part we were the only tracks but in a few sections there were local camp sleds that had broken the trail near them. It was mostly flat with some gentle uphill’s. Benoit said there are (3) separate type of systems you ride through. Doublewide class 4 type roads in the summer for the first part, bigger summer logging roads for the second part, and narrow ATV summer trail type for the 3rd part. All unplowed and full of snow fun. Benoit has it signed pretty well but I would not do it without a GPS. We stopped 20 miles out and emptied the windshield jugs into the sleds that we thought may need them. The 900 would be good and I had 4 gallons onboard that I would need breaking trail most of the way. 15 miles from connecting with the C-900 we started seeing a few huge holes from locals getting stuck and digging out. A few miles later we came on a group of locals stopped and resting from the deep snow challenges. They were headed to Chappell after a morning of fishing and drinking wine they said, good times. We arrived at the C-900 Pelchat trail at 75 miles and to Chappell with 112 miles. Only the last part was groomed wide and nice. We got gas out of their (2) big tanks. I have not been there in awhile so I’m not sure how long they have had them. We went in for lunch and with all of the renovations it is pretty darn nice now. The servers did not disappoint and the food came out faster than McDonalds. We took the lake over to KM31, then a short blast on whooped out 93 to the Brais Louis. The trail was groomed perfect all the way to Onatchaway, super fun. A quick blast on the secondary trails to Mont Vilain with the last 5 miles pretty icy and no new snow here.. The place is redone and more upper class than the old Scooby Raid. We went in to check and Huston we have a problem. They don’t have our reservation. A quick show of the confirmation on the cell phone and they admit they hosed it. Next best option is they set us up in a cabin ¼ mile away, no WIFI and knock $30 off everyone’s price. With no choice really we took it. Off to the cabin to checkin and shower up. Nice place really. Dinner was 5 star for sure. Owner’s and wait staff all supper nice. Terrible WIFI in the lodge, come on folks this is 2018. Early bed time for all as plowing through the new snow was pretty darn tiring.

Day 4. Back to the truck day, ugh. Quick breakfast and on sleds at 8am. The snow has not started yet, but we know we're headed into it. Say our goodbyes to Mike and get last minute short cut directions from him. Take right at top of hill, go through 2 tunnels, then take next 3 lefts, except for one that says 'bar'. Got it, we're good to go, thanks Mike! The two tunnels are interesting.....water flowing and lots of rocks, but heaven meets us on the other side. Trail is very smooth and very fast. Morning starts out with racing cars down the 20, I never lost a single race, lots of fun. Throttles were bent all the way to Tourville relais on the 35. Was a super quick 75 miles and we topped off fuel here. The snow has now started and is coming down heavy. Backed off on the ponies just a touch and ran all the way down to the 547 crossover trail to connect with 5 west. It was about here that our vision went immediately to near zero. The snow was very heavy and the wind in these open fields was whipping. We were literally going red stake to red stake hoping not to end up in a ditch or creek. Encountered many 4-5' drifts as we entered and left stands of timber on fields edges. Had the GPS zoomed in tight and needed it several times to locate the trail. Very slow ride back to Levis and the truck at Berniers. We roll in with 213 miles at 1:30 and hit what is supposed to be the black trail to Vermont. However, storm and roads were brutal for much of the ride home, so a long trip it was. Ended up with 900 plus miles in just over 3.5 days of riding. A great trip with lots of great memories, already thinking about the next run!

Day 3-. Slept in a little as we only had to make it to RDL. Had to get some oil at the Doo shop for Molly's 850, which I still think is burning a lot of it. I have explained the whole flipper pressure / oil consumption ratio to her several times, but she rolls her eyes and says that all the horsies under her hood need to be fed. I cannot win this discussion. After feeding the horses we take 5 to 591 then 597 to get to the deeper snow. All fresh groomed and great running with many feet of snow up here. Make no mistake about it, it's still full on winter in these hills. Jump on 597 and I remember how long and straight these runs are on this trail. The horses are being fed well here. On to 5 for a short time, then 35. Take some orange trails to finish up journey to the Universal in RDL where the mayor Mike comes out to greet us! Pulled in at 3:30 with 215 miles. Have a great dinner with Mike along with a few bottles of nice vino. Trailblazer, we were thinking about you!

Up this morning early to check the grooming map, and it didn't look like we were in for a smooth ride! After a quick waffle and bowl of cereal, we are on the sleds at 6:55am, we need to get to Godbout in time for the boat. Much to our surprise.....the trails are fantastic. Ran off 70 quick miles and pull into Forestville for a splash of fuel. From there all the way to the Club Nord neige Relais bridge we we're first tracks, and met the groomer making his return trip. From there to the big bridge before Baie Comeau, the trail was a little used, but still super fast with minimal bumpage. Rolled into the Ski Doo dealer in Baie comeau to grab some oil for Molly's sled. Had 175 miles already and it was only 11:15! Topped off with fuel again, grabbed a quick snack and headed to Godbout. Have never run this section of trail before, and it was a blast! Nice rollers and some great scenery, and the sky opened up with some blue. Rolled into the parking lot where our yacht awaited us at 2:30 with 237 miles. Enjoying a few cold ones as I type on our journey across to Matane. An absolutely perfect day on the Doos!