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JG, maybe pair the smoked cheese with Rouge 🍷 Matane to Calton. Trails are very firm, not much fluff. Planned to go down the 591 off 5, but there was a running water crossing, not bad, others had passed, but we didnt feel like having wet feet all day, so we went back to St Luke and took the local trail south. was twisty, but dry. Moose no likey water when snowmobiling :<) Best conditions were around Amqui and Matepedia where there was some loose and fluff on top. Coastal areas are really hard packed, not much fun as they are rutted after a re-freeze. Not bumpy, just nuisance rutted which throws the front end all around. Took the 587 south of Albertville, should have taken 5. 587 is rutted and refrozen, and there seems to be a lot of twisty reroutes compared to past years. Some nice stegches though. Baie Bleue is a great stop. Did not venture out to the beach, maybe next time. For tomorrow, we decided to skip the South Shore to Perce and head for elevation through La Cache, then Chic Chocs to Murdochville. From there we will decide whether to go to Caribou, or stay in Murdochville and add some local bonus miles. Depends on the how quick we get through the Chic Chocs and conditions. Looks like 6-8” snow coming Friday. Too late to help with this trip, but it is needed big time to give the groomers something to work with. Lots of dirt roads starting to become muddy, its going to go away fast.

they ordered a new front bumper for the apollo !!! jean-guy

Always love these late season rides. No crowds, warmer temperatures, and longer days. Sure u have to plan carefully, deal with bare parking lots and roads, but u will be rewarded. Have good carbides, good hyfax, and scratchers, and even better, wheels. I did have carbide problems, but there is no evidence, lol. Drove to Mattawin Friday for the start. Friday night, one other truck and four sleds. Mostly perfect trails 355 to 373 to St Felicien. Saw maybe 6 sleds for a Saturday. Love the new 355 north of lac edouard. Saturday night at du jardin very quiet, 10 others sleds. Sunday, 83 to relais 22. St hedgewedge is totally different, not sure what trails are real on the map, but the orange trail of the last 15 years is gone on both ends. Even with the dead groomer, 83 was good. The start now has trail on the road that the trail used criss cross, so that helped a lot. Once u cross the river, perfect to 22. Two other sleds for Sunday lunch. 22 to wemo was perfect, still seen only 2 sleds. Wemo to turn to Gouin, better than perfect, freshly groomed 24’ wide the whole way, no traffic. Local trail to Gouin was very good. Had the place to ourselves on a Sunday night. Monday, Gouin local trail, unchanged. For some reason the perfectly groomed double wide 83 which had a few sled tracks before us, was regroomed. Took the 369? Thru kanawata via road to repos. No sleds seen yet. Gas at repos at lunchtime was a zoo, probably 20 sleds. Continued on to Lac Tareau. Not sure why I came here again, way over priced and garbage dinner menu, should have stayed at the central. This morning was all perfect, quick 120 miles back to the truck, via 360. Warmed up nice, not a cloud in the sky.

With a little help from my warn winch and a tree.

Lower elevation conditions are definitely thin around RDL and Matane. for example the field before the RDL clubhouse has a go-around since a 100+ yard stretch is all gravel. Or Matane in town the roads have no snow on them. I didnt use scrathers but had thought about it in a few places today. i think the recent weather really packed the trails, there really is no loose snow to groom. Thta would explain the lack of grooming activity on Via or iMoto. On the good side, we saw no whoops all all day, trails were quite nice, not rutted or bumpy, and very little traffic If you have the option to take a route with elevation, or inland it would be a better option. Tomorrow we head to the South shore, to Carlton. Interested to witness conditions which will determine if we need to recalculate and just head for the mountains, or cntinue to Perce the next day. If its thin in Carlton, its probably worse further out on 5 Not many pics today, was overcast all day. Here are a few from Riotel, only 2 other groups of 2-3 Seds here tonight. Not fun getting here on the bare roads, but the wheels make it very tolerable!

Day five, woke to blowing snow, big breakfast. Martine said today was her last day except for a group of ten next week. Thanked her for her hospitality and off we went. The flat light and the blowing snow made it hard to see and sometimes hard to find the trail. Pulled into wemo for gas. The boy's Machine is beeping, battery light flashing and the engine light on. Rode on to just past Halterphcape the sled dies! out with the tow straps and into Parent. Mon Bon Chum luckily had a battery. Off we go again just outside Parent we see our first group of sleds. Turned down 13 to trail 53 limped the sled into 100 lakes. Borrowed batterie charger and off to cabin. New owners have renovated the cabins, two single beds in each room as well as 3 piece renovated bathrooms. A couple of stiff shots and off to dinner. No disrespect to any other place we stayed at but this, by far, was the best meal. Lots of shooters with the locals. Back to the cabin and off to bed.

Early, mid March, no better time to do a quick loop through the Gaspesie. Four of us left Nova Scotia Tuesday morning at 6am, drove the 4 hours to Pointe a la Croix getting there at 9am. (Gained an hour with the time zone change) We took off and headed East toward New Richmond. Trails were fair to good, they were ready for the groomer. Lots of deer on the trails, we had to slow down several times. From New Richmond we traveled the 595 to La Cache, also fair to good trail conditions. The trail from La Cache to Murdochville was better then what we rode so far but that was more because of soft snow. We didn't see much traffic all day till we pulled into The Copper, apparently everyone was there. 225 miles The next morning we pulled out to sunshine and freshly groomed trails...awesome!!! Up to the TQ5 and turned westward, first track from last nights grooming. Stopped at the hang glider lookout above Mont Saint Pierre, then on to Riviere Claude. Trail still perfect, hard, and fast. Stopped at La Martre for gas, there is a new gas stop there, an unattended gas pump. Just like buying something from a vending machine, a great idea! We travelled along smiling and landed at St Paulin just after lunch too early to go for Matane. We turned down the 595 to La Cache for a late lunch, spectacular scenery. A little food and beverage an back up the 595 to St Paulin and on to Matane in about 20 minutes after dark. 300 miles. Day three another beautiful sunny day, freshly groomed again...gotta love it!! Took the 591 south through Sayabec to the 587 then up to the Mummy trees before Redemption, could see forever! Trails from there led us to Albertville and Groomers clubhouse. We were eating and hydrating and low and behold in comes Linda, Groomer, and their group out on a sled tour. We chatted for a bit and headed out on the 587 south, Groomer and Linda were heading in the same direction soon after us. Part way through we took a local trail to a very cool look out at L' Ascension de Patapedia. We got back on the 587 again went a short ways and caught up Groomer and company again. We waved and sailed on only to have them catch up to us again we we were going off trail to get around a log truck parked in the middle of the trail. From there on to the truck and headed to Nova with about 725 miles for the trip

Any guesses as to what burnt. Maybe another team gutz project??? Sorry Don, I just had too. LoL

Great news for Gaspesie riders. The small family gas station in La Martre closed a couple years back, that made for a long stretch on the north shore without easy gas access. Earlier this week when going by we stopped there just because the signs and even the map indicated gas was available. There is an unattended public gas pump on the trail side of the road. It is right about where you would have crossed the pavement to get to the old station. The pump work with credit cards, I am not sure about debit. Very slick, slip the card in, enter estimated $$$, pin number, select regular or premium, squeeze the noozle, too easy. A very novel idea, could be the answer for small communities that can't support a regular gas station. Sorry forgot to take a picture.

Brad, Mark and I arrived at RDL Saturday afternoon to begin a 5 day ride. Universal is hopping as always. Interestingly there was a security guard hanging out in the lobby, and a couple orange vest guys in the parking area, had not seen either in past years. Dinner buffet was good, quick and easy. So far the planned route is: Ride out of RDL Sunday the17th to Matane Riotel. Carlton, Baie Bleue. Perce, Table Roland (or zip up an extra 80 miles to Caribou?). St Anne, Brunante. via Murdochville and through Mt St Pierre. Matane, Riotel. With a dip down and back on the 595 to La Cache, a favorite valley trail for sure Finish back at RDL We may skip the Chic Chocs trail, but will pass through and stay at many of the usual favorites. Stay tuned

Last Thursday morning Coyote and I left Sweet Baby St. Ray headed north to L'Anse St. Jean. Stayed at chalets sur le fjord, great meal at Chez Montagner. 250 miles by way of 23 368 383. Bill's trail was in tip top shape. Friday we went east and crossed in Tadoussac had lunch at the white birch clubhouse in Les Escoumins. The Pelchat did not disappoint, stopped at the chapple for a mandatory caffeine and chocolate fuel up at the zoo, a splash of fuel at Onatchaway and in for the night at Mont Vilain. 260 miles by way of 383 3 Pelchat 252 251 93 267 476 484. Saturday morning we headed west to Milot, north to Lac Eden back south to Dolbeau and La Dore, ending at the Nordic in Chibaugamou. The rally was in town that night, lot of cool vintage sleds running around. We had a good meal at the Royal pub. 300 miles by way of 373 local 93 Sunday we headed west to Senneterre staying at Faillon. The first 3 days had been hard packed fresh groomed, things were about to change. Once we got to Quevillon the snow started. After lunch in Senneterre the trail had a few inches of fluff, by the time we arrived Faillon we had declared it a powder day. Another great meal that night. 300 miles by way of 93 and 83. Monday morning we woke up to a fluffy blanket of fresh powder covering our sleds. The Coyote had the wisdom to hook up with the a couple guys from the Lake George area. This turned out to be the greatest idea yet, turns out we are all headed to Kanawata for the night. The open areas west of Clova were fun to play in after the Fire Chief, Coup and Coyote had plowed a path for my heavier 4 stroke. 250 miles by way of 83 345. Tuesday morning we continued southeast back to the truck at the Roquemont. We met the groomer just north of the Repos, perfect. The only segment of the trip that concerned me with trail quality due to high traffic south of the Repos was fresh. We parted ways with The Fire Chief and Coup at the intersection of 345 and 360. It was a classic moment in the woods that I think will be remembered by all 4 of us for some time. I enjoyed meeting fellow QR members and spending 2 days swapping stories about our shared passion for snowmobiling in Quebec. 250 miles by way of 345 360 M19 23 73 1627 miles was my final tally.

lol yeah i know ,you know you have it bad when winters not even over and your planning next year already.

Either that or someone dropped an Arctic cat motor in it without you knowing and the horsepower increase was to much for the clutching.... ;)

I thought I was planning too early, LOL GutZ

Just got back last night trails are in great shape groomed and hard as concrete. There is tons of snow. Parking Lots and roads are bare. I would be tempted to run down to the 351 is the gas pipeline it is straight and fast.

Nope the car ferry lost and found dept.

That's What Google Translate said? Point, click and it translated it! LOL GutZ

Are those tires Trophies ? GutZ

You know it's the right direction if you like gambling and don't mind getting into hot water!

Glad you had a good experience at Coupee..no theft...etc...Their rooms are awesome....wife and I stayed there a lot....turbo showers and hot tubs.

16,000 miles on a 2 stroke is a ticking time bomb! Not worth taking the chance grenading 800 miles away from the truck. No thank you!

First time we'd seen her since cannabis was legalized?

The rock wall is in a church that has been repurposed into a community center in the the town of St. Stanislas, between Milot and Girardville. The place is called restaurant au Clocher. http://st-stanislas.com/restaurant

Hi Steven, Its a nice spot. There is one long stairway down to the river!! I noticed a section of 587 was rerouted onto the local. The gas station only has regular (for the 91 users).

I coulda sworn Gutz said that means rub my belly?!

That is completely unacceptable that you haven’t received your poutine yet instead of discovering self service gas stations a certain “mod” should have been wining and dining the gaspesie’s premier trail surfacer operator 😂

Keep on subject....there is gas in La Martre now, this is not about age!!

Yes that would only be topped a a rouge vin dispenser 🤪

It's a few weeks old at the end of february, Snowcruiser and us lately improvise a 2 days ride from Champlain(east from Trois-Rivières) to Lac-Bouchette round trip. I had taken few video shots but had miss time to do something with them, which I finally did this week. As usual, better viewed on large screen at 1080p with the sound cranked up a bit... beer and popcorn optionnal! Alain

Great video! Gonna watch that in mid summer when its 90 degrees out. Thanks Alain.

Day four, woke up to a little rain recalculate, recalculate, recalculate. Left Auberge Éva around 11:30, up 83 as Far East as we are going to go, turned left on 83 to St Hedwidge for gas on to relay 22. Light rain, thank god for high windshields and Rainex on our shields. Arrived at relay 22 for lunch and gas then off to Windago where the hospitality is next to none. Lots of beers, lots of wine and off to bed.

This years adventure takes us again, out of the QR territories. We are currently waiting for the ferry to Port au basque Newfoundland. Our scheduled 5 hour ferry ride last night was cancelled from North Sydney NS. But we are on for a 2 pm departure today. Arriving in NL tonight around 7pm .. hopefully! This will not be a high miler run but we are looking forward to lots of snow, great views and lots of good conversations. There are 10 of us and we will be covering the north eastern tip of NL, from Deer Lake, and north. Happy hour in the trailer last night waiting for the ferry was the high light last night after an 11 hour drive! A blue sky day today is in order for the sail! Happy trails RR

You're exactly right I have a piece of plywood bolted to the frame and the Tupperware is screwed on the bungee cord is to keep the lid works great . Patent pending 😁

RoadRunner, lot of Quebec Riders post all kinds of great,helpful , and interesting thinks here that we all like, but what you have posted here is way over the top, incredible to say the least, YOU HAVE NOT WON THE DAY...YOU WON THE YEAR!! Many thanks, Bob.

Groomer, we have all lived life in the Gaspe thru your pics so being able to share a few from our trip was fun. On this trip we had a great photographer with us, Josh Bingle, from Lab City. He had done a few of the drone shots that I had posted earlier. He is going thru his camera files now, what a difference a nice camera makes! We have talked about how open and barren the Long Range Mountain highlands is. These pics.from Josh... on a blue sky day!😁.... depict how wide open it is. Also, we saw lots of Moose and many more fresh signs. Those of us from Maine found it interesting that the Moose In Labrador came from Maine. They were introduced in 1906 to Labrador. They have flourished since!

It's been a long time I had not posted new stuff, was busy on the trails!!! Here a small video we catch on our saddlebag trip last week in N.B. It's not big deal for solo riding but we had some challenge two-up loaded for a week trip, especially for my best half that stress on the back seat!!! Alain

Sm and Playhard, well we didn’t get cheated on our adventure ride for sure! Thursday and Friday did not disappoint us😁. Thursday started out so nice but high clouds up in the Long Range mountain highlands in the distance had other plans for us. As many of you saw earlier in the week, The highlands, a few days ago had a beautiful blue sky, and felt very inviting. 😉 As mentioned , We had heard several stories of trouble and tragedy in these highlands all week. Well we got taste of just how wild it can get. By mid morning our clear view morning ...had changed into a slow crawl, dirty visibility and several dig outs of drifts as we crawled our way up into the highlands. Wow we still got a long ways of to go! This is what its like when the weather goes bad😉 , This is going to be slow going! Just before noon we decided this is not going to work! We had just got to a rough shelter about half way in. This looks like our chalet for the night! 😊 As we settled into our very.........rustic accommodations, some gathered fire wood , others water, an inventory of overnight supplies started popping out on the rustic picnic table in the shelter. A wood stove provided heat, but that was about it. The wind howled all night, but by 3:30 am it seemed like we had a window of opportunity and visibility was better, but we had 10 sleds buried in snow and we needed to get rolling. With winds forecasted to pick back up to levels we experienced yesterday, we knew we had a a narrow window. Robert Gardner and Dixon Clements, both Cain’s Quest Champ’s and old pros at these types of riding conditions , gathered the troops and said well...it’s now ...or ....we most likely will be here another day. So at 4:40am, sleds are all running and we are heading down out of the range, at a crawl. 3 hours later, and 35 miles under our belt, we dropped down into the tree line. Lots of stories and laughs to share, but also a reality of just how quick things can change in the high country! It’s always an adventure. With 10 experienced riders it was awesome to see all the safety and overnight equipment pop out of everyone’s bags. Multiple Garmin in reaches, Spot tracker devices, food, food lines for hanging gear to dry, fire starting equipment, jet boils, tarps, ect. You guys get it because we all tend to carry those items whether adventure riding or groomed trail riding, and at times thinking, wow, do I really need this stuff? Well yes, on occasion you do! The other neat observation was to observe your riding partners under challenging conditions. This group all remained calm and focused. Good attributes for any type of ride, especially when conditions change. As mentioned a few days ago, we had planned to get into the Gross Morne Park, but do “unforeseen circumstances” we ran out of time!! We did get to see territory and ride a regions that even many locals have never done. We catch the evening ferry back to NS tonight. We will be back to the Rock again! This has been another great adventure ride. And many more things to see and experience here! Happy Trails! RR

You could always do what I did in a pinch, grab 2 empty washer fluid gallon jug's from a gas station and fill them with gas, keep them on your running boards after 15 miles pour 1 in and in another 15 miles pour in the other. Kind of crude but better than walking

Hats off to your troupe! Make mine GT's! (groomed trails) Like many others here, I LOVE riding with you guys, from my couch!

Beautiful place, reading your post is motivation to plan a return trip!

Mike, we all ride with a group of snowmobile friends that we have met over the years. What’s amazing is these guys are from all over New England, Quebec, Labrador and now, Newfoundland. The areas we love to ride. The circle just keeps getting bigger! So when something happens on you ride in a region, they have friends who have friends to help out, share history ect. It really is the connections of people that makes it interesting. Not unlike the sharing of stories and adventures here on QR. Riding along yesterday, I said what is different here in a Newfoundland’s the other areas we ride? Some of the things that popped out. You get big woods roads, (some groomed!) high mountain plains, coastal barrens, snow bowls to play on, gorgeous views, very low traffic count . Plus at no given time are you more than 80 or 100 miles from an outfitter or Community that have great people living there. Its not that you don’t find many of these features riding the Gaspe or other regions in Quebec, it just seems all these features are so close , large and yet condensed in a relatively small region here, but as your riding, it seems like no mans land! We love adventure riding and this is a great model for it. Kind of like every type of riding that there is. We will be back here for another tour for sure! Happy trails RR Happy Trails

We have been so appreciative of everyone helping out, today’s breakdown in Main Brook was an example, everyone chips in to find the means to get you parts, a shop and back going. As mentioned before it’s a way of life in a tough land. Today we visited a memorial, this was of a snowmobiler who was not as fortunate in a bad storm. He was found huddled around this rock on the barrens outside of St Anthony. He was not able to get help in time!

The days just keep repeating in such a nice way! A tour of two former communities that its residents were resettled into St Anthony back in the 1950’s were on the docket today. One was Ireland Bite and the other was Lock Cove. You got a real good feeling of what life was like in all these communities before roads. St Anthony got a highway in the 1960’s! These communities had a history of being isolated. Than we headed to Hawkes Bay, but not without a mechanical issue again today. We had a clutch roller fail near Cold Brook, but got we fixed it in locals garage in Main Brook. Just a two hour delay, very lucky to find a used part in This small community! After that we rode many miles on the Muskrat Falls hydro line. Ironically it’s the same line in Newfoundland that we ran last year in Labrador, on this very day ladt year on our white road run. Crazy coincidences. A windy but blue sky today, Tomorrow we head for the Gros Morne National Park. Hoping for a blue sky day for this scenery! Happy trail RR

Trailblazer, the ice did have a sweet taste , different than just the crown??😁 Today we had a run to St Anthony. Lots of polar bear and Ice berg sightings here over the years. A Polar bear passed thru town just a few days ago. A flat light day today made for limited scenery shots, but still a good run. A mechanical issue due to a rider finding a drift at an unreasonable speed caused us to focus on repairs. A few good contacts here got us fixed and we are ready to head south to Hawkes Bay tomorrow. Last year the school was locked down because a Polar bear was hanging around town! More happy trails tomorrow!

Many of you have commented on the Western side, and as you can see the eastern region we have run so far had a much more dense snow pack in many places. We will be working our way down the Western side later this week, We hope to have good weather for the scenery and strong backs for the powder! Here are a couple of drone shots , one in Harbor Deep and one in the highlands of the Long Range mountains. Also Norm from Boughwiffin lodge dropped us off some 2000 year plus iceberg ice last night. That made the Crown Royal taste very special!

The scenery rivals the White road, Labrador and what we have seen in Alaska. Definitely this is something to put on your to do list!

Our second day consisted of our self guided run up the Souflette river system into the Long Range Mountain highlands. The highlands are really something to experience and respect. You do not want to get caught out here in a storm system. A local lost his life here a few weeks ago while out in these highlands during bad weather ! . There is no shelter or land marks to go by. You must trust your gps or don’t go! We headed to the outfitter Boughwiffins on the Cloud river. Let me just say that both the outfitter at Harbor Deep and Cloud river are first class, if you want to come here , they will take care you. we have their contact if anyone is interested. Gray weather is forecasted for the next few days so, we will have not the scenery, still a great time. Happy trails RR

We have been out for three days now and yes this is Newfoundland. Our run into the Northern peninsular has given us spectacular scenery but been a bit light on the WiFi access LOL. This is was our first day back into digital access, which isn’t a totally bad thing! We have had a sensational ride, three days of blue sky weather, and all the locals are saying they have not seen the sun in two months. Wow we got lucky! Our first day was from Deer Lake thru Sops arm into Harbor Deep. You really should do a wiki search on Harbor deep to understand that this was the last community in NFLD to get resettled. An interesting story. Bob and Linda where excellent hosts, we guided ourselves In, but a guide would be recommended for this trip unless your are very comfortable with a gps. Danny Corcoran lodge does have a guide service available for those interested. A few pics of our first day are below!