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Here is my traditional photo report from Sunday, March 17, 2019 ride The last thaw was mainly Thursday and Friday of last week but the weather stayed mild on Saturday so that the snowmobiles clubs have only been able to groom in the Saturday to Sunday night , so we stayed at home Saturday to not wear the trail base and catch up on Sunday with this big nice loop of 300miles that we did in reverse side from last time we did earlier this season. My snowmobile club (Carcamp Berthierville) had groomed overnight . It gave beautiful hard and very fast trails , I lowered the scratchers for safety. Here some pics near home in St-Thomas de Joliette The thaw did not really reduce the snow cover which is very generous this year, just packed down a bit in the south of the area. To my knowledge a single river ice bridge in Berthierville on # 3trail (not on this ride path) have been damaged and it can be easily cross by the car bridge just few meter aside. Here in St-Félix de Valois And this pic on the old railway of St-Cléophas de Brandon. The club of St-Gabriel Brandon had not regroomed it since the thaw, probably just before because it was flat as a pool table...but not much loose snow. A blast to ride with the scratchers down! North from St-Gabriel had been done recently and it was top notch At the hut on the top of St-Damien's hill, agents I knew were doing some trail pass checking and we stopped talking a little Once in the mountains the snow texture changed and from there it was still full winter conditions. The trail section around the Réal Massé area maintained by the Saint-Charles snowmobile club had not been re-groomed and was pretty rough. Need to see a groomer there... Here near #23/#350 trails junction The Cabanon(Royaume snowmobile club) had not been able to groom the #23 south of the Cabanon, one of their dozer had broken down in the Mastigouche reserve area and could not complete its run. Despite some holes it still ride well, We stopped to refuel and eat early at Cabanon. Lot of snow there... We then left in north direction toward Mauricie trail #345 was nice and fast Only one ice accumulation which we already had a good part of the season We chose to go through the Mattawin River Bridge instead of the dam The bridge We joined the #360 that we took to the east. Again very beautiful and fast One of the only break we took at #440 halt area and continue The dirty car road in front ruin a bit the usual view on the river at this spot. One short muddy spot just before the bridge of the St-Maurice River We did a quick gaz stop near Marineau, and continue Instead of going by the St-Maurice river as we usually do, we continued the # 360 to get the # 23 to St-Tite. I was expecting the river to be slushy and I preferred to limit our mileage on it When joining the #23 trail there is a bit of road side to do. It was rather icy but doable. The ice bridge on la rivière des envies is still in shape. My Kristine just photographed the sign but the dozer pushed a good amount of snow over it and the water is still far from the trail We continued on the # 23 Up to the St-Maurice River near Grand-Mère. obviously very hard with some frozen slush spots We then joined the #3 trail in Iceman's playground for the return to the west. Here close to Mont Carmel We crossed again the St-Maurice river at La Gabelle. Very nice and no slush We took our 2nd afternoon break when refueling at St-Étienne des Grès and left at around 5:30 pm. The #3 and the #63 on the return were all particularly nice, very hard and fast: My yammy made some nice music on this back ride! We finally been home around 7:00 pm with 301miles on the venture dreameter. All the trails even those so south in the area where still in great shape. So still a nice snow cover in my area with good trails conditions overall. On the other hand, season's time is running out and we have already passed mid-March: we have to admit that we do not have much time left in front of us, the season is already well advanced so hurry to enjoy it before it ends !!! Snowmobilecountry web site is always a good place to have the status/details on the Lanaudière/Mauricie trails : https://www.snowmobilecountry.ca/en/conditions/ The end of season rides, often the best conditions of the year ... Alain

Left Baie Bleue, 595 toward LaCache was a rip, beautiful trail. Had plenty of gas so we didn't stop at La Cache. Was overcast when entering the Chics, but sun peeked out for us on the east end. Glad we didn’t miss that trail. Into Murdochville for gas, soup and ailes. The plan was Caribou, but after talking with the guys from Oneida, it looks like the 8” of snow we were supposed to get friday is now ½” of rain. Their plan was to bolt back to Montmagny early and head home. We recalculated and came to the same conclusion, better to be in the truck driving than riding. So we ended up tonight in Mont St. Anne a day ahead of schedule. Chic Chocs were fluffy, tons of snow at the highest elevations. Mont St Pierre and north shore are really nice conditions, with only a few bare spots starting to show on some hills. Much better than the south shore. Maybe Amqui tomorrow, hopefully have time to ride 5 down and back on JG’s awesome ribbon of white

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.

Could the new bypass trail to reconnect Tremblant with St Faustin and points south be finally a done deal?, looks like it in the Dable et Rouge club FB post a few hrs ago. EH OUI FINALEMENT NOUS L 'AVONS ! Aujourd'hui le 19 mars nous avons recu toutes les autorisations nécessaires pour la réalisation du sentier de raccordement de Mont Tremblant a St Faustin Lac Carré Prochaine étape soumission sur invitation dans la semaine du 25 mars … ouverture des soumissions la semaine du 22 avril …. ensuite suivant la température et la hauteur des eaux dans le ruisseau clair début des travaux A partir d aujourd'hui 19 mars nous somme en mode réalisation….. Bonne fin de saison. They said today they received all the authorizations necessary to realize the connection trail from Tremblant to st Faustin, Lac Carre. next step will be tenders by invitation on the 25th of March and opening them on April 22nd. Then following the temperature and water levels in the rivière Clair, the work starts. Today they are in realization mode.

Day six. Woke up to -12 windy and a light snow. After a big breakfast left 100 Lakes with two batteries fully charged. Down 53 to the 319 two hours into the trip, sled dies. Changed batteries . Had lunch at Sainte-Anne-du-Lac onto The Village De Windigo, but it was Closed and not enough gas to make it to Maniwaki. Off so off To Mount Laurier. 10 km in sled dies again. Changed batteries and get up another 10 km. Pulled out cluster, disconnect it and the head lights. Changed out battery again and it started up and took us all the way to Mount Laurier. Get hotel and spent the night. Wake up to -20 and off to Maniwaki we go. Trails have all been groomed and are as hard as concrete-ice scratcher are a must. Load up and back to Oliphant by 9. Anybody thinking about going sledding, trails are in great shape and lots of snow. Over and Out, The Byrd

bonjour !!! back from the clubhouse ....went to meet nh-moose + 2 friends !!! great to see you again ...thx for the visit !!! and awesome weather for you guys !!! jean-guy

just for fun!!! 1922 and 2019 !!! jean-guy

good morning !!! i misread yesterday morning.... but it happened tonight !!! et walla !!! jean-guy

I hope so as well, there has been so many set backs, and the club has over come each barrier one by one. As I understand it, authorization by the environment minister and all the hoops they put up to jump through as well as getting a deregulation from the ville de Tremblant of at least one of their bylaws were the last things blocking the way before Christmas. Looks like they have those problems solved.

forgot a few.... cold last night ...-25c....-14c right now.... gorgeous day for riding .....blue sky day !!! jean-guy

Headed up Saturday to enjoy some late season ridding. Love your pics and trail info.

Certainly a must have since you and Gemma often travel solo. Way ahead of come along. Good thing you had Jean Guys groomer to hook to! LOL

Years ago I started carrying a come-along. It was laborious but I was happy to have it a few times. Then I saw the warn "snow winch". It was not mounted on the machine. It was rated at 1500 lbs. I had to assist it pulling a few times. I bought a ProVantage 3500 with wireless remote for my 2013 GT. I never got around to mounting it. I had a local fab shop make me receiver brackets for my 2019 GT.

could be interesting to know !!!! back in the 60's and 70's ...they were floating logs on the river !!!right there at the bridge...there was often log jams !!! 10-12 miles up the bridge...there was '' dumps '' for truck to unload logs in the river...few miles from my camp !!! looking at one of the pic....road for the lake ( the one i groom ) not built yet ...can see road is turning hard left ...for lake casault ...remember being there with dad....they were still working with horses...early 70's !!! jean-guy

Finding fresh groomed trails is a problem we all should have!

Very Nice!

Hi Jim, Another great ride report. You know it pretty serious when you wear out a winch...lol

Tons of snow up here, more than we have ever seen in our 8 trips. The clubs have done a great job grooming and keeping the trails open after the snow and wind last week with two exceptions. Started at the Riotel in Matane Sunday. The weather was clear, a sunny blue sky day. The coastal views were great as always. Stayed at Grand Vallee. Great food and friendly people. Trails were a 10. Day two started with a flatbed to the dealer-fouled plugs caused the sled to run through 4x the normal gas and oil. The 5 of us took the TQ5 to meet him. Had our 3rd “never again” experience in that section. The first 30 miles were perfect then the grooming stopped. The next 30 were bad. A few sections were heavily wind blown. Ended the day with a great run on the orange cut through to the 597 to chandler. The trails were in great shape even with the new snow in top. The 597 is a favorite for sure.

Gramps, Thanks for the great report and pics. The 3rd picture of the sunset is awesome. The rest are great, but that one is really something, some times you just hit it right. For years I have been waiting to add the pic of the belvedere in Mont St. Pierre, here's what I saw last March. What a bummer.

5...4...3...2...1...Blast-off! No pics = never happened!

Waited while it passed. 5AB821C6-3655-422E-A3C3-779731C981F1.MOV

Awesome pictures, another clown driving on the trail with a vehicle🤤 Looks like the Moose is slightly spooked walking by with the hair up on his back. But he's got somewhere to go and he'd rather not walk through deep snow LOL Great report, thanks! 👍