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Another mild morning. Lets head to Onatchiway. Get up in elevation and maybe stay cooler. Sandi and I are off. Joe is with us along with FarmerOld and Tammy. We cross the two dams and turn right on 134, Pickle Park. Contractors are putting in a new set of power line towers here. We have to keep our eyes open. A lot of equipment. Turn right on 93 and this is a nice straightaway to let the ponies run. Sandi is sure liking her MXZ. At the end of the long straight, here comes a groomer. This was fine but he can groom again if he wants to. Thru St Honore and up to the big intersection with 328. Nice riding now but we are getting a little mist on the shields. Looks like a dark cloud sitting on top of Mt Valin. Straight on 93 and we start climbing. The lower part of 93 is fresh groomed but above the groomer's house isn't. A little rough but it is 93 on the mountain. Left on 267, Bras Louis. The first section is still in the woods like it was a few years ago. Quite a few miles later and we are still in the woods. We should be on the road by now. Keep going Sandi. We have to hit Bras Louis sooner or later. Finally we get to the gate for the Zec. Hmm. More construction here. I see power line towers going up. We are running along the side of Bras Louis. Much better than the trail that was in the woods. The road is being used by the construction equipment. I just looked this power line up on the internet and it is running from the Manic (dams) to the Saguenay sub-station. Ah ha! There were towers being erected by the junction of 83 and local 7 at the sub-station. The drizzle has stopped now and it is turning to snow. Yea! Drizzle is better than freezing rain but snow is the best. A good run up to 477. Look there. The trail that would continue on and join back with 93 is closed. That must be due to the power line towers. Make note: No trail connector that runs over to Auberge 31. Snowing pretty good now. A couple of tracks on the trail that Sandi can follow. Must be four or five inches on the trail. Are we having fun now? Sandi is blazing on. Trail 477 is where it has been. No changes here. No traffic either. The dust is flying as the five of us roll along. We pull into Onatchiway. A few sleds here. Put on the masks and we go in. I appreciate being able to sit somewhere at noon now. The simple things. After lunch we are heading south on 267. The snow has stopped now but there is a good coating on the trail. Go Sandi we are right behind you. An hour or so and we are on 328 and then in a blink we pull in to the gas station in St David. Always a good place to fill up. Easy in and easy out. Back on 328 west. All nicely groomed. A few oncoming sleds. It is warm still. The trail has a mashed potato feel to it. Thru the big fields and we turn left on 93. The detour for 93 is so smooth. Go go go! St Ambroise, then 367 to cross the dams. Here in town, the roads are wet from the melting snow. Puddles, mud and snirt. Looks more like March than February. The cold is forecast for cool tonight and cold for next week. A little snow here to cover up the ugly stuff would sure be nice. I know, I'm always asking for something more. OK, I'm happy with what we have. Til tomorrow, be safe. Jack & Sandi

Here's me as a young ladd on my Rupp ...🤪

Day 8: Thursday Feb 10 Woke up to 28°F with 2 inches of fresh powder and snowing lightly. Can’t believe the temperatures we’re having this week! Had breakfast, saddled up the horses and pulled out at 8:30 AM. Took TQ93 & several green & orange local trails & meandered our way counterclockwise around Lac Saint-Jean. Trails were in excellent condition except for the expected TQ93 around Valinouet. Pulled into Hotel du Jardin in Saint-Felicien at 4:00 PM. Temperature was 35°F when we got here! Going to be a big temperature drop tonight so I hope all the groomers get out and make some white asphalt for tomorrow morning! 186 miles

Take the 373 Sweet run

Ridiculous they are still overloading the system with these tests, they must have money to burn.

Crossed the border at Stansted Sunday on sleds, 3 out of 6 got the random tests. Could not do the online tests on Sunday night for some reason. Monday morning no problem. On to Riviere Du Loup. Very easy back thru the border on sleds on Thursday.

That’s one of New England Bobs stops. Tom and David were there on one trip, Bob got lost again and I think there was a wedding going on that night.

Download the Waze app you'll never get a speeding ticket again!

Snow Miser, the run from Faillon to Motel du Lac is a pretty fast run. Once you get north of Senneterre it is arrow straight. You will be at your destination easily in the early afternoon. You could make the run to Marina Chibougamau from Faillon and be there around dark. The run down to Roberval will be a nice day. Bring gas as Snowmaster already stated. From the gas stop,in Chibougamau to the station in LaDore is 150 miles. Nice place to stay in Roberval is Chateau Roberval. Since you now picked up a day, from Roberval you can stay at one of the unique locations on TQ 83. A short 125ish miles to Pourvoirie Windigo, or about 230 miles to Barrage Gouin. Nice run the next day to Fer a Cheval. Just some food for thought. Enjoy your ride.

I have found out that Bill got hurt again this year, it was at home and he is in the Hospital Recovering. The Rumor I'm starting is JD had him on the Roof with a Shovel, clearing off the Snow..... He slid off and broke his hip, limped uphill to the Hospital by himself, and they have installed a new Bionic one. So if you can, reach out i'm sure he's pissed at himself for not having tied off to the chimney, and will be stuck at home for the rest of the season. Later GutZ

He wouldn't know what to do with them.

So they pick you for a random test and let you travel on and report back to them with the results….. makes no sense…

Should be term limits here just like U.S.!

Bottom of the post is better than a link which folks have to click on to see anything. 😉 The forum is very fussy on the attachments.

IMG_2019.MP4

Chapais clubhouse

Not exactly sure what your asking for a place to stay or just stop and eat. You indicate that your spending the night at the Marina in Chibougamau which I’m sure is fine. Haven’t personally stayed there but know many who have. Lebel-Sur to Chibougamau is pretty much a long straight run with a “whole lotta nothing “ in between. Heading east out of Lebel there is a clubhouse building out about 12-15 miles that’s usually never open. The next thing you will run into is the very small enclave of Miquelon, a very small Native Indian campground. Might not be anyone around but if there are make sure you tell them Chris from NY wishes them all well and that I’m very saddened on Sammy Blacksmiths recent passing. May you always fly with the eagles now my friend. 15 miles or so past Miquelon you will HAVE TO stop at the depanneur in Desmairsville. Nancy has most anything you will need including crazy priced gasoline. It’s a haul from there into the Chapais clubhouse but it’s one you don’t want to miss. One of my favorites. Good food and atmosphere and a lot of locals drive their cars in there. I always stay in Chapais at the Hotel Opemiska (another one of my favs) and know Isabel the owner quite well. while up in Chibougamau try and do the loop trail that circles around the west side of town. Cool trail for sure. your drop down from Chibougamau to Roberval is long (150 miles or so) with no gas this year. Be prepared. And again, literally nothing out there so if you’re in trouble pray that someone else is coming through. And my best advice while doing this whole run is that if anyone in your group has a higher mileage 2 stroke to remember to back off the wick from time to time. That 93 has claimed a lot of engines in its day. 🙂

Hi Gary. All is good, glad you are out enjoying the snow. I still take credit for getting Pat on a Cat lol. Must seem strange not having 30 of us in the Delta lobby having late afternoon happy hour and drinking caribou.

Hi Jack, I will keep riding out of my temporary home in Millinocket, Maine until Canada returns to full normalcy. Been very happy here, good trails and been a good snow season. I still miss RDL. Quite a few QueberRiders coming to Millinocket to start their Maine saddlebag trips. Say hi to Pat and Gary for me. Enjoying reading your posts! mike

Hi Mike, The restaurant at the Delta is Boston Pizza. Same as it has been the past few years. The restaurant is open now. Maybe to half capacity? The hotel isn't full so the restaurant only has a few tables occupied. We ate supper the first night in there. Same type of menu as in the past. Nothing fancy. In the morning there is a small cook station in the corner of the old front restaurant. The chef cooks your order in front of you. This maybe a limited breakfast menu. Breakfast is good. Gary and Pat arrived safely and are here. They are still getting the Cats from Evasion. They have been using Evasion forever and are really pleased with the service. Are you planning any Quebec trips or staying in Maine for this season? RDL is missing its Mayor. ☺️ Warm here again this morning, 28F. Forecast is for a little light snow today. Jack & Sandi

Day 7: Wednesday Feb 9 Woke up with 4 to 6 inches of fresh PowPow overnight & 22*F. Gonna be good lubrication today! Had a fantastic breakfast, loaded up the sleds and pulled out at 8:30 AM. We decided we were going to ride down this side of the Saguenay, take the ferry across and then ride north on the other side. Took 383 to TQ3 then ferry to TQ3 to TQ93 to 252 to Auberge KM31 for the night. Got in at 4:30 PM. With the new snow from last night and lack of grooming last night there were several areas that took some muscle effort to bang thru it. Another excellent day indeed. 214 miles

Its another warm one this morning. A lot of trails were groomed last night. How about Mt Apica? We haven't been there yet. On the sleds and trail 83 it is. The snow is soft today. Groomed but soft. A few tracks ahead of us. Lac Kenogami has been staked. Up and over the mountain. As we get to 23, we see four sleds heading south on 23. Time for a stretch. Sandi turns left and we are on our way. Groomed but a little choppy in the corners. 23 gets a lot of traffic. There is a new fence right next to the trail to keep the animals off of the highway here. Further along there is logging going on and there are logging trucks. Be careful Sandi. 23 is clicking away. A sled parked on the side of the trail. Looks like he is adjusting his helmet or something. Sandi goes by him and then I do. He then pulls out in front of Joe. A half a mile down the trail, Sandi catches up to three other sleds. Ah ha. The guy behind me is part of the three in front of us. We aren't that far from Apica. If he wants to pass, he has opportunities but he is staying behind me. Now we are a group of seven. We pull into Apica and he pulls up and joins the other three. Six other sleds just pulling out heading south. We pull in and park. Time for lunch. It feels good to be able to sit at lunchtime and relax for thirty minutes. So much better than having to eat outside! 😋 After lunch we are on the sleds and heading back up 23. Why is this side so much smoother? Keep going Sandi this is fine. A lot of sleds heading south now. We go by the 368 junction. We go by the 83 junction that we came out of this morning and we are at Presbytiere. There is the big John Deere groomer. A little smile on my face as we go by. Oh! The trail doesn't cross the road and drop down on the lake. It wraps around the building and goes back up into the woods. This was cut this year by the looks of it. The trees are pushed out of the way and a bulldozer has been in here earlier making the trail. Pretty steep as we go back in. Up and around. A mile or so in and I think we are on an old trail. None of this is familiar. Finally this new trail ends up in the field across from the gas station in Hebertville. Time to fill up the sleds. Sandi keeps heading up 23. We get to the intersection on 383 and turn right. Easy sailing here. We get to Relais Grenouille and there are a lot of sleds here. Looks like a typical day at the Green Frog. We drop back down on Lac Kenogami and at the other side we get behind two sleds. They pull up to the intersection with 83 and 383 and wave us on. Thanks but Sandi turns left on 383. I think 83 is going to be rougher so we decided on 383. This is nice. Sandi is rolling along. A few sleds coming the other way. The sun is out and we are cruising. There is the turn off for St Charles. We stay on 383. Not too much longer and we are home. Another nice day in Quebec. The trails are so good. We need to hit the lottery Sandi and stay up here for ten weeks or more. ☺️ Be safe everyone. Jack & Sandi

When it's good ,it's good. Try that trail about 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon heading back down to ST.Raymond and it's ranking will drop for sure.

(Continuation) I'll work on the pics later. You're right Joe. Just before the turn off to Lamarche, there is a long downhill. There must be eight sleds coming up the hill towards us and they are taking up more than their share of the trail. Sandi pulls over to the edge of the trail and oh oh! I'm too close to stop in time. I can't go to her left so I dive right off the side of the trail. Just as I stop, I see Joe's ski tips come up along the left side of me behind Sandi. Just enough room. After the sleds go by, Sandi continues down the hill. I start moving and the sled slides off into the puff. A little throttle. Come on Renegade. You can do it. Don't dig a hole. The sled just barely climbs back up over the berm and onto the trail. Good sled. Then lunch. After lunch, we are on the sleds and continuing on 367 towards L'Ascension. This trail is one of my favorites. Pretty straight, wide, a few rollers and lots of snow dust. Keep going Sandi. We are having fun. Past the dump and across a couple of roads we are at Relais Jos Bonka. Another name change here. It is now called Evasion Peribonka. We pull out of the parking lot and just as we enter the woods, there is a four way intersection. Hmm? To our left are a few tracks and that is not groomed. Straight ahead was groomed a few days ago but no signs. To our right it is signed for St Monique. Lets take the trail towards St Monique the sure thing. This is new. The trail runs right along the side of the road for a few miles. We come to where the trail crosses the road to the right and there is the long straightaway. Now I remember this. It is the trail that goes to St Monique. Maybe the trail back at Evasion Peribonka that went straight was the one to L'Acension? We get to 93 and have plenty of fuel still. Turn left Sandi and head towards St Henri. A little frozen mist on the shield. Oh this isn't fun. No one likes freezing rain. Scrape scrape. Oh I can't see to good. Sandi has slowed down and is more middle of the trail. I'm staying near the right curb like always but can only see the red stakes ahead. Oops! I'm off in the soft stuff. I guess I got a little too far right. Come on Renegade. Keep going. I'm still iced over on the shield but there shouldn't be any obstacles out here. We are in a big field. There back on the trail. For the next hour we are in freezing rain. Slow going and a lot of stops to clean our shields. We get to St Charles and do we take the new 93 back to St Ambroise or? Sandi, go ahead down to St Charles and see what the old river crossing looks like. The warning ferme signs are always up at the river crossing but it has been cold and there are tracks on the river. I go first and aim for the other side where I think the trail continues. No stakes to follow. Just tracks scattered all over. We get to the other side and we hit the right spot. Up the bank and a sharp right turn. Follow the goat path for a short ways and yes, groomer marks. I run along in the lead until we get on 383 and then Sandi takes over. 383 is very nice and better than that, the freezing rain has turned to snow. Yea! Sandi picks up speed and we are back at the Delta in no time. A good ride today other than the freezing rain. It was mild and is forecast to be mild for the next few days. The trails were a little soft from the warmth. Until later - Jack & Sandi

Day 9: Friday Feb 11 Woke up to 5°F and light flurries. Today was a change of plans day. Jim was having problems with his sled intermittently yesterday at higher RPMs as it was surging. Jim & Rob thought it might be a defective fuel pump. We decided it was prudent to head down to Chambord this morning to have it checked out by a Yamaha mechanic. Last nights dinner and today’s breakfast was outstanding! They completely renovated the entire dining room and hired two new chefs. I always liked this stop and it is now better than ever. I know Gary (Scorpionbowl) misses the Chinese buffet dinners here! LOL After breakfast we saddled up the sleds and pulled out at 8:30 AM. Trails are hard packed, smooth and fast. Just like I like them! Got to the Yamaha dealer around 10:30 AM and they pulled Jim’s sled into the shop within 10 minutes! The mechanic thought that it might be water in one of the pressure tubes for the turbo system. He said he had seen it before. And that is exactly what the problem was. There was water in the line that would freeze up and affect the pressure between the relays for the turbo. 90 minutes later we were out of there and decided to take the lake trail shortcut back to the Roberval ice village. After spending a while at the village we continued back north and went to Relais Buttes for a nice lunch. Definitely one of the better relais in all of Quebec. After lunch we cruised around and got gas in La Dore. Got back to Hotel Du Jardin at 4 PM. 146 miles

Dang, gotta respect that Tenacious-B! Can (easily) imagine self-denial of age & agility! Can't (no way) imagine self-ambulating after a dive! Well, hopefully you're reading along, as surely there's YUGE healing vibes being sent your way Sir William!

If Florida-Decaf-Snowman can take & share a photo or two?...

Many years ago we used to stay at the Hotel du Jardin in St Felcien. That was quite nice. While on 93 between Chibougamau and La Dore, you will feel a million miles away from anything but in reality it parallels auto route 167. Something to keep in mind in case of a big emergency. Enjoy the ride. Jack & Sandi

Thanks for the pointers. I'll get it but the techy stuff takes time for me. Trial and error is my usual route. 😄 Jack

Hi, Our group is one day behind you. Great reporting. We had a day of moguls coming thru Auberge 31 on the way to the Delta. Big warm up around here for sure. Tomorrow the plan was to run counter clockwise around St Jean and stay in Roberval. Any suggestions on the loop and what club trails were good? The 50 miles of big bumps from today remind me too much of Maine. Lol Thank you & safe travels. Chuck

Awesome reporting, keep it up.

Nice riding today. Thankfully the groomers caught up.

Doesn't the grooming map turn all purple in one night? Haha

Very nice we were up that way last weekend it was great. Groomer was down in Alagash area that's why so rough. Small town America up there

Thanks snowmaster. I knew there wasn’t a whole lot in between, and it seems less on the map so I was looking for insider info on places along the way and then maybe any knowledge about dinner or drinks around places we were staying. A sidewinder and 900 ace turbo are what’s making the trip. A number of years ago I couldn’t ride with oil anymore on these trips so i made switch. ive seen the post on the fuel on 93 but for some reason thought that was on trail west of chibougamau not east. I sure I will bring another small can and bungee jus in case. Thanks for your advice on chapais and demairsville we will definitely check that out. Any other insight from you or others is much appreciated!

In Pittsburg, NH for February but escaped for a week to Caribou to mix it up. A few photos from Tues & Wednesday. Rode to & from to Two Rivers in Allagash yesterday for a quick bite. 208M R/T, regretfully the trails were hammered. Hopefully, the groomers caught up last night, as they have received a substantial amount of snow late Monday through early Wednesday. When the vax policy changes, honor natural immunity, we will be back in Canada. IMG_0707.MOV http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/0.jpg.c68ac8bf2cb5a62996c885eb47be0747.jpg http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/IMG_0719.jpg.c91bf23f4050c2d50facd2047540616e.jpg http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/IMG_0721.jpg.7154178d7b66039f3a68d771c2ac6360.jpg http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/IMG_0700.jpg.0c83dd53b6cfadda6c2aa517c0e1246b.jpg http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/IMG_0708.jpg.7abd7d22daa908c7dbd52a9dc773d499.jpg http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/IMG_0696.jpg.813c93efaa986a2207e954aa08317602.jpg

Mid March does no good for Quebec this year.

bonjour chris !!! thank you ...very appreciated !!! snowing lightly this morning !!! jean-guy

bonjour playhard !!! yaaaa...i remember that post .... i like the word manicured...not because it was for me....but because ain t coming from a saturday afternoon rider......come from a hi-miler !!! merci monsieur !!! cold morning to manicure the trails...- 34c ...-16c right now... ps: keep in mind that a pic can worth a thousand grosses poutines extra fromage !!! enjoy !!! jean-guy

Found him

besides my own problems with my phone it was pretty easy. nothing to get worried about.