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Figured I’d post on here in case anyone wants to follow along or is curious of conditions. Trucked up from PA up to Amos at the Amosphere 14hr run but bluebird day made travel easy. Pretty good amount of snow here considering how crappy a year it is grooming map shows lots of activity, so should be some excellent riding. Just doing day trips and big loops each day from Amos might head to Mattagami tomorrow will post report and pics.

Day 2 Tuesday Woke to beautiful cold morning after awesome night at Pouvoirie La Dore. Great stay had great conversation with Owner Stephane super nice guy. Big chalet with four bedrooms nice fun. Terrain here is big i think their territory stretches 20 miles. 18 chalets and big fishing and hunting for bear, moose and caribou. Lake trout and brook trout. 8 miles out trail to TQ93 trail groomed into pouvoirie with small drag but real good. TQ93 has been groomed north he has not returned south. It’s beautiful all the way to local trail to Resto du Chef. Saw 2 sleds north bound direction Chibougamau. Been very little traffic few here and there but very spread out. Bingo that is the plan. Good old fashioned trail bingo. Here in the honey hole. I got all day to go nowhere. Destination St Felicien tonight and we will be in the vincinty all day. And now please stand by for a Public service announcement. Everyone please continue to circulate only on the Blue federal trails as you are now. We thank you all for you continued cooperation in helping us enjoy the other trails privately without undue, unnecessary, excessive traffic. Thank you for the support. Say it with me or even better sing it out loud. B I N G O……B I N G O Up down over back up down over up back around all that. And is awesome. One after the other Please sir may i have another? Yes you can. Late lunch Resto du Chef then then another 80 miles into hotel the BINGO way. Saw Mother Lynx with kitten. On TQ93 west of Lac a Jim. Leisurely strolling together right off side of trail. We will keep on going. One day at a time. Headed for Otis Nature via 373 and some bonus honey hole action. Well oiled machine here. Great bunch of riders. 206 miles of 8/10 to 10/10 all damn day (r.i.p. Big) Corral full and overflowing here at Du Jardin. Hotel full tonight. Ordered dinner from Restaurant Mikes.

Day 2: Left Riotel FYI don’t have to go up the big hill. Go closer to the road around the back of the little brown building and it will take you right up to the road. Everything dry pavement in town, got up to the trail and took 5 East. Mix of good to fair with a few great sections mixed in. The most snow is in the elevations, all the towns are scratchy like late March. First 30 miles from Matane is pretty thin. Staying in Grand Vallee tonight. The deepest snow of the trip is out here, probably from Mont Louis to here. Calling for a warm up Thursday-Friday, we will see

Day 4. today we traveled 180 miles from Baie Comeau to Sept-tiles. Last 125 miles was slot, car fast and smooth. Had about 15 miles of rough stuff 25 miles east of Baie Comeau. Woke up to bright sunshine again this morning. Tomorrow we start heading back on similar route that got us here.

2 hours & 40 min. for me to Temiscamingue-drove there for a one dayer once to break in new motoneige-150 mi. + lunch & drove home!

Brisk -31 when we left Chibougamau this am Didn’t warm up much all day but 93 was carpet all the way to Quevillion 😎

My new SkiDoo gauge shows me going down a waterway and shows red and green buoys. And it keeps beeping telling me to put on my life jacket.

Day 2 Tuesday cold, but mint trails loving it.

Day 1: today went from Amos up to Matagami total miles 253. Great trails the whole way fast running made the miles go by very quickly. Had lunch up there at a nice little restaurant. Met a couple from Ontario heading up to Matagami as well so we all rode up together got to love the snowmobiling community!

Today rode West on 83 to Auberge Presbytere for breakfast. 83 West was awesome. Spent the day just riding 83, 23 and especially 383. Stopped at Relais La Genouille, pretty good sled club. All trials awesome. Unfortunately, when we got back to the Dela it was 35 degrees. Snow getting soft and bare spots worse, Calling for rain on Friday. Not sure I'd rec coming up this weekend. Was 4 days riding worth 2000 miles drive from Pittsburgh? YES. Heading home tomorrow.

Day 5. Today we started our way back to our starting point. It’s going to take four days and another 720 miles to get back. Woke up to 5° below zero and finished the day 25° with sunshine all day. We took a beautiful side trail today to add another 15 miles to the ride so it was 190 miles today. 

Would like to take the GF from Pointe a la Croix-Matane-Baie Comeau- Sept Iles-Godbout-Matane-Relais LaCache-PALC.. You guys are making it sound very doable as far as conditions are concerned. I really like from BC to Sept Iles, it's a great and fun run.

At the last minute I decided to drive to RDL two days ago, on Sunday. Didn't have much hope for great riding, but was going stir crazy sitting around the house. I also heard SkiDoo invited the sled magazine press to Quebec starting Sunday to ride the 2025 sleds. Several years ago they did this same thing and stayed at the Universel in RDL. It was great getting to talk to the factory guys. Turns out (found out today) this time around they went northeast of Montreal. Driving up thru Maine, Jackman actually looked pretty decent. The Chaudierre region of Quebec looked like toast, no riding there. In fact I didn't really see good snow until about 30 miles before RDL. Pulled into RDL seeing bare tar everywhere. Yuck!!! Less than an inch of new snow fell Sunday night. Today I finally decided to unload the sled and take a look around the area. Anyone who has been here knows how big the hotel parking lot seems when it is bare tar. Onto the trail heading for the clubhouse. Snirt, dirt, some ice, and more snirt. This may be a short ride. I remember my January trip here, 1,800 miles of low snow but perfect conditions, except on the last day when the warm up came. Drive by the club house, closed today. Thinking head South and SW. In the blink of an eye, or maybe someone spiked my morning coffee with magic mushrooms, I was in the middle of all out winter, a true winter wonderland. Beautiful packed powder, groomed to perfection, trees coated in white,and what appeared to be a better snow depth than my January trip. Giddy up MXZ baby. Further I got, it appeared this area got half a foot of fluff Sunday night. I did a 100 mile loop that was 5 star riding, every bit as good as the 5 star meal I had last night at Hotel Levesque. Quick meal at Exploreteur Clubhouse. Eventually made my way north to trail 5. The last few miles of trail 5 was much lower snow pack but still really nice except for a couple snirts here and there. Since arriving here, weather forecast changed from a cold week to a gradual warm up starting tomorrow and rain later in the week. Hopefully I can remember to bring my camera on tomorrow's ride. Several groups left for Gaspe in the past few days. Just saw one sled return via flat bed a few minutes ago. mike

Today seemed to stay below the freezing mark making a nice ride today with lots of sunshine. Getting out of town is getting somewhat bad but still doable. Few miles out and things change drastically for the better. I am guessing there are some loops I won't try as those close to the St. Lawrence may or may not be good. And trails around Club Hiboux showed closed. Just sticking to the southerly trails where I know its really nice.

Have a great ride. It is what it is this year you will get into it. Its not all bad. Enjoy!

Rode to KM 31 from the Delta. Again, after second bridge, again much better. 134 to 93 7/10. 93 to Imago Village 9/10. Imago to KM 31 8/10 . Trail to Relais Chappel, the 8KM for km 31 to Chapple seemed liked 80 KM. Totally whooped up. Got gas at Chapelle, but, line for food was 20 deep. Went back to KM 31, got a table and some good food for lunch. The Delta is getting less busy each day. Called for rain on Thursday, amazing but true.

I hate you......hahahahahhaahha! GutZ

Just going to Pabos tonight. Rooms are hard to come by. Not sure why, not many sleds on the trails. We called a couple places last night when we got in for tomorrow and everything in our range was booked. A short ride today will be nice, yesterday was a long day

14 hrs one way…that’s no joke. I am sure you will be rewarded accordingly by the groomers and trail conditions in that neck of the woods. Post some pics of the run to Matagami. It’s been too long since I laid eyes on that west side of 396. Pretty sweet through there as I recall

We’re at the hotel universel they have a parking garage storage cage here too. I’m hoping this little warm up the next few days doesn’t kill the trails leaving town. Riding has been pretty good so far went south today and trail was 80% awesome conditions wise the views were 100%.

Monday Lac Bouchette to Pouvoire La Dore noon departure

Truck to Lac Bouchette to Auberge Eva. Not viable to leave from Shawinigan. Monkey wrench right out of gate, Got 5 strong this run. With snohorse, nhmoose, Mark and Phil. We had complications with the 850etec backcountry. No fire, turned over no go. Recalculate. Tough decision. Got spare bullet in my garage 3 hrs by road 3 hours back. Freeride is there ready to run. Or go for DRC Sport in Alma and try to get in on Monday morning for a diagnosis. Snohorse is adamant we go to dealer and try it. Arrive there in Alma at 7:26 am 2 guys already waiting outside. I go over to talk with them and service manager opens door says we can wait inside but don’t open till 8am. We get acquainted and he assures me he will get us in and looked at. We get in and by 10:15 we are good changed 2 fouled plugs. Truck back to Eva to catch up with NHmoose and crew. Left Eva noon. Icy straight out from Eva but very good. different kind of year this season will keep you honest. Further north we go the better. 355 to 83 to local orange past St Hedgewich. Then local orange to La dore then 93 up to 373 junction then u turn back down 93 to orange to chef then to 93 and to Pouvoirie La Dore. only 5 here tonight private party just for us. Stephane, Cynthia , Alex and Meti. Great gang here. Love it here. get here and encourage them. First year on I motoneige second winter open. Well worth tge stop. Trails very rideable and it’s now or never. Get out or miss out.

Yesterday Sunday February 18, 2024, we rode from St-Michel des Saint to Marineau Mattawin round trip for a 306Kms total After the last weekend thaw(11-12 feb) the south of my area was very thin and some clubs had stop grooming waiting for new snow. It was still possible to start riding from home but we wanted to ride some nice, wide and faster trail so we did a trailer run and dropped at the village of St-Michel des Saints. In St-Michel village it's thin but rideable and we directly reached the Taureau reservoir to take the trail toward auberge Taureau. The ride on the reservoir is rather rough, there was traffic when it was slushy and it refroze like that. If you have the heart strong enough to move between 100 and 200 feet away from the stakes it is very nice and flat and a new path formed there with many tracks but there is an associated risk and I cannot officially recommend it to you, the safe option is close the stakes. The reservoir is not at its lowest yet but must be lowered by a good 25-30 feet already Trail #33 past the Taureau Auberge is a little brownish in the short section that is near the beach but when you enter on the forest road just a little further it is very nice There are some short spots with dirty snow or a few rocks but 95%+ that's it We went around the Taureau reservoir on the west side and continued on #360 towards the east. The trail base was very hard with a thin layer of loose snow and new snow, very fast conditions but icy enough to have to be careful in some curves The Mattawin River has decreased in flow a bit but it hasn't been very cold this year and there are still long sections at clear water We took a break at 440 halt, my prefered break spot. Beautiful view on the river The whole old path of #360 is very nice. When you enter the woods at the height of the old M20 there is some dirt in the snow on some curves but still beautiful overall, the same thing on the fast sections of the detour further on which come to join the edge of the river before the point of view The section in the woods after the viewpoint up to the bridge was a little less beautiful but OK. The bridge was quite dry so we took out the rouskis We left St-Michel at 9:30 a.m. and arrived at Marineau at 12:30 p.m. with 153km on the dreameter We had a very good big meal there, love this place! As luck would have it, I also met a retired work colleague and his wife who I hadn't seen for ten years! they live on the south shore of St-Laurence river and were passing there by car, a great unplanned encounter! We took the same exact route for return, The sun had hidden and it was snowing a little. Here the point of view. We went at the edge of the Taureau dam for a short break and we started it again towards St-Michel We came across the St-Michel dozer which was starting its grooming run a few kms north of the Taureau Auberge. I have to take my hat off to these snowmobile clubs, in this case St-Michel and Mattawin who work hard and do miracles with the little snow they have to give us beautiful trails... Thank you!!! And we were back to the trailer around 4:45 p.m. with 306km for the ride, very happy with our run. It had a bit of new snow yesterday there and at home as well, and even a bit more in Mauricie where my partner Snowcruiser told me around 6 inches of new stuff. We would need more than that to optimize all the trails but at least it help to greenish the trail map on Imotoneige! We were hoping for better at mid february but it's hard to argue with mother nature! We still hope for more snow and cold but in the mean time the groomers do miracles with what they have and it's still possible to do some great sledding. My video camera cooperated very well during the ride and I should be able to post some video footage from this ride soon. Alain

Yes the camaraderie and Canadian hospitality is like no other sport ...a few weeks on the trail always feels like coming home for the holidays

Should get the turn signals to work too. lol

Was a great ride last week, not as cold but trail was great.

Through Tadoussac on thurs and back again on Sunday , stayed at the Chantmartin . No snow from hotel down to ferry but rest was all good . Excellent trails right up to Baie Comeau.

Looking sweet! Enjoy & thanks for sharing.

Day 1, word of the day….Thin! Got 2” overnight made it nice leaving RDL. Never seen it so thin here in February. Trails pretty smooth, not enough snow to be rough. Snirt is gone with the fresh snow. Get out of town and take 5 East. Rimouski Club says stay on 5 for best conditions. Hasn’t been our experience but let’s try it. Away from town coverage not bad. Once we get to Trois Pistoles it’s actually pretty nice. Continue on 5 to the 35 outside of Rimouski. Traffic is light all day groomers are doing their thing. Meet back up with 5 East to 587 short cut to 5 at Padoue. Took the 5 all the way to Matane to the Riotel. Very scratchy in town, basically blacktop and dirt.

Day 3. Escoumins to Baie Comeau. 175 miles. Another sunshine day made for mild temperatures in the high teens. Trails were very good, except for about 30 miles, which were OK, but had chop in all the turns.The building by the water in the last picture is our hotel for the night. Le Manior

Today we started a eight day 1500 mile saddlebag trip with Myself, Eric, Ken, Dan, Randy, and Kurt .Started in Saint Raymond and on to Sept-Iles. First 10 miles was snirt but not real bad. Got much better after that. All the way to Mount Apica. Rough for 20 miles after their then Pretty good almost all the way to the Delta. Was not bad getting into the Delta with wheels on the skis. 185 miles for the day.

It was an awesome ride and great meeting you and riding together hopefully we will cross paths again !!

Was the side trail the loop between Godbout and Baie Comeau? Orange trail?

Thanks for posting. Glad you had a good day.

You should be fine if it’s only a day or so of warm up

Dragon, as others have said here PLEASE keep us posted with as many reports and pics as you can. Have many fond memories of the 396 trail and have spent quite a few memorable moments at the Matagami club shack over the years. Had an 800 blow up back in 2013 right in the middle of the west side trail. That was a memorable day. I prefer the east side trail by far but both are good. When your heading north from Amos you will pass a small Native village "Pikogan" which you can barely see through the ding weeds. On the left side of the trail up on the hill they have a mini ski slope thing that they use for the kids to inner-tube down. If they are out there dont hesitate to stop and take a tube down the hill. Its a blast !!!!

I consider myself very lucky, 4hrs exactly from home to the Gaspesie.

💪That's what it takes. I hope you can enjoy some good riding. It would be a little less for me from Southern Maine. 640 miles. 12 hours and six minutes according to our friend google.

West is best. enjoy it. Love the commitment 14hrs no joke. That is lots of black trail.

Nautical Depth Maps from the SeaDoo Lineup! GutZ

Thanks for the Report Mike heading to RDL Saturday hopefully it will stay Glued together for me??!!🤞🤞

Embedded maps, but are they trail maps?

cha-cha-chilly! GutZ

funny think every now and then seen 850 etech foul a plug...haven't seen 2 at once...trying to index the gap so it points towards the injector was a service tip early on...but never found a us dealer with the index washers....plugs use to be 5 minutes...now next to impossible on the trail without a little knowledge and the right tools...hopefully that is your last problem.

Wow we must have been right behind you. I think I seen your sleds at onatchiway. We got there around 2:30 you don’t see many lynx around so I notice them maybe it wasn’t you though. We did the same stops and similar route too. The route we took…..left Alma headed north on 23 to 93 east, up local 554? and then east on 328, up 476 stopped at the cave (thank you for the above posted directions that helped) we got lunch and gas at onatchiway. From lunch we headed west on 373 stopped at that warming teepee, think we took local 900 to get back 93 not sure the trail was so good I wasn’t really paying attention lol. 93 had a ridiculously long straight rip down the powerlines I thought was never going to end. Then it was back over toward Alma. Leaving Alma wasn’t great but rideable. Everything up to the cave was good snow just bumpy needed grooming. The highlight of the day was definitely 373 trail was smooth and fast very fun we even ran into the groomer on it.

Thanks, I got a reply back that 90% of the white trail is still closed. So on to plan B I guess.

This is the year of the triangles 😧