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M&M Tours is off. Left Oliphant Sunday March 17th, pulled into the Best Western Premier Hotel Aristocrate in Quebec City around 8 and had a fabulous dinner at the in house restaurant, La Fenouillière. Off Monday morning and checked in to Complexe Hotelier Escoumins then spent 3 hours trying to find places to stay for them next 5-7 days. Rode loops for the first 3 days in a variety of conditions…good, bad & ugly mostly due to the new, wet snow even though the groomers were out. Des Bouleaux Blanc clubhouse is a great stop 40 km from town. Thursday morning rode most the day through storm conditions to the ski village Valinouët and stayed at a local rental house, Auberge du Yeti. Rode up 373 as far as we could then spent the night in a cabin at Auberge 31. A quick lunch at Piste D’or was tasty and the owner was entertaining-he sort of reminded us of Bernard Then back to truck and trailer, 93 did not disappoint-smooth, fast trails. Loaded up and drove to Forestville.

It Snowed in Maine yesterday. Northern and interior areas got quite a bit. I guess a few of the clubs might groom. Here in Southern Maine we got about four inches before it turned to freezing rain. My birch trees got tired and laid down for a nap. The power went out just after 9:30 last night. still out this morning just before 4:30. I am thankful for the stand by generator that I had installed last year. I spent the day yesterday working on my motorcycle. Changing the air filter on my 2018 Honda Goldwing. I thought the previous generation Goldwing was bad. This is worse. A ridiculous process. It was a good day for it. I left a note for the next guy that does it. When I wrote it, I was determined that it would not be me.... Changing The Air Filter on a 2018 Honda Goldwing

I have changed a couple of them for my riding buddies because my hands are smaller and I can. That being said you are correct it is a bear to do, thanks for Fred Harmon’s video. Love the note idea I am going to steal that if you don’t mine. I have a 23 DCT with a Roadsmith trike, great set up other then air filter.

Congratulations! Enjoy, it's a great bike, despite the air filter.🤪

Just completed the purchase of a 2023 Wing yesterday.

Priceless

Hmm...

They arrived at Kuujjuaq at 11:30 last evening just in time for last call at the pub! Maintenance today heading to Wedge Hills Lodge tomorrow.

Too f ing funny

Next up was a bit if grinding, sanding and prep. I found a paint that was recommend as better than the Auto Parts Store Stuff and went to town. http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_03/rr-Pipe-1.thumb.JPG.02d13466303eceffde0ca6ea19aeaa99.JPG http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_03/rr-Pipe-2.thumb.JPG.57f0bf83ad69ebbe8eace49674ba061a.JPG http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_03/rr-pipe-4.thumb.JPG.2d27838ae125f33385aae13155c01330.JPG Packaged it back up in the shields and reattached it to the engine. I feel it was disrupting the pipe harmonics so much that it just would not pull the higher RPMs.... We will see! Now while the chassis has been awaiting a revised motor we discovered that the Rear M-20\Air Ride suspension would not collapse completely, even with no Air in .... What??? This has never happened to me before... LOL. Anyway after loosening and tightening the track more times than I care to count, I was able to determine that the larger 1.5 Lug and 8 inch rear wheel kit were bottoming out on the Top of the tunnel before allowing the suspension to completely compress. Odd since the custom tunnel has a kick up in the rear..... Soooooo... New Drop Brackets... GutZ

BLAST FROM THE PAST!!!!! Well, if no one noticed, this Winter Sucked.... We were able to ride with our good friends but not nearly as much we would have liked ( smiles per miles! ). So with no real damage or changes needed and an early start to the Off Season, I have some time extra time to bring this back from the dead! After working on in the 670+ Engine I could not figure out why it would not REV past 6500 under load..... Engine was out then in, then out, checked case seal, etc.... ( Remember even with NOS it would not REV, and the NOS made it worse ). So I pulled the y-pipe one more time, to look in the cylinders\Exhaust and see if any thing looked a-miss.... Nope.... Even flipping the shocks upside down made it no better. ( Dealership recommended it, they do it on all their New Sled Setups ) Then I disassemble the shielding on the Y-Pipe and found that there was a huge cross shaped crack right at the Y. Like any good idiot would do, I went and bought a welder, watched a YouTube or Two, then proceeded to burn a few holes in my riding lawnmower deck, in the end creating the worst weld seen by man. I did successfully weld the metal together and the lawnmower is ready for the grass... Coming off the high of melting metal together I grabbed the Y-Pipe and made the second worst weld know to man....http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_03/rr-Pipe-3.thumb.JPG.c1c51954a6b9b0dc61bd0c5fb9e4862b.JPG And burnt my thumb.... Pro Tip.... Glowing Metal is Hot, Be Careful.... GutZ

The plan has changed from club today. THE TRAILS OPEN After a few reports and information received, the groomers are in operation today. Some decisions are hard to make, but it's never too late to get back on track. There don't seem to be any fallen trees, and the mandatory signage still seems to be in place. We'll be continuing our field checks today. You'll still need to be vigilant after the resurfacers have passed. We must also give priority to the resurfacer operators and volunteers in the field, as we have several hours of work ahead of us. The conditions will be updated on Imotoneige at the end of the day once we've had reports from the operators. We'll be linking up with St-Eugène and prioritizing north of St-Narcisse, St-Marcellin and Mont-Lebel towards Rimouski. An update Contrary to what some people propagate, the club doesn't save any $$$ when the trails are closed. On the contrary, with the new financing system adopted by the clubs, the more surfacing hours a club does, the more revenue it earns. And we agree with this principle! Please proceed with caution while waiting for the groomer to pass. The river is closed and you must use the footbridge to cross the Rimouski River. Enjoy the ride and thank you for your understanding!

Rouski’s cannot be allowed to slap back, you want them to last need to get off and put wheels up. Not letting them go you do it manually putting them back up. i bought spare springs, i carry them with me for the Rouski’s. Been putting them back up by hand, still carrying those springs to fix the Rouski’s. Haven’t needed them. Have Used wheels alot. I have the Rollerskis on my second 18. Definitely Not as easy to deploy as thr Rouski’s

BRRRRR!

The future wife got into snowmobiling last year and I picked her up a nice used 2017 900 ACE to ride, did about 1,000 miles with her around our home in Maine, so figured it's time to bring her up Nord. Been to the Delta before, nicer than the typical places I stay (Relais 22, my favorite dorm room), but figured it would be the best place to do 200+/- mile loops out of. Looking for anything we should know as I haven't been in the area since my Chibougamau loop in 2019. Planning day one to take her to the "Cave" near Onatchiway, over to the Chappelle for lunch, then back down 93 with a stop at a viewpoint. Day 2 loop the lake south to north (suggestions for lunch and destinations?) Day 3, quick 50-100 mile loop and then hopping in the truck home 5 hours. Open to suggestions for area restaurants (definitely doing La Cage one night) and any other ideas on loops or sights/destinations on the trail I might be missing. Never made it to the frozen waterfall off 93, but she's not super confident off trail yet so not sure I want to do that. Thank you in advance!

I’ll throw another little update in here…..Wednesday went east to syndicat took 328 out and 93 back with a late lunch at chapelle. Mostly good especially coming back had almost fresh groomed the whole way. some bad starting to show the warm weather is starting to take its toll. Thursday we did a loop around lake Saint Jean north of the lake was awesome flat fast and couple inches of fresh snow in some areas. Got gas in Saint methode and lunch at relais des butte. From lunch on it started out good but progressively got worse with the worst section being from just after the lake crossing in dresbians and up 383 back to Alma lots of dirt patches and pavement showing on the I assume bike path the trail runs on just generally thin conditions. it was passable but not enjoyable. Tons of sleds showed up here Wednesday the place was near empty the beginning of the week now there has to be 75 sleds parked here. Last day riding today think we’re going to head north of the lake and do some loops over there that seems to have had good snow, flat trails and less traffic. It looks like the torch is coming out next week for up here I’d expect to see some red trails show up unfortunately. Get out while ya can.

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%.

I think we rolled into Onatchiway around 3 something so very well could have been! Sounds like you guys had as good of trip as we did! Yes I remember that long powerline section on 93 back when we were up here in 2016. You.guys staying at the Delta in Alma? Been there where we had to park our sleds in the parking garage.

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.

Late start this morning around 9:30 since the ol lady doesn't like -10F snowmobiling. Rode over to the cave, Begin, Nature Otis, up to 373 across to Onatchiway, then back down 373 to the Ski Mountain 170 miles. Heading south to the cave over to Begin that first 60 miles was nothing to write home about, the rest of the way was good to excellent, met 2 groomers on the way home. Tomorrow heading for the frozen waterfall, possibly Sacre Couer loop if they groom and she's motivated enough. Better than sitting home on the couch, but definitely not usual Quebec conditions as we knew it wouldn't be.

Staying in Alma now trails coming out of town were little rough not horrible but once outside of town it got pretty good. We got a late start(noon) due to my sled breaking(secondary came apart) 20miles in so had to limp back and get my buds backup sled to ride. We rode 93 over to pic du le dos de cheval for some summit pictures and went over and got dinner at yourte bistro by the ski mountain. The only thing I noticed bad was there is a lot of ice under the groomed snow so be careful. My bud slid backwards down the hill going up to the ski resort for gas lol. Trying to get parts this morning so probably another late start. I posted some pics on freedom sledder I can’t get them to work here for some reason.

Just back from the Delta, so a quick update. The Grooming Teams are doing a great job with what they have to work with,,,,,, but they dont have much to work with around town and in the lower elevations. With all the traffic from the foreigners ( hahahahaha) the trails are not holding a grooming long, smoother on the way out, than a few hours later, stutters back in. It was great seeing everyone! Please set your expectations appropriately..... Later GutZ

If things get too crazy we'll strike off up Bras Louis, been up there with Early rider in November before so we can stay up out of traffic if it gets too crazy, hoping early week riding is a bit quieter than a Valin weekend! Will do, arriving Sunday night then riding Monday Tuesday and Wednesday

Exactly this

Yes great loops for you and your closest 1000 friends, lol I hope not but with limited riding everyone will likely be in a few concentrated areas now

Great, make sure you post us the live conditions, I'm right behind you

Decided to cancel at the Delta and stay north of the river all trip and rented a Condo on AirBnB near where Passion Quebec was on the ski mountain. Looks like still a good amount of snow up there for a few 200 mile loops which is about the ol lady's limit for loops in Maine.

from the river north to sept ille on 3 still shows good

Now that we're less than a week from go time, conditions seem less than ideal around town especially after reading Jeff and Sandy's report. Would it be better to try and get a place in Saint Honorie or another place north of the river or do you guys think riding in and out of the Delta will be fine?

Friday Jan 12 from club motoneige compte champlain Updating the trails Our resurfacers started work on the trails today, but they're still closed 1, because the markings haven't been done yet. A lot of checking will be done this weekend (most of our volunteers have full-time weekday jobs) for ice and marshy areas and start marking if possible. With the checks already made today, no river in our sector is safe. For the trail rue notre dame (352) in St-Maurice, we won't be able to cross the river, so there will be 2 cul-de-sacs on either side. We're working hard to open as soon as possible, but our rivers aren't cold enough. So please be patient and, above all, careful not to venture onto closed, unmarked trails. We wish you a great season despite the slower start! Club de Motos Neige de la Mauricie TQ 23 Riviere Envies st tite I hear that the river is staked in grand mere for the 23 crossing but not going up the river.. heard was some open water still. from club… Our rivers we love them with an ice bridge. Thanks to the volunteers in the St-Tite sector. Trails still closed Please be patient

Update on 355 between La Tuque and Doheney (train tressel) Update on trail 355 South, which is closed between La Tuque and Doheney. Everyone is doing everything possible to open this section as quickly as possible, including Forestière Résolu. The breakage of the René road this autumn caused delays the repair was completed in the week before Christmas. Work began after the holidays and was completed on Friday. For the moment, a lack of snow on this pad means that we cannot open it. We will be meeting with the Résolu representative on Monday morning to see what can be done to open the pad as soon as possible. Then we'll have to install signage before opening for the safety of snowmobilers and workers.

We are opening our trails on 18 January. Please note that the M1, M4 and St-Maurice River trails to the Grand-Mère dam remain closed (the trails circled in red remain closed for the time being). Early season conditions. Be careful, the groomers will be on the trails during the day to finish the work. Have a great season! Marc-Olivier Groleau President Club de motos neige de la Mauricie inc. no. 07-412

From La Tuque and Relais 22 Another storm. The resurfacers have been in action non-stop since yesterday. Don't forget that after a storm it takes 4 days to resurface all the trails around the 22 Mile Relay. 12 January La Tuque - Relais 22 Milles. (73 north) 13 January Relais 22 Milles - Windigo outfitter (section 83 west) 14 January Relais 22 Milles - Lac St-Jean (first 50 kilometres, section 83 east) Good season We are ready to welcome you with our fire teams! This is the information we have at the moment.

Club Armony right next door to me. Good evening Snowmobilers, IMPORTANT MESSAGE - PLEASE SHARE We have beem working to open our trails since yesterday. Filling in the many ditches, surfacing and then we'll have to install our markers and signage before publishing that our trails are open. They must be 100% safe. We're currently working on opening the trail from Trois-Rivières to St-Paulin to connect to St-Alexis des Monts. There is still some signage to be installed. Trail #3 to Yamachiche and Louiseville is not open. Rivers and streams are unsafe. The St-Maurice River linking the St-Étienne des Grès trail to Mont-Carmel IS CLOSED. Water in some places and thin ice. Be patient, we're all looking forward to it. Yvon Bergeron, President Club Motoneige Armony Trois-Rivières Inc. 07-400

TQ 23 Lac aux Sables must be last minute reroute here Hard work for the new TQ 23 track at Lac aux Sables 😊

Yes take the rough trail west from the groomed trail, when you get to the dam cross the road to the left and take the single track trail down the hill to the cave.

Good to know, I was looking at the trail by Onatchiway and I remember that it wasn't up there as I'd only been there on a Thanksgiving run 6 years ago. That was a big help as now I remember it was at Lac La Mothe. Basically go to the old trail intersection, then cross the road and go to the dam right? I have a pic of my sled in it back in 2016 on my computer somewhere when I was up there with my 10,000 mile 800 etec, whispering sweet nothings to her so that she'd make it back to St Raymond in once piece on our saddlebagger. -30 one morning and it snowed 18 inches the first day so we dug out 5 other sleds over the course of a few days. Good times.

Yes

Do you know the name of the movie that utilized the cave? Staring JT

A right of passage for a true QuebecRider to have a picture with their sled in the mouth of the cave.

We were at the cave last winter. The trail that leads to the cave isn’t groomed anymore. Trail is still there and you can ride it, just whooped out bad. Read they were trying to discourage people from visiting the cave.

The entire way if possible. You could consider a two day loop of the lake. Leave the Delta, south around the bottom of the lake then up around to the 373. Drop down to the cave and find a place to stay. Next day back to the 373 to Onatchiway and back to the Delta.

Yes Bay Ha ha is the ice shacks another run would be to Mt Apicia

Nice, should be a good time to be there. We'll be there the 18th through the 21st. Good time to get out of Maine with school vacation week. Is Bay Ha Ha where all the ice shacks are? The entire way or just certain sections? Gonna run it from Onatchiway to KM 31 area, but haven't been on it west from there.

Run the 373, not sure how many miles it would be for the day.

Bay Ha Ha is something different to see we plan to be there the 11th to the 15th Schooter

The Ravage for lunch about 70 miles from the delta one way