snowmaster2112

Pic from yesterday in between Parent and clova

4” of snow on the sleds this early a.m. and they are calling for 3-6 more by tonight gonna be an interesting day for sure. I see the fox tracks all over already. Gonna see if I can get him to take a breakfast sausage right from my hand in awhile.

We got a late start leaving Parent this a.m. (11 or so) my buddies sled needed a repair for the air suspension and Andre from L’ Hombre du Vent fixed it good and cheap. Headed towards Clova and the trail was beautiful the whole way. Blue skies and a lot less wind today. Heading west from Parent to and including Clova has less snow than east of Parent towards Wemo. Totally doable and great just less. Saw 4 sleds coming at us about 1/2 way mark and that was it. Had lunch in Clova (were the only ones there) Dominic reports the trail towards Faillon will have the bridges done any day and then he is sending the groomer in. He hoped Friday or Saturday but sounded a little “iffy” Back tracked to Parent , gased up and headed towards Gouin. Ran into a group of 10 heading west again about the half way point. You could certainly tell that half of that big group we passed yesterday stayed here at the Gouin last night as the trail coming in here had small bumps. Waitress reports 17 here for stay. Said they were from France. We are the only ones here tonight and just finished a GREAT Lasagna dinner and sharing a bottle of wine. The Fox is running around the parking lot waiting for some hand me outs. Water was froze in the shower in our cabin so we had to bring our stuff over and shower over at the main house. No biggie at least the toilet and bathroom sink in the cabin work. A GREAT day overall. Great trails, extremely low traffic, blue skies and good friends. They are calling for a solid 6” here tonight/tomorrow so that oughta be interesting. We are thinking of spending the night in Windigo tomorrow after we go to the 22 for lunch and ride some trails over there a bit. PEACE

Today’s update/intel coming in a about 1.5 hrs after shower/souper. We are at the Gouin.

Rode from buddies camp on Lac Chapeau de Paille (off the M20 at the end) to Parent today and staying at L’ Ombré du vent. The only place to stay in this town for sure. Trails are a 20 on a 1-10 scale. Saw about 10 sleds total at Repos today at noon. Rode the rode to Kanawata (no tracks) and we were the only people there for late lunch at 2pm. They said a group of 4 stiffed them last night and never showed or called. Hate when people do that. At this point we have actually not passed anyone all day. Onwards to my personal favorite trail section in the world (Kanawata to Casey) and up to the 83. All as good or better than I have EVER seen it. Flatter than “piss on a plate”. Hauling along about 1/2 way or more to Parent and BAM first sled of the day comes around a corner. At first I’m like oh well actually good to see others out braving the cold. Then another sled, and another, and another, and another......goes on for what seemed like 2 full minutes. The three of us collectively agree that there was somewhere between 35-40 of them. UNREAL it was considering we hadn’t seen ANYONE all day to this point. Funny thing is it’s so cold that the already perfectly flat trail was literally unaffected from their passing. Lady that owns the depaneur in Parent said it took her an hour to fill them all up. They were French, on a multi day 1000K trip. 1/2 or more of the group was going to the Gouin and the other half some outfitter whose name I have never heard of????? Or maybe I didn’t understand her. We have no definitive plans and are gonna ride 3 more days up here and head back to my buddies camp on Thursday. Hope everyone made it through the storm alright. We only rode yesterday from the camp to Matawin and back a 100 miles and that was challenging with the cold, wind and snow but really fun too as again, no one out and trails were flat with all kinds of fun loose stuff. Matawin was nearly dead yesterday at 1pm Didnt take many pics today but here is one in Casey. I had to stop and regain my composure from the run from Kanawata.. PEACE

Not that I incessantly check it all the time,,,,,,,,LOL 😛

Gowser so glad to hear your o.k and there was no injuries. Not that it matters much at all but curious to know where the other group was from ?

It’s usually around 6 a.m. & again around 1 p.m. TWICE A DAY Like Mark said though you have to refresh. I just click “grooming delay” on and off once and that does the trick.

L’ Hombre du vent is fantastic. Great WiFi, 32” wall mount LCD, phone, satellite., upstairs/downstairs, kitchenette, etc... two seperate bedrooms upstairs with two beds each. Typical WTF.....small shower and bathroom. Cant say enough about how nice it is to have your sleds right at the door of a modern cabin.

Manawan has come along way from years ago. New supermarket and the hotel there is nice and new. It’s right across the street from the police station up on the hill at the beginning of town. Buddy and I stayed there one night last Christmas week and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again.

FYI on Repos gas.....always remember the town gas pump at Manawan is only 18 miles away and a lot cheaper. and the new supermarket in Manawan will surely have better food than anything that has ever come out of the Repos.

I remember years ago we were at the Governeur in Shawinigan and it was sold out , packed 100% full like we got one of the last rooms. Well I don’t know if the kids or parents were worse. Little bastards were playing hockey with a tennis ball in the hallways until 1 a.m. while the parents were getting sloshed and carrying on too. I raised such a stink the next morning we got the room for half price.

I’ve actually had nightmares about the “hockey kids”....... been screwed over and had to ride a lot further than planned on more than one occasion because of those little bastards !!!

Perfect day. Glad you had a great ride. So glad to see the areas all good with snow now. Saturday cant come soon enough.

Welcome Cobra !! always great to see new members. You’ll be amazed at the great people and vast knowledge on this board as well as the different regions of world class riding that Quebec has to offer.

Stayed at Meekos in the cabins a few times and they were Tony the Tiger GRRRREAT. !!

Can you guys run them on batteries if your staying off the grid or do you need 110v outlet power. Just curious.

3 modulars, 15+ years, 60,00ish miles, every condition imaginable no failures, no fogging, no warranties, no problems funny though....the helmet DOES HAVE its vagueries for sure

If your referring to the run from Chapais down to Lebel-sur-Quévillon then yes it is routed back and forth into the woods a lot again this year. Some sections have a lot of the puckers sticking up and you WILL get marks on your machine. Maybe that will get better as the trail gets more use/traffic. Ironic thing is we saw NO forestry work being done anywhere.

Perfect area to do that run. I would like to do that someday. The Bay st Laurent is fast, fast, fast......

Bob, I know Dennis and have stayed there many times over the years but I just “did the math” and only came up with 572 miles??? either way....I always knew he was a tough SOB.......you can still see it in him even at his age now

That’s awesome doo4adoo !!!!! Try and give us an update when your up there if you can. HAVE A GREAT RIDE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, that’s the one. I was over it about a month before it got washed away and haven’t been back since. Anyone got a pic of the new one ?

Yeah I was thinking that too Phil i remember a guy taking a video cam out there for like two days and setting it up. He fast forwarded the video and you could see the river rising each day. Towards one evening the water was starting to hit the bridge. In the morning .......it was gone !!!!!

I too have noticed it’s been eerily quite from 22 to st hedgewick i think there was “some” activity weeks ago but only went like halfway or something and that was from LSJ side towards the 22 and not out of the 22 and I don’t believe I have seen any activity at all on the Windigo trail either