PLAYHARD
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Posts posted by PLAYHARD
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Windigo has gas, and Marine & Daniel are mighty hospitable (especially if you call ahead for a reservation)... (819) 523-8181
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Hey, aside from "lean back & full throttle" what's the best way across the seaway to Gaspie?
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No, we did it last year. But I'd bet it's still doeable. (Or is that "Doo-able"?)
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(I don't know if a Saint-Raymond trail report belongs in the Mauricie or the Quebec-center section so I'm playing it safe by putting it here...)
Short version: St Ray to L-Etape, then St Ray to Lac Edouard & La Tuque was (almost) all good. Reports from riders coming down from both Roberval (73) and Saguenay (23) were that conditions were excellent up there too.
Long version:
It’s really amazing what the clubs (and our sleds) can do with minimal cooperation from Mother Nature. Our “season opener” wasn’t the biggest miles, but it still kicked ass. On the trails that had been maintained the conditions were nearly all perfect, and on some trails the “pre-season” type conditions were still excellent from the recent fluff that had fallen.
Going on crumbs of info on where the crumbs of snow were (and where they weren’t), we rode out of the www.roquemont.com hotel in Saint-Raymond, which is especially convenient if you’re a Yamaha or Cat rider because they share a parking lot with www.performancevoyer.com who also has gas (and for Ski Doo’ers: www.dionmoto.com is very close).
When we got to the Roq on Sunday night the parking lot was pretty much empty, and so were the trails. By the end of the week when we left Friday morning the parking lot was pretty much full, but the trail traffic wasn’t noticeably heavy, probably since most were jumping up north on trails 23 or 73 to Lac Saint-Jean.
Day One, Mon 1/17: No matter how pissed you were that last season was over, even if there’s a gas station at your starting hotel, DON’T store your sled with an almost empty fuel tank and no dry gas, especially if your first run will be at zero Fahrenheit . So after we had the dealer change the fouled plugs on the Apex, we had a short shake-down run 30 miles up trail 23 and back, which aside from the first few (icy) miles out of St Ray was in excellent condition. (60mi)
Day Two, Tues 1/18: Back up an almost perfect 83 miles on trail 23 for lunch in L’Etape, and returned to Saint-Raymond. George, the newbie rider in our group who’s an avid skier, turned out to be a natural sledder and actually liked the short sections that had some bumps that he called “moguls”(?). On the way back home our group got separated briefly, which we refer to as a “bonus ride”, due to scarce pre-season signage and not much noticeable groomer berms, which also caused lots of “soft shoulders” all around that try to suck you off trail. (166mi, not counting the bonus ride)
Day Three, Wed 1/19: We saddlebagged up to Lac-Edouard. With a fresh 6 inches of fluff we had a magnificent (fast) ride up trail 73, stopping at Relais le Marmite @ Riviere-a-Pierre for chocolat chaud and to say hi to Clem, with just one (minor) mishap due to ice in a corner just below the fresh stuff. But ya gotta hand it to the local club! There were orange road cones right there! We bypassed the 355 turn up and went into LaTuque to top off the gas, then went to check out the 73 north of there. It was not yet set up/groomed, but we had a blast breaking it in. It was like the best of the Berkshires. A couple of us took the nickel tour of the “game” room downstairs at www.clubodanak.com, then turned back and took 73s to 355n to www.pourvoirielegoeland.ca in Lac-Edouard. The chalets have tons of private room (Steve snores), there’s gas on site, with the sleds safe right between us and the dining room/bar. (193mi)
Day Four, Thurs 1/20: Scenic route back to Saint-Raymond. We took 355s to 73n back into La Tuque to top off, then down 355s to check out the pipeline. IT WAS ALL PEFECT! Damn that’s a cool view down the pipeline. At about 40 miles we forked left down trail 351 (marked as M7), which was virgin groomed with a fresh couple of inches on top. (Don’cha love that?!) Then we took 318e which was also perfect, until Montauban. It’s never groomed between that little river and Lac Froid, but this time aside from being rough it was also unmarked and unridden, and for one section was closed off. So we broke out the GPS and video-gamed it thru some streets to hook back up with the 318 just before the intersection of 353 (some of Bill’s favorite 15 miles). And around the first turn on 353n… perfect timing: The groomer passed us from the other way! We got back to the 73s rail bed and cooked back to St Ray, got the toys put away by sunset, and took the black trail to dinner. With no complaints about the restaurant at the Roquemont, if you have a chance (10 miles by road/20 miles by trail) check out Duchesnay on Lac Saint-Joseph www.sepaq.com/ct/duc/ even though the ice hotel is gone from there. (161mi)
Total Miles: 580
(Total bumpy: Maybe 30)
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That's a shame. We rode that stretch Monday & Tuesday 17th & 18th and except for a few icy miles just north of the Roq it was mint. And it was snowing when we drove home Friday.
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Sorry we didn't run the GPS the whole time to get a waypoint. But if you're using a unit just look for the point on 73 that's closest to Lac Tourouvre. There was just a little berm off of a turn on 73, and it wasn't marked as an "official" intersection.
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Martine & Daniel @ Windigo gave us directions from there across the reservoir to 73. It was a great ride. Easy to follow the tracks. But it's big, so we used the GPS to confirm. Just as they'd said, there was a house with an orange roof toward the end. Then there was a nice little local trail that took us right to 73.
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Hey Richard,
Thanks for the info. That sucks. New England Bob brought us there back when. She was great. But you honor her memory in your operation.
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I don't know how you guys take so many Pics... LOL ..... I guess I need more self control LOL ...Nice Pics
I hang a small digital on a long neck thingy just inside my jacket, to unzip-click-rezip, mostly @ smoke & wizz breaks. But the many (too many) 355-Pipeline shots were because we had plenty of spare time and wanted to milk the last day. You can't really see it, but we took turns standing/waving on opposite peaks. Anyway the pics (and the quads) help us to get thru the warmer months.
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thanks for the pics,you ever hear from bob?does he still ride? it is true when you discover snowmobiling in quebec its hard to ride
anywhere else. its great only living a short distance from the best trail system on planet earth.
Last we heard from NE Bob was that he was organizing horseback tours. We wish him well for sure.
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Here's a link to pics of this ride... http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creati...Photos-_-Sharee
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hey playhard you still ride with new england bob ?
No, we graduated from NE Bob. He did a good job of showing us the ropes. I remember our first conversation back in '98 when there was no snow in the Berks, and he said the only downside of riding with him in Quebec is we'll never wanna ride in the Berks.
Here's a link to pics from this ride... http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creati...Photos-_-Sharee
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This being our season ender we didn’t really care what trails we were going to ride, but we had one definite mission in mind… After 12 years of riding the province, we finally made it to the legendary Chibougamau last week, in a loop out of Shawinigan of 1050 almost completely groomed & cream-cheesy miles over 5 (and a quarter) days.
We arrived in Shawinigan Saturday night 2/27 to a kinda scary scene. No sleds, no trailers, and for our first time ever, we saw the painted stripes on the parking lot. The front desk folks told us that 4 groups had cancelled that day because the river was open-water and closed to sledding.
We left the sleds on the trailer in case we needed to drop farther up, and we took a ride around town to eyeball the trailheads. It was slushy on the river, but the sticks were up and there was a fresh track or two. The base around the trailheads was pretty solid so we planned to nail it in the am. Which we did.
Day One (the quarter day) started out with a roost of water spraying out behind us as we floated over the 8” of water on the 20” of ice. Then we (I) got a lesson in “STAY ON THE TRAIL” as I instinctively took the local M1 trail toward the 318 across a farm field, and just as I realized that the trail was about to take the dip that I remembered from the years before, I saw the trail sticks heading out hard to our right. To add dumb to dumber I saw that the sticks were blue and we weren’t even on the sled trail.
Well I stopped at the top of the dip, but just a little momentum and the weight of the saddle-bagged 4-stroke pulled me (gently) 20’ to the bottom of the irrigation ditch. No damage/no injury. But over the next 5 hours we had the pleasure of the assistance of Allan the director of the Station De Ski Vallée Du Parc who coordinated the Shawinigan fire & police departments who in turn coordinated Farmer Bob with his jumbo 4 wheel drive front-end-loader/tractor who busted out in perfect English! And just for good measure a very nice local club leader (François?) stopped by to assist the rescue.
So we wrote off day 1 and returned to Shawinigan to dry out Big Bill’s boots and regroup (if you don’t mind eating bait and drinking sake & Sapporo, the Sushi Taxi joint by the Gouverneur kicks butt): 15mi
Mmm kay, back on track (“Stay on the trail!”)…
Monday: Back out M1, then 318e, and up the river 347n/Grande Mere which was still interesting, but was flat and had plenty of crumbs for lube. What was creepy was the yellow Danger tape across the slushy river entry from Richard’s, back down from where we’d just ridden. The few (6?) miles north of Mekinac to 360e were bumpy but then we had a perfect ride all the way to the front door of Château Roberval, up 355n stopping for gas in LaTuque (100mi) and topping off @ Lac Edouard to 83w to 373n: 250mi
Tuesday: 373n was cold, hard, rutty & bumpy, and we topped off early in La Dore (40mi?) where we saw the remains of a sled that overflowed gas and lit up at the pump the week before (extra crispy). 93n/w was a new trail for us and HOLY CRAP it was good. Then at the 100 mi mark from Roberval we came into this Abitibi industrial Twilight Zone area and circled around the buildings/barracks looking for the trail. There was an unmarked local looking trail behind one of the buildings (which turned out to be 93). And just when we were shrugging at each other, a dude in a hard hat walked across the snow covered street right by us and over to a big gas pump and held out the hose to us. Oh yeah!! He knew enough English to tip us off to the best soup and hot-chicken sandwich and maple syrup cake in the region, next door in the cafeteria ($10). It’s a damned good thing we looked as lost as we did and that the dude came out, because we had enough gas to blow right thru there (after 60mi), but that was it for another 100mi into Chibougamau. Not that they needed it north of the Twilight Zone, but we passed the groomer along the way, which made a perfect trail even dreamier. We had two small delays, one tugging my sled across the trail over a 2’ washed out stream/ditch, and then stopping to assist a group that had a rider go straight at a 90-degree red-right. Then the last 30 miles were a clean burn: 200mi
Wednesday: We back-tracked, following and catching another groomer down 93s/e, and gassed at Abitibi Twilight Zone. It was too early for lunch so we passed on the daily special of steak hache. Then down to a local orange trail that bypassed LaDore, and hooked back up with 93/373. There was plenty of snow, but it was too cold & frozen and without enough crumbs for lube we started smelling the slides and soon after that I had one of my idler wheels chasing me up the trail across one of the farm fields by Normandin/Albanel. So we busted out the map and saw that there was a Yamaha Dlr where we were headed to in Dolbeau! Just outside of town at a local clubhouse a couple of non-English speaking Yamaha riders told us to look for the sign. No worries. There were a series of signs that even NY Governor Patterson would have seen. We’d made insane timing on the big trails so we had plenty of time to change three wheels (better ones with replaceable bearings), and did an alignment (which didn’t hurt after the ravine/bulldozer incident back in Shawinigan: 200mi
Thursday: We’d gotten reports to not bother crossing over the lake to the Mt Valin area, and the front desk folks in Alma confirmed that there was no riding connecting where we were to the east. No worries. We kinda wanted to repeat Big Bill’s birthday bash at Windigo anyway! 93w to 373s we bombed around Roberval and went onto the lake to see the Village de Glace and next door where they were scraping the drag race course for the weekend. We lunched in style at Big Red Chicken Head (aka: St Hubert) in Roberval, topped off and took 83w to Relais 22, topped off again and ended @ Windigo. Daniel & Martine are the best hosts, as long as you call ahead. They were totally prepped for us, but they had to turn some folks away to Relais 22 that just showed up right after us. Happy Birthday Bill!: 200mi
Friday: Daniel & Martine had busted out a topo map the size of the pool table showing us that the river we were on had a short cut that hooked up with 73. Nice! It was flat & cheesy. Perfect. We stopped a couple of times to check the GPS because there were some tracks that went off in different directions, but it was a great ride and popped us right onto 73 after a small smooth local trail. We took 73s into LaTuque to gas up, and only the last couple of miles around town were sketchy. Then we burned down a perfect pipeline/355. We’d been ready to jump off the trail and call a cab or a buddy to come get us at whatever point the warm weather and lack of snow would force us to. St Joseph was still no problem. We took the 351s not to push our luck on the river/347, and it was nearly perfect with just a few bare corners. St Tite was still no problem. We took 318w to the Grande Mere crossing and it was solid as a rock with no trace of slush. So were trails 318w into 347s on the other side. We inched onto the last stretch of river down to Shawinigan and it was super fine. The look on Pierre’s face behind the front desk of the Gov was priceless, as if he had never seen a snowmobiler (at least they hadn’t seen any in about 10 days): 200mi
Total miles 1065.
Total ungroomed 40 west of Roberval/St Felicien, but the groomer was headed right for there!
Traffic was light all over. Pure blue skies. Temps around 30-32 by day and freezing at night up north. And just like all season the groomers were doing an amazing job. There was definitely a ton of snow, and cold, to last at least a few more weeks north of LaTuque. We had heard the same from some riders who made it to Roberval from out west/Senneterre.
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We wound up doing 915 almost completely fine miles out of Shawinigan last week.
Monday: Shakedown loop around Shawinigan on the orange (M-1, 3, 5) trails: 35mi
Tuesday: 318e, 351n, gas in St Joseph, part way up 355n, M7s, 318e, 353s, kick-ass Hawaiian pizza @ Motel Resto in St Ubalde (it kills your time & miles, but it's totally worth it), 302w, 351s: 172mi
Wednesday: 318w, gas @ Cabanon in St Zenon, 345n to Barrage Taureau, 360e, gas & Red Bulls (no pizza this day) @ Matawin, 347s down the river/Grand Mere: 228mi
Thursday: 3e, gas @ Portneuf, toured Ice Hotel in St Catherine, 73n, lunch & gas @ St Raymond/Roquemont (rail bed was slushy & bumpy), 73n, 353s, 318e, 3w: 230mi
Friday: Up 347n/the river, 360e, 351s 5mi to top off gas (which enabled us to bypass going into LaTuque), 355n, 73s (WOW, with a few miles of bumps toward the 3rd 3rd), lunch @ Clem's/Marmite relay, gas @ Riviere-a-Pierre, 353s, 318e, 3w: 250mi
Total miles 915.
Total ungroomed 15.
There were a few icy and/or snirty corners, a few random rocks, and a mile or two of bare roadside per day (thanks to that rain), but the trails were amazing considering the clubs have had so little to work with.
Traffic was light on the big trails. Close to the hubs (St Zenon, St Raymond) the trails were noticeably and understandably more banged up, but the groomers are keeping on it.
The 4 in our group all agreed that the trail pass money was well spent (especially the 18 yr old nephew who'd never seen a sled before and turned out to be a natural).
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The 347/river has plenty of crumbs now. We rode it both ways this past week. There're a few bumps up by Richard's, but then it's a clean rip. The 351/318 isn't bad, but the river is WAY faster, like a quarter of the time.
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Has anyone been through Shawinigan or St Raymond recently?
It looks like north is the way to go, but we need to figure out where to jump in from.
I know ICEMAN will be back home by the start of the Daytona 500, but I figured I'd ask here too.
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I got the "Where am I?" Not too hard considering the sleds look familiar. Thanks for the blast down memory lane on the bowl site. http://www.sled.scorpion-bowl.com/rides/ls...s/DSC00252.html I learned my lesson on the RX1 and now I only stud the inside. Replaced the Venoms with Vectors a week ago, and can't frickin wait for the white stuff!
Happy trails
trakmaps
in General Discussion
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It looks like it's gratis, there's a notpad that auto-uploads and I dropped it into www.freetranslation.com, they just ask you not to sell it, then i guess you need to translate the 12 page manual too.
I've had good luck in the past with Joel Gill @ jgill@gpsquebec.ca (418) 948-1158 You just about never need it, since the province is marked so well, but that one time when you're not sure (when it's stormy or dark or your tired) it's priceless.