zrtkat

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.

smclelan
We where lucky it happened right when we where pulling out of  driveway 😒that was 2 winters back this winter we had 2 new sleds trailer all fixed all set to go and the week we where going they had rain in forecast so we had too cancel.
will have 2 brand new sleds next year with 0 miles on them 🤬
lets hope for a better winter next year
Zrtkat

I bought the same trailer with 13 inch double axles , electric brakes and 14 long...pulls and stops like it isn't even there...rear drop down door as well

Powerwashing the axle(s) in the spring and a spraybomb of rustproofing on them after they are dry prevents a lot of the issues.

Started swapping trailers when they get near the 10 year mark, added dual axles this last time, if I get a flat I can now at least get to a spot away from heavy traffic to change it

You both got your moneys worth out of those trailers!!

smclelan
We where lucky it happened right when we where pulling out of  driveway 😒that was 2 winters back this winter we had 2 new sleds trailer all fixed all set to go and the week we where going they had rain in forecast so we had too cancel.
will have 2 brand new sleds next year with 0 miles on them 🤬
lets hope for a better winter next year
Zrtkat

smclelan
We where lucky it happened right when we where pulling out of  driveway 😒that was 2 winters back this winter we had 2 new sleds trailer all fixed all set to go and the week we where going they had rain in forecast so we had too cancel.
will have 2 brand new sleds next year with 0 miles on them 🤬
lets hope for a better winter next year
Zrtkat

I was 6hrs from home not the best spot LOL. Same issue from the looks of it, axle rusted. 

Worst season for quite a while Brand new sled with 0 miles 🤬will be brand new next winter . Brand new Catalyst wanted to try out this winter .
Let's hope for a comeback of winter next season.

Ouch 
250 miles and almost 5 hr drive
if they get off for less than 1K Canadian I’d say they did ok

Worst season for quite a while Brand new sled with 0 miles 🤬will be brand new next winter . Brand new Catalyst wanted to try out this winter .
Let's hope for a comeback of winter next season.

Zero miles for me also. I drained the stabilized fuel that I filled it with in March 2023  out of it Tuesday. I will burn that in my zero turn mower in a few weeks. Kudos to those that are out on the trail now. 👍💪 Best of luck! I came back to the truck in mud and gravel last March. That sled is still not completely clean. Hopefully 2025 is better.

You should head for Kirkland Lake and run the Northern Corridor.  They got 6" - 12" of snow in this last storm.  

We’ve done the Cote Nord this week leaving Hotel Pelchat in Les Escoumins Sunday morning. Baie Comeau Sunday night, Sept-iles Monday night , back to Baie Comeau Tuesday night.
Trails have been excellent for the most part. Godbout to Sept-iles going out and then back the next day we’re a F1 slot car course. Groomed both directions and almost zero traffic. Days you dream of for riding conditions.
Sunday night we were the only sledder group at La Manoir in BC, Tuesday night few more sledders. We did the big loop north of BC both days and it was excellent for snow cover and grooming.
Arrived in Forestville for Wednesday night. Very light rain Wednesday during the day, almost unmeasurable. During the night it rained more. Today Thursday morning it was cold and trails were hard as rock. We did the 200 km loop north of Forestville. More snow north of Forestville than anywhere else have seen. 8 sleds in our group, 5 with scratchers, 3 without. No problem running with scratchers, guys without had some cooling issues. One bush fix got a 1200 back to the hotel.
The loop north of Forestville is a real gem, scenic. Was concerned because grooming map showed not groomed for several days. So little traffic run up there conditions were perfect, not a bump.
Seems like half million people in Mont Valin and very few doing Cote Nord.
This trip from Feb. 25 until tomorrow finishing up back in Les Escoumins has been a 9/10 for conditions.
 

Worst season for quite a while Brand new sled with 0 miles 🤬will be brand new next winter . Brand new Catalyst wanted to try out this winter .
Let's hope for a comeback of winter next season.

Worst season for quite a while Brand new sled with 0 miles 🤬will be brand new next winter . Brand new Catalyst wanted to try out this winter .
Let's hope for a comeback of winter next season.

Worst season for quite a while Brand new sled with 0 miles 🤬will be brand new next winter . Brand new Catalyst wanted to try out this winter .
Let's hope for a comeback of winter next season.

Team Iceman not ready to surrender just yet…..
 

Here’s my Brand new Lynx… also 0 miles 

Day 6 final day 230 miles. Headed out over to LaSarre this morning the first 35-40 miles was pure white carpet the type of thing snowmobilers dream about with the fresh snow from last night the sun coming out, and the snow covered trees made for an unforgettable ride. Did a couple of the loop trials north of LaSarre all of which are totally awesome then headed over to La Reine which is right on the Quebec/ Ontario border you get there by running about 10 miles of rail bed, which again was pure white carpet. At the end of the rail bad we ventured into Ontario for a bit via the same rail bed which is unmaintained into Ontario side but still a fun Boondocking experience. Then made our way back to Amos via TQ 93. Another epic day to finish out an epic riding week. Anyone who wasn’t up here missed out on some amazing conditions. Hard to believe the weather for the next 48 hours which looks downright horrible Hopefully this area makes it though. I hope everyone enjoyed following along, and I just made a few people jealous along the way! 

We took the risk of leaving directly from the home in St-Thomas and passing through Berthier to go up to St-Zénon and have dinner at Réal Massé

If I had to quickly summarize the report: don't do like us and stay no further south than St-Gabriel de Brandon and go north. We wanted to take advantage one last time of the privilege we have of leaving directly from the home without touching the trailer and we managed to do so but the southern part of St-Gabriel is too lacking in snow... I gave a good beat to my snowtrackers!
From St-Thomas we joined trail #3 to go towards Berthier. Surprisingly, apart from the surroundings of the gas station in the village, the fields were still very beautiful. Here along the railway line.  Scratchers mandatory very hard/icy base

There was a lack of snow in a few inside curves but overall very good

Things got bad when we arrived at the airfield in St-Cuthbert, there was quite a long way to go on a plowed path now on dirt/gravel and it wasn't nice in the wooded area that followed or near the Valrémi sugar shack
We gave a try on the #3 towards St-Barthelemy...It was worse too much south and we had to turn around we lost the trail at some points

We headed towards St-Gabriel de Brandon, the wooded sections are good

But in the fields the trail path is hard to miss 🙄, it has melted too much. There is quite a long stretch like that

Past St-Gabriel de Brandon going north was the way to go, the conditions there are fine and keep going better toward north
We had a checkpoint just north of the village of St-Gabriel, the guys were nice no problem.

And we went up the #23 north which still has good snow cover

I was unsure about a short plowed section but it's still very good and was ok

We got a few bumps from traffic but the snow is still very good in that area

We had a late start around 9:30 and time was passing quickly so we took the #350 south

And we had dinner at Réal Massé. It's been a long time since we've been there and their meals are still delicious and the atmosphere really nice. They are open from Thursday noon to Sunday afternoon.

From there we decided to continue #350 and loop around via #63 towards Ste-Émélie de l'Énergie. Here direction the Glacière


Past La Glacière on #63 heading south it was still very beautiful with good snow cover


Here passing by the La Barrière outfitter


We passed through Domaine Bazinet and continued south

The big hills near Ste-Émélie de l’Énergie are still in good condition

Past Ste-Émilie village we headed towards St-Damien where we stopped to refuel while passing through their courtyard.

Leaving the gas station we climb the mountain and at the very top facing south there is the only mud spot we saw to the north of St-Gabriel on this route very close to the small shack at the #23 junction which joins our morning route. We took a little break there.

We resumed on the morning path in the opposite direction which was still in the same state, beautiful up to St-Gabriel but then with bare spots going south

We returned home around 5:00 p.m. with a little over 250km on the cluster, overall happy with the ride that succeed our wish to start from home.
In summary, there is still some great snowmobiling to be done north of St-Gabriel de Brandon when it is cold like today. This year it's like that, don't be too critical and take what can be done... The upcoming weather forecasts are a bit scary but I still hope they're wrong! we'll see...hoping for the best
Alain