Merry & I just got back from a trip to the Gaspe. We had done the same trip 4 years ago, only took 2 more days & saw more of the sights. We had originally planned to go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this weekend, but got scared off by the rain & warm temps. It looked like the Gaspe was our best bet. It was a long drive from Jamestown, NY, about 15 hours in the truck to Rimouski. Drove to Watertown, NY Wed night, and drove the rest of the way Thursday. Checked into the Hotel Rimouski about 4:30. Great place to stay, walked down the snowmobile trail to the SAQ, bought some beer & wine, and had a pizza delivered to the room from a local pizza place. Had breakfast Friday morning at the hotel, and started our ride about 8:30.
Trails were great from Rimouski to Mont Joli. A couple Quebec police on sleds pulled us over just before Mont Joli, wanted permit paperwork, NYS registration paperwork, and drivers licenses. Not sure why they wanted Merry's license as both sleds are registered in my name, but they insisted. They had a pad of paper, and wrote down our NY reg numbers, Quebec permit numbers, Drivers license numbers, names and birthdates. Not sure why they wrote down all the info, but we got used to it as we went through more checks in the next 2 days. The police were out in force! About that time, the left handwarmer on Merry's 2008 Skidoo XP quit. I had just replaced it a month ago, not sure what's going on. As her hands couldn't take the cold, I rode her sled the rest of the trip & she rode my Yamaha Attak.
The trails from Mont Joli east for 20 miles or so were awful, beat to death. After that they were in great conditon, and stayed that way for the rest of the trip. Continued on to Matane, had lunch to Relais St Paulin (recommended), to St Anne des Monts, and our final fuel up about 6:00 in Mont Louis. Lucky it was Friday, as they close at 6:00 during the week. It got real cold after the sun went down, -22c by morning. We arrived at Hotel Copper in Murdochville about 7:30, 262 miles for the day.
The guy at the desk at Hotel Copper informed us that the dining room would be closing soon, and we needed to hurry if we wanted food. We ate while the kitchen staff watched as they wanted to leave, then headed to the room. One of the beers from the SAQ had gotten beat up and sprung a leak in the saddle bag, luckily everything else was in plastic bags & stayed dry. About the time we finished our first beer, Merry discovered that we had no hot water. Well, I guess it WAS Friday the 13th.
We woke up early, still had no hot water, & hit the trail without showers. Won't stay at Hotel Copper again. Headed south toward Chandler, & my left hand froze on those long straight runs. Luckily we had gauntlets, not sure if we could have continued without them. Got to Chandler about 10:30, & had a great breakfast at the Hotel Chandler. Headed west toward New Richmond, & got to the Cascapedia Lodge about 4:00. Great place to stay, a little pricey but the fireplace & food made it very worthwhile! 210 miles for the day.
Left the lodge Sunday morning, & headed north on 595. Got fuel, hot chocolate & pie at Relais La Cache, & headed on to Saint Paulin. Had lunch there again (great pea soup), & headed west on 5. Somewhere before Matane, we were stopped at a trail check & went through the same ordeal as the last time. UNfortunately this time there were several people ahead of us, & we had to wait for quite awhile until it was out turn. Probably 20-30 minutes at this check. Wrote down all the same information.
Got to the Riotel Matane about 2:30, 185 miles for the day. Merry & I had a beer in the sauna (don't tell - alcohol is NOT allowed in the sauna), & went to the bar to wait for our dinner reservation. By the way, I'm glad I had made reservations at the Riotel, as there were lots of sledders, the receptionist said the hotel was full for the night. Again, excellent food in the restaurant, both dinner & breakfast. I think the package including dinner & breakfast was $158 CAD for the two of us.
Left the Riotel & headed toward Rimouski. Somewhere between Matane & Mont Joli, we were stopped for the third time at a trail check. Same routine, but by now I was getting pretty sick of the wait. I asked the cop why there were so many checks, & he said the wanted to make sure there were no stolen sleds. I think it's more they were trying to line Quebec's pockets with $$$ from fines. It really was a disapointment for an otherwise great trip. Oh yeah, the same stretch of trail thet was lousy on Friday was STILL lousy, only a lot more sleds had been over it & it was really bad. Got back to the hotel Rimouski about 11:00, loaded the sleds & drove to Watertown. Got there about 9:00pm. Drove home this morning (Tues).
Highlights:
Great trail conditions
The food!
Nice People
Lowlights:
The police trail checks
Hotel Copper
Lots of miles in very few days, would probably add a day to cover the same territory next time.
Scott
