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Monday 9:30 start Top the sleds off… didn’t put any gas the extra cans as the ride to L Etape isn’t that long and I can see we have a group that left earlier in front of us… Wow.. this is awesome.. deep snow in trail to play in. Shortly up the trail we catch up to the a couple of rider in front of us… One of the two 900 widtracks missed the corner and is off the trail and stuck. We dig it out and then join them to continue on. Up the trail aways we find a 1200 in deep that tried to turn around. He is with the two rides we just met. We dig him out and keep going.. Now we are a group of 5. As we make our way and are getting close to L Etape, we come across another two rides on 1200 shorties. These two are with the three guys we met earlier. One of the 1200’s is out of gas.. (This is one that was out front doing all the work with no one in front of him). I pull out my syphon hose, grab my reserve can and pull two gallons from the 900. Shortly after that we make l etape and it is about 2pm. Full of gas and food.. we are on our way! The group of 5 are behind us and we have a group of 3 riding Yamaha Venture in front of us… It is still snowing and now the wind has come up. We stay with this group until we Mt Apica and then part ways. They stayed to warm up and had plans to stay on 23 and we were taking 368. We leave Mt Apica.. The trail is flat and fast and firm…. At the intersection of 23 and 368 we find 368 covered no tracks and blown over.. no problem.. not deep we head on… Stopped to take pictures of the path through the white birch trees. Picture! We get to the intersection of 368 and 383.. still light out.. still snowing.. and wind has come up more… We get down to the section by the aluminum Plant the drifts are big and soft… no problems and this is fun.. We get to the gas station…. Top them off. The temperature has dropped a lot and now it is dark. We go back out… No far to go… look to get to 83 and into town.. And……. It gets ugly.. the wind is up… really up… blowing snow sideways and dark… still not far to go so we take it slow.. I came to the corner of the field for the local trail to the mt valin hotel… in a white out! I saw the trail but didn’t see the hotel sign.. I’m looking at that trail and thinking.. now is not the time to explore a local trail.. so we stay on 368 and follow the markers and tracks and get back into the woods.. not bad we can see… on the other side of woods is another field.. I can see across it to bridge… After that bridge… we come around a slight corner and now the wind is really bad and visibility.. almost nothing but we are going slow… drifted snow is getting deep.. but I have tracks to follow… As I got closer to that Barn couldn’t see anything… kept going.. found the yellow sign on the side of the barn and drove around it… wow.. we can see again… cool… still thinking not that far. I crossed the road.. could see ok… went down the trail to the next junction with the local trail… looked at the red stakes… thinking we take it slow! The next 3km… were nothing short of OMG. I can’t see... Between my light.. and the headlight behind me… and the wind blowing snow sideways… the light was being reflecting back making it impossible to see. At several points I’m looking down to my side looking for tracks on the sections of trail that didn’t have drifting snow and checking the ski tracks to make sure I’m still on course ( no BS on that statement) We got to the section that is long and straight.. I had to stop.. get off the sled and walk a drift.. I couldn’t tell how high or long it was or what was on the other side. Z16 comes up and says….I can see you right in front of me. Then you disappear and reappear and I’m thinking.. I have been looking at you head light this entire time… but honestly.. it is that bad! I know this is bad… I have concerns about riding into a drainage ditch…or getting stuck deep in a drift…or ??? I’m honestly thinking I need to make some really good decisions from this point to get us out of this. If I have walk every 50 feet at this point then ride it.. I will! So that is what we started to do.. We started walking the drifts.. making sure they were solid and we had firm place to stop on the other side that we would still be on the trail… Ohh and it is is blowing at least a steady 35 +.. no breaks with wind or blowing snow just a steady white out… very freaky Shortly after we start this.. 4 sleds appear out of now where going in the opposite direction… OK these guys are nuts but this good for us. No we have tracks to follow. Those tracks from the sleds didn’t last 2 minutes but that gave us enough to get time to get through and make it to the road. Back into the woods and out of wind… safe… From this point to 83.. not that bad… ok it was bad… but we made it to 83.. had tracks to work with and much much better visibility… if we can see…. We can go.. Went up the trail, turned off the power line.. though some deep drifts into the next field, cross the road, then acros the railroad tracks turned right and …. Nothing to see but a 3 to 4 ft drifst… the ditch and the railroad tracks… and howling blowing snow… visibility.. 10 feet.. maybe… So I walked it and Nope we are done.. it was all soft. We turned around.. went back to road… Road looks good…. The road it is! We head down the road… OMG it had drifted huge into the road… we found a car stuck in a drift.. we helped them dig out and pushed the car out and kept going. Got to a gas station.. pulled the map out… I’m at the gas station Petro-Canada at the corner of 170 and Chemin de L’Eglise.. I can ride down 170 or ??? we asked the gas station… he said go up Chemin de L’Eglise about 3.5 km and cut across to the hotel Mt valin…. I didn’t want to go back into the field.. any field at this point… So up the road we go on Chemin de L’Eglise ( it had been closed because massive drifts in the road) We found the trail, went around the barn wow we can see.. maybe 150 ft but enough to go.. Made it to the hotel.. safe 7:30 pm

We meet trail security out on trail 3 just outside Quebec. At this point it is snowing like you read about. The visibility in the fields has been awful. They check our stickers and make sure Z16 has a drivers licence and then ask us about our destination. I’m thinking Baie ST Paul. They advised us to turn around and go back or go to ST Raymond. He stated conditions were about to get really ugly. Ok I’m thinking we are tourist and they are looking out for our best interest and it is around 1 pm. So we take the advice and head to ST Raymond and pull into Roquemont for lunch. From this point, we can ride to La tuque or park the sleds… With the sleet now coming down and the warning from trail security.. I’m thinking park them. I picked up the second to last room… 95 miles in.. safe warm… smart.

Our Quebec trip Sunday 2/24 through Wed 2/27 Myself and my 16 year old nephew. ( he doesn’t have Quebec rider handle yet) so for this story… I’m going to refer to his at Z16 Saturday all packed up and ready to go. Truck is full and we are on our way….. We pass through the Hooksett toll booth on 93 and as we pulled away, something didn’t sound right. I pull over check the trailer and find all the lug nuts backed off (luckily still on) on the left side wheel. The wheel is trashed. I had recently replaced both tires as they were chopped and it would appear I didn’t tighten this side up enough. No panic … grabbed one of my two spare tires… changed it and we are back on our way… We made it to the Hotel Drakker in Shawinigan by 11:30 pm. (Very nice place and the owner and his wife are wonderful) www.aubergemoteldrakkar.com Sunday around 9:30 we have our stickers on, sleds packed up and we have just had a great breakfast at the Drakker. Our destination is unknown as I’m kinda making it up as we go at this point. Z16 isn’t concerned as he just wants to ride. It’s not his first day as we have done server trips in NH since he was 11 but it is his first Quebec Trip now that he is 16. I had advised his to Bring his Big Boy Pants and reminded him that things can happen fast… stay right , be smart… this isn’t a race. It is starting to snow!

This is cool. The add can been seen at the following link.. http://www.rjsmotorsport.com/ this is not my snowmobile or an attempt to advertise for someones business.. This is just a cool sled Since it is rare to find good pictures I thought someone might appreciate the link

My stuff is so old.... If I found out who was stealing sleds and dropped off my sleds with them, They would deliver them back to the hotel I was staying at!

And the end of the day... ending at a gas station.. after being towed three hundred yards. Yes three hundred! I broke something in the chain case. It is either the chain, the tensioner or the drive shaft! This is the look of being thankful it didn't happen at speed or when I really needed the brakes! Many thanks to Glenn for riding back to the hotel and picking up his truck and trailer to get me back to the hotel!

Wed, another amazing day...

Pictures from Tuesday!

Just wanted to share some pictures from this weeks ride! Many thanks to Glenngo and to the Gentlemen from Maine... conditions were awesome!

HI, After reading these posts, I have made some last minute travel plans and will be up at the delta Sunday night! I'm also looking for someone to ride with during next week. I hope we can meet up. I can send ya some contact info in a pm, Thanks!

Thank you very much for the information. sent you a Pm. I just read my post.. I meant west of shawinigan.. I have been all over the place east but west is going to be new for me!

HI, Could someone please point me in the right direction. I need a recomendation on a place to stay around Joliette. I have never been east of shawinigan and I'm trying something different this weekend. Map quest has it about 300 miles out of concord NH and that is the same drive as shawinigan. Thanks Jason Ps. Many thanks to all who post pictures and advice for trips.

The add was written wrong. They are 1.25 gallons per tank for a totall of 2.5 gallons. Mine are from pioneer outdoor products. From what I just read on the internet pioneer was aquired by koplin. google search kolpin fuel packs.

This year I'm running an attack and I have been reading about the gas mileage. some good and some not so good. The rx warrior y I have does very well...average 18, highest almost 21 (realy firm conditions) worst 14 mpg and that was with temps above 40 with a lot of wide open running in pittsburg and then in the racing on back lake. I can count on 16 almost all the time. So seeing the apex/attak numbers I kinda had some concern that around 130 miles or so I might be walking. Last year we had a trail reroute through Monet......my warrior made it to gas with 6 liters to spare...The apex RTX in the group behind us didn't. I know when we left 1000 lakes and stopped for gas down the trail the apex was 2.5l more than my warrior. I see the 09 sdi take 17.3...the 07 dsi took 18.3 and the warrior took around 20 Years ago I was running vmax4's 750's....at 115 miles it was out of gas. (very constitant 11 to 12 mpg..so I bought a product called called fuel pack. I only used them a few times with the srx's I don't have any pictures and will need a few day to post some but I found away to mount them and you won't even know they are there and it doesn't look stupid. (gotta look good) The nice thing is that when the gas can is not being used the bag can still be used as extra storage... It adds 2.5 gallons (each pack holds 1.25) this is the product http://www.partsforatvs.com/shopcart/?p=2506 I will have to get some pictures up! anyways by the numbers 12 mpg/12 gallon=144 and 15mpg/12gallons=180 and 18 mpg/12gallons= 216 (not expecting 18 )

Flaging tape/caution tape.....just incase you come across a trail hazard...you can flag the area so the next group has some warning!