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With regard to the uncertainty I would think that for anyone planning a trip it would be a good idea to research the different clubs that groom the trails on your intended route. Armed with a list of their FB page, website and telephone numbers, you would possibly have the best resource for local info on trail closures. Every year here in QC it is the responsibility of each club to meet with private land owners on whose land their trails pass and get their approval in writing and so they know better than anyone where the UPA members lands are in their area and are monitoring what the local situation is day to day in this crisis . At least that is the case ( monitoring ) with my club.

I posted the following earlier today in "heard a rumour", but maybe it would be better here now that you have started this thread. This morning Feb 1 from Diable et Rouge club Tremblant. Basically it says,closure of the trails by the UPA as of Feb 1st the club has no information from the local section of the UPA and so the club considers the trails are still open. They are following the situation closely and if the UPA decides to close the trails the club will conform to the decision. they hope in their heart that the differences between the farmers, the club and the government will be resolved to the satisfaction of all. FERMETURE DES SENTIERS PAR L'UPA .... EN DATE DU 1 FEVRIER N AYANT AUCUNE INFORMATIONS DE LA SECTION LOCALE DE L'UPA LE CLUB CONSIDERE QUE LES SENTIERS SONT TOUJOURS OUVERTS ..... NOUS SUIVONS LA SITUATION DE TRES PRES ... SI L UPA DECIDE DE FERMER LES SENTIERS LE CLUB SE CONFORMERAS A LEURS DÉCISIONS .... Souhaitant de tout cœur que le diffèrent entre nos cultivateurs partenaires du club et le gvt se règle a la satisfaction de tous !!!! Quote Edit Quote this

This morning Feb 1 from Diable et Rouge club Tremblant. Basically it says,closure of the trails by the UPA as of Feb 1st the club has no information from the local section of the UPA and so the club considers the trails are still open. They are following the situation closely and if the UPA decides to close the trails the club will conform to the decision. they hope in their heart that the differences between the farmers, the club and the government will be resolved to the satisfaction of all. FERMETURE DES SENTIERS PAR L'UPA .... EN DATE DU 1 FEVRIER N AYANT AUCUNE INFORMATIONS DE LA SECTION LOCALE DE L'UPA LE CLUB CONSIDERE QUE LES SENTIERS SONT TOUJOURS OUVERTS ..... NOUS SUIVONS LA SITUATION DE TRES PRES ... SI L UPA DECIDE DE FERMER LES SENTIERS LE CLUB SE CONFORMERAS A LEURS DÉCISIONS .... Souhaitant de tout cœur que le diffèrent entre nos cultivateurs partenaires du club et le gvt se règle a la satisfaction de tous !!!!

And where are you situated?

Well that is too bad, been there many times riding from my house and staying at either village de Windigo or chutes de Windigo. Always a variation in trail quality as we move from club to club and the amount of traffic but never that bad.

I have seen more reports suggesting the 6th than the 1st, however a local paper gave the 1st as the date. I guess this reply is about as clear as mud, 😐

You can go on line and fill in the form. You are supposed to do it ASP after buying your seasons pass ( 10 days max I think ). You must provide name of insurance company and policy #. The FCMQ insurance is through Intact Insurance. https://snowmobile.intact.ca/

Two of my older Polaris have a grease nipple on the jack shaft bearing and a sticker on the air box reminding you to grease it. My Yammie doesn't, guessing it is a few bucks cheaper to manufacture with just a sealed bearing.

We were a venture GT, grand touring 1200, and a mxz. We were on the other end of the 43. Left montcalm ( weir ) down the railway bed and through st Remi to Brebeuf. Yes nice riding we had little traffic and only 1-2 sleds ahead of us on a Newly groomed trail once we got to st Remi. Railwaybed was not groomed overnight, few studded bumps and loose snow but still decent.

Yes Diable et Rouge groomed all their trails Fri waiting for colder temps and most but not all again last night. If you we the second st of tracks out of St Jovite today, we might have crossed paths. 4 of us went for breakfast in Brebuf.

Here is the act respecting off road vehicles in QC. Pretty lengthy and it does cover Atvs as well. Maybe there is a link to a condensed version on the FCMQ site. Also with regard to day passes, maybe your best bet is to look up the particular club that is responsible for the trail you plan on passing on once crossing the border or contact the fcmq directly and ask how you could get day or multiple day passes ahead of time. http://legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/ShowDoc/cs/V-1.2

With respect to those trail conditions, what were the night time temperatures?,I think I know why since we had similar conditions in Tremblant. Yes the trails were mostly trashed by heavy traffic and the free weekend. It was mild when most clubs groomed for the free weekend and mild when everybody drove on them they never got a chance to set up. It was never cold enough all week to make grooming worth while, they don't like to groom unless we get cold nights to set them up or they are ruined after just a few sleds pass. We had no grooming here all week until Fri night when it got colder, but still not cold enough for a really good set. -5 fri night. I rode Sat morning Tremblant to Labelle on freshly groomed trails and by afternoon they were beginning to get chewed up.

Ouch on the break down, but the rest of the trip sounds / looks good.

Not that I am aware of. I imagine which ever way it goes the news will be out quick.

Way I look at this on the multiple machine aspect is, Ski hills offer seasons pass to the individual person not their equipment. fcmq actually registers the person not the machine on the free weekend. You would not be putting more sleds on the trail for the same price. Same in a way for the multi prov pass idea, you pay more but you can't be riding in both places at once. Seems to me marketed right it could actually increase revenue from passes and grow the sport.

I've often thought there should be a reciprocal privilege type pass available. Paying a extra premium for a pass that allowed access to the trail system in a second Provence would interest me. A few of my buddies buy both a full Ont and a full Que pass, would be far easier to buy one pass at a discount over the individual price. I've also thought there should be a discount for one person with multiple machines, got to buy passes for each but I can only drive one at a time anyway!

If it heated strong enough to melt the ice in some conditions, ie freezing rain in 20f and the wind chill from moving, you would melt the plastic lens. Taller windshield with a recurve forward to direct the air over the helmet would probably help too.

While there is no announcement on the site, it might be worth reading this and realize that, 50% of Quebec's trails are on private land and we as snowmobilers ride on those property's as a privilege not a assumed right. I can only assume that the fcmq is not sitting with it's head in the sand over this, but working behind the scenes in what capacity it can to minimize the impact should it occur and announcements on the fcmq at this point may be detrimental to their approach. The landowners Snowmobiling in Quebec distinguishes itself by its trail network which is the object of envy from snowmobilers everywhere. Totalling over 32,000 km of interconnected trails located in virtually every corner of the province, it stands as one of the most impressive recreational trail networks in the world. In fact, there are more kilometers of groomed trails in Quebec than there are of paved roads maintained by Quebec`s Ministry of Transport! While the latter are property of the state, the same cannot be said of snowmobile trails. Tracks everywhere The arrival of the snowmobile, and particularly the incredible popularity boom of the 1960s and early 1970s, changed Quebec`s rural landscape. In essence, it is not to overstate matters to proclaim that the snowmobile became, almost overnight, a “must have” for a significant number of Quebec families. The practically unbounded passion of the new enthusiasts resulted in the countryside becoming a huge playground, with snowmobile tracks appearing almost everywhere. While one could assume that farmers and landowners would have objected to this condition, the reality was that most got swept up in the fervour themselves, contributing to the situation. The arrival of trails At the beginning of the 1970s, some began working towards the establishment of a trail network that would link communities and permit travelling to take place in a safer and more consistent setting. The process of creating these trails started off slowly and rather informally, with (snowmobiling) landowners offering up access to their land for this fledgling network. Localized and formalized trail systems began developing in a simultaneous fashion across Quebec, and soon visionaries began contemplating and calling for the establishment of an interconnected, province-wide network. Growing into a new reality As the developing system grew over time, doing so at an ever-increasing pace, new concerns began to appear, namely getting land access from landowners who were not avid snowmobilers, as well as issues related to liability concerns. As is often the case, the solution to both issues laid in a single course of action, that is, the creation of proper land-use permission agreements. These simultaneously made it possible to establish precise terms and conditions for the use of land, while also creating a contractual basis for the issuance of critical liability insurance coverage for the landowners. Land-use today Land-use permission agreements continue to be the basis for the establishment of trails on private land (which account for 50% of the FCMQ`s 32,000 km of trails). Each fall, volunteers from each of the FCMQ`s 200 member clubs meet and negotiate tens of thousands of land-use agreements with landowners. These standardized agreements provide protection to landowners. It is important to note that landowners receive no payment or compensation for extending this privilege to the snowmobiling community. In the case of public lands, clubs must obtain permission from the land manager. Loss of land use Land use is a privilege, not a right. As such, the land-use agreement is an inherently fragile document that can be revoked at virtually any time by the landowner. As such, clubs often rely on signage or other means to raise awareness and ensure that snowmobilers respect the allocated corridors. Despite this, the issue remains contentious and snowmobilers are reminded that seemingly harmless off-trail excursions could potentially have a serious impact on the trail`s long-term sustainability. FCMQ programs The FCMQ, its clubs and volunteers are extremely grateful for the generosity of landowners, for without them, our trail system would cease to exist.

Similar article in the l'information du Nord ( Mont-Tremblant )paper today and a picture of a trail side sign. This paper has the date as the 1st of February for the closures in the Laurentides if there is no movement on the government's part. The article does go on to quote the president of the local snowmobile club as saying what they are hearing from the local farmers is they will not participate in this blockage. Let's hope for the best, the season is short enough.

Besides the map(s) and their trail condition status I like to look up the face book page of the individual clubs whose trails I will be running on and book mark them on my phone and look them over the night before or morning of a run. Not all are as active as others but often times you get up to date info you can't get on the map such as this lake is slushy but marked and safe, the groomer will be out tonight on this trail etc.

No info on the route yet. Only info I have is the the post by the club. Looks like it will not be open till next season but if they start posting the projected route I will post.

There was a press conference this past Friday at the comfort inn in Tremblant to announce the openning of a new trail that will link St Faustin to Tremblant re establishing the the route from St Agathe to Tremblant lost by the closure of the Petit Train de Nord a number of years ago. Here is a link to the announcement roughly translated on the Diable et Rouge club FB page. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1085133484930832&id=115355755241948

Sat Jan 21. We did not get the -5c weather Fri night that was predicted. It was cloudy and a slight foggy drizzle with the temp around 0 to +1 c Sat morning but all the trails had been groom dispite the mild weather. We got going around 9:30 and the plan was to head from Montcalm over toward Lake Macdonald down the 317 to laurel. Then decide either to go to Pine hill and beyond or scoot back up 16 island lake and get on to the 43. There was a press conference Fri at the comfort inn concerning trails in the area and a 45 sled caravan of club and FCMQ people was leaving Tremblant and doing the same loop we were considering in the same direction. 317 had not seen much traffic when we arrived at it and that meant we were ahead of them. Last thing we wanted to do was follow in the tracks of 45 sleds chewing up the trail in mild temps. We decided to basically do the same loop going back up 16 island lake and taking the 43 past fort west ( relais des pins ). 317 was surprisingly good as was the 43 till fort west. The lake was slushy but passable and I had visions of my brother driving my wife's little 121 in track XC getting stuck or getting the machine sideways in the bigger pools. We stopped for lunch at fort west and there were lots of sleds but vacant tables inside. While they do serve weekend meals of hamburgers fries, poutine, soups etc, I found the food lacking from the days when it was a good spot to eat on some major trail junctions and not a paint ball park serving a few meals to passing sleds on a secondary trail. After lunch we pull out and the temperature and passing sleds had done some damage to the trails down to brown here and there but mostly soft loose wet snow on a hard base. We decide not to take the time to ride into Tremblant and gas, relying on the spare gas we are carrying. We continued up 43 by passing Brebeuf and it was clear the 45 sleds plus all the regular traffic had passed before us. Don't get me wrong I have been on way worse trails but they need cold weather and a groomers touch. We branch off of the 43 and down out of the mountains to St Remi and onto the railway bed along the Rouge river to Arundel and down the lake to home. As I roll up to my garage my low fuel light flashes on. I dip the tank on the XC as the fuel gas is not very accurate when low. 1 inch in the bottom. A 3rd machine carried on back to lake Macdonald with not much to spare in his tank but a gallon left in a jerry can. The wet snow really sucked the ⛽️ milage.

Good idea!

Jan20th. just came home last night after a couple of days down in Montreal. Wednesday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of new snow here and as we headed down toward Montreal it turned to freezing drizzle around Hawkesbury. I was told similar weather up here but returning last night there is little evidence of any snow loss or crusty snow. Light dusting last night and disputed the mild weather the 317 was being groomed as we passed. -5 for tonight and Hebou Blanc says all trails will be groomed tonight and again Sat night ( nothing like the free weekend to get the clubs putting the spit and polish on the trails). Supossrd to be +1 Sat and 0 Sun with a 40% chance of drizzle for a few hrs on Sat, not the best but I feel that given the rock hard trails we had last week, the should stand up well through the weekend. Time will tell headed out tomorrow with a few of the guys.