RoadRunner

We arrived at Auberge du km 31 this afternoon and had to go out for a run, put on a quick 80 miles in 3 hours, caribou conscripts as been out packing the trails and the off trails are all powder, making excellent going. the cold temps to harden down the packed trails, and more light snow on the way will make for prime running. Happy trails RR

Groomer, now you need that at Albertville!

Groomer, hope you get a good storm to start to put a base in, RR

Lets keep our fingers crossed

groomer, you are the best on keeping us posted,, I like that little snow bank on the road, at least its white haha We are going to try to ride somewhere late this week again, either back up to valin, or north shore of the gaspe. thank you for posting the fresh pics

Groomer, thank you for sharing the pics from yesterday, hope you are getting snow now and more on Monday maybe . Looking forward to hearing about the mountains being white and to see some snow banks on those roads or even better, your groomer out on the trails. Think Snow!! Best regards RR

Hi groomer,, Seasons greetings to you, those are great old pics from years gone by of the logging equipment, and some of the current pics on the equipment still there. Hope all is well and that the snow comes soon to you, RR

Quebec Mountain Rider, It will be great to have someone that rides that area alot and can keep us posted on conditions. Sounds like you have a great knowledge of that area . We have been riding through that area between cap chat and grand vallee , murdochville and la cache dozens of times over the past 30 years, just have never been there for early riding or just to hang and explore the off trail roads and elevations. It truly appears to be an awesome area to do some local riding. Mt valin is struggling for early snow cover this year, (as is everyone) we did get some riding up there last weekend before the rain on sunday. Best regards RR

Great trip rendition, thank you for sharing the pics and writeup!

I apologize for the confusion, you can get to trail 3 from 93 out of mt Valin, we had intended to leave charlevoix, go to Alma, Mt Valin, on 93 to tadousac and back to charlevoix on trail 3. We didn't particularly want to ride the 30 miles of trail 3 back to ST Simeon from tadousacc That is the section that is being discussed and is not being maintained at this point, so that what i was referrinig too. You certainly can come down the 93, hit trail 3 in Sacre Coure and head east to forestville, baie comeau and sept isle.Should all be good going east of Sacre Coure Enjoy the trails RR

This is still the case, we stayed last night at L Anse St Jean at the Auberge Cevennes, absolutely a great inn with excellent food, the owners are very proactive in the snowmobiling interests of the area. He said that the trail 3 between tadousac and st Simeon has a major bridge out and not sure when it will get opened, The 383 out of lAnse St Jean down to baie st Cathering is open, but is bushy and only had a pass or two so don't expect too much here either for a while Thanks to Bobler, we averted the run from Mt valin to tadousacc and than do what we thought was going to be an open trail 3, no such thing yet. 4-8" of new snow in the Charlevoix region yesterday afternoon and last night. It will greatly improve the condition here, They already were fairly decent The past couple of days we rode up the 83 on thursday and than 383 to Ferland, all was good into ferland , with just a few miles south of ferland getting a little boney. We stayed on 383 Big mistake, with the idea of picking up 368 over to and hitting 23 to hebertville to stay at the presbytere. 12-15 miles of this-383- had very low snow cover and was extremely boney, should have taken one of the cutover yellow trails and picked up 83. We got through that, had lunch at the Boulanerre? club house and onto Herberville, The section of 368 was rough until it crossed 173, than good going after that to 23. At the Presbyterre in Herbertville, and nice evening here On Friday we rode out of herbertville up to alma, trails were passable with a snow ice base in the fields, kind of typical early st jean valley riding. Stayed on 23 through to alma, picked up 93 west and than 328 east, 328 was great over to Begin, with plenty of snow cover, we crossed back down into shipshaw, and ran the valley on 83 down to 383 and into l anse st jean. The valley has just marginally enough snow to pass, but once you are east of la baie the 83 and 383 are really in good shape. Nice couple of days of riding, Enjoying the casino this afternoon and some football RR

Thanks Spump. We were very close to connecting. Hope to catch up some day. RR

Thanks bobler. I wondered if that might be a prob. Didnt look like much traffi. Last week when we crossed the ferry in trucks. The st catherine to st simeon can be rough on a good day!

CS I have not run from tad to st simeon yet, will be doing on saturday, will take a look and see what it looks like. RR

We rode out of the Casino today, headed west on the 378 to St Hilarion, this trail was freshly groomed and awesome for minimal snow cover. Picked up 3 and headed East through Clermont and on to ST Simeon for lunch, trail 3 was fair but passable throught to Clermont, great from Clermont to St Simeon. The last 3 miles or so into St Simeon on the usually very nice road has been rerouted due to logging, you run the plowed section for a few miles and than for the next several miles down and below the power line you take the reroute, the reroute is twisty and bushy, but looks like they will be plowing this section for the winter as they have just put in this. We back tracked 3 to clermont and came back to the casino for the evening. There is a section on this piece after you pick up the 378 again that has also been rerouted for about 1/2 mile, this is fresh and is down to ice and rocks, Passable, just take your time. Tomorrow we will head up the 83 and this should be great as we get away from the river valley Enjoy RR The Re route into St Simeon The 378 west of the Casino More pics on the 378 Near St Hilarion Just outside of the Casino where the access trail meets 378 west

Thank you Groomer, it may not be anything and I may have mis interpreted what he was telling me, hope all is well , that is a key trail!

I am at Malbaie and heard through an interpreter that part of trail 93 in the sacre coure area is blocked due to a frustrated farmer, It didnt sound like it was a snowmobile problem but that maybe he had some issues with the province?? Can anyone confirm, I may have mis interpreted the discussion. It supposedly happened yesterday or today??

Groomer, good to see that you are out getting some hours on the machine RR

Glad to hear that the river crossing is frozen, was there on last thursday afternoon and the center channel was still open

Nice Report Andyman, glad to see the Gaspe opening up

MomoJohnny, That is actually a road up north of the 93, it is not maintained by any groomers but nice with these conditions that we have. You may need to purchase some ear plugs

On Friday we rode North off trail to Baie Comeau from Forestville, Fridays ride was 275 and required the fuel sleigh On Saturday We rode trail 3 from Forestville, Godbout, and Port Carter The trail system from Forestville to Godbout, The "Roller Coaster" is in fair to good, needs a little more snow to smooth out the bottoms of the roller coaster, a fair amount of wipits in the trail. Still all very passable, from Godbout to Port Carter is good to excellent, good snow and groomed trails all the way. Early Rider gearing up the sled from the ride back to Forestville on Sunday Morning. In Baie Comeau, we chatted at Breakfast with Ole Farmer and his wife as they were out saddlebagging and heading on the Sept Isle. Trail 3 from baie Comeau to Forestville is good to excellent, The last 15 miles into forestville needs a little more snow to get into excellent status, some but all very passable The bridge over the Besiamite River built in 2010 I believe Over all, we had some great rideing, a total of 1350 miles for the trip. Enjoy RR

On Thursday day we also rode the Forestville Mt valin areas, taking a more northern route up to the north end of the Bras Louis rode, The unmaintained portion of the bras Louis was the roughest we rode all week. The trail portions of the system are all in good shape and being maintained regularly. The "School Bus" trail from Mt Valin East to Escoumin was groomed and in excellent condition, the only note here that one of the best part of this trail, the valley run down into the Escoumin Club house has been re routed this year due to logging, much of this nice winding, big road run has been diverted. Still a nice ride, just you miss the upper part of the Escoumin valley road This pick was some unmaintained fresh powder rideing we did on wednesday Some really good going Trail 3 from Escoumin to Forestville is fair to good and all passable. Kind of early riding conditions as there are many wipits in the trail as the groomers have only passed a few times and have not chopped off many of the wipits. As would be expected, the closer you get to the river, the lower the snow cover is, many parts of the Trail 3 in Cote du Nord pass down near the river, especially when getting into towns. Don't get me wrong, these are still very passable, just dont qualify as excellent ;)

We had another great team Maine ride this past week and weekend. The middle part of last week included 3 of us that rode on and off the trail system in the forestville, escoumin, labrieville and mt valin areas. On Friday, 6 more landed in forestville and we did a nice ride to baie comeau via labrieville on off trail logging roads and than a trail ride to Port carter and Back to baie comeau on saturday. On Wednesday we rode up into Mt Valin, We also rode the yellow trail up into the Portneuf River valley, great falls and excellent snow conditions. Wednesdays ride was 275 miles of both groomed and non mantained logging roads. Falls on the Portnuef River Plenty of Snow on the secondary trails around east valin Nice Groomed Trails here! I will post more pics soon. Enjoy RR The Iron Dog race is coming fast, and Cains Qeust will be here before you know it, many thanks to the genereous supporters for the Team Racers

Thanks for the reporting SMC, Sounds like this area is opening up nice. The business's on both shores need the traffic and everyone is itching to get on the snow