JBlavl

Starting at Drakkar on Wed night then heading for the Casino then the Delta and back to Drakkar on a 3 day loop. Already book at Drakkar both start and finish days. Figure small place and want to get the place I want. They have a reasonable cancellation policy (24hr). When I went to book at both the casino and delta it was either pay up front, non refundable for lowest fare, or pay a little more for no fee cancellation. But fine print says only no fee cancellation up to 48 hours in advance. So question is are these places large enough that I shouldn't have a problem getting a room if I call at lunch day of our ride there? Casino will be a Thursday night, Delta will be a Friday night. I'd hate to book ahead and have weather or a break down etc change plans and still get boned with a room I don't use. Also don't want to not book then get stuck without a room because of a hockey tourney or something.

They've never put the time on the 3 day passes I've got the last couple years. Just the date you want to start riding and the date you finish.

I have a couple bottles of that Maple Whiskey at home. I better drink one before I head up to get good an acclimated!

Just booked with Reggie for the 28th and 3rd. Doing a loop up to the Casino the Delta and back. Sounded like a nice guy on the phone.

Hope you bundled up this morning. Thats -24F (-31C)

Snow coverage on the west side (Roberval area) is a little lacking on snow coverage although I've read that it is passable. IMO I'd say run east.

Auberge Du Draveur is a fine starting point in Maniwaki. No point in driving farther than necessary. From Lake George you are about a 6 hour drive from there. You may want to check and see what conditions are like in the area if you are thinking about going soon. I know they just had a storm come through earlier this week but up until then I had not seen a lot of grooming activity in the area.

Domaine L'Ombre du Vent is in Parent and it's a great place to stay. Very nice. Very clean. Sleeps 5 or more easily. Price is very attractive. Beds are rock hard but other than that I can't complain about a thing. See pictures attached. http://www.ombreduvent.com/home.html Food around Parent? eh. Not a lot of choices for a fine dining meal but you can find something at Hotel Central right in town that'll fill your belly. I did the exact same loop you are thinking about doing 2 years ago. Did it in 3 days. If you wanted to break it up more I think Pourvoirie Fer A Cheval looked like a decent place to stay. I heard Hotel Tamarac in Clova may be open again, the school house in Clova I also heard is nice. And I've heard Pavillon La Verendrye is an ok place to stay. When I was there it didn't look like much for sleeping accommodations but I didn't stay so don't take my word on it. Good luck and have fun. It's an awesome loop that'll take you out in the middle of god's country!

I've heard this of Quebec dealers too. Amazing. That happened here and you pulled into my dealer like that you'd be waiting a week just for them to confirm the problem.

You have a website for this webcam you speak of?

GFS says it's going to be wet Friday. Canadian Model says it's going to be wet as well: The Euro also shows precipitation: And it shows that it's going to be above freezing: These all seem to be in pretty good agreement for Friday but I would bet they change before Friday comes. That's a long ways out for a storm this complex.

If you get cold put one of these on under your jacket. Turn on and off as desired. https://www.milwaukeetool.com/heated-gear

Another not Quebec pic. But I got my early season fix in Upstate NY. Woke up to some fresh pow pow.

Engineers are tasked with using the cheapest solution that is practical for the application. Pop rivets on a manufacturing line are installed in seconds and they do the job and cost almost nothing compared to a lot of the other fasteners mentioned here. Serviceability is low on the priority list for the manufacturers.

I don't think I would use them on the bottom plastics. They are subject to too much punishment to rely on plastic rivets IMO.

Polaris uses these in a lot of applications. They are easy to get on and off and work very well. However on the bottom panels they still use regular rivets. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MBEE8BA/ref=asc_df_B00MBEE8BA5298710/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B00MBEE8BA&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198059945180&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8279484664997314109&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007168&hvtargid=pla-349370846139

Hey I would have gone along for a ride. She wasn't too bad on the eyes.

Today's the day. I can feel it!

Are you referring to iMotoneige for your phones? I downloaded it last year but it's not showing the groomer delays and says its the 16-17 trail map. Do you need to download a new copy of this app each year?

How fancy you looking to get? There is Real Masse. Hotel Central. Motel Du Mon Trinity previously Motel Montagnard. Auberge du lac Taureau. Lots of options.

Hey Amigos! Fire up el motonieve! It's snowing clear to Mexico! Yet the groomer has not passed icemans house yet

For sure iceman I have run into this situation before as well. A couple of times in fact. Last year we were sitting on the ice near shore of Lac St. Jean when we were all talking in English a man we had passed sitting on a snow bank overheard us and came over to say hi. He said it was very rare for him to hear people speaking in English and wanted to practice with us. He was relatively good for never speaking and not being of the newer generation and we enjoyed chatting with a local. Had a similar situation when we were lost around St. michelle des saints 10 years ago. Ran across a man walking down a trail hunting when we stopped for directions. We gathered quickly that he had a hard time with English but we worked through it with him and got the information we needed and thanked him and went on our way. I can come up with a few more scenarios but my point being I know where you are coming from and I at least find that is part of the appeal of going to Quebec. Learning about the language and culture but understanding I am in the minority end of the language barrier and more often than not feel like the fool in the conversation than the french speaking person, and that's ok. It's part of the experience to me. I wish I was better at French so I could practice my French with them. But the experience I mentioned above was very different. The waitress had an attitude anyone could pick up on. More or less laughed at us when we were trying to use google translate. After finding out later she knew at least some English and picking up and thinking about her body language more after the fact made me realize she had done it on purpose. It was deception at it's finest.

This article reminds me of going to the snack bar in St-David-de-Falardeau last year. When our waitress came over we politely in French asked if she spoke English. She said no and got rather cold to us. Granted we know very little French we were tying to be nice in asking a couple questions and using google translator and the waitress was clearly very annoyed with us and paid very little attention to us after that when we were the only people in there. We were being very respectful and doing our best to bridge the language barrier but when we went to pay she gave me back my change and said what my change was in English. I said you do know English and she just smiled and walked away. She must subscribe to this nationalist movement the article talked about. If she knows English and just doesn't want to speak it thats fine but I didn't see any justification in her attitude after she knew we did not speak French. I mean we were there spending money in her establishment. We didn't have to be there. In general I've found that speaking English on the western part of the province is more accepting. The farther east I've gone I've encountered similar situations to what I just mentioned.

Ding ding ding Alain you nailed it. Thanks. Looking at the trail map it doesn't look like the trail goes right through there now but it is close. Was so long ago its hard to remember but maybe we skirted the road to find the place. Mystery solved!

One week to go before my guess comes up. Suppose to get cold this week. C'mon big snow big snow big snow no whammies!