iceman

Day 2 Sunday. A beautiful blue sky day on the Gaspe. Left St. Anne des Monts and today we were riding all day in the missing man formation in honor of our missing member Snohors. We miss you man. TQ5 not many other choices. And direction East. Trail is beautiful weather is great. We set off with intentions to hit every lookout around Mount St. Pierre, which for me will be a first time experience. It's fun to play tourist I must say. Having a very stress free ride and enjoying the laid back we get there when we get there vibe of this group. I like it. Smooth run to Mount St. Pierre. We take in the sights and take lots of pics. (Well not me as my camera is in Shawinigan in my damn tank bag). We jerk around there quite a while hitting all the lookouts. Then off on, you guessed it TQ5 in search of gas and will be Grand Valee. Off we go, in the valleys is pretty icy and not as nice as in the hills but is to be expected. Not much traffic so far maybe 6-8 sleds. Trails are very nice and though this section of trails shows last groom on March 9 it has held up well as very hard and frozen. Into Grand Valee with 125 miles on my Apex and took 32 liters. Nice. We decided to have lunch at the Hotel there and so we shall. After cheeseburgers and some soup. We ride on. Back to TQ5 and east toward Gaspe. Another first for Trailblazer as he has never run 5 all the way around to Gaspe. Now he has. Check. Conditions still very nice with hard trails some traffic but all well behaved, with the exception of the giant group stopped before Gaspe, surely all locals but they were parked like they were dropped from the sky. All over the place. After one guy moved we could thread our way through. Not easily but we are out of there. On down and just before Gaspe we top the gas knowing there will be none in Perce for us tonight. Easy run to the Trail to Perce and in we go to get JG to the Rock in the daylight we had left. So it was. We take the usual pictures on the way down to Auberge Table Roland and the guys take JG to the Pier and the ride right out on it to get a few more Pics. Great day, great trails, great team, so far awesome weather. Some snow for tmmrw(today) but nothing crazy. Nice awesome stay at Roland and watched the sun come up next to Perce Rock. Oh how I long for my Island. 260 miles for Day 2 still no parades in sight.

Hello guys, enjoy the ride.

Friday On the road. First off I want to start by thanking my advance team members none other than Scorpionbowl himself and Mr. Marty for doing the pre-run of the loop for us and providing the vital intelligence we desire. Merci Beaucoup. Make no mistake it is full on winter conditions here in Gaspe. Not so so, not just OK, its fricking super duper. It's on. Gonna be good here for several more weeks unless a serious warm up and big rain were to arrive. That said Team Iceman is on it. This week we have NH moose, Playhard and myself(duh), and we are very excited to have along on this adventure none other than Quebec's own Trailblazer. The powerhouse that is Team Iceman is now an unstoppable force with the welcome addition of JG. It's been long overdue for him and I to get a ride together and we are all very happy to have him with us. Friday afternoon myself, NHmoose and Playhard converged on Moto Thibault in Cap de Madeline. We hitched up the toy box loaded up Moose's sled and hit the black trail to RDL. Smooth sailing to our starting point and we got settled in and not 15 minutes later Trailblazer was on location as well. Got checked in and then I realized i had made a blunder and forgot my Tank Bag in my car back in Cap. Oh well no big deal but really pissed me off to make a mistake like that. No GPS(not important) no camera(again no biggie) BUT my entire supply of stickers for this run were in there,(that sucks bad) had a bunch to Give to Scorpionbowl for his re-supply but oh well life goes on. We gathered up in Scorpionbowls room got a briefing on exactly what and where and enjoyed some cocktails and got to catch up on all things. We talked a long time. So long that the restaurant closed. Oh well. Playhard called it a night while moose, blazer and I taxied it to La Cage aux sport. Was after midnight when we returned. We called it a night and turned in. Day 1 Saturday. After a few hours of sleep we took the breakfast with Scorpionbowl and Marty and then suited up to unload the girls and bag up. We said our goodbyes to Gary and Marty who were running the black trail today to the US of A. Left RDL on what can only be described as lusciousness. And headed east. TQ5 was delicious and I must say that I was surprised at the amount of trailers at the hotel. We passed some sleds but not too many for a Saturday and trails were really outstanding all the way to our first gas in Rimouski. We take 578 back to TQ5 and continue east light snow and big snowdust from the sleds and wind make it really have the feel of mid Feb. We continue on and decide to gas again in Matane to top off for the run to Mont St. Anne. We take a break at the Relais in St. Adelme. Yeah no sticker for u. Cause I got none, tabernak. Mount up and continue on perfect trail despite the Saturday traffic. We sail on out east and down into St. Anne des Monts to Hotel & Cie. Nice relaxing day of awesome trails with great people. 260 miles but sorry, we did not get to see any parades. Maybe Tmmrw. Got our gas and locked up the sleds after checking in. You know what that means. That's right it's trail meeting time. We break out the snacks and the Jack and talk all about it. Then down to the resto here for an awesome dinner of Steak and Frites. Damn good. Iceman is sleepy now and he is not the only one. Tmmrw we take aim at Perce and a stay at Table Roland. Until next time. No internet all last night and this morning, thanks to Playhard for throwing me the hotspot from his phone for this post.

Merci beacoup. Good luck in your Quest to the snow. Let us know what you find where.

I would not be going out on the river after the last week of weather here. Suicide. Gaspe leaving tmmrw afternoon. Thru next week.

Gonna be tough in and out of town in Chicoutimi. No doubt bare pavement leaving LA Saguenenne. Not terrible but certainly more to deal with then at the Fairmont. I think lots of snow still in Charlevoix and I would go to Fairmont. Especially with family in tow. Sled rental on site there I believe and they can lay out a route for you. My 2 cents

Yeah try St Raymond You can go up 23 one day to L'etape and 73 to Latuque another day. It took a beating here this week and near St Raymond I'm sure faired not much better. Once away from St Raymond it will be better. In the woods. Or go to Mattawin Chez Marineau you know where that is trigger.

Yes, unfortunately I have been following this. What we have here is the Paramedics following protcol. Is it right? Hell no, but they have a way rescues are carried out. These Paramedics were assigned to the "route" and not authorized to enter the bush without fire/police operations. Yes the human thing to do is run in there and help, for sure. Things need to be changed. Sadly too late for this man. Probably one of the worst places to have an incident, not to mention the conditions that day(full blizzard) and yes Paramedics were at L'etape but they protocol requires they enter the trail with the Fire Dept or Police but only if equipped to do so, helmets and protective clothing. Response time is long in many area's then add the weather that day and you have a tragedy.

Probably true Chris on the better half. Let it be known. Belinda is a trooper, and all the ladies in the Triggerhappy crew certainly are "riders" no doubt. They can all ride. Certainly was a "freak little accident" and could happen to anyone. Heal up Belinda.

"i stay away from big crowds" I'm with you JG. 100%

Mrs. Iceman? She is my hero for sure.

Nice Trip Glad it worked out well.

Rivers bad, lakes too. Go up to Mattawin and maybe from there but not sure there will be any grooming.

Sounding good Scorp. The natives are getting restless. We are gearing up. End of this week we jump.

Oh yeah baby, we know when it's best in Gaspe. It's not february any year. Ride on boys. Wanting to be there badly.

Nice run you two. Excellent report as always. I did a ride from my home saturday too and sadly think it will be the last from here as well.

Damn....more bright sunshine?

Alcohol and Native People. Bad combination. Then add snowmachine. Total disaster. He should be hung by his ba**s and left to die a slow death alone in pain.

From club motoneige Mauricie A compter de ce soir les rivières seront toutes fermées par mesure de sécurité il y a déjà des endroits qui sont à l'eau. Les sentiers ne seront plus entretenus à cause du climat en ce moment. Les surfaceuses seront sorties si les conditions climatiques nous le permettent. Nous sommes désolés de vous dire cette information. Les machines en ce moment ne sont pas capables de travailler car la neige est trop pleine d'eau. As of tonight the rivers are all closed for safety reasons there are already places that are in the water. The trails will not be maintained because of the climate at the moment. The resurfacing will be output if weather conditions allow. Sorry to tell you this information. The machines currently are not able to work because the snow is too full of water.

Love reading your reports Alain. Nice ride there. Some nice trail out there. Good Job.

Permanent Resident Card much better than your work visa. Trust me on this. lol. Blackjack. Yes I was not saying actually use the Nexus lane but just having that card and using a regular lane makes things easier. The way to do it if you ride only here in QC is bring the trailer once. Find it a happy place. Then have Nexus and cross with ease.

To use Nexus lane yes, but you can still use it at the regular lanes if you have someone without it with, and with nexus you speed up tge process. From what I've seen even one person with the Nexus seems to relax them quite a bit at the border.

Nexus rules. This is the way to go.

Newbie in the booth no doubt. By the book and then some.

I know several people who flew to Canada (montreal) from USA only to be checked there by CBP, then denied entry and sent back on next flight. Snowbirds I don't know.