Sledwhore

You can do 400+ in most of Canada when the stars align..First you need 2-3 guys max that will take off early, ride late, only spend as much time eating as it takes to fuel the machine and don't like to stop and B.S. Trails need to be mostly flat and open. That's why I'd like to know how the trail is to Chiboug... Makes me nervous if there's no gas from la Dore to Chiboug, especially since it will be late evening...Via explorer doesn't show any gas..Where exactly is the saw mill and does anyone know there hours? Thanks

Three of us are thinking of doing a quick last horra trip next week. Shawinigan to Chibougamau, and come back the next day. Yes, we are aware it's about 440 miles, but we are all accustomed to 4-500 mile days. None of us have ever been up past St. Felician before. Wondering how the trail is? Can we keep a fast pace or is it winding or mountainous? Also, Via Explorer doesn't show any gas stops. We each carry 3 gallons, probably only good for about 110 miles in good conditions. Thanks all thoughts appreciated

Just joking with you JG. Keep up the great work!!!

Great pics......but I think you should stay away from the selfies......the one of 3 guys in front of the motel is....welll..........creepy.

Nope, no five hr energy shots for me... A snickers and a Monster keeps me rolling. No iceman stickers on our ride..we would, I saw numerous ones throughout our journey in warming huts and stuff. That does look like the exact route we took, if you just scribble back and forth a lil by Roberval...lol....The signage was rough there.

Decided last wed night that myself and my buddy would leave for Shawinigan Thursday afternoon. Wifee approved, good to go!!! "Just be back on the Island by 3:00 Sun for your daughters recital !!!" Sure no problem, I reply....Basically, plan is that I leave Long Island by 2. Well my luck, my sister in law has a baby and my wife is off to Jersey hence I'm in charge of my 3 daughters. Well wifee gets home around 6 and I'm head into nyc traffic by 6:15...😰..Uhhg..get him in CT bought 8:30 and arrive at Drakkar just before 5A.M. Mounted, fed, fueled and rolling by 9:30 with no planned route or destination. Just need to pump out a good first ride. Hammered along 3 east beautiful trails to 23 north. Stopped by the ski-doo dealer in St. Ray, grabbed some oil and headed dew north. Well groomed trails up to Le' tap. Fresh snow, tons of dust north up to Mt. Apica. Overall good trail all the way up to Delta. Arrived about 5:00 ...271 miles. Niether of us had ever been up to the Delta before. When we walked in, we were greeted by a gentleman holding 2 plastic cups of warm beverage. " you boys look cold, have some Caribou" having never met him or even seen a picture of him before I said "thanks Bill". An honor to be welcomed to the Saguenay region by the Legend himself. After breakfast and some quick directions from Bill, we were off to go around the lake. Bill said it would be a long day, but dew able to make it to La'tuque. 93 west was fast and beautiful. The same down 373 and all the way to St. Felician. Although the trails were good, the signage was poor and we wasted a lot of time with map guessing, U turns and luck to make it into Roberval and fuel up. Pulling out of Roberval, we see signs La Tuque 150 Km. No problem!! We hit 83 and keep following the signs for La Tuque.....after about 30 miles I start realizing that we should have been off 83 by now to get into Lac Ed. Then I finally see a maker 83 West....WTF..??? Neither of us had ever ridden this region before. It was pushing 4:00 and we had no idea how far relays 22 was...or if it was even open. I wanted to retreat back to Roberval, but no dice..we pushed on to 22. Now it's just about dark and I figure it would be nice to grab a room at the relais and finish up the trip back to Shawinigan tomorrow. Once again, my ruling was overturned, when my buddy said "we gotta get you home by 3 tomorrow ". With my wife's voice ringing in my head, we run down 73. Kinda shitty trail, very winding and slow especially since it had not been groomed since the fresh 8-10" of snow and maybe only a dozen sleds had passed. Into LaTuque around 8:30 p.m., fuel up and we decide that since we know from here south, let's run it in....down 355 to the power lines, heading for the pipeline and the trail turns horrible. Turned around went back to 360 and ran it all the way in jumped onto the river and took it into Grand mere. Passed the groomer and beautiful trail back to Drakkar by 11:30 with 440 miles on the clicker. Beating my high mileage record by about 60 miles. 711 miles in 2 days....pretty good for an unplanned trip. Load up the truck, shower, eat, bar and bed around 2:30. Slept a bit and rolled out of there by 5a.m. and I slid into the resital at five to 3. Woo hoo ! Thanks to my buddy Kevin for pushing me and making me a hero to my daughter. Hope to do a couple more trips like that later this season. Need to bust Kevin's 1 day record of 540 miles 😬. For now, I'll be packing up tomorrow to catch a plane Wed for West Yellowstone. A change of pace to play in the mountains on 155's and be happy if we do 50 miles for the day. Thanks again Bill ! ! We did it!

Last week we compared my '14 Rene 800 etec with 3k miles to a '17 Rene 850 with 1500 miles and already a new water pump. Rode over 700 miles in 2 days. Drag race on trail was dead nuts even for first 1000 feet than my 800 pulled slightly. Oil consumption was a lil better on the 850, nothing crazy. The etec got better gas mileage on just about every fill up, again nothing crazy. The new chassis has you sitting higher and a much narrower seat. Also approx 10 times colder (in fairness he did have stock x package windshield). The new chassis absolutely blew me away when it came to handling. Minor clicks were made on the new skis of the rear skid. I was constantly rolling my sled on the side to try and get it to handle in the ever changing conditions. So all in all, I'm sure I will own one soon, not for power or fuel/oil consumption, but for the handling. Just need to try one with larger flaring before I pull the trigger. Can anyone elaborate on what happened to Bill..?? Just met him Fri night.....what a great guy.