Gullyrider

Hey .. our dozer was out yesterday (though not on a trail). We were trying out our new early Christmas present to ourselves .... !

A Very Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends! And happy bargain hunting tomorrow! (that particular mania has migrated north, by the way. I'm not sure if we'll get to return the favour with Boxing Day madness... !).

Pardon me, Daryl, but I erred with respect to the péréquation, lumping it in with the annual trail grooming assistance doled out by the FCMQ. In fiscal year 2018-19 , in Region 13 (the Outaouais), only the Pontiac and Maniwaki clubs received Péréquation monies ($60,000 ea.). As the other five clubs have sufficient member/kilometre ratios, they didn't receive any of those funds. In our case (the Hill & Gully Riders), we received $12,850 as our annual operating grant. The Fonds de Neiges assistance for grooming after 15 March was $1152.92. In season 2019-20, no Fonds de Neige funds were disbursed in the Outaouais because of the COVID shutdown. All that to say that the FCMQ funding plays a smaller part of any club's budget as compared to membership/trail pass revenue.

The Federation doesn't save any money per se because it's not the Federation doing the spending. Under the current model, the Federation's main contribution to club funding is the "Perequetation" where, according to an agreed upon formula, clubs receive additional funding based on the kilometres and hours groomed vs what their level of membership is. High mileage clubs with low membership numbers receive more while low mileage clubs with many members receive less. Some clubs never receive a cent owing to their high rates of memberships and low hours spent grooming. Still, promoting increased membership is always more lucrative than relying on the additional Perequetation assistance. Besides, that money is better left for remote clubs who don't have the option of easily increasing their membership. The Federation also administers the "Fond de Neige" which subsidizes grooming early or late in the season. This is to help out clubs that have extended winters because of their locations. Still, with the snow seeming to hang around later these past few years, our club northeast of Ottawa has been able to avail itself of the Fonds de Neige funds a few times, but it amounts to just a very small portion of our funding. The main source of revenue is always the actual sale of memberships (aka trail passes).

I know .... a ridiculous characterization. And this from the political party (the CAQ) which was supposed to be "snowmobile club friendly". Anyway, what follows is a translation of a communiqué issued by the FCMQ to club executives yesterday. In the end, we don't foresee many negative consequences of this legislation when and if it is eventually adopted and if it ends the threat of lawsuits to landowners, or regional governments, for allowing off road vehicle right-of-ways, well, all the better. Good morning all, This communication aims to follow up on the announcement of the tabling of Bill 71 of 22 October 2020. The Fédération des clubs de motoneigistes du Québec (FCMQ) is currently working, together with legal authorities, as well as other stakeholders, to properly assess Bill 71 presented by the Ministry of Transport. Each section of the law will be carefully evaluated in order to recognize the changes made to the Act respecting off-highway vehicles. The FCMQ will express its point of view on the subject, via a brief, to the National Assembly. The author of the brief will be invited, during public hearings, to present the brief or the views of the FCMQ and answer questions from Members. This will take place at the Parliament Building at a later date which is not yet determined. We have been waiting for a long time for clarifications and revisions to certain points of the law, our job now is to ensure that this bill reflects our interests. Please accept my best regards,

The decision was taken to suspend the publication of the province-wide map and accompanying service guide as the two of them were expensive to produce and of questionable utility. When it comes to hard copy, most people prefer the regional maps anyway. Unfortunately, in the Outaouais region, we were also forced to suspend publication of this season's regional map because, with all the uncertainty, the sponsors just weren't interested in jumping on board. However, iMotoneige will be continually updated, and trail and equipment preparation is proceeding as per usual. The ability of those in the hospitality industry to accommodate us is still an open question. There might be a whole lot of trailside munching going on!

A few weeks ago Hogan Gidley said "“I’m not sure why you would want to go to Canada ...". Now there's a video to back him up:

Well this sucks .... the restaurant at Rapide-Sept has gone up in smoke.

So far, one of our groomer operators has seen it flash once .... when he met a neighbouring club's groomer at an intersection. Oh well .... at least we know it's hooked up right!

Yep ... it's a good spot for snowmobilers and locals alike to drop in on winter weekends. We sure do miss it once the snow's gone, but the off-season traffic doesn't warrant paying a someone to man the place during the spring, summer and fall.

Hi doo4adoo, I try to get to the clubhouse when I can, mostly on the way home from some excursion or other, and certainly at all the parties and special events. The fellow you're remembering is Jeff Muldoon who has a cottage at Hawk Lake and I believe works (worked?) for Goodyear. I can't claim to know him very well, but I certainly remember him from various events, and, as you say, he is a well liked and fun fellow. Apparently he used to sled back in the day. Exceptionally, the clubhouse will be open this Friday morning for the launch of our annual club trip, so I'll ask our bar gal Tammy if Jeff has been around so far this winter .... if anyone would know, it would be her.

Hey, we're not proud .... we'll take your "accidental" money! Still, we are very lucky to have the AMVN as neighbours. Their grooming and signage are top notch. I think we're there with our grooming, but it will take us years to match their signage! I'll keep an eye out for N.Y. plates in our lot 'cause we're always pleased to be able to host our American neighbours. Have a great winter ...

Hi Blueskyride ... if you're using Google maps, or perhaps a GPS, our civic address is 149 Chemin Inlet, Mulgrave et Derry. Parking is available to everyone 24/7, and the clubhouse itself, which is a licenced bar/restaurant, is open weekends from 9:00 am each morning. So, there's no need to suit up out in the cold if you're leaving on a Saturday or Sunday. We're located about a kilometre or so directly north of Lac La Blanche, and the trail passed right through the yard.

Hi Sledfarmer ... Thanks for the compliment! Up until this past weekend, conditions from the clubhouse north were all-round excellent. Now, we're currently facing a minor challenge as the John Deere that grooms north towards Duhamel from the Clubhouse calved Saturday evening, and we only managed to limp it home yesterday morning (a hydraulic hose for the ramsteer popped a fitting and, while attempting to limp it home Sunday, electrical problems erupted. We thought it was a bum alternator, but it turns out an electrical junction box under the cab became mangled. We're currently waiting for our chief mechanic/dozer driver's garage to be available before trucking it south for repair. In the meantime, our Pisten Bully will be doing double duty. It will be heading up that section of trail starting 5:00 am tomorrow morning. That heavy wet snow was just what the doctor ordered to put the finishing touches on our trails. Once we get that all groomed, now that it's cold, things will be in great shape! We're still lacking in the signage department, though, so the iMotoneige app would be a nice feature to have on your phone. Dan

Absolutely! I'm not interested in how many riding buddies you have .... keep you hands on the friggin' handlebars.

One of the francophone forums has a lot of detailed discussion of this tragedy by people who are either from the area, or are involved. Once again, "get-home-itis" played a significant role. They departed later than scheduled that morning, the trajectory was too long (350km) for tourists, and they arrived late, north of Alma, with still an hour to go if they took the marked trail through town versus 15 or 20 minutes across the unmarked lake. The guide made the wrong choice, and led most of his party, including himself, to their deaths. Why people continue to ride on unfamiliar or unverified ice confounds me too. However, in this case, most of the victims were blameless.

Thanks for your understanding, Playhard. Case in point: Virtually all of our trails were dragged within the past 24-48 hours, but the trail conditions still show "closed". I contacted the director in charge, and she explained that she couldn't get the spreadsheet to open while she was at work and, while drafting a message to that effect to the tourism authority, someone came into her office with some crises or other (she's a fairly senior manager) and that was that. She only realized just now, while trailering to Ste-Anne-du-Lac, that the information wasn't relayed. She's trying to do it in transit from her phone, but I doubt the regional people are at work today (they're Mon. - Fri. 9 to 5'ers). Oh well ... it is what it is .... now ... bring on that storm!!

The new "trail conditions" function is causing some confusion. The FCMQ has allowed each regional tourism authority back-end access to the interactive map. Each region has a point person who is supposed to upload data gathered from each club in their respective region detailing trail closures, conditions and the odd information note. What's happening, even in our club, is that the groomers are running around packing, or even grooming, but the club is being hindered from designating the trail "open" for various reasons. Thus the "grooming delay" function shows groomer activity, but no one has yet made the call showing the trail "open". It could simply be a matter of the club representative not having yet completed the requisite spreadsheet that has to be forwarded to the regional authority. Our club gal contacted me this evening wondering when we can designate sections of our network "open", but we'll have to hold off until tomorrow evening when we get reports from our drivers who will be out tomorrow grooming what we hope to be 10 cm of snow (though it's looking more like 5 cm or less - oh well ... there's more coming to our area on the weekend). Very long story short ... another duty has been downloaded on to the club executives' shoulders, and there will be teething pains until everyone is comfortable with the new arrangement. It should work well eventually, however, when it's all sorted out and everyone's comfortable with the system.

Yipper .... we drove into Mékoos from 100 Lacs late Friday afternoon in a very light freezing mist. We woke up to pouring rain Saturday morning, but it had quickly turned to wet snow by around 10:00 am. By the time we left Mékoos for the trucks at Ste-Anne Sunday morning, there was close to a foot of good snow on the ground and still falling. On the way home, it had thinned out a bit by Mont-Laurier, and diminished to about an inch of wet snow by the time I reached home in Mayo. Anyway, Ste-Anne-du-Lac to Fer-à-Cheval and on towards 100 Lacs then back Ste-Anne via Mékoos was all good .... 10/10 I'd say.

We drove up the hill immediately past the main entrance to the building and there was a decent sized lot up top. We had three pickup's with trailers and there was lots of room for them.

We can vouch for this resort. It's luxurious and affordable, and they treat sledders like royalty. Moreover, the nearby Hotel du Chasseur is a great little spot to pop into for a pint and a poutine, wings or any other pub grub that suits your fancy.

I agree with CNC's comment that the contractors hired by the FCMQ to process the requests were probably overwhelmed by the last minute rush. I was monitoring daily pass sales in our own club, and, up to the last two days, was starting to get a bit worried. Then ... boom ... they all started flooding in. Multiply that by 199 clubs, most many times larger than our own, and you've got quite the logistical challenge. As for the $15.00 charge, again, as CNC said, that's Canada Post's premium mail charge. When I was personally mailing them out for our club, I sent them registered so that I could track the delivery and have it confirmed by signature. However, that capability ended at the Canada/US border. We had one Vermonter complaining about us on Hardcoresledder, wondering if he'd been scammed because, weeks after his credit card had been debited, he still hadn't received his pass. After I contacted him, we found out it had been sitting in his post office up the street all along! The funny thing was, on HCS the Ontario Hill & Gully Riders were taking the fall for this as most didn't realize that there was also an identically named club in Québec! Phew ..... dodged a bullet there ....

I was on a conference call Wednesday evening where it was explained that our regional tourism authority (Tourisme Outaouais) will have a point person with access to the back end of the FCMQ's interactive map (which also links to the iMotoneige phone app ... I think! My french isn't the best either!). Each regional tourism authority will coordinate with its various clubs to gather up to date trail conditions and upload those conditions - with comments if necessary (i.e. open waterway, washed out bridge, logging, etc) to the FCMQ map apps. The frequency of these updates (daily, every couple of days, weekly) will depend on the availability of the club's point person to provide them. Fortunately, we have a young, web-savvy and perfectly bilingual (she manages a shop of federal government translators) director who has grabbed the reins of this project and has promised to provide weekly trail condition updates to our regional authority where it will then be uploaded to the FCMQ site. It sounds like a good and viable initiative, and we're interested to see how well it works. Of course, groomer activities (the groomer delay button) will still work too.

Trail patrollers, who, of course, are snowmobilers themselves, are mainly interested in seeing that you made a good faith attempt to support the trail network to which they devote so much of their time. I think it's pretty unlikely that any patroller, once presented with evidence that someone did indeed order and pay for their pass, would be all hardass about the lack of a sticker or whatnot attributable to mail delays As a patroller myself, I know that once I'm satisfied that someone made a by-the-book effort to obtain their trail pass, and is not trying to scam the system, I am more than happy to thank them for their support and wave them on. For the most part, we're not faceless bureaucrats trying to ruin someone's day because of some technical issue (though I have had issues with the odd police officer!). Because of the last minute rush for trail passes, and the volume of Christmas mail being processed by Canada Post, the FCMQ has requested that both patrollers and police officers exercise good judgement and be a little bit indulgent towards riders who are rolling with only a printed receipt of their pass purchase. Makes sense to me!

It's probably worthwhile considering that Ontario, whose trail network and membership numbers are quite similar to Québec, have sold their trail passes exclusively online for about five years now. Anyway, at this point in time, our kitchen table would normally our be covered in the Club paperwork that our secretary had gathered up by travelling all over the country (at his own expence, I might add). My wife (the club treasurer) would be going out of her mind counting and recounting upwards of sixty grand in small bills (while trying to calculate the applicable taxes) and I'd be trying to input the data from 400 poorly written pass slips filled out in gas bars, dealerships and dépanneurs. Instead, this year we've simply received semi-weekly emails detailing just how much money was directly deposited into our bank account (with taxes already calculated), and I have access to a database where the info has already been entered. And ... to top it off ... our club is 27 members to the good over last year. If we had a bottle of champagne ... we'd pop it! I guess Molson's Ex will do ...