Signfan

In all seriousness this is pretty scary. Guy is very lucky to walk away. Got his arm caught in the tag line on the lift. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/crane-hang-toronto-construction-site-1.6511533

One trip that was memorable last winter was a 2 day getaway with my wife. We unloaded at the Hill and Gully riders clubhouse in Mulgrave et Derry. Road north to Mont Laurier and then looped back to the truck on day two. Found two really neat covered bridges on a club trail south of Mont Laurier. Grooming was excellent and found some awesome logging roads that were groomed to perfection. Anyways we ended up riding in freezing rain for the last hour of the day. No big deal till we tried to drive home. Coming out of the clubhouse on gravel mountain roads. Me in a hurry made one too many right turns and ended up mistakingly headed north further into the mountains instead of south to the Ottawa River. Came down one hill trailer in tow that dropped a couple hundred feet. It had a nice little s bend in it. ABS never shut off top to bottom. As I'm coming through the valley at the bottom nothing but hill ahead. So on the gas got it up to about 70 and she barely climbed the hill. Finally came to my senses at the top. Time to stop and assess. Got out and walked (skated really) to scout out what laid ahead. Road gets steep going downhill again and has a big bend in it. Nope something isn't right. No cell service to bout. So we unhook, swing the truck and trailer around and very slowly ride back down the hill where we came from with one wheel in the snow bank the whole way down. Just enough snow there to hold things steady, but its rainibg hard and freezing up just as quickly. Now I'm in a valley between two hills. Debate for a minute and decide first I need to sort out where I went wrong. I unload my sled and head back out the road to figure things out. Find my mistake and head back in. The roads had been sanded, but the rain was freezing a layer of ice over the salt and sand. So up and down the hill I run with the sled using the track to chew the ice up and bring the sand up top. It works, load the sled up and out we made it. Highways were arguably just as bad until we got to a lower elevation. All in all one scary drive (never been that nervous driving and I've took off in lots of storms), but still a great trip. I was thoroughly impressed with the trails in the Papineau Labelle Wildlife Reserve. Will definitely return.

Nothing about snowmobiling is cheap these days. Good value provided you can get your days in. With gas and diesel over $2 a litre I get it from the management side. Gonna make for an expensive riding season though. I can see the growth we've seen in the sport starting to fall some next season. Permits have always been the lowest cost items to participate.

Anyone heard anything on construction of the new trail? Is it started yet?

Oh no. Now's the time to do it. Simple argument. Anything that could be harmed in the install is already dead due to the washout. Now's the time to install it while the damage is done. This argument held weight for a new bridge several years ago. Never seen the MNR issue a permit so quickly.

As the title says let's post some pics and stories of your best and worst experiences sledding this past season. Any incredible days on the trails? Days you wish you'd left the sled in the garage and stayed home?

That worked. Anybody up for some white water rafting? That would be quite the ride down through there.

Link doesn't work

They are amazing swimmers. Capable of several 100 kms. Sad to see it end this way.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/polar-bear-gaspe-1.6437187

System error or a courtesy groom for the locals to allow them one last spin over the long weekend?

A north shore trip has me interested. Just found this article though which has me re-thinking it some. I knew Labrador had Polar Bears, but I didn't realise they came this far south on the coast. Figured it was up near Nain. Curious do the racers in Cains quest carry guns? https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6415937 https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/biodiversity/maps-sub-populations-polar-bears-protected.html I was even more surprised to see the vast majority of the island of nfld listed as Polar Bear habitat.

Getting sufficient power capacity to remote locations will be the real issue. Many stage 3 stations need three phase power. Some of these places are already on gen-sets with no grid connection and the places with a grid connection are only single phase. Doubling or tripling generator capacity would be pretty costly and defeats the purpose. Batteries need to come a long ways first. Double the range and then come up with a auxiliary pack similar in size to a linq fuel can and this might get to a point where it's feasible for the average rider. All the power to these guys. I hope they can do that. Performance will be awesome.

Wonder what ignited it?

Looks like the Mattiwan club threw in the towel a week ago. I hope the rest don't.

How far west did u get on 83? Was 83 decent towards Parent?

Please report back what you find. Having a similar debate. Looking at Sainte Anne Du Lac north.

Anyone ride up there this weekend? Anything left for trails and a base?

I hope you find some flat trails. Our experience two weeks ago was rough and rougher unfortunately. Seemed that the clubs just aren't able to keep up with the traffic. Weather isn't helping them any either (storms, high winds and warm temps). Further east around Cap Chat and east was better though. Have fun.

Completely agree. I'll send you her number. Please give her a call for me. Lol

Nice!!! Where did you stay in SDL? Still working to convince the wife we need one more trip. This looks like a decent idea once things cool off again. She seems to think I've blown the sledding budget. Lol.

Sounds like the drifts caused a few groups to turn back. Drifts at Mont Lyall were large (6' tall easily), but our group and a few other groups did get over them. Even a cpl yamaha's made it. Trail should be better today with it being groomed (we passed the dozer 10 km passed Mont Lyall and he was headed up through), but probably not great. He only got one pass in and had unhooked the drag for the Mont Lyall section. According to imotoneige he made it. Whether the moose is still there? Who knows. That's two of them causing sledders grief in the mountains. There is definitely no lack of snow up here right now. More snow coming Saturday, so this all starts again. Fun fun.

She was still at it today. We were about 45 mins sitting waiting. A group came from the other direction and pushed her past us. Not a fun situation. She was about a 1/4 mile south of the northern most warm up shack on the 595 trail. We met one group that turned around over her. Lots of others coming through. This is not a good situation. Must be something wrong with her to not be timid at all. We should have avoided that trail.

Headed there right now. Should be in Matane tonight. Hopefully the groomers keep up with the traffic. Where do I find the video on this moose? As nice as they are to see I hope we don't find her on our travels.