snowfarmer

Day 1:  2 sleds leave RDL. Head down 526 to 85 south. Take 85 south to Degelis. Trail flat with 2-3 inches of Pow. From there take 571 north to Squatec. Few bumps but 7/10. Have coffee and then head on 35 west to trail 5 near Rimouski. Perfect trail , now 3-5 inches of Pow. Take 5 East to Mont Joli. Here again trails flat and groomed. 4-6 inches of Pow. Mint!! From there take 587 south to Amqui. Flat and fast. The new snow gets less as we head towards Amqui. 1-3 inches of Pow. Decide to head south/east on 5 down towards Albertville and check on clubhouse. Closed. Forgot it was Wednesday. Closed at 4:00 today. Head back north/west back to Amqui and get to hotel. Selecthotel. What a great day of riding. Snowed hard in the morning and then on/off until 2:00. After that sun came out and it was beautiful. Fields early in day were white out, but woods were fine. Saw maybe 5 sleds all day, got to love mid week in late March in Quebec. 260 miles for the day. Could have not asked for better conditions. All the dirt roads, road crossings, parking lots were frozen up again with snow on them. Looked like mid winter again. Off to Murdochville tomorrow. Here are some pics for today.
Bill

Ditto on the ice ripper! No more regular studs for me! They don't hook up like normal studs but for 99.9% of our riding they are perfect!
 

Update > The 1200 lives on to be ridden another season!
We stopped at the dealer on the way home yesterday.  Sandi had sent them an e-mail earlier so they had some basic info.  At the dealership, Sandi's sled starts right up and sounds fine.  I pull it into the garage and up onto the lift.  The mechanic hooks the chain lift to the back bumper and picks it up.  He is slowly rotating the track by hand and ah ha!  In french, he points to a missing stud.  Now he picks the sled up higher and looks at the heat exchanger.  That looks fine.  He now goes to the front of the tunnel in front of the drive axle to the little radiator bolted to the bulkhead.  There is a gouge in the radiator.  OK, now we know what happened.  The mechanic says that the one ply tracks aren't as strong as the older two ply tracks.  This sounds a little like Ray's trailer tires made in China! 
So Sandi's sled is getting a new track and new radiator.  They are going to replace the drive axle bearings while it is apart.  She has 9,200 miles on it.  The sled will be ready to roll again.
It was good seeing fellow riders at the Universal, the Gutz guys, Phil, Scranton, Doonali and gang and anyone that I may have forgotten to mention.
This was probably our last trip for this season.  Have a great summer folks.
Jack & Sandi
 

Gaspe to murdochville
trails 9-10 per BJ
trails 5-10 per Phil
is somebody aging faster than anticipated?
Group vote had trails 7-10.
apparently the groomer may have groomed when it was too warm as there were a bit of ruts in the trail on the green trail to murdochville.
*BJ didn't notice any ruts

Day 5 Tuesday 
we leave Escoumins at 9:30, looking at grooming report its gonna be right back up the 93 the way we came, forecast is for some snow tonight and I am not keen on driving the 175 in snow. So back to Chicoutimi and we will load and go for Shawinigan tonight. 
TQ3 is just as we left it yesterday. Nice but not great. Its like this all the way to Sacre Coeur. Very melty with mud near all roads and big puddles. Kwiknick hates the puddles don't like getting his sled dirty. I get it. 
At 93 trail is groomed just like it showed. Up to Coronet and gas and go. We reach the big 93 and we rocket off up toward mont valin. Maybe 15 miles up I get a radio call to hold up. This can't be good. Sure enough we got an issue with the MXZ. Track is coming apart on right side. Delaminating and missing a chunk. Well isn't that just peachy. We trim off all the bits and tell him take it easy. Figures the nicest groomed trail here and now we gonna limp it. So we do all the way up and to the top. Left turn Continuing on 93. Not groomed here but about 5 miles in i round corner and face to face with big groomer. Hello there. We pullover and let him pass. Four sleds right on his tail tearing it up. Such a waste. Surprised they were even grooming middle of the day as warm as it was. Thus makes the ride in better for us but much more painful as i have a hard time going slow. We limp it on at 40-50 mph. Tops and make it on beautiful carpet like you rarely see up here. Just my luck. Low Low traffic. Seen about 6 sleds all day so far. Groomed flat all the way past Passion QC. Just down the hill there by groomer garage we trim more track off its flapping. We tightened the track a bit too. We are gonna make it to the truck. Once offf mountain its another world. Rough and melty as hell. Puddles, mud and snirt in many places. Getting ugly down here. Worse as we get farther down. 93 to Sonic for gas after the Airport. Gas and onward we go we reach orange trail to Shipshaw. Its nice very flat. Down to where you ride road a bit to cross bridge there. Its 8-10 deep water on the bridge a lake. Well small ocean. At shipshaw same thing major deep water puddles crossing both bridges. Time to get out of here. Its going fast. Through town very different than day 1 when we left hotel. Ugly mess. Times up. Back to hotel at 3:15. Load up get changed and southbound at 4:15pm after a bite to eat. Home at Chez Ice at 8:15pm. 
Great Run all in all. 
Close to 1200 miles  Nick says 1187 miles.
Part 3 to RDL Thursday with Playhard, NHmoose and NHmark. 
 

Looks like a great day , I'm jealous! How was the trail into Chap Chat for fuel ? Two weeks ago it was a chiropractors dream come true . Lol

Life is to short to ride what you don't like

Looking outstanding. Nice Pictures. Rooting for you guys I know its gonna be perfect. Enjoy. Hopefully we can cross paths. 

Doonali has been assigned to handle the trip report....much more to come.
RDL to cap chat was excellent.  Tons of snow and not much asphalt when getting gas.
270 miles

Back at the chalet for 6:30, 580 klms. Trails north of the Petit Train du Nord are still in great shape with some bar spots when cresting hills and road side riding. Very cold in the mornings, Sat -17° C and Sun -12° C but by 11 am we were in positive temps and opening everything we can. 
Trails south of the Petit Train du Nord are in trouble if this sun keeps up. Trails that were opened for logging are down to mud, road crossing are down to mud and gravel on the shoulders, spring sledding has definitely set in around here. You'd be rolling the dice for the next couple weekends. I'm done with this area, gonna get the 4 wheeler out of storage soon then browse what's left of the trails.
Next week, season ender in the Cote Nord. Yup that's right back up there again.

Ride up to Notawissi was all surprisingly groomed and flat EVERYWHERE. We are 4 to meet 2 more at Cecaurel, we get there and they are no longer doing a Relais service, reservations only for evening stays, okay now where's our boys. We leave a nessage for them and off we go to Val Viger for lunch and gas. 45 minutes later boys show up, now we're 6. Onwards to Notawissi but not with out a stop at the SAQ in Ste..Anne du Lac. Now we're good off for some walleye.


I tuckered out the boys in the morning so they got a little R&R while waiting for our late arrivals finishing lunch.

Day 3 Sunday
up and out of Auberge Dilligence a full hour earlier then yesterday. Nice fresh groom on the 93. We head back west and take the Local 901/701 back over the Lake and to the Local 715? Back to 373 and up to 93 and over to La Dore. We are filling in the bingo card. One trail at a time. Top gas in La Dore. Then we head out on 93 and I make a stop at the Snow Cross track so Kwiknick can take a few laps. Big mistake as its hard to get him off the thing. He is loving it. Races were friday and saturday and there was no one there this am. So it was all fun and games. I thought about going to get a case of beer and just sitting in the bleachers to watch him do his 300 miles on this track. If left to it he most certainly would have done it. Enough of this we are off. Traffic has been heavy coming from Dolbeau. Nothing worse than Sunday. Well no where better to get away than up to the Sawmill we hit 93 and burn on up to the sawmill. This trail not groomed in many days but in great shape. Into sawmill at noon. We have a discussion as we were planning to run to Chibougamau and back. But we decided to veto that and was a good choice I just was not into it. Back down the 93 and we take Local Orange 716 to Restaurant Chef for gas and a quick break water and candy bars. 15 sleds here eating. Beautiful sunny day blue skies and sun is warm everyone is out riding. We return to 93 and complete the Bingo card back and retrace our route from this AM. Back to Dolbeau then 93 to 367 still in nice shape here. Down a bit and we take the Local Orange back up to 93 in Sainte Jeanne d'Arc east on 93 and its choppy here not terrible but showing effects of all day traffic and warmth. To 900 local then 902 gas in St. Ludger and then we roll on trail is real nice. Soft but nice. Back to 367 at Relais Mt Vilain then we fly south to 328. Lots of folks out today. Can not believe how many are stopped right on sides of trail all over just drinking beers. Nuts. 
Down to 93 and into Alma. Very melty in town. Sun is doing the damage. Cruise on into to Universal Hotel at 6pm. 
319 miles. 

 
Nick feeding his addiction. I think once he has to pay for the next time bomb out his own pocket he might get it. Not sure. 

Nick's first trip to Sawmill but not that sleds first for sure. 

giant trucks at mill for wood pulp

 
Nicks sled looks like a toy
 

We won hearts and minds today, out for a perfect Blue Sky Quebec day trail ride, short ride up to La Baie, lunch and a ride back to the Ravage.  In by 3 PM , Sauana time for the wives...and us. Things are good!  A happy wife is a good wife🍻🍷
Tons of sleds on the trails, I was going to show them the fishing village but it is gone??  I think we interpreted right that the village was removed at the last thaw due to ice conditions?? Anybody know?
Deer, Duck, Elk and Trout tonight, Noel has a full house thus evening! 
Home tomorrow!
Back to Forestville Wednesday night for a boys run.
RR

Some more pictures from Rob from today's ride and other ones too.

I started this thread about timing which can mean a lot of different things when doing these kind off tours. The weather , grooming , if you get a hot shower or not because there is to many people in the hotel and the system can't keep up! ( can't you tell this happen to us) I also was hoping we would run into some other QR riders but we were either a little to late or little too early. One thing I wanted to do was to catch up with Linda but she was a day ahead of us . I figured we would catch up in Amqui Sunday for dinner no matter what!  
My buddy Richard who I've been riding with since 97 and done many of these tours with but we always have to watch the weather because of his snow clearing business . Well Ontario is going to get hit with a storm and it's timing couldn't be worse. So we make a plan because we have to get home a day early. I call Linda to see if we can get to Amqui could I borrow her truck so he and I can drive to RDL to retrieve mine . Yup not a problem she says. So this morning we split up again and have Rob lead the group of six while Richard and I do a cannonball run from New Richmond to Amqui. Trail 5 is perfect again with about 75% of it as been groomed in the last 36 hours. We left at 8:35 and made it to the Ambassador by 12;20 . In the truck off to RDL and back by 6 so we can have dinner with the whole crew.
We all got to do dinner but had a nice unexpected surprise that Jean Guy was able to join us before he headed out to groom trail 5 tonight . I didn't have time to take pictures but Rob did . The rest of the group had a great day. 
This was the last trip of the season I'm sad to say. It's off to Whistler next week for some different kind of snow fun. It was a great snowmobile season for sure and I hope to catch up with so old and new faces in 2018.

Ah the Gaspe ' showed her beautiful self today !  Cold and sunny with hard packed groomed to perfection trails. We lucked out the groomer reports look good leaving riviere au renard . We split into two groups. One group to the Rock in Perce and one group taking the fresh groomed orange trail towards 597 the new south to Chandler .  I was in the latter and have never taken the orange trail south of the town of Gaspe" or have never run the 5 from Chandler to the west.
Both groups were rewarded well for their choices. The scenery and trails (597and orange) were perfect . So perfect we arrived at the club house in Chandler by 11:30 for lunch . After having a leisurely lunch we headed towards our stop for the night which will be New Richmond. Again the clubs worked their magic even with less snow and a hard base things were smooth all the way in. The trails around Bonaventure were espically nice! Great relais! 
We have always taken the trail north to Murdochville and across to La Cache I glad today we went outside our box! 210 miles for the day.



 



 

 

Just an update about the Pete( guy with blown motor) that's his new ride.
The dealer in RDL came and picked him up out in the sticks in Rimouski. Hauled him back and took a look at the cylinders and as the the Groomer would say "Kaput"
options rent, 1000$ for the week or buy because he was going to do it next year so... buy it was. They gave him a fair trade and , charged him the Ontario sales tax and moved the trail sticker. Arrange for him to be trucked up to to meet us in the Chic -Chocs and was there for dinner all in the same day!
Great ski -doo dealership !

If you are sitting at your computer, staring at the groomer map, at 5:55 AM every morning hitting the F-5 key to refresh like your waiting for the stock market to open, you may have a problem!
Jack & Sandi

hi andy ..linda ..terry...steven and tom !!!
 
back from a 12 hrs run !!! lots of snow...long day !!!
great sleds andy and tom !!! like to see old ones too ...look at the front suspension !!! hahaha...and people were still having a lots of fun !!!
linda...inside trailer there was a few sleds...tv ...etc..mac doo snowmobile safety training unit..there was a tnt or blizzard inside....olympique 12/ 3 and nordic i think..i remember going in the trailer...
great pic and imagination terry !!! place look very familiar !!!
steven .....1390 du phare ouest .......at the corner of 132 and 195 ....street with paper mills (195 )...with all your knowledge about the gaspesie ...should be easy to find !!! quality inn ....not too far on the west side!!!
ps...took a short ride in the rhubarb going backward ...lac saumon...
 
jean-guy

Ice Ender part deux.
day 1 Friday
This chapter began Friday Morning, After going to bed at 1am after doing my laundry, The boys were up before me and downstairs chatting with Mrs Ice before she went to school. I got up at 7:30 then went down to join the fun. It was time for Caro to go to school. I kiss her goodbye after my short visit 8hrs home with her 6 hrs of them asleep. She knows it's what i do, it's winter. We had a set plan for today. But now with the snow storm there was added items to the list. Had to clean up the rest of the snow so we could get some firewood out of the shed for the Mrs. Can't have Mrs. Ice be cold. Bad idea. I snowblowed my way to the woodshed. Kwiknick shoveled the snow at the front and kitchen doors. All this while Snohorse was unloading my parts I ordered and shipped to him in Mass. Better than fed ex these deliveries. Next I turn my attention to Snohorse's trailer, not buried but needs a bit to free her. While i do this, the guys load wood into the house. Trailer is free, wood is in, done. I go in house to finish packing and take a quick shower. Guys hook up trailer and load my white Apex in the trailer. Done here, time to move on. I take the wheel of the rig, black trail or white trail I get it done. We are off to Louiseville to pick up a pair of Ski Doo's. We arrive there just around 10:45am. We put the Enduro 12 hundy next to the Apex in the trailer. Then unhook trailer to load Kwiknick's MXZ with the new heart in the bed of the truck. Pin the trailer and back on the road. Stop at Porte de la Mauricie in Yamachiche for lunch at AW burger. Then we leave .Yamachiche at 12:15 destination Chicoutimi. Smooth trip up to La Saguenee in lobby of Hotel at 3:45. Check in load gear into room. I take time to go to restaurant to say hello to Sylvie. Been too long since I have seen her. Such a sweetheart. Spoiled when she waits on us. We get suited up and drop sleds. Time for a shakedown run. Out of hotel down 83 to 368 to Latierre then 383 toward Ferland-et-Boilleau, then up local 21 back to 83 and return to hotel with 80 miles on. Time for a dinner with Sylvie and a few drinks. Sleds great and trails are awesome. Unreal conditions. Pinch me i'm dreaming.

Last Day of Ender Part 1....continued
TQ3 was not broken all the way to St Aime de Lacs, like surfing in the powder, unbelievable. After crossing the Lake it's more of the same. Down to St Urbain here the road crossings are broke open and the trail had been opened with the Dozer without the drag, not sure if this is better or worse. Better at road crossings but in trail is two big trenches to ride from the tracks. Not always easy especially for the new guys. A bit further on and we catch the dozer. Back to ooening it ourselves. Just a bit further and Al is stuck, looses momentum and down he goes. We pack it down around him and get him going. Some serious hills out there and was not easy. Looking back it was quite challenging and fun, but at that time knowing we had far to go made it daunting. We push on but its slow going. We arrive at Relais outside BSP at 11:30am. No tracks headed west on 3, deep deep snow. We know dozer is coming (we past it not far back) but where is he going when he gets here? We decide to wait and see. The ladies who run the relais arrive. playhard starts to shovel out the front door for them, i decide he should not have all the fun i grab another shovel to help out. We finish the deneigement and anxiously await the ski dozer. Two others artive behind us on widetracks. We hear him getting closer. He arrives and clears the snow in the intersection, he then spins around and we are not sure where he is going, then he throttled up and headed west. Yes! Finally catching a break. Well might as well eat and give him time to work. We wait 45 minutes and go. Its better for sure being busted open by him. The two widetracks waited with us but left ahead of us so now we catch up to Dozer, taling a break. Ahead of him is tge tracks from the widetrack guys. Hey this will work. We fight on and after one more stuck for Al on the powerlines(really really deep) these guys did great considering their experience levels. Really good. Bit further along we realize gas is gonna be a problem. We make it to the forrestry camp there on 3. Well no gas or resto this year. Oh well time to pour the gas we got. We push on to 320 to St Anne du Beaupre. Trail is marked Cul de sac. And not showing gas. GPS says petro canada 3 something miles. We gotta go. Down down down, trail on powerline past entrance to Ski Place says Fin Sentier. End of trail. Still 3.5 km to gas. Theres tracks so we follow down and into a new development, bare pavement for a bit and we see tracks along road and red sticks. We got it, into gas and quick chat with a local tells me keep going to rejoin 3. Excellent. Now we roll more traffic has been here. Trail choppy but bigger. No bobsled track. Up to rejoin 3. Here Scorpionbowl and Marty bid us farewell as they will run ahead to get to St Raynond. Slow going through QC city but better trail. Through QC and to Donnacona at just after 6;20pm. 
Falling asleep typing. I am spent. I will finish for you tmmrw. 

Last Day of Ender Part 1....
the skies cleared and it was time to bid farewell to the Fairmont. A guy could get use to that quite easy. Staying there. I'm gonna give the summary of our epic return trip from Charlevoix to Trois Riveres. Leaving the Manoir, the trail is broken by the ski dozer for us up and out to 378 the all the way to Clermont. Up to TQ3 and here we are on our own. No trail broke open here by tge machine. Marty and Scorpionbowl are busting it, I'm third then Al, Andy and David. This would be our order for most of this ordeal. It was to be a long day. 
Got to go eat dinner, part 2 of this Ender is underway i am in Chicoutimi and need to go see Sylvie and get some food. I will finish this tale tonight for you, and give you  rundown of Day 1 of Ender part 2. 

I knew you would get another rip in Jack & Sandi!  Conditions thruout PQ are too sweet to leave alone!
I just arrived home to NJ an hour ago. 2 hours on sled & 7.5 in truck.  
Enjoy!
Tom