zeusand

Back to a full menu today, working toilets business as usual. The building is smoldering ashes, and they will slowly replace everything that was in it. The groomer has a window that blew out and electronics that are melted, but parts are ordered and they expect it will be up and running quickly.

Started in La Tuque up to St Felicien 373 around lake to Alma down to The Roquemont all Good!!!

Not yet. 

Cannot give it all up…..got to keep the traffic low round here. 
 
 

Hey folks,
Boots on the ground in RDL. Got checked in and all parked, took a 50 mile burn to stretch the legs this afternoon. Snow cover is low-ish, but extremely enjoyable. You’ll click the skis a few times getting out of town, but once past the Adventurers you’re pretty well set. Ran down 85, up 544 to 44 back to 85. Tomorrow we will run down through Cabano and over to Pohenegamook. 
The Universel is a ghost town. There’s nobody here. Now’s the time to make the run if you can. Saw mikerider a few moments ago, I think he’s had the whole place to himself…the hotel and the trails!
On another side, two of us are running the new CKX Mission helmets now. Both of us came out of Oxygens after hearing rave reviews from others we know. This helmet is all that! It’s not as quiet as the Oxygen, but it’s so much lighter, no fogging issues at all and I can turn my head without turning my body while it’s on!
New to me this year is a 2023 Renegade XRS 900R with SmartShox. Another game changer. Came off a 2021 XRS 900T with QAS that is still a fantastic ride. I’m pretty well sold after our short run, but we will put some saddle time in tomorrow and see how things pan out.

Jan 20 2024 finally got a chance to blow off the cob webs. Saw there was a few green trails on the app and couple possible loops. Out the door at 10:30 am with my new lake friend in training. 
Rail bed into town a 10/10, 43 east to Lac des Plages 8/10, east of lac des Plages the 43 to the first fork going to St.Remi was not groomed, a single path trail for 10 klms and one open creek crossing. At the fork we head north to the local that will connect us to the 323. Did a 5 klm lake crossing in La Conception which was all staked, had a few slushy spots and a few frozen slush areas too but not a rough ride across.
323 into Labelle for the first trail side break, this trail was first groomed that morning, surprisingly it was pretty good 6/10. 
Up La Petit Train du Nord 325 to 63 into Nominigue for gas, all groomed to perfection 10/10. 
Back track to the 319 for our descend down to La Minerve, 319 was a 8/10. 
Took the shortcut to get on Lac Chapleau and cross, lake trail is staked, careful of the frozen slush parts. 319 through the parc and back on the 323 and 43 for the return, 43 got a little rough from the day. Back at le chalet for 5pm.
226 klm loop for the first ride of the season, awesome day.

Recalculating 

Our maiden voyage is complete.  Like many of our QR.com friends we also hit the trails this weekend.  Great to feel the Quebec gold under the skis again.  We left Sainte Anne Saturday morning headed to Clova.  I don’t have too many pics to share because I spent in the night in Clova but my phone stayed at the Horseshoe…I retrieved it fully charged the next day at no extra cost.  😂  Merci to my two favorite ladies at the Horseshoe for that.
They are still hauling on the Wabash so that kinda put a damper on things for a few miles.  If you still think there was no visible impact of the forest fires this summer you are in for a rude awakening.
As per always we had a great time in Clova.  We ran into quite a few people we have met there before and it just cemented that common purpose feeling you can only get at those special places. 
Also ran into Jim Jameson outside the Horseshoe after the phone retrieval mission was complete.  Good to see him still at it.  I hope that will be me one day.  Retired and racking up miles in La Belle Province year round by sled or SxS. 

Here are the few pictures I have.   As you can see by the snot frozen to my jacket, there was a slight chill to the air.
 

Shot north today to the Marineau Mattawin 
Had a nice shake down loop east of the hotel . Temperature around 0 f° at noon 
360 , 355, 351, 23, 360 ..for a  112 mile ride.   Some really good  and some not so much  . Just happy to have the track back on snow ! Tomorrow we'll ride west of here . 

Finally, here's the report of our first ride of the season did yesterday January 20, 2024

We could have ridden last Sunday but it was an after a foot snow storm day with mild weather and we knew well that the trail conditions would not hold and be hard for us 2up so we waited until yesterday and were not disappointed . The cold of the last few days has been very good for the trails and the ice... it's about time!
We were able to start directly from home in St-Thomas near Joliette, the trails are open and there is more than 2 feets of snow and it increases over 3 feets in some spots on the route that we did. Here in the fields near St-Norbert. The sky was very gray with a little snow at times which makes the pics less attractive but it still allows you to see what it looked like.

We strategically chose to do the wooded northern section to start the ride and to return via the fields to the south which remain nice for longer under the effect of traffic. Here north of St-Gabriel de Brandon.

And here at #23/#63 junction in St-Damien

5 km north of the Renard Bleu outfitter, the trail turns 90 and takes a new route to connect to #350 this year due to logging in this area.

there are a couple of kms to go on a plowed road but it ride very well

Then we are on the road path which is snowy for a long section it ride really great, I really appreciated this new path groomed wide

After the #350 west junction there is 1km where the trail passes either next to the plowed road or a new path in the woods that the club is at finishing but it is very short

then we return to the usual #350 path which was really very nice and fast

We quickly passed in front of the Koubec

And we went up #345 towards the north which was as nice and fast

And we continued on #23 towards the east which was just as beautiful, just the last 2km which goes up the mountain before reaching intersection #350 which seemed to still be on the first dozer pass...
This #23/#350 junction(Gaston's trail towards Lac Blanc) was our expected meeting point with our friend Snowcruiser who was leaving from Trois-Rivières airport to meet us with the plan to eat together at Lac Blanc. It's a bit ambitious to arrange meetings in the middle of the woods like that... especially on the first season's ride. We had 140km to go and he had around 70km to get there but we had agree that we would wait a little and at worse we would crossed each other while riding, but we were lucky with our estimates that were spot on. I was stopped for less than a minute when he showed up! After a bit of chatting we got back in the saddle to try to get at Lac Blanc before noon to beat a bit the lunch crowd.
The #350 going back down to Lac Blanc was still very beautiful, just a little worn in its big hills and very panoramic in terms of snow, it's impressive


We arrived at the Lac Blanc Auberge at 11:40 a.m. with 165km done from the morning. We obviously weren't the only ones who had this idea!

Given the size of the crowd we wondered how things would go for the meal inside but I have to take my hat off to their extremely quick and efficient organization which was ready. We didn't wait a second to be seated in the dining room and we had our meals in front of us less than 15 minutes later! I was impressed.
After this good meal break and a refueling we left under the snow a little after 1:00 p.m. towards the southeast on trail #350. The view from the lake when we left!

This trail was starting to get pretty beaten up by traffic but was not that bad on our side of the trail heading south. We tested our suspensions up to the #63 junction where we took a break. I was able to chat a little with Jonathan Doucet from Randonnée Motoneige au Québec on Facebook, whom I had recognized and briefly meet as I left Lac Blanc auberge

The trail condition came back nice on the #63 and we were able to ride good trail all the way back home. Snowcruiser left us to return to his trailer via St-Léon/St-Sévère and we continued on #63 and #3 for the return


The Bayonne River is already solid and the trail passes over it without problem near Berthier

We got back home early around 3:45 p.m. with 272 km for the ride, very happy with this season's opener which had been a long time coming.
The trail network is pretty much open and connected in Lanaudiere and Mauricie minus some rivers that are not ready yet. The cold we just had in the last days helped alot for this and I hope that mother nature will continue to cooperate in the next days to complete the puzzle.
Have a  great riding season!
Alain

Not sure if they have official hours, they are a fair size towing company so imagine they are use to 24/7. The 4 times we have used them was always 8:00 in the morning.
Depending on how many in your group if they have 4 sleds either on the tilt bed or the big trailer they are making $200 in 45 minutes so l imagine they are fairly accommodating. Drivers and dispatch we dealt with spoke good English.
There is a time zone difference between NB and QC. NB is Atlantic time, QC is Eastern Standard time. 
NB 8:00 AM would be 7:00 AM Quebec.
The Interprovincial Hotel has a good restaurant that’s open 7 days a week.
The past two years the restaurant at the Quality Inn in Campelton wasn’t open on Sunday nights. That’s another thing to check when booking rooms, website may say has a restaurant but with the staff shortage some aren’t open 7 days a week, especially early in the week.

Try reading manual don't just look at  pictures there is lots info in it.
Happy trails old man.

SDFS_CFG.BIN

Important things first.  The new bar is pretty nice. It is in the new restaurant, and the bar seats about 25.  Mega big TV  and the restaurant looks pretty impressive. Open style kitchen.  I would say they spent a fortune on the re do. Food is mostly pub food with a few high end meals. My meal tonight was excellent. Whole new menu. I thought the prices were more than reasonable.   Food was slow coming out of the kitchen.
The old bar is still open but the attached restaurant is gone, just a big pool table there now.
It was getting dark when I went out for about a 25 mile ride.  While the snow certainly is not deep, it seems to be plenty and everything was groomed and silky smooth. And it looks wintry out with all the trees snow coated. I will know more hopefully after tomorrows ride. 
New G5 600R 129 goes some sweet. Makes me look and feel 20 years younger. 
mike
 

25 mile ride tonight     trails awesome           see you soon
 
mike

For all you I motoneige addicts.
You will see it light up Tomorrow and Saturday as clubs officially open for the weekend and the grooming info will begin. 

I think it’s been done this way forever you just never see it often. 
whats more dangerous? An open trench waterhole or the log brush plug and cover fix?
It gonna get more complicated each year for the clubs. 
 

They Make it happen.
For those who just don’t understand why it takes time to ooen trails. Alot more goes into it then just driving a groomer through.
Most of their work you will never see. 
 
Just one example here of filling in waterholes for a smooth trail and one the machine can groom.
Dolbeau area.
 
 

Doing a great job gathering and sharing intel Iceman. Big help for the rest of us early in the season. Thanks.

Club from Mirabel.  happened yesterday  
Houston nous avions un problème! 
En route pour le pipeline ( trans quebec 3) Blainville. 
Heureusement nous avons reussi à le sortir avec notre autre surfaceur. Le travail continue demain... 
anglais….
Houston we had a problem!
On the way to the pipeline (trans quebec 3) Blainville.
Fortunately we managed to get it out with our other resurfacer. The work continues tomorrow.
 
 

When they cremate me and Playhard they're gonna hand out metal not ashes! 2 fake hips, 2 fake knees, 9 pins in my shoulder, 2 rods in my back. Move a little slow but still riding!

At this rate he'll qualify for the scrap yard, not biological sciences....
On the bright side he's an even mix of Iron Man and Wolverine!!
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_01/image.png.869417795e74dc6c93752943737c8864.png
Feel Better!!
GutZ

Winning Winnner
machine filled ditch to cross 157 packed trail toward Gabelle. 
 
no drag first run through. 
 

13 January 
-6c still some snow squalls on and off
worst is past
good 10”-12” 
 

Both hands on the handlebars! 
Control of your vehicle must be a priority at all times, and this is why we do not recommend the use of hand signals when operating your snowmobile. While these have been promoted for many years to improve communication between snowmobilers, the reality is that their use requires removing the left hand from the handlebars, something which can create a risky situation. This is why the use of hand signals is no longer recommended by the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations (CCSO-CCOM) and the International Association of Snowmobile Administrators. So, think about safety and keep both hands on the handlebars at all times!