zeusand

Here is the pics of track work 

Locked and Loaded trucking today wirh Mrs. Ice. Promised I would find her some good trails….so let the games begin. 

Good luck.
Does anyone know how we can trade some of our warm and dry weather with the big snow storm out west? Even a couple of feet would be nice for both areas. 10 - 2 still 8 for them!

The man with the famous mustache has passed away. Condolences to his family and friends.

Back home on the black trail today no issues. Left Amos at 3am in a mini blizzard when I got to Syracuse it was 70  , what a winter. Driving though tug hill area couldn’t help but notice there was no snow at all at end of February that has to be a rare rare feat they get the most snow anywhere on the east coast thanks to lake effect. Total miles for the trip was 1500 all of which was great I love the area and will definitely be back!

Definitely enjoyed following along, jealous is an understatement.  Nice rip.  West is best

Day 6 final day 230 miles. Headed out over to LaSarre this morning the first 35-40 miles was pure white carpet the type of thing snowmobilers dream about with the fresh snow from last night the sun coming out, and the snow covered trees made for an unforgettable ride. Did a couple of the loop trials north of LaSarre all of which are totally awesome then headed over to La Reine which is right on the Quebec/ Ontario border you get there by running about 10 miles of rail bed, which again was pure white carpet. At the end of the rail bad we ventured into Ontario for a bit via the same rail bed which is unmaintained into Ontario side but still a fun Boondocking experience. Then made our way back to Amos via TQ 93. Another epic day to finish out an epic riding week. Anyone who wasn’t up here missed out on some amazing conditions. Hard to believe the weather for the next 48 hours which looks downright horrible Hopefully this area makes it though. I hope everyone enjoyed following along, and I just made a few people jealous along the way! 

Great time sledding with the solid boyz from New Hampshire, Vermont, and  Quebec.
Long last reunion with Team Vermont who are the king of Forest road travelers.
Perfect weather and snow conditions 7 day Excursion.
Had a enjoyable perfect 2 week season.
Looking forward season 2025

Day 8 Monday 

Trucked it to chez Ice, touchdown home 3 hrs from Lac Bouchette. Snowing up there messy to La Tuque almost 3” new snow overnight there. Less as we drove south. 
 
Yamaha off the Snohorse trailer and Freeride back in. Unloaded gear and said goodbye to the Snohorse and he headed on south. Timing is everything and the timing and planning were on. 
 
The rest of the team had a smooth run back to USA Sunday. 
NHmoose said he was home by 10:30. Nice
 
until next time mes amis

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

We took the risk of leaving directly from the home in St-Thomas and passing through Berthier to go up to St-Zénon and have dinner at Réal Massé

If I had to quickly summarize the report: don't do like us and stay no further south than St-Gabriel de Brandon and go north. We wanted to take advantage one last time of the privilege we have of leaving directly from the home without touching the trailer and we managed to do so but the southern part of St-Gabriel is too lacking in snow... I gave a good beat to my snowtrackers!
From St-Thomas we joined trail #3 to go towards Berthier. Surprisingly, apart from the surroundings of the gas station in the village, the fields were still very beautiful. Here along the railway line.  Scratchers mandatory very hard/icy base

There was a lack of snow in a few inside curves but overall very good

Things got bad when we arrived at the airfield in St-Cuthbert, there was quite a long way to go on a plowed path now on dirt/gravel and it wasn't nice in the wooded area that followed or near the Valrémi sugar shack
We gave a try on the #3 towards St-Barthelemy...It was worse too much south and we had to turn around we lost the trail at some points

We headed towards St-Gabriel de Brandon, the wooded sections are good

But in the fields the trail path is hard to miss 🙄, it has melted too much. There is quite a long stretch like that

Past St-Gabriel de Brandon going north was the way to go, the conditions there are fine and keep going better toward north
We had a checkpoint just north of the village of St-Gabriel, the guys were nice no problem.

And we went up the #23 north which still has good snow cover

I was unsure about a short plowed section but it's still very good and was ok

We got a few bumps from traffic but the snow is still very good in that area

We had a late start around 9:30 and time was passing quickly so we took the #350 south

And we had dinner at Réal Massé. It's been a long time since we've been there and their meals are still delicious and the atmosphere really nice. They are open from Thursday noon to Sunday afternoon.

From there we decided to continue #350 and loop around via #63 towards Ste-Émélie de l'Énergie. Here direction the Glacière


Past La Glacière on #63 heading south it was still very beautiful with good snow cover


Here passing by the La Barrière outfitter


We passed through Domaine Bazinet and continued south

The big hills near Ste-Émélie de l’Énergie are still in good condition

Past Ste-Émilie village we headed towards St-Damien where we stopped to refuel while passing through their courtyard.

Leaving the gas station we climb the mountain and at the very top facing south there is the only mud spot we saw to the north of St-Gabriel on this route very close to the small shack at the #23 junction which joins our morning route. We took a little break there.

We resumed on the morning path in the opposite direction which was still in the same state, beautiful up to St-Gabriel but then with bare spots going south

We returned home around 5:00 p.m. with a little over 250km on the cluster, overall happy with the ride that succeed our wish to start from home.
In summary, there is still some great snowmobiling to be done north of St-Gabriel de Brandon when it is cold like today. This year it's like that, don't be too critical and take what can be done... The upcoming weather forecasts are a bit scary but I still hope they're wrong! we'll see...hoping for the best
Alain

Day 5: gonna end the trip with 2 short days instead of 1 big one. Today we rode from PALC to Valga. Took 5 all the way to Albertville. Trails pretty thin near the towns. Should have took the orange trail to avoid Causapscal. Also really thin around St. Marguerite and Albertville. Continued on 5 to 587 to St. Irene, much better here. Had lunch at the Ski Hill then went up and checked out the lookout tower up near the Radar. Looks like winter up there but not like a normal one. Continued through the mountains on 587 to 579 and into Valga for the night. Early day, a little too early really 😂😂 150 miles for the day.

Day 6 Saturday
 
Cold this.morning. Not sure what was the temperature but a cold start. Cold makes white asphalt. I happen to admire white asphalt quite a bit and we saw lots of it 
Exception being the local trail from La Dore to TQ83. But the local orange was still ok. Just not perfect. 
 
Joined up with the TQ83 and at first was not liking it. Quickly changed at intersection to local trail south. Fast run down as the top of the TQ83 they are grooming the road as the trail for a god part of it and it’s fantastic. Gas and Late lunch after the rush at Relais 22. Out of there we got places to be. 
 
More sleds out today, but duh? It’s the weekend. Even so, we only caught uo to 2 sleds we easily got by. Only the second pair we had to deal with in front of us in 6 days. Sweet. 

Quick burn to Windigo and wrapped up a stellar day with a stellar night reminiscing and breaking bread with our brothers Team Vermont. Always great fo be at Windigo with Martine Stephanie and Daniel….even better on a Saturday night……and even better with the plan coming together to meet up. 
 
Lots to catch up on and that we did. Sure wish we could do this so much more often.
 
Great times with Great people. 

Trails look amazing 👌

Saturday 
Girardville to Windigo. with some trail bingo of course. 
 
 

Left for Maine late morning. No percipiitation all the way home but warm everywhere..  Can only guess  it will really be tough getting out of RDL.  Still forecasting rain at RDL tonight and 2 cm of snow. Good trails may flash freeze and be icy,  just not sure.   Best to those that make the trip.
mike
 
 

Internet really wonky with this many people here 
 
 
 

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Yeah WIFI was great 😏 34F at the start of the day and 10F at the end and getting colder by the minute! 

Friday 
BINGO 
tour to nowhere continues in the honey hole. 
 
 

No warm up for this area today. It was flurries and dropping temps with crazy wind.