quebec bob

Gutz, this is the slowest sled I have ridden in a long time, when I am out on the trail saddle bagging I really try to be a good citizen, as much as I love the power, I respect the land owners, other sledders, and all the folks who have worked so hard to give us this great sport, but I am well aware that most guys building these type of sleds have hurt us over the years. you can ride a Harley with an Izod shirt and khaki pants and really enjoy it without breaking everyone's ear drums on main street, and you are catching on fast, it takes a great deal of time and effort to get that stuff right, and you never get the money back, I would sell any of this stuff for way less than you spent playing around building yours, I have learned my lesson, I will never tell my wife what I spent over the years!!

When you are at windigo, look across the street up the Valley, you will see a small river, there is a trail up the river that brings you to a big lake. There is a little riding in the woods then you pop up on the lake. Stay to the right hand shore heading north, they will be a trail and keep going until you get to a red log cabin on the right hand side. The trail goes around the left side of the cabin thru a drive way to the trail, stay left and go about 10 miles to a y, the y goes up hills to the right and left. The left hand turn goes to Lac st jean and the right hand turn drops you right into the parking lot at relay 22 in about 1 minute, this saves a lot of time and you could get directions at windigo, this is easy to do with out getting lost.

Hope you are having fun with this build, I have built a half a dozen sleds over the last 20 years, still own them all. built every one of them from new sleds and painstakingly tuned them to be trail reliable. A 99 srx with 175hp and 10k Quebec trail miles with out a single break down, also built a D&D 1010 out of a 2002 zr800, 200hp torque monster that is still as fast as just about anything on the trail, Also built a Hooper 1107 3 cylinder out of a 1999 800 pantera, with jaws pipes and a 4 tower clutch,and a 136 inch snow cross track , Boss seat, etc., 235hp. Then I moved on to Yamaha and built a supercharged Vector, what an amazing ride, 200 hp, silent , very drive-able, a real sleeper, still gets 16 mpg, HAS BEEN THE MOST DEPENDABLE SLED I HAVE EVER SEEN. 10k Quebec trail miles on the original belt, oh yea, did I mention you do not want to race this sled, it is amazingly powerful, will take your breath away if you are brave enough. All this stuff is still show room and unfortunately sits around while I ride my new sled, a 2018 850 backcountry.So Gutz, I know how much fun you are having, and yes those crazy little performance things for 600 here and there, if you want to add to your collection, I would be happy to sell you some of mine, 60 years old here and moving on from tuning and racing, first half went by so fast, just want to slow down and enjoy the second half, happy motoring.

there is also a sweet little b&b just before Mt St Pierre, Turquoise Cafe, serve dinner and breakfast, have a small garage for your sleds, and it is located just behind the mercury vapor light house on the shore, it is inexpensive as well, a great find!!

Great trip, I remember taking my wife the first time on a 250 mile ride, we were not as lucky as you , we were in Northern Maine and it was 40 below, brutal, but she did it, and we enjoyed it, but we are yet to do a big run together like Gaspe.

Plenty of snow out on the Gaspe, and Saguenay as well, nice temps next week -10 to 10 f should keep things nice during the week, not much snow in the forecast, St Zenon is decent, not a lot on the ground but, they are very good at grooming, of course they get pummeled with high traffic weekends. East and North has the best snow!

A few years back I got into Repo at 7 pm om the first leg of a week long ride, they were full with some French tour group, could not even serve us food, we called Kanawata, they said they could lodge us, told them we would be there SOON. It was snowing with 4 to 5 already on the ground, we took the express, aka the road, 90 to 100 all the way, you can get there fast!!

very nice pics , we got to ride out to the rock once years ago, definitely worth getting up to see the sun rise, done that a couple of times as well as taken the trail in back of Rolands to the lookout above the town, happy motoring!!

weather permitting, that is the most important part, made it half way 6 years ago, got in a big storm and allowed my 2 riding partners to talk me into turning back, it was a good idea, be ready for big weather, be prepared and have fun.

You could head down the 355 to Lac Edward then take the lake south to trapper, the lake will be staked, get out of the cove a mile or so then turn right and a few mils on the lake goes to a little goat path that will take you Trapper. Head south to a y where you will go right, about 110 degrees and that will put you just south a Latuque by a few miles. Be careful of traffic on this trail, it will be busy on the weekend, stay right and be careful of your speed in Latuque, they will fine you there. 355 is or can be an amazing trail depending on the grooming, see if you can figure that out by asking if anyone knows, you could call Lac Edward and try to find out. Option 2 is to head to relay 22 out of Roberville, this trail is big and fast, where people like to open it up and fly, many 2 strokes have burned down here, places where you can go 100 for miles, stay alert here, easy to get carried away. I think it is 73 south out of Relay 22 to Latuque, just shy of 75 miles for this leg and maybe 120 from Roberville to Relay 22. Both are a nice ride.

Basically back in the late 80,s many of us discovered Quebec by the seat of our pants.I use to travel on 1200 mile trips, alone looking at what maps were available and wondering where I would end up. Looking back, realizing we were riding 440 fan cooled yamaha exciters then 540 v-max sleds, we were really taking our lives in our hands, but it was so much fun, we were too young to be smart.I still remember finding Le Cabanon, a one room stop, dennis pumped gas, cooked and ran the counter alone, in the mid 80's. We rode fron St donat to baskatong and to valdor then parent 2 of us on 600 pogo stick yamahas, 2 weeks in the bush, way before this became a great network.Probably what kept us coming back was all the amazing canadian people out in the bush who befriended us and lent a hand or a nights stay, food and gas even when we had a language barrier.It left an impression on us that has never gone away. Once I left a back pack in clova, discovered that at 100 lacs, made the call and a gentleman from Ontario brought it to me the next day, his name was Bob Morton. 2500 dollars, truck keys, passport, phone , wallet, etc.Try and get that back on a trip to New Jersey, like I have said many times on this forum, the Canadian hospitality on the trail is second to none, met some of the nicest people on this forum and the trail!!

looks like the trail is setting up nicely, white concrete, been lucky enough over the years to be the first one out many mornings where I get to ride all the way to lunch making the first tracks, one time we rode like that from point crossing to edmunston, thru kedgewick and moose valley , 2 days, absolutely incredible, saw about 3 sleds!!

took 11 guys , ONCE!! First day, 1 mile into the trip, out on the lake, Vinny's brother seizes his 583 rotax, dirty carbs. 2 .5 hour delay to get a rental and leave his for new cylinders and repairs. While were are doing this Brian is jumping snow banks in the parking lot, and looses a contact lens, I am getting heart burn at this point. We are finally on the trail and things are going well when I realize there is no one behind me, 60 miles out, now playing the waiting game, now going back to find everyone 2 miles back, taking a break and smoking. Soon I realize we are down a sled but everyone is present. WTF!!! Chuck missed a turn, jumped of and his borrowed brothers sled is down a ledge on the side of a pond in a 10 foot drift. 2 hrs later it is out and not a scratch on it, but now Chuck will not go over 40mph#%$&^!!@#!! Day 1 10 hours 85 miles and I am still smiling but seriously wondering what I am being punished for.I spend the night trying to figure out how I can salvage the trip and my mind and remain friends with all these guys.We ended up doing 650 miles in 5 days, these guys still talk about how great it was, we are still all friends, it was a once in a lifetime trip for them. God bless you and I hope you guys have a great ride, go with the flow and keep smiling.

You bet, these moto skis were basically orange ski-doos, way back then, the 669 was their first triple then they upped it to 775. We use to put them in the Elan 250 chassis, kind of like putting a v-8 350 in a chevy vega.

You can never plan 5 days to do the Gaspe without realizing a few things. Do not do it if you are unable to be flexible with 2 or 3 extra days, for bad weather and break downs. You are lucky if you can do it that quick and enjoy it at the same time. You will have to cut out the north shore and cross thru Murdockville to have a good chance at completing the trip that quick. You want to see the rock, many people also consider going into New Brunswick @ point crossing and going thru Kedgewick River and Moose Valley to Edmunston then crossing back thru Cabano. There are a lot of options, but mostly give yourself a chance to slow down a bit and experience the people and the landscape, this is Quebec's' best ride in my opinion, get the most out of it. A bad storm , Gaspe style, can strand you for days, a great adventure, do not let that change your mind, it's a great adventure, just be flexible, expect the unexpected and have a great time with it, you will enjoy it forever.

These triples were either 669s or 775s, probably 669's, Polaris also has some wild triples a few years later!

Yes, the wind around that lake can be incredible, was on the north side a few years back going west in a storm, I think it took 5 hours to go 45 miles, one other time we were stuck in Amqui out on the Gaspe for 3.5 days, 2 days later we were in Moose valley New Brunswick and had to navigate 20 foot drifts and were stuck there at the sportsman club for 2.5 days, you could easily die with a group in those conditions. Be flexible, sit back and enjoy the hotel. Things could be worse, you could be back in the states at work, being stuck at the hotel in canada sledding is not such a bad thing, all considered

Sounds like you had a great ride on 23, wait till you ride the Gaspe, you haven't seen anything yet!!

great set of TUNED PIPES on that Moto Ski. They were built right down the street in La Pocatiere, probably spelled it wrong!! I remember riding a 320 Olympic back in the mid-sixties, we thought it was fast, I think it was 18 hp. You needed a lot of tools to ride it for a day, amazing where we are today, traveling to another country to enjoy 250 trouble free miles a day.We have this great forum, high tech sleds, a 30k maintained trail system, with people all over the trail system working their tails off dusk to dawn hoping for our arrival, you could not have dreamed this back then, when we were just a bunch of kids annoying the neighbors with smoke and noise. 2020 will be the winter that will have many of us on this forum participating in this sport in 7 different decades, amazing!!

Leave from St Michele to Repos, Katawana, up east of Haltaparche toward Windigo, to Relay 22, then to Roberville.Not really sure which way we will go from there, maybe down 355 towards Lac Edward, Matawin river and then possibly back thru the park toward St Zenon, kind of a plan but you know how this can change during the ride, just looking for a good Quebec adventure to break in the new 850 backcountry, hopefully not break down, still on my mind after decades with Yamaha.

WHITE GOLD, we are packing for a week starting Wednesday, usually my timing has us driving in the storm, guess we are lucky this time.

ad she is better looking than groomer!!

nice video, exactly what Quebec riding is all about, enjoying all the wonderful Canadian outdoor adventure with good friends, thanks!!

great trip, museum is nice, I have to get there. We are leaving on Wednesday for a week, hopefully all the promised new snow will be waiting for us, thanks for the great report.

Ice, I left Yamaha after 19 years for a 2018 850 backcountry as well. Hope it is not a mistake, it has decent power, handles well, seating ergos are perfect, plenty of wind protection with the big shield, bought the 4 year warranty, just because it is not a Yamaha, basically it is an XTX in a lighter package.