Scranton1

Did a 170 mile loop today, went west and came back a more southerly loop. Conditions are very good. One to four inches of new snow everywhere, no icy patches.
Several trees/branches down across the trail from high winds on Wednesday. Probably only thing from perfect were a few trails were quite hard under the snow so in some areas a little more muscle to steer.  All trails extremely smooth. Met three sleds all day although saw quite a few sleds parked at club houses.
mike

Ok since I'm sure my "buddy" won't report this but today was uneventful no off trail excursions no bird doo doo just fantastic trails
and in case anyone is wondering in my humble opinion Ski Doo has hit a home run with the 850 & Gen 4...freight trains pale in comparison to the way this thing pulls
I've just about have it dialed in for handling & bumps trail 83 from the frog was a bumped up today & this thing just drove through everything like it wasn't there
well done Valcourt! 👍

Day 5  
5-6" new snow at Gouin here last night. Fluffy stuff.


Awesome to be back there at Barrage Gouin. I did not make it up at all last year and missed it there. Carol, Jonny, Louise and met Steve this time around make your time there so great. Nice to have good conversations with them folks. Like being with family. If you've never been then get up there and support them. Great place and great People. Always tough to leave but we must be moving on.
Sleds loaded and we decide it's down the road to skip the top half of the trail. We've broke enough trail and gonna be doing alot more by the looks of things. So down the road to join back up with the trail back to 83.


Man there is a lot of snow we are breaking its deep in spots here. So we get down to 83 and its just as deep. So 45km from Gouin to 83. Deep snow single track I have had enough breaking trail for this year. Quit praying to the snow gods. Enough up here for sure. Snowing and flat light.

Also trees bent over or down all along.

Into Wemontachie. Here we take the road right to Wemogaz.
it's open
From gas we again decide its time to stay on the road so 25km up we then turn right onto trail. Unbroken has been groomed before but has a ton of new snow on it. Halfway through here comes 4 guys with red dry bags on back. These guys are dangerous they are dangerous on their first day out and more dangerous after 2-3 days out cause now they think they got the hang of it. Hey they busted trail good enough for us. Closer to Windigo there is Logging so pay attention. Back and forth across the road and the trucks are hauling ass. Well logs but not slowly. 
Cruised into Relais 22 following in tracks busted open for us. 
News at Relais 22 heard from Louise at Gouin that 22 has new owners. We had tge pleasure of Meeting Christine who along with her husband Martin have come from Baie Comeau to own and operate Relais 22. Super nice and she speaks very good english too, just speak slowly. I hope to meet her husband on the way back by there tmmrw. Wishing them all the best and great success. Take the time to support them and tell them you are a Quebec Rider. I think they may want to become an advertiser. We shall see. 
Anyway while there we see the Suerte du Quebec truck and sled trailer there. She tells us they are conducting a search for a missing man who phoned his wife saying he was stuck on snowmobile coming from his chalet. 
This was yesterday. 
Good news is we took gas and went up 83 to check it out. At 50km we were turning back when cops pull up. They found the guy. He abandoned his sled and they followed his footsteps to a nearby chalet where he broke in door and lit the fire and waited for help. Great Job by the police. Hats off.
We ride back following the cops they were blazing a trail. Snohorse tried to get them to put on there lights so we could have a official police escort but no dice. 
Back to 22 tank again and absolutely hammer it back to Windigo. Hell one or two more passes through they won't need to groom it i will have it blown open fully. Windigo driveway a few hanging low trees but has tracks and we roll in. So nice to see Martine and nice to be here. 
We are here with only one other guy a Guide out of Lac Blanc doing some pre running for an upcoming group. If you want to stay at Windigo (crazy if you do not want to) then call soon to check the dates it's booking up fast.
thats it for now 222 miles today. 

 
Decisions Decisions 


 
Now a special message to all Team Iceman members not in QC at this time.....
"the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains, and the man with the blue shoes is not who he appears to be." Over.

Except when the dirty bird does this to you...WTF I have no luck this shit is for the birds 🐦 lol 😂 

Day 4 
Woke to pretty good snow coming down at Le Cabanon. Sat Down to breakfast. Lights flicker 3 times and boom blackout. Took a few minutes for them to get the generator up but all good after that. 
Was more snow outside then we thought. A solid 6-7" of wet heavy stuff. As others were talking of waiting the day out for the groomers to go out. We are not used to hearing talk like that. So off we go. There was another group that got out before us. They were going 345 north as well. We catch them maybe 30k from Cabanon. They are stopped and wave us by. Yeah thanks. C-ya. What a damn mess this wet snow. Trees down and let me tell you it was like riding through paste or mashed potatoes. Wettest deepest snow I've been on in a long time. After we pass the group I was thinking that was it. But still seing a pair of tracks. Well much better than 8 pairs making things messy. We catch the other 2 at bridge over river. And get by. At first I was so happy to be finally breaking trail that was short lived, as the further on we went up 345 the snow got deeper, wetter and heavier. Not to mention the trees bent or down. This was pretty sucky. One of those test your skills day. As where there was a big drift it would almost stop me in my tracks. Crazy wet heavy snow did i mention now it was easily 12" new wet. It was still snowing at this point and blowing. My sled was drinking the fuel bad. I knew I was using my spare gas before Repo's. 
 
Sun popped out soon after

 
 
oh yes the joy. We press on and 35km from Repo's ahhh. The groomer has come out from the turn off just after the Dam there. Looking like maybe I will make it to The Pump. 

well no dice I'm out 5km short. Oh well dump the gas in. On to Repos. Only like 80 miles to Repo's and I was way short. 
Thinking I was kidding about deep wet snow? Think again. It was work. 
 
Arrive at Repo's to this scene.  30 Minute delay. 

For you Groomer

 
 
 
A few off trail sleds at Repo's but no one else. We head off toward Kanawata. Gromer is just going up trail so we take road out of Repo's (not plowed) with a few sled tracks. Arrive at Kanawata Express and also unplowed with some tracks to ride in, Thank You little baby jesus.
40 miles to Kanawata, made great time considering and driveway to Kanawata plowed. We go in to top off. Mario says trail from Repo's is the road for now too many trees down they have not cleared. A couple local guys from their chalet having lunch. 
Leave and off for Casey. Lucky again trail is broken for us. Snow still deep and wet here. Nice Run to Casey. Once in Casey it's like a switch has been flipped. Less snow here and its Fluffy. We burn on up and join the 83. It has tracks both directions. Less snow makes for easy going now. Like butter. This is fun again. Less like work. 83 is nice some brush here and there. We roll up to Trail for Gouin Eastern spur. Nice Run on up and settled in the lodge at 5pm. Left Cabanon 9:30. We are the only 2 here and don't mind a bit. Private Lodge. Nice. 209 miles. 
 
 
 

Snow report?
tx in advance

After working a ten hour shift Monday night, loaded the truck, kissed the wife and pets and headed up to RDL/Universal Hotel.  Picked the sled up at the dealer on the way up.         Arrived Tuesday evening, dark out but looks like lots of snow and perfect conditions.
Now here it is Wednesday morning, looks like an inch of snow fell and has changed to a very light rain.Will wait it out a couple days and keep everyone up to date on conditions.
My beloved 2010 Ram 4.7 V8 finally was eaten away by rust, probably caused by whatever Canada uses to coat the roads in the winter. Still ran like new, favorite all time truck, and was hoping for another three years out of her. The new Ram Hemi 5.7 goes so perfect in every way it almost lacks personality. But wow, does the Hemi shit and go, Hard to believe a pick up truck can accelerate that fast. Gas mileage pretty good at 75 and under and no sled in the bed. 85 and sled in back and you'll wish you owned a gas station.
mike
 

hi all !!!
mini report ...was snowing at 5 am til 8 30 am...2-3 '' of fresh snow...then rain started...heavy for a little while... then  light...nothing to bother the trails yet ...very windy !!!
snow clouds up the hills !!!
-2c
 
jean-guy
 

trails are awesome

I'm carrying a satellite phone and a GPS  with the ability to use. If it gets to the point where I'm not comfortable preceding forward I'd have no issues turning tale and heading back. Originally was hoping to make it to Blanc Sablon and possibly further East into Labrador but with a delayed start and less mileage per day than I had planned for it's not likely to happen but will give  me insight into moving further along in future trips out this way.

Boy I guess... So Ray what you doing Saturday the 14th, I'm looking for someone to ride with.
Mr. Toad's wild ride...If you're gonna go, go BIG!!!

Hey Phil it looks like we have the same type of riding "buddies"

HaHa,
But your not up there yet. LOL! And I know BJ has a camera

Miles Long
whats your background?
you have many of us following your thread very uneasy.......
Please enlighten us to put us as ease😮

Miles Long
whats your background?
you have many of us following your thread very uneasy.......
Please enlighten us to put us as ease😮

Phil has been a good boy lately.....
no shenanigans recently

Miles Long
whats your background?
you have many of us following your thread very uneasy.......
Please enlighten us to put us as ease😮

I am curious Miles Long if you are carrying a sat phone or a Spot? They call Labrador the Big Land for a reason it is a vast unforgiving beautiful place. The area you are headed toward is very isolated and there are no services or 911 service. You are on your own if anything happens. This is not a groomed trail ride this is non groomed, non marked wilderness. You need to review some posts from people like Early Rider and Road Runner and see what they have been through and the amount of preparation and gear they take with them. This winter marks 50 years that I have been sledding and I would love to do the ride you are contemplating but there is no way I would ever attempt that route by myself.
I have an aviation background and we have a saying "Learn from the mistakes of others you will never live long enough to make them all yourself."
"It's hard to make good time in such hilly terrain, also broke trail for probally 30 miles of the way through 6"-8" of fresh with no signs of recent tracks." This is just the beginning Miles Long.
 
 All I am saying is you need to consider the risks you are about to take very very carefully!
 
Andy

Godspeed!
u have balls much bigger than mine.
Please listen to the veterans insight posted above.
 
FYI
calling for the potential of 40cm of snow in sept iLies.

Incredible,I love elevation changes they always offer an opportunity to get off trail and play! Also an outstanding job of grooming.

I need some new riding "buddies" preferably someone who doesn't own a camera 🎥 

Hi guys this is Ginger since no one actually witnessed this incident I think what we have here is a case of someone wanting some notoriety on the internet 
lets just hope 182 doesn't go all Kim Kardashian & release a sex tape

To much power for the kid!
need to get him a learning key for that model Bill😅

hi andy !!!
 
great !!! no problem !!!
just woke up from a nap ...awake since 1 am !!!
-23c right now !!!
 
jean-guy

As promised in my post 1 hour ago.  I came upon this scene at the 23-83 split down near Lac Vert.  Can anyone guess who just put their new 850, with less than 200 miles on it in the bushes?   I was told, by the owner of the sled,"gee I was only going about 10 mph, I don't understand how this happened".  Upon doing an accident  investigation of the accident scene, I saw where the right ski was on the edge of the trail for over 100 feet which IMO indicated that there was more to this story than I was being told.  A  sobriety test was conducted on scene and it was determined that the rider was sober.  So it was then determined that it was a case of the rider riding over his head.   Who do you think it was?