Scranton1

Matagami Tomorrow night if we play around here for a bit or LSQ hoping for misstissini above chibougamau

Day 4, to Mont-Louis,
     Another ideal day to ride. Blue skys and very little wind. I think tonight will be different, its about 3:30 now and clouding up with some wind forcast for tonight. Got to Grande-Vallee early, got gas and a nice early lunch at hotel GV. The place then filled with a lot of sledders. A lot of them looked like 2up dayriders. It was a short day but between Gaspe and Matane is about 500k, which is way too much for us in 1 day so we have to split it somewhere. It has been several years since we ran the 5 between Gaspe and the 597. It seemed faster and more open than I remember it. There were a lot of windmills, so I'm guessing they are utilizing some of their new roads? Most all trails were in good shape today with not a lot of traffic.

Day 3
the original plan was to head to villa Marie,  then north to rouyn Noranda but wasn't sure on snow depth there so the plan was tq83 towards la sarre. Don't know if it was a good choice. First word that came to mind was Spanked! The pure anticipation of every turn to be greeted by an array of moguls, some big some small but all equally enjoyable! Into Rouyn Noranda for lunch which was a chore in itself. After circling the city looking for a place to eat, which we found everything but that. Finally   found quality inn la cage aux sports . After a $40 burger and beverage we where off!  From there up to la sarre nice! thank god finally. Into villa mon repos for the night 198 miles. Warm temps and weekend traffic took its toll

Day2
Super dinner last night at Cheval, probably one of the best filet mingion ive had up here. Up at 6 breakfast at 7 on the trail at 8 tq13 up to the 83 towards Clova all sweet! Arrived at clova 11am fueled up took an early lunch. Started snowing hard and super windy. Passed 4 sleds. Train came in and picked up 5 or 6 people, is anyone left in town? Jumped back on the 83 to Lac Fallon for fuel. Was worried about the snow and high winds in the burnt section. Was great to see the forest regrowing giving you a tree line on the trail again. Been a few years since I had been through there. What a difference. Saw a burnt up Yamaha in the trail, still smoldering, maybe Bill is on to something with the fire extinguisher! Took the orange trail down to Louvicourt, very light rain at this point at least not freezing. That trail sucked, logging and pretty whoppped. Fuel in louvicourt and back on the 83 to valdor at the forestal for the night. 289 miles.  Was thinking of dropping down the 309 to villa Marie in the morning. If anyone knows the conditions that way please chime in. Otherwise west then north towards la sarre. So far no shortage of snow anywhere we have been. Till tomorrow! Would post more pics but painfully slow

Close relatives:  johnny standup
Usually can be found near Val D'or on presidents day weekend.
Machine of choice: turbo Yamaha 
Merci bon soir

Iceman - I remember the dog from 2010. 
The pared down Team of Sam and Steve arrived in Mont Laurier from Balbuzard about 5:00 pm, in the teeth of a visor-coating freezing rain storm.  Trails from Balbuzard, through the Parent junction, south past Pourvoirie Fer de Cheval were terrific other than a nasty bit of logging as they approached the Parent junction. 
The trend continued to Saint Anne du Lac, where conditions abruptly deteriorated.  It was a rough banging ride the last 90 km into Mont Laurier.  Ice, rocks, ungroomable snow conditions. Pouring rain didn’t help.  If you’re trailering up this way, don’t stop till you’re at Saint Anne du Lac.  
In any event, it was another terrific Quebec ride for the Team - 2635 km in six days staging from Mont Laurier, looping through Kanawata, Relais 22, Alma, east side of Lac St Jean, Chibougamou, Matagami, Amos, Senneterre, and the Parent junction. 
Thanks to all who followed or chimed in!

Saw these cats hanging around Louvicourt.

And the bar fridge too !!!

Not my first time doing this.  Actually met my entire riding group via QR!
need 1 for a 4th (we have 1 on IR for two weeks)
Leaving Maniwaki this Fri or Sat early AM returning Tuesday.
Very Experienced great group 37 to 61yrs* old  (old guy on IR)
I have over 45,000 miles in QC alone.
200/250 miles per day.
 
MUSTS
newer sled (Like 16 or newer)
under 10k miles
carry extra gas
Plenty of EXPERIENCE in QC
self awareness so you play well with others!
 
Qualified Candidates Only!
Thanks,
BJ
 
Especially After seeing the long term weather forcast😳😳 
 
 

hi terry !!!
 
entered a curve waaay too fast ...machine started to lean on the same side and window '' rubbed '' the trail and cracked !!! ahhaa
seriously ....a bit more than 2 miles west of ste marguerite...after crossing road for windmill...trail in the ditch ....there s a new clearcut about 800' after crossing road....right on the corner of new clearcut...there s a pile of birch ( bunch )....and its very narrow...between pile and road...machine is 10 ' wide...trail there about 10' 4'' for 50'...
so ,just before the pile , i put the '' bull '' in angle to make sure if i touch the pile with the '' bull '' it ll be only a little ''kiss '' and won t need to stop ...while grooming ..
so , as soon as arrived next to pile...took a very quick look at the road to see where i was on the snow bank .....then boom...then bing bang !!!
happened very fast ....2 '' maybe...i guess there was a log under the snow between the track and the pile....hit the log ....one side of the log went under the fender...made a bit hole....time to realize and put the brakes...i guess track brought the log way higher while turning and bang in the window !!!
if you look at my night pics i took earlier this week...you can see one of the piles in front of the groomer...the one i hit was  behind the groomer !!!
 
fixed it in ste florence ...
 
like we say here....when you don t work ...you don t break anything !!!!
grey sky all day ....maybe a bit over 0 c around noon ...-3c right now !!!
 
jean-guy

hi p hardy !!!
 
sorry for the long wait for the reply.....more than very busy thursday and friday !!!
...and yes i guess so for the warming hut ......and still cold....-30c this morning + sunny ..
groomed tq 5 thursday and local trails yesterday ....25 hrs of grooming in 2 days !!!
met ontario friends + ns ones !!!
 
jean-guy
 

Day 4, Monday February 11th. 12F, 192 miles
The day has come to head back to the truck.  We woke to a fresh 6 inches of snow and a balmy temperature of +12F.  A quick breakfast, settle the bill and time to go.  We said thanks again to the whole team at Barrage Gouin who knocked it out of the park for us on all counts this trip.  We will be back again soon possibly this season.
We were at Kanawata pretty fast.  A short visit and filled the gas tanks then off to Repos.  Pushing new snow 2 of us had gas lights on already. This early in the day we saw no traffic in either direction. We took the whole lake across this time out of Kanawata to the trail.  Like TB reported it is staked with trees this season, (we have not seen that before).   The trail to Repos was awesome.  It is obvious they have been really keeping up with the grooming and being back on the old trail now keeps the miles similar to the road.
We went in for a quick bite of chicken like broth water stuff, (no choking hazards here) once arriving at Repos.  On a Monday it was all tour groups here.
We took to the lakes again all the way back to the truck after some exploring on the reservoir and more picture taking.  There are some amazing house on these lakes and reservoirs!  It was mostly a bluebird day with a few lingering snow squalls, a great day to be out riding!
Back to the truck loaded and out of there before 3:00PM. 
Another trip in the books.  Tons of snow everywhere, go get you some.

Day 3, Sunday February 10th. -26F, 151 miles
The plan was to meet for the Nordic hotel continental breakfast.  We had a last minute change to walk over to Tim Hortons. -26F and no one was really chomping at the bit to get going.  We adjusted the plan to leave at 9:00 and take our chances.  This gave us plenty of time to eat, get the sleds out of the garage and load them up.
We visited a bit with a guy here from Rouyn-Noranda, (8 hour drive) for a hockey tournament in Lake Mistassini.  We have never been there but he did say it was a very clean and a very nice local village.  Maybe next time we will check it out.
We looked at variations for our trip back.  At 5 miles on the trail back we took a side route.  This hooked to a different road leading us to the same power lines.  This saved 5 miles on the 93 and 5 miles of the plowed logging roads.  the new road was very lightly traveled and plenty of snow.
It was fun to play again on the power lines on the way back.  There was one big hill going this direction that swallowed up the Freeride towing the gas sled.  3 of us circled back and the other 3 had him out and going again. It was a perfect time to drain the gas cans and give the freeride a break on the weight.
Off to the unplowed logging roads after the power lines and all was good.  The temperature came up a bit and the going was very fast.  We got to the reservoir super quick despite leaving an hour later than yesterday.
We did not stop at Roselins this time and just pointed towards Barrage Gouin, 50 miles on the Reservoir.  We started off at a sensible 60-70mph, but then started playing at 80-90mph.  There are 2 massive ice heaves that require you to stop to fish your way through as they are maybe 5 feet high but otherwise its good running.
Richard and I were playing and hit a pretty good drift sending is both pretty high and far, super fun.  Then there was the surprise second one which had one of us separated from our sled for bit. No harm no foul.
The reservoir claimed belt off the 1200, no worries it had 9000 miles on it.
We cruised in at 3:30PM way ahead of our estimates.  We did chop 10 miles off on the way back which helped a bit, and it did warm up to somewhere around 5F or so.
High fives at the gas pump for a successful mission.
Junior brought a bottle of wine to the cabin before dinner for celebration, Richard had one going already.  There must have been holes in the bottom because they disappeared awfully fast.
Louise was on dinner duty as Bobby was on a trip back to town for a checkup.  She did an awesome job. Patricia was our server and she was awesome also. We headed off to the living room to visit with some guys from Ontario and NH, others from PA.  Nice sharing stories and trips with everyone.

Livin large in Havre St Pierre! Ken and Owen's excellent adventure continues with a 202 mi run today finishing at Hotel du Harve in light snow. Some of the nicest terrain and views we've ever ridden in Quebec. Why don't more people ride Cote Nord???  Conditions and weather have been mostly ideal since we left Baie St Paul 3 days ago, warm and sunny with lots of snow. However, north of Sept Isles is nowhere I'd want to ride in weather or wind. Wide open mostly,  following stake to stake across a moonlike landscape working feverishly to keep the sled in the center of the trail. Failure left or right  means certain digging out of a ditch -or worse (and if your riding buddies are anything like mine, you won't be allowed to forget:). 
Of course this means we have to do it all again starting tomorrow. Havre St Pierre to Port Cartier to Forestville to Baie St Paul, and did I say its snowing?? The adventure continues.....

Did the cave and waterfall Tuesday and ended up in Sacre Coeur. Wednesday put us in Baie Comeau, great trails all day  Sitting in the Comfort Inn Sept Iles tonight. Trails a bit choppy first 20 miles out of BC, after that trails were perfect. Tomorrow back to BC to catch the 5pm ferry to Matane. 595 to New Richmond Saturday. 
 
 

I read this at first as "hope you get some BJ" ...    lol
 
I think I qualify but my sled doesn't,   2009 4 stroke with over 25,000 km on it 😜
New four stroke in the budget for next year.
 

Get Well  Buddy!
U know you always have a spot!❤️

One of our son and  his girlfriend had booked us a night at La Tuque as a Christmas gift and it was last weekend that we enjoyed it. Here is the path of 486miles that we traveled last Saturday and Sunday.



-22C under a cloudy sky at first, not so good for pics, but acceptable visibility to ride. We were going first to join our friend Snowcruiser who was leaving Champlain and we had agreed to join him for lunch a little past 1:00pm at Marineau in Trois-Rives. We had an ambitious ride to do before lunch, so we left home early a little past 8:00am. The trails were beautiful and freshly groomed for the most part. Here in the fields north of St-Gabriel de Brandon to St-Damien. The little white line up to the top of the mountain is the snowmobile trail ...



We crossed a bumpy section in the Zec des Nymphes which had not been re-surfaced due to a broken dozer, otherwise north of Réal Massé everything had been done and was beautiful.



The cold had frosted the top of the mountains



We passed by the Taureau dam reservoir whose level is already well lowered



We took the opportunity for a short pics break





The #360 was like a carpet and very fast. With the gray sky and the high cruising speed we have unfortunately not many good pics





Another little photo break at halte 440. We see that it has been cold this season because the river is frozen over most of its route leaving only the rapids to clear water. Usually high flow prevents it from freezing over a large portion





When exiting Zec Chapeau de Paille, the trail runs along the river about 1mile this year that give nice view on the river in this area



Here the beautiful classic view, and the trail takes the usual path from there



We had a surprising good timing and arrived as planned to lunch at Marineau with Snowcruiser at 1:05pm with 149 miles on the dreammeter.



Having arrived there a bit late we left around 2:30pm towards #355 north. A friend of Snowcruiser, Michel who had come to lunch with us accompanied us up to  #360 #355 junction and then continued south while we lined up to the north



Too dark sky for good  pics but beautiful scenery



The classic  pipeline. The trail was ruff in this part, especially the big hills. Enough snow just need a dozer run



The famous railway bridge la rivière du milieu. Always a nice spot to take a break



The next section was much better and we even met 2 dozers who were leaving from La Tuque to go down to groom the #355 we had just done and #73 to the east



We arrived at 5:30pm in La tuque to stay at Marineau hotel where we had our reservation. 


 
It's really a sledders place, almost just snowmobiles in the parking lot. We had quiet evening, lying down early to compensate for my abuse the day before and get in shape for
the next day ...
Sunday morning during breakfast, guess who had come to sit just behind us: Mr and Mrs Iceman! accompanied by their friends, world is small!!! Was very nice to meet them and chat a bit (with my bad frenglish) too bad my other crew members don't really speak english so we would had talk longer... Krikri english vocabulary is limited at yes, no, toaster, bumber and wiper! 
Then we got back on the trail toward St-Raymond. Another nice cold night, -22C when we leaved which already announces nice hard trails



 
And we were not disappointed. The #73 "La Jeannotte" as whe called it was freshly groomed by one of the dozer we had crossed the day before





We even had a few sun rays! We took the opportunity to take few pics, with the sun it makes all the difference for photos, looks almost as postcards with it





Un vrai tapis





We arrived just at noon for lunch at Roquemont. It has changed a lot since our last visit, which was already a few years ago. It may be my nostalgic side but personally I liked better before. The drink side is very large with a lot of choice of beer but the meal side for dinner is rather limited. It's certainly not everyone's opinion because the place was packed full.


We then pointed our skis south to return on home side. We still had a good distance to travel but most on fast fields trail which were very nice



Instead of taking the #3 trail all the way ,we went down further south a notch via trails #302/351 which are a little faster in my opinion. We ride along the #40 highway for several miles. Here on the Batiscan River just under the highway



We left our friend Snowcruiser just a little further so he got back home in Champlain area while we continued south alone. Following the advice of Snowcruiser we tried a new trail (for us) that goes to St-Louis de France but then newly  connect to the #3 trail (not on the map). The trail is not super wide but ride very well and represented for us a shortcut of several miles. We ended  up in the power lines just few miles from La Gabelle St-Maurice river crossing . I have approximated the route on the map on my first pic on this report  for those interested...



We did one last fuel up in St-Étienne just after crossing the St-Maurice river at around 4:00pm followed by a short break. It was then that it get worst...



The ice storm began as we started again. The visibility with the ice and night coming was really difficult. I managed to find a functional rhythm: my Nolan electric visor plugged + heated handles at maximum and wiping with my hot left mits at 10 seconds so the ice was wipable. And when my right hand was about to catch on fire (7-8 minutes) I stopped and cool it down in the Kristine visor so she can see something front again



As darkness set in, it became easier with the lights. It did not stop us from smiling, was just part of the adventure!



We finally been home around 6:30pm. We started to be crusted a lot! and snowmobiling too ...




 
A very good ride, it gave us a total of 246miles for the day and 486 miles gps for the 2 days. The ice storm has not damaged the  trail network and has instead added compact stuff the dozers used to give us beautiful solid trails ... We are really in the best of the season and time flies quickly so it is the time or never to go for it!
Alain
 

Day 1, Friday February 8th. -22F,  235 miles
We, (Mark, Dave and Randy) headed out of St Michael De Saints in the AM after eating breakfast at the local restaurant across the street from Ski-Doo dealer..  We decided to take the reservoirs and lakes the whole way to Repos.  Too early for lunch and we don't need gas so we continue on. The conditions were very good and it was quick running up.  We wanted to get in early so we took the road to Kanawata, (mistake, we should have took the trail, more on this later).
We got gas and a quick lunch at Kawawata.  We rode ½ the lake over to him by zipping down onto to it off the trail. We met our 2 other team members there Todd and Richard already eating lunch.  We asked about lunch specials but Mario said he only does specials on the week-end otherwise he ends up having to eat the specials all week himself 3 meals a day, funny guy!  We had time and talked with Mario as we were the only ones there.  He said his wife left in 2015 after 34 years of marriage, (we wondered where she went).  A few guys said she was at the bottom of the lake, I don’t know about that.   He has a new girlfriend and seems happy.  He is always very nice to us and has helped us with issues in the past.  He said watch for the groomer as it was heading back in.
Before we got going the groomer arrived in the parking lot, perfect!  The trail was groomed and high speed all the way to the Barrage Gouin East entrance.   We got there so early we decided to try to find the new place on the reservoir, Escapade.  As it turns out it is under new ownership and open for the winter at $105 per person, room, dinner and breakfast and free internet. 
The best way to get there is 83 east of parent a ways you will see their trail on the left groomed all the way to their door.  The hard way is to go west on 83 past the east Barrage Gouin entrance, 3 miles later go past the NEW west Barrage Gouin entrance then go more 3 miles to the old west Barrage Gouin entrance.  Grooming is nonexistent once you head in this way.  There is an odd assortment of signs leading you Escapade that are not marked when you leave, only marked to get you there!.   You go 20 miles up the old west Barrage Gouin trail, then hook a left off it for 10 more miles, then spend the last 10 miles on his groomed trail from Parent.
We arrived there at 3:30 and now needed gas, awesome cause he sells it!  He also has a full blown airstrip and a plane, cool…..  he tells us he is expecting 10 guests for the night but no one has showed yet.  We went inside, visited for a bit and got the shortcut directions to get to Barrage Gouin for the night.
We headed 20 miles back down the trail, cross a spot on the Gouin reservoir, pop onto the Barrage Gouin east trail and ride the final 10 miles of groomed on Johnny’s trail into Barrage Gouin.  Awesome, we were in by 4:30 with some exploring and 235 miles on the day.  We got in a few Drone shots before darkness set in.
We got to enjoy a great meal prepared by the new chef Bobby, WOW this guy is the real deal!  He hung at the table after with us for an hour or so.  He speaks 3-4 languages and is a true character.  We played rock and roll trivia with him for a while and got our ass kicked.
We got lucky cabin 8 for the 5 of us and slept well after a few of the draft red beers. 
Tomorrow 6 of us are going off trail to Chibougamu!

Get Well  Buddy!
U know you always have a spot!❤️

Hope all goes well, would love to see you for an annual end of season Gaspe run end of march

Odd to see my seat being offered up, I was always the guy begging for companions.
No I did not find myself upside down in the woods again.
Vision was funny on Sunday Dr. sent me to surgeon and I have a torn & detaced retina. Trip to Wills Eye tomorrow and will be back in the saddle soon, I hope. 

Eric was with me when I grenaded in Matagami.
i believe I owe u guys some leniency.

We will ride together someday for sure.
So many trails so little time.