vt_bluyamaha54

Best wishes for a complete recovery. Very glad it wasn't worse.

Revct1,
This trip definitely looks easier in pictures than in person, I can personally attest to this.  This trip must be taken with extreme caution as there are vast stretches between fuel and help.  Also many challenges with sea ice shelfs and unpredictable weather.  With the proper planning and supplies it can be done.

As I mentioned above, Today's ride was awesome as yesterday, 204 miles of winter wonderland, the first 50 miles was the bay out of Cartwright and the white beaches of Labrador. We had problems with sleds overheating on the bay, so off come the side panels for additional cooling, strap them to the rear and go, once we got to the beaches we had lube along the shore, and than the 125 mile run up Lake Melville, was hard but provided lubrication. 30 mph winds provided for white out conditions at times, but a picture perfect day to get into Goose Bay for mid afternoon. We were 1 and 1/2 hour ahead but are back now to Atlantic time. We had the cat destroy the primary clutch 40 miles out so that got towed in. We mat be here an extra day getting that resolved before we head west for Churchill. Our new additions to the group did great today. They are planning to continue on with us for the trip.
Here are some more pics of today's winter in The Big Land" ride!
Happy Trails in Goose Bay/ Happy Valley Labrador
 
RR

Well, some people like to find the miles of the greatest white sand beaches in the world, and go in February to get to hang out on them in 80 plus degree temps, loving every minute.
There are a few that  prefer the white beach, but like the temps at about 7 above zero, and want to glide down along these white beaches for miles on end!
That kind of best describes this morning!  Fantastic!
 

More pics of the ride from Marys Harbor to Black Tickle and onto Cartwright today. Lots of Sea Ice, Gorgeous scenery and Black Tickle is very special!

A great barbeque at Dwight Lethbridges in Cartwright tonight,  awesome hospitality! !

We had a spectacular blue sky day today,  ran the ice and portages to the remote village of  Black  Tickle, definitely a Team Maine Custom tour today!. Gorgeous ride!  More details to follow RR

Tuesday 2/28. 236 miles.
We leave Domaine Valga ( Recommended ) and take 579 to 578 all good. We get on 5 and it is in need of some tlc. It is thin around Mt Joli. We stop at the Irving in Mt Joli for fuel. The next 10 miles are not good. The trail has some suspension killer moguls. We cross a small bridge and all is well again. The trail into Matane must have been groomed the night before it was fast and flat. After passing the big a frame bridge in Matane trail 5 did not match with my GPS map it had been rerouted. I was planing to go to the Yamaha dealer to see if they had motorcycle rain gear. The trail into the dealer on my GPS was not there. We just kept going. TQ5 was ok on the other side of the bridge out of Matane. On the way to Mt St Pierre TQ5 was a mixed bag. While climbing up hill it can get choppy. We watched the sun set from the overlook at Mt St Pierre. Overall it was a good day.

Left truck and trailer at Berniers  tuesday noonish, and rode northeast. Yes the trailer area is smaller but still works. Rode to Montmagny for the nite. Weds rode mostly 5 East to Rimouski. Trail conditions tues and weds perfect. Then Thurs in rain to NB border and over to Cabano. !st time there, stayed at motel Royal.  Cheap, right on the Lake and good rest and bar next door. I would stay there again for sure.
Trails even thursday were near perfect despite 40F afternoon temps. Friday we rode 85 to 35West. For those that have never tryed it, 35 is a ridiculously fast rail bed  that was still fairly flat the entire way back to 547 , where we turned North to pickup 5/75 into Berniers. But the last 50 miles trails were showing some serious wear, snirt and puddles. Then on 5/75 west, about 18 miles from Berniers the Chaudiere river was shut down, and we had to ride bare roads over a bridge for a couple of miles..   The water in the ditches along the trails is rising fast in this area. To top it off last nite they had an ice storm with 1/2 inch of ice on everything. Took us a while to chisel out the truck this morning.
To me, they wil now need some cold and an inch or two of new snow, to get this area back in shape. They still have a deep base on most of it.

Started light snow today:

 
Then white-out!

Then deelish!...

Existing hard base with today's half-inch made the carbides extra-grippy!
Coulda used more of that in La Baie...


Come n get it Ladies & Gents! Tons more neige forecast!

So I can't seem to post photos with an iPhone. I will have to wait till we get home.
yesterday we took eastern most orange trails out of Matane up in to the dead end orange east of Causapscal. Then we back tracked to the Albertville club house. From there we took 587 down to Matapedia and on to TQ5. We stayed at La Coulee Douce. 
 
Today we kicked back a notch. 103 miles. We took TQ5 to 587. We went to the radar tower to see the snow covered trees. After we took 579 to Domaine Valga.
the trails were excellent again today. There is a little ride on plowed road on 579. That was the only complaint. We hit a snow squall that stopped us for a short time.It was strange to be in blue sky's and suddenly whiteout.
 
Mt. St. Pierre tomorrow.
 

Spectacular scenery from Chevery Quebec to L Anse au Clair Labrador 

Some of the trail and views from Johan beetz over to aguanish and onto Chevery yesterday afternoon. Note the stakes or tripods every 50 feet👍 The single track sections are between johan and aguanish. The staked trail and very new warming huts are on the ministry maintained trail between Kegaska and Chevery

Once we get rolling, it is a quick 50 or so to johan beetz, groomed with 4 to 5" of fresh snow. You can't beat that. Than from johan to Aguanish, well... go back and read the description yesterday of the trail after the Mosie river. Yup, 50 miles of......enough said! You probably don't want to do this section unless completely,
 prepared.. we bang thru this and once we fueled up and had a sealed packaged egg salad sandwich for lunch, we were off for the white road. Groomed trail, here and over to Natashuan, where the original white road used to leave from. We pick up the old white road here, but it is not maintained by the ministry so it leaves a bit to be desired if groomed trails are what you  like. Now the 138 goes all the way to Kegaska, so the official ministry maintained white road starts here now.
once you hit the white road in Kegaska, it is like grand central, we met 50 plus sleds on this super highway this afternoon, all the locals were heading somewhere and also a few touring trail sleds. This trail  is marked with a stake every 50 feet, seriously! A blind squirrel could find his way down this. So into Chevery we go. Only to have the 1200 start acting up again 30 miles out of Chevery, very confusing. Tonight our best  mechanics in our group are changing fuel filters that Misty River lodge rounded up for us locally and a heated garage to do the repair!  Great hospitality. Tomorrow, Lance au Clair....with the 1200 We Hope!

A nice report as always Alain. Do take care with Krikri's pneumonia as Iceman said, extra bed rest seems to be as important as medicine to conquer it. 

I jumped the gun obviousl, on the demise of the Apex. Nice to be wrong on this. I got no problem eating my words. 
I was expecting more than the front shocks coupled together for the 50th anniversary of yamaha sleds. 

Always look forward to the seasons Iceman gets a new machine. It means big snow fall.
 

I'll take my SideWinder over any Apex any day. I still love my Attak, the Winder is just a better overall sled to ride hands down. Plus I can pack gear on my tunnel. 

A nice report as always Alain. Do take care with Krikri's pneumonia as Iceman said, extra bed rest seems to be as important as medicine to conquer it. 

Ha funny, just got done washing them. Not as bad as I thought. Just a light haze of salt spray on the front. They cleaned up easily. The truck and trailer where cleaner than usual when we got home too. Her windshield on the Cat didn't much like the highway speeds. Only 2 screws left holding it on. The others pulled the rubber grommets off. Much further and it woulda flew off. 
I also gotta say good job to Klim, FXR, and the Skidoo Absolute Zero gear ( or who ever makes their stuff ). After riding through that monsoon in the mountains for the better part of 100 miles, everything stayed dry, all the electronics survived. Pockets where dry.  And everything was dry by morning, even the saddle bags. Packing everything in zip lock bags and water proof bags worked and only my tshirt was a little damp. So we where able to put on nice dry clothes for dinner. Everybody was mostly dry on the trail, only a few minor issues with water getting in. And we weren't wasting any time either. We where running 60 plus mph up 595 in a down pour. It sucked, not gonna lie. But wouldn't trade the experience for anything. It was a hell of a ride albeit a shortened one. I'll never forget this one. 

No, we where going to finish but my sled (2016 Rene X 600 etec)started overheating Friday morning for as of yet unknown reasons. Nothing I did seemed to help.  The temp just went slowly up and up until the light came on. I tried to push on but we weren't making good time. The coolant was full, getting the sled in loose snow didn't help either. Acts like the Tstat is stuck. Then as we where towing my sled back to the copper with the ol ladies Artic cat the other guy in the group hit the bridge just north of the copper on 5 and bent his control arm pretty bad. (Yamacat) plus it's making a noise like the cooling fan is hitting something. Apparently he was nearly ejected over the side of the bridge. The rear of the sled was sitting up on the cable at a 90 degree angle to the bridge. That was the story being told by the 2 female observers that where behind him. Hopefully he learned the value of self preservation while riding when 2 days away from the truck. He was going too fast. We had two ladies with us on this trip, and even after the deluge and mostly miserable weather and trail conditions we had rode in for the better part of 100 miles they still where having a ball. My  woman worked with the brother of the owner of the copper and came up with the rental car on the back of the flatbed idea. Somehow. Not sure how they pulled that off with  the language barrier bet they did. I was outside with my sled ripped in pieces trying to find a problem. DNF's are unacceptable. In my mind at this point We where going to finish somehow.  They first said there was a bus back to RDL that runs every day but we had missed that. Then they offered a helicopter ride that started out as 800 bucks back to RDL to get trucks. That turned into about 3500 when they wanted to charge to bring it in from Gaspe to Murdochville, then to RDL and back to its home port which I understood to be in Murdochville.  The helicopter ride would have been fun and a good story but not for 3500. The flatbed and rental was 1350 split 2 ways minus the rooms we no longer needed plus gas food and beers, subtract US to Can dollar conversion and it was nearly a break even expense. And now I can cross off driving a car out in the Gaspe. 132 is a nice ride. The trip ended well with no regrets, lessons learned and a good time had by all. I'll be back next year with a rain suit and a shiny new Renegade X 1200. This was my first time in 11 years of riding in Quebec that I got a DNF, and first trip to the Gaspe

Ginger was driving & I have to give her all the credit for keeping it under control & getting stopped before the wheels and fender was damaged 
She's a great copilot 👍

This "trailering" is a foreign language to me. Sounds like fun. 

I do agree that trailer tires like Carlisle brand are cheap and maybe that was the cause but especially in smaller diameter tires where they rotate faster than the vehicle tires, running tire pressure too low is the number one cause of side wall overheating and self destruction from excessive flexing. That is why I asked. I have been running boat and snowmobile trailers since the early 70's and have had my share of tire issues no matter the brand or place of manufacture till I learned to run them at the pressure marked on the tire usually 65+ pounds for less than full size tires. In the case of 182ray, his wheels look to be a standard size, 15,16 inch rim so I do imagine that if that is the case he was not limited to cheap imports in replacements. In the smaller rim diameter sizes most brand name tire manufactures walked away from that segment of the market years ago and left it to cheap tire companies.

So Ginger & I got an early start on our last trip to paradise. The miles were passing by quickly & we were on the 20 east bound just before the Madrid exit when Ginger (she was driving) said "oh no we have a flat tire" next thing we heard a pop & now we have two flats on the driver side. She quickly slowed & pulled to shoulder which saved the wheels & fender from damage.
The first thing I do is call AAA which goes to CAA. A very nice English speaking representative tells me the trailer isn't covered but she can still send a rollback. Ok great, she even stays on the line in case she has to translate. Translation is not necessary as the rollback person speaks English & says the truck will be there in 30 minutes. So as were waiting soon there's a woman at the drivers side door asking if we need help. We respond we're OK there's a rollback on the way. She then informs us she's from a trailer dealership less than 3 miles away. Then we notice there's 2 guys with here already verifying the tire size. I have them write their information down & when the rollback shows up I tell the driver take us here. For sure it's not very far & we realize we have seen this place the numerous times we have driven on the 20. Once there the rollback driver says he doesn't want to tilt the bed & risk the trailer falling off because the rollback is almost too narrow for the trailer. No problem since the dealership has a large fork lift for unloading trailers. In my mind I need two tires but Ginger says four, so four it is. The workers roll out the Quebec hospitality & soon we're enjoying some fresh coffee & snacks. Next thing we know they tell us it's all done & ready to go. We pay the bill & pull around to hook up the trailer. It's then we realize they also washed the trailer!!!
The screen shot of Google maps shows a red pin & a blue dot. The red pin is where we stopped & the blue dot is the dealership.
I've been towing trailers since I was 18 & this is the first time I've had one flat let alone two!!!
So if you're on the 20 near Madrid & need service for your trailer I can highly recommend Remorque LeBlanc.