vt_bluyamaha54

You are correct Jack - 36L / 9.5g. SkiDoo says "up to 19mpg" for this engine so you confirmed it. Any of us riding for more than 10y have to find this amazing!

Rode out of Jackman on Friday the 23th and Saturday 24th.   Got to try out the new sled Yahama Sidewinder. 
 
Rode to Lac Etchemin via 75 to 55 on Friday.  Mostly very good, a little thin in a few spots.
Then on Saturday did 25 to 55 to 535 to 540 to 35, Stopped in St. Marie for fuel and a bite to eat.  Then back down 75 to Jackman.  Trails were very good up around St. Marie great trails overall for early season riding.

Jan 2 -4°c
I decided to wait no longer, big time rain coming in tomorrow 35mm, that'll wipe out everything around here and no snow in the 14 day forecast so out the back yard I go, head for the lake, get to the lake and tracks are going left and right but none across the road onto the lake and no tracks to be seen on the lake, dam I hate to be the first. I go right 100' later there's a ramp and sled tracks going down and out to the abiss, I follow, only 2 tracks I'm the third. Stakes you see on the lake are markers for the ice fishing village roads, they've started to pump the lake.





Once on the other side the hydro line trail was well covered but watch out for the ditches between the fields, not quite filled up yet. Cross a few fields and I'm in Rigaud.




Rigaud river has got an oval track groomed, maybe some races coming up. Further on the railbed is nicely groomed to the Ontario border, gotta take the last exit, no Ontarion pass. Last exit jumps on the Dalhousie club trails which have the best reputation for grooming in this area. You be the judge.








Took a little peek at the Ontario border, trail leading to it was well groomed, lots of snow in this area, these guys know what they're doing. JG you been giving lessons that we don't know about. Lol.

On the way back took a little detour to visit a Relais that's bee open for a couple years but never took the time to visit, had a peak inside and met the owner, every Saturday night they put on theatre acts, the owner raves about. Will have to stop in and check it out one week end.

196 Klms for my afternoon run, probably have to wait a couple weeks for the next backyard departure with hopes the Valleyfield crossing will be ready so I can get to the south shore.
 

trails are awesome

Hey , thanks , I am happy i made the video, damn rain sucks.....yes we made the bridge lol to go north and we have another trail to head south out back of our place. So we avoid town in either direction...And yes there is now a Sidewinder in our garage

This pretty much sums it all up so very well said. I think.
 

No, but dig into this thread.
 
Trakmaps sells a map package that can be loaded.
There is also a free package from Tilou et Biscut.  Either one will be highly accurate but not perfect.  

Hi Fred.  The groomer map is great.  It is usually updated around 6:00 AM and again after lunch around 1:00 PM.  The bottom left corner has the last update time.  We use it all the time for each day's ride.
Jack & Sandi

My concern would be having to break trail and running out of fuel.

oui !!! toujours beau !!!
-30c yesterday morning ....-16c this morning ...grey sky !!!
we should put the '' razor '' on the drag  today for a clean shave of the trail !!!
back on tq 5 later tonight !!!
 
jean-guy

hi playhard !!!
 
thx...few pics from today ....-25 c around 6 am ...just checked...- 26 c right now !!!
lots of moose tracks on my way up to lake !!!
before i forget , no grooming yet on local trail for ste marguerite...they are hauling woods !!!
 
jean-guy

while im gone grooming , mice are dancing !!!
great story gutz...funny !!! too much imagination !!!
 
back on tq 5 and 1 local trail ..strange day ..back to be back home !!!
left at 3 am...mild temps and snowing ...snow stopped few miles from gas station ...then back with snow in ste marguerite...bit of wind...then more wind...then on my way back very windy ....temps started to drop ...first fields next to logging road...looking toward albertville...sky was black !!!
did nt make it to '' school bus '' ....snowing like crazy ...then patch of blue sky with big clouds !!!
 
jean-guy

Day 6
woke to just a dusting of new snow at Windigo. Great news as they have plenty. After a great breakfast we say our goodbyes for now and head out. Windy and cold is back. We hammer back o 83 to Relais 22 went by fast first 40km down in 25 minutes. We top off at 22 and meet Martin one of the new owners of 22 we met Christine yesterday now we het to meet her husband. Nice people very welcoming and we need to support them. 
Onward south on 73 the trail is broken so we are rolling nicely. I must say that honestly this is not one of my favorite trails. I find it very twisty and just has a strange flow to it that is hard to find a rhythm if you get my drift. Anyway I guess it is starting to grow on me as we are moving along at a good pace. It's pretty much just a sled and a half wide but we are rolling. I do love the run into Rapid Blanc that is just crazy fast. 
We arrive at Rapid Blanc



we continue on and about 50 km from La Tuque there is hardly no snow in trees and trail is much harder. Obviously much more rain here, still ok to ride for sure just a different feel under the machine. Much firmer.  Down to La Tuque and we have passed no one. 
We arrive at bridge in La Tuque

 

Then up to the waterfall what wait some groomer action here in town.
 
We continue to get gas in La Tuque. Top off gas and we are off. Now for the most important stop of the day. We are back in civilization and need some "Jack" we have been suffering withdrawals since Gouin and had to drink Molson Ex last night.  Next stop. SAQ La Tuque, parking right in front, sweet. 

First the famous crossing light

We leave La Tuque on 73 and we quicky are hammering 73 south it's fast and we arrive at 355 and there is this sign....

Up to Relais Trapper and Down on LT2 which is bumped up. But on the right is a nice smooth place cause no one rides as far right as us. On down back to 73, the groomer has been here pobably just before the rain by the looks of it. Its ok we love it. I give up the point to Snohorse and he is off stretching his legs. He is hammering and I am giving chase. I stop to take care of business. Then continue on. I saw something on thr right, to me it looked like a wallet and I slowed but did not go back. Well turns out I should have. A couple KM further and here come Snohorse headed north, he hits the coms button and tells me I lost my GPS. Well now i know what i saw back there. I tell him its not far back on the right. I turn to follow and help in the search. Sure enough it was what I saw. Turns out a low hanging tree wacked his windshield and knocked it loose from his cradle on the Enduro. Lucky. But not un-scarred as luckily it was face down in trail when I ran over it scarring it on the back with my ice ripper track. We retrieve tge GPS and continue on. Now it's been forever since i rode this trail. I know the Relais Marmite was closed but did not know it was gone from the earth. 

On we go to Rivere a' Pierre. We gas up and head back up 73 north. We will take the local trail back to 23. I've never run this trail, been by it a hundred times. Today is the day. Plus the groomer went this way as the railbed 73 was not groomed freh like this was. Nice local trail but tight and very very twisty. A couple close calls with some oncoming sleds. I have had enough. Once for this trail will be all. Not again. 
About 10 km from junction with 23 we find the groomer. He is javing a bad day at the office. Apparently he was trying to bust through the snowbank but it was pretty frozen and took a toll on his hydraulic cylinder for his bull. He was bleeding and broken.

back to 23 and on into St. Raymond my first ride over the "new" bridge. I aint been here in a long time. Wow Roquemont has really changed. 
Wicked cold if you ask me. Cold is back. 
228 miles today. Sweet. 
Back to Relais Ice tmmrw. Homeward bound.

What a difference a day makes!  
Yesterday Low Rider & I drove north from PA/NJ in ridiculously warm temperatures with rain on & off & many areas with dense fog.  We literally watched the snow shrinking & disappearing before our eyes.  Nothing eats snow faster than fog & there was plenty of it.   NY/VT/NH/ME & southern PQ all got decimated.   Sucks big time given the great start this year.  Oh well.  Mother Nature can be an ornery biatch sometimes.  
Once we crossed the Saint Lawrence and started climbing north on 55 the snow levels significantly increased as it normally does.  Got to Shawinigan at 4:00pm & unloaded the sleds & started organizing all our gear.   It started snowing around 5:30pm & we got about an inch.  Hit the pillow early as we wanted an early start the following morning.
 
Day 1:  Friday Jan 13th
Woke up to 25*F, clear skies & a fresh inch of light powder covering all the ice formed from yesterday's rain & melting.   The area had gotten 6" of snow the day before we arrived thank goodness.  Add some water to that & then chill makes for a good potential recipe.   Had a good hot breakfast, saddled up the sleds & pulled out at 7:15am.  Took local trail a few miles then got on 23 West.  Conditions were surprisingly good for the first 25 miles.  Then we made first tracks on perfectly groomed for the next 20 miles.  Got to Le Cabanon at 9:30am & filled up the tanks, paid the clerk & got out of town pronto.  The people at Cabanon were just waking up & getting to their sleds.  Glad it was a Friday & not a weekend.   Took 345 North up to Repos & took gas.  345 was sweet for sure.   Took the "Kanawata Express" north.  Passed Mario in his Road Grader about half way to Kanawata & waved hi.  He was going towards Repos plowing his side.  Jim (Low Rider) blew a belt on his SkiDoo.  Doing 75 MPH in 14" of fresh can do that!  Belt had 7500 miles on it.  Not bad.  Took gas in Kanawata & went in for soup & burgers.  Celine is gonzo!  I guess Mario finally had enough of her.  We met Marie his new gal.  Very nice & friendly.  We heard that Gizmo the dog has gone to doggie heaven.
After lunch we exited the parking lot right onto 345 North & the trails gods continued their blessings!  First tracks on double wide fresh groomed & flat as a pancake!  I have always loved this stretch of trail and today it was the best I have ever seen it.  Burned up to Casey where Mario had turned around last night when he groomed.  Continued 345N up to 83W.  All good & fast!  There is tons of snow up here!  Took a right onto the eastern spur for the Gouin Reservoir.  This trail was a goat path years ago.  Today it was a "10"!  First tracks yet again on fresh groomed, double wide & fast!  Burned up to the Gouin, took gas, unloaded sleds and got comfy.  Got here at 4:15pm.  Temperatures continued to drop all day long.  Gonna be much colder tomorrow.
An amazing ride today.  Any hesitation or apprehension about what we would find was completely squashed & erased.  Now is the time everyone!  
As the hardest working man in show business James Brown says:  "Get on Up"!
 
296 miles
 

Iceman, you must have recharged your batteries over the summer because I would have bet you had your fill of breaking trail after "the North Shore Adventure" last year (?) LOL

Iceman, you must have recharged your batteries over the summer because I would have bet you had your fill of breaking trail after "the North Shore Adventure" last year (?) LOL

Look forward to your reports every night Ice, and you never fail to entertain, amuse and provide crucial trail info! Rode those same trails last year and it feels like I'm riding your tail the whole way. (You can keep the lead!) Planning on driving to st Raymond with the wife on Saturday and heading to LSJ country to meet with Jack and Sandi for a loop back. Your snow reports are giving me hope! Keep busting those trails open, we all appreciate it!      Terry

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.

Having sleds safe in heated garage outweighs the negatives of scratching the pavement IMHO. 

Gonna put this report here as we covered more than one region today and so here it is. 
This ride came out of necessity as Iceman originally had all week to head out and ride, However that changed Saturday when my time off was canceled. So it is what it is. I now need to be back in Shawinigan to work Tuesday night. So with this in mind. Ideas of going up to Saguenay were squashed. We decided to take advantage of the early conditions and the three days we have to ride to just ride trail we probably would never choose to normally and boldly go where many here would never bother. So it was decided.
Day 1 Sunday. 
Pretty nippley cold this AM but hey it's winter. We are in no rush as we bag up and leave Relais Iceman at 9:30am. Snohorse and I are headed TQ3 ouest until it ends. So we are off. Trails are real nice as we head west and we make our way along not alot of traffic with the cold this AM. We are taking 3 and 3 and 3 . Through Yamachiche and Louiseville on to Maskinonge then further west to L'Assomption. Near L'Assomption was a bit of goat trail through a swamp they have not groomed yet but nothing too bad. We did pass a section of "no mans land" with trees bent over bad for several miles leaving only one sled wide to get through....Further yet and we arrive through Terrebonne then to Mirabel through Lachute then we come to the end of TQ3. This is where we join 317 and we are repeating the ride Trailblazer did yesterday. Up 317 to Lac Macdonald around and past Auberge du Chasseur. We continue on and now it's been dark and we are not sure where we are gonna go. I find on my gps Hotel Lac Carling. Sounds good to us both. We arrive and are struck by the sheer size of this place. It's enormous. Pull up in front 4 stars. Sold. In we go. It gets better. With taxes and Breakfast $150 Canadian. Giant room gotta love love love it. Oh and free heated garage under the building just like at the Manoir Casino Charlevoix. Sweet. They are just open again under new management, first season open in 6 years. They are super snowmobile friendly and soon the sports bar will be open right here in the same building. Had a great dinner and met the Director of food/beverages and events. His name is Luc and a super guy. I've got all his info as he wants to become an advertiser on QR. This place is well worth the trip over here. Indoor pool and hot tubs. Wanna play tennis? 2 indoor tennis courts. Full spa. All the winter sport activities you could want. You need to check this place out and if you get near here show them some love. You will be glad you did.
For Scorpionbowl theres plenty of free Ice and fast free Wifi. 
280 miles today. Long day but fun riding trails you never been on. 
Sorry camera dead. 
But check out
https://hotellaccarling.com/
Looks as if there will be no avoiding rain coming this week. So going back Tuesday is not such a bad thing. 
 

Hi everyone.  Today is our last day to ride for this trip.  It snowed a little again last, 2".  It is 5F.  Nice way to start the ride.
We leave the Sag and head west on 83.  We stop at the Delta and yes the Gutz boys made it.  We chat with them and decide where to go.  It is the holiday today and places may be closed like we found out yesterday.  The receptionist is nice enough to make a phone call for us.  No answer at Mt Apica.  Scratch that idea.  How about Ski Bee Doo.  She calls them.  Again, no answer.  Lets try one more, Relais des Lacs.  She calls and someone answers.  She is told they are open until 4 PM.  That is great.  We are looking for a lunch stop.
We take off on 383 and cross the two bridges and then turn right on 134.  At 93 we turn left.  The trails are good.  Again there isn't much traffic out.  We run thru St Ambroise to 554 and ride up to Relais des Lacs.  Yes, they are open.  There are a couple of sleds and a few cars in the lot and it is just before noon.
After lunch we run out 328 to L'Ascension to tank up.  We continue on 328 to 93 and turn left toward Alma.  The trails are OK.  We didn't see anything that was groomed last night but the traffic has been light this week so the only bad areas are near the bigger towns.  We ride 93 to St Ambroise and turn right on 367 to cross the bridges.  At the bridges, we bid the Gutz team goodbye and go our separate way.
A nice way to end the trip.  Today, no problems, no one falling off the trail and no break downs.  Sandi just looked out in the parking lot and our truck and two sleds are the only vehicles on this side of the hotel.  Come on up folks.  There is plenty of snow, grooming is on going (other than the holiday) and the traffic is light.
We are planning our next trip for Martin Luther King weekend.  See you then.
Jack & Sandi

They need this
 

hi jackstraw !!!
looks like i had a memory blank , i knew that word...owl !!! if you look  closely on one of the pics with groomer...can see feather on the trail....it was partridge...owl was there on the right !!!bottom of long hill ...ste marguerite !!!
on the other post ,last pic with drag ...mom and calf are on top of hill!!! waited about 10 mins..they were nt moving ...so , i moved machine about 50 '...waited another few mins and they started to come down !!!
the new clearcut i was talking about is 400 ' behind drag !!
back in the late 80's or early 90' ...there was a pic of a bunch of moose at the faribault camp,snow was very deep...up to air filter  !!!
 
jean-guy