PISTON LAKE CRUISER

SnoHorse transported from Saint Felician to Shawini by Paulo the country singer from relais Butts.
 
$400cd  Thank you Bucks.
2015 season ender
 

How much are Swifty tix these days?!...
Or the Stones for that matter?!...

AWESOME write up and trip Fuse6. !!!!!
 
that stick jammed up in the running board wins the ingenuity of the year award. BRAVO !!!!!

We heard you the first time 🤣

Locked and Loaded trucking today wirh Mrs. Ice. Promised I would find her some good trails….so let the games begin. 

We took the risk of leaving directly from the home in St-Thomas and passing through Berthier to go up to St-Zénon and have dinner at Réal Massé

If I had to quickly summarize the report: don't do like us and stay no further south than St-Gabriel de Brandon and go north. We wanted to take advantage one last time of the privilege we have of leaving directly from the home without touching the trailer and we managed to do so but the southern part of St-Gabriel is too lacking in snow... I gave a good beat to my snowtrackers!
From St-Thomas we joined trail #3 to go towards Berthier. Surprisingly, apart from the surroundings of the gas station in the village, the fields were still very beautiful. Here along the railway line.  Scratchers mandatory very hard/icy base

There was a lack of snow in a few inside curves but overall very good

Things got bad when we arrived at the airfield in St-Cuthbert, there was quite a long way to go on a plowed path now on dirt/gravel and it wasn't nice in the wooded area that followed or near the Valrémi sugar shack
We gave a try on the #3 towards St-Barthelemy...It was worse too much south and we had to turn around we lost the trail at some points

We headed towards St-Gabriel de Brandon, the wooded sections are good

But in the fields the trail path is hard to miss 🙄, it has melted too much. There is quite a long stretch like that

Past St-Gabriel de Brandon going north was the way to go, the conditions there are fine and keep going better toward north
We had a checkpoint just north of the village of St-Gabriel, the guys were nice no problem.

And we went up the #23 north which still has good snow cover

I was unsure about a short plowed section but it's still very good and was ok

We got a few bumps from traffic but the snow is still very good in that area

We had a late start around 9:30 and time was passing quickly so we took the #350 south

And we had dinner at Réal Massé. It's been a long time since we've been there and their meals are still delicious and the atmosphere really nice. They are open from Thursday noon to Sunday afternoon.

From there we decided to continue #350 and loop around via #63 towards Ste-Émélie de l'Énergie. Here direction the Glacière


Past La Glacière on #63 heading south it was still very beautiful with good snow cover


Here passing by the La Barrière outfitter


We passed through Domaine Bazinet and continued south

The big hills near Ste-Émélie de l’Énergie are still in good condition

Past Ste-Émilie village we headed towards St-Damien where we stopped to refuel while passing through their courtyard.

Leaving the gas station we climb the mountain and at the very top facing south there is the only mud spot we saw to the north of St-Gabriel on this route very close to the small shack at the #23 junction which joins our morning route. We took a little break there.

We resumed on the morning path in the opposite direction which was still in the same state, beautiful up to St-Gabriel but then with bare spots going south

We returned home around 5:00 p.m. with a little over 250km on the cluster, overall happy with the ride that succeed our wish to start from home.
In summary, there is still some great snowmobiling to be done north of St-Gabriel de Brandon when it is cold like today. This year it's like that, don't be too critical and take what can be done... The upcoming weather forecasts are a bit scary but I still hope they're wrong! we'll see...hoping for the best
Alain

Day 6 Saturday
 
Cold this.morning. Not sure what was the temperature but a cold start. Cold makes white asphalt. I happen to admire white asphalt quite a bit and we saw lots of it 
Exception being the local trail from La Dore to TQ83. But the local orange was still ok. Just not perfect. 
 
Joined up with the TQ83 and at first was not liking it. Quickly changed at intersection to local trail south. Fast run down as the top of the TQ83 they are grooming the road as the trail for a god part of it and it’s fantastic. Gas and Late lunch after the rush at Relais 22. Out of there we got places to be. 
 
More sleds out today, but duh? It’s the weekend. Even so, we only caught uo to 2 sleds we easily got by. Only the second pair we had to deal with in front of us in 6 days. Sweet. 

Quick burn to Windigo and wrapped up a stellar day with a stellar night reminiscing and breaking bread with our brothers Team Vermont. Always great fo be at Windigo with Martine Stephanie and Daniel….even better on a Saturday night……and even better with the plan coming together to meet up. 
 
Lots to catch up on and that we did. Sure wish we could do this so much more often.
 
Great times with Great people. 

Day3: 254 total miles. The temperature dropped like a rock last night making for excellent trails all day lost count of all the groomers I passed trails are on tip top shape here! Was a very cold day high of only 3 or so but that makes for the best conditions! Todays ride took us south of Amos to Malartic to top off fuel then over to Rouyn then up to La Sarre then back over to Amos to complete the loop all trails were excellent! Anyone who’s not up here is missing out big time. Some pictures from the day enjoy!
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/342CE828-20DB-44DC-8BB6-E1AEA67866D1.thumb.jpeg.b655410460dfbff8d0ecb7102aa80225.jpeg
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/BADAC173-0A03-4A55-806A-1B4A6F6E3875.thumb.jpeg.f4e8846387ee4493e3ee17d94dbd5b44.jpeg
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/7E8D9641-493E-47FB-A23E-677258241E92.thumb.jpeg.95eb74e06d6ce07e40f8cec11f315845.jpeg
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/E5EDE73B-BCB5-4C72-BD8E-387510037DF2.thumb.jpeg.b611f7a2aaa2ea89dcaf80d04fc8d379.jpeg
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/4985B635-9620-451B-83E8-E65ADC49DDA4.thumb.jpeg.30357b632d5100aeee260084c285ba90.jpeg
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/A97CEC8B-F659-4F24-8F0B-9546B1A1D98B.thumb.jpeg.7d232319dc530914f019e66ad3d5d9e6.jpeg
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/2536D875-FA2E-4F05-A843-596E49EF96A8.thumb.jpeg.fc2c5e2c8abdd2bbfe1195f7275990b7.jpeg

Here the  a music video of this ride.
I made a test on this one and film/process the whole video in 2k 30fps in place of 1080p 60fps, seems to improve the quality a bit on the net.
So crank up the sound and the quality to 2k and enjoy the ride 🍿🍿🍿
 

As always, thanks for great report and pictures. It's nice to see that there are some good trail conditions.  We wer up in riviere du loup 2/3-2/7/24, trails were very good.  Pictures are on 2/4/24 on the sentier haricana (orange 🍊 trail) out of rdl.

My new SkiDoo gauge shows me going down a waterway and shows red and green buoys.  And it keeps beeping telling me to put on my life jacket.
 

Figured I’d post on here in case anyone wants to follow along or is curious of conditions. Trucked up from PA up to Amos at the Amosphere 14hr run but bluebird day made travel easy. Pretty good amount of snow here considering how crappy a year it is grooming map shows lots of activity, so should be some excellent riding. Just doing day trips and big loops each day from Amos might head to Mattagami tomorrow will post report and pics. 

Day 4. today we traveled 180 miles from Baie Comeau to Sept-tiles. Last 125 miles was slot, car fast and smooth. Had about 15 miles of rough stuff 25 miles east of Baie Comeau. Woke up to bright sunshine again this morning. Tomorrow we start heading back on similar route that got us here.

Yesterday Sunday February 18, 2024, we rode from St-Michel des Saint to Marineau Mattawin round trip for a 306Kms total

After the last weekend thaw(11-12 feb) the south of my area was very thin and some clubs had stop grooming waiting for new snow. It was still possible to start riding from home but we wanted to ride some nice, wide and faster trail so we did a trailer run and dropped at the village of St-Michel des Saints. In St-Michel village it's thin but rideable and we directly reached the Taureau reservoir to take the trail toward auberge Taureau. The ride on the reservoir is rather rough, there was traffic when it was slushy and it refroze like that. If you have the heart strong enough to move between 100 and 200 feet away from the stakes it is very nice and flat and a new path formed there with many tracks but there is an associated risk and I cannot officially recommend it to you, the safe option is close the stakes.

The reservoir is not at its lowest yet but must be lowered by a good 25-30 feet already

Trail #33 past the Taureau Auberge is a little brownish in the short section that is near the beach

but when you enter on the forest road  just a little further it is very nice

There are some short spots with dirty snow or a few rocks but 95%+ that's it

We went around the Taureau reservoir on the west side and continued on #360 towards the east. The trail base was very hard with a thin layer of loose snow and new snow, very fast conditions but icy enough to have to be careful in some curves

The Mattawin River has decreased in flow a bit but it hasn't been very cold this year and there are still long sections at clear water


We took a break at 440 halt, my prefered break spot. Beautiful view on the river


The whole old path of #360 is very nice. When you enter the woods at the height of the old M20 there is some dirt in the snow on some curves but still beautiful overall, the same thing on the fast sections of the detour further on which come to join the edge of the river before the point of view

The section in the woods after the viewpoint up to the bridge was a little less beautiful but OK. The bridge was quite dry so we took out the rouskis


We left St-Michel at 9:30 a.m. and arrived at Marineau at 12:30 p.m. with 153km on the dreameter

We had a very good big meal there, love this place! As luck would have it, I also met a retired work colleague and his wife who I hadn't seen for ten years! they live on the south shore of St-Laurence river and were passing there by car, a great unplanned encounter!
We took the same exact route for return, The sun had hidden and it was snowing a little. Here the point of view.



We went at the edge of the Taureau dam for a short break

and we started it again towards St-Michel


We came across the St-Michel dozer which was starting its grooming run a few kms north of the Taureau Auberge. I have to take my hat off to these snowmobile clubs, in this case St-Michel and Mattawin who work hard and do miracles with the little snow they have to give us beautiful trails... Thank you!!!


And we were back to the trailer around 4:45 p.m. with 306km for the ride, very happy with our run. It had a bit of new snow yesterday there and at home as well, and even a bit more in Mauricie where my partner Snowcruiser told me around 6 inches of new stuff. We would need more than that to optimize all the trails but at least it help to greenish the trail map on Imotoneige!
We were hoping for better at mid february but it's hard to argue with mother nature! We still hope for more snow and cold but in the mean time the groomers do miracles with what they have and it's still possible to do some great sledding.
My video camera cooperated very well during the ride and I should be able to post some video footage from this ride soon.
Alain

Day 3. Escoumins to Baie Comeau. 175 miles. Another sunshine day made for mild temperatures in the high teens. Trails were very good, except for about 30 miles, which were OK, but had chop in all the turns.The building by the water in the last picture is our hotel for the night. Le Manior
 

I'm pretty certain that the affected businesses and many of the public especially in small and remote areas already know the value of snowmobilers to their business. The impact may not always be positive as there are many "entitled" sledders out there. Although they are the minority the results of their actions are felt and remembered more than the majoritys actions. I can tell you from more than 30 years of club and trail work experience that reroutes and trail closures are not something the clubs want to do (just more work for volunteers to do) but are a necessity based on circumstances. JMHO

I'm pretty certain that the affected businesses and many of the public especially in small and remote areas already know the value of snowmobilers to their business. The impact may not always be positive as there are many "entitled" sledders out there. Although they are the minority the results of their actions are felt and remembered more than the majoritys actions. I can tell you from more than 30 years of club and trail work experience that reroutes and trail closures are not something the clubs want to do (just more work for volunteers to do) but are a necessity based on circumstances. JMHO

I'm pretty certain that the affected businesses and many of the public especially in small and remote areas already know the value of snowmobilers to their business. The impact may not always be positive as there are many "entitled" sledders out there. Although they are the minority the results of their actions are felt and remembered more than the majoritys actions. I can tell you from more than 30 years of club and trail work experience that reroutes and trail closures are not something the clubs want to do (just more work for volunteers to do) but are a necessity based on circumstances. JMHO

I'm pretty certain that the affected businesses and many of the public especially in small and remote areas already know the value of snowmobilers to their business. The impact may not always be positive as there are many "entitled" sledders out there. Although they are the minority the results of their actions are felt and remembered more than the majoritys actions. I can tell you from more than 30 years of club and trail work experience that reroutes and trail closures are not something the clubs want to do (just more work for volunteers to do) but are a necessity based on circumstances. JMHO

I'm pretty certain that the affected businesses and many of the public especially in small and remote areas already know the value of snowmobilers to their business. The impact may not always be positive as there are many "entitled" sledders out there. Although they are the minority the results of their actions are felt and remembered more than the majoritys actions. I can tell you from more than 30 years of club and trail work experience that reroutes and trail closures are not something the clubs want to do (just more work for volunteers to do) but are a necessity based on circumstances. JMHO

I'm pretty certain that the affected businesses and many of the public especially in small and remote areas already know the value of snowmobilers to their business. The impact may not always be positive as there are many "entitled" sledders out there. Although they are the minority the results of their actions are felt and remembered more than the majoritys actions. I can tell you from more than 30 years of club and trail work experience that reroutes and trail closures are not something the clubs want to do (just more work for volunteers to do) but are a necessity based on circumstances. JMHO