Je me souviens

Great trip report, only thing missing is a few pics. I know it's a pain to stop and take the gloves off, but I like to document the trips with pics so I can gaze back during the summer to remind me why I make the year round payments on a machine you can only use for 12 to 16...if lucky... weeks a year. We did that loop about a month ago, great scenery and no traffic between LeTrapeur and lake Bouchette. The two groomers they have at the top relais just before you get into Roberval are the biggest machines of their kind I have ever seen, the groomed swath after one pass down and one pass back up leaves a racetrack coming into and leaving town, great fun. Lets hope some more snow hits us soon. I like not smelling the slides burn up under me. This is what it looked like a month ago.

If you are headed in from western NY, naturally I would go the least distance possible by truck. I would start the trip in Lanaudiere, either Ste-Agathe, or St-Donat. There are a few reputable places to park your truck. Then head trough the Park Mont Tremblant on TQ33, bang a left on TQ13, 1st night stay in Parent. Day two hit 83 Towards Roberval, spend night two in Roberval, but if you can push it a little further day two, get to the Holiday Inn in Jonqiuere, you will sleep well that night. Day three, go north from Jonquiere towards les monts Vallin. Stop @ LaChappelle to get the local trail map. From LaChappelle head east on the trail known as les Escoumins, see how far you make it that day due to weather in the Mountains, which if you are lucky and get a blue bird day, keep the camera ready! Night three Near Tadoussac. Get to the ferry early in the morning headed south on TQ3. Again determine how far you want to travel and stay in the Charlevoix region, Quebec city. Then day four keep on trucking West on TQ3. Days Inn in Bertierville night four. Get up at a decent time day five head back through the Tramlant Park via TQ63 then bang a left @ 33 in the Park, probably need gas on the right though, I will let you decide whether you need to hit the same relais you hit day one on the way out of the park, they close early on Sunday and during week days, so don't mess around in the park too long. Then go back through the park staying right on TQ33, all the way back to the truck. The only variation would be day three ask Bill to guide you around the mountains in Monts Vallins, ask about the cave! Then take TQ23 south on day 4. Staying night 4 in St Raymond. Day five would be much longer this way, though. Have a blast. Guardez la Droite @ ALL TIMES! Be safe and post pics of the trip on here when you get back.

What a trip. Like Jackstraw said...That's the beauty of Quebec!

Sounds like a great trip, asides from the ferry incident. I was planning on going around Gaspe for the first time, leaving Thursday morning, but my sled is acting up, so I guess that trip will have to be postponed. Where exactly is the cave? If we have to shorten our trip and do a Mont Vallin run instead, I sure would love to see the cave and do the Escoumins loop in the same day.

Those are some amazing shots. You gotta love the close-up of the subsonic waves. If I had the cash I would buy that camera just knowing it could catch anything! Thanks for the link.

I would like to get out this week end and cover some new ground. I am thinking about heading towards Berthiersville and seeing what that area is like. If anyone has any input on this area please send me some suggestions. Places to see, trails to take, trails to avoid, places to stay, places to eat, things of that nature. Thanks. On a side note, I read about some guys heading to La Gaspe, this past week. Lets hear about that too.

J'adore les photos. Is the "coulle verte d'abertville" in the gaspe region?

I love the action shot! Hilarious...but not so funny for the guy it happened to.

I was trying to make a loop from St Donat west through the park to La Macazza, when we headed south down 325 or 323 I forget exactly which one, but we were going to hook up with 43 heading east to go back up to St. Donat. The guy at the gas station in La Minerve said that the 43 was closed for the year. Lost land use priviledges beacuse the guy that takes care of that part of 43 never did his job, and got into an argument with a land owner, so the land owner said forget it, no trail going through this year. The guy at the gas pump was a local club member, he was wearing his FMCQ jacket, and started to ask where we came from, he looked at me kinda funny, and said where do you think you are heading now? So I told him I was planning on heading south from La Minerve on 355 till I meet up with 43 and head east towards Ste Agathe, he told me I had no choice but to turn around and head back to St. Donat through the park via 63 east. That would remain that way for the rest of the year.

Great video Pat. I think I may have talked to you at the relais in the Tremblant park a few weeks ago. The green provincially spnosored building before the St. Michel entrance to the park.

Viper2, It was 415 miles total for the two days. Phil, We parked in St-Raymond so that we could do that exact loop. 83 up 23 down, but after the frigid first day, we wanted to be sure of ourselves on the way back, so we took the same way home as we did up to Roberval. We did 23 down from Monts Valins 2 years ago after taking the east shore 3? up to Tadoussac. That was an amazing loop. The highlight of that loop was the Escoumins Semi Hors Piste from Les escoumins Relais to mont Valins sector. The next trip will hopefully feature a 3 day loop from Shawinigan to Jonquierre via the gas pipeline, then a "free ride" on day two, then take Jonquierre back to Shawinigan via 23 on Sunday. Or vice versa based on total mileage. The optimal way in my mind is to day the longest way up to Lac St-Jean on day one, that way on Sunday you not as beat when you truck it home.

We parked the truck @ the Roquemont then headed north. Total one way was just over 200 miles. Once you get north of LaTuque there was nothing but great trails following the ridge line of the mountains all the way into Lac Bouchette. The only place we saw between asides from a few camps was the lunch stop @ Le Goeland. They had a pretty good Club Poutine combo. Here are a few pics from the week-end. Saturday would have been a great day for pics, but it was too cold to stop that much, so the pics are from Sunday. As you can see it was overcast, but much warmer. If you are into bear hunting there is a place called Le Trappeur, just north of LaTuque, Denise the owner of the place gave me a card.

ScorpionBowl, where do you park when you base camp in Shawinigan?. We are looking at a possible three day trip from Shawinigan up to the HI 1st day, going through LaTuque, play in the mountains 2nd day, then back to the truck on Monday. I would like to feel comfort when I leave the truck for two and a half days sitting in unknown territory. On a second note, if anyone has any suggestions of routes, or places to see, eat, or stay, in the proposed area of travel, Shawinigan to Jonquiere, let me know. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. I know about Safari and Jocelyn, however I don't know about distance/ time required to make it from Shawinigan to Roberval/Lac St Jean area. Is it reasonable, or are we talking way over 300 miles?

I agree for the most part, however 2 points of contention are as follows: 1. When I don't get a hand signal from you on the way by, I give you the Quebec original, world renound, number one hand signal, the one to which I refer does not involve the index either. I understand your philosophy about letting go of the bars with one hand, however as far as I am concerned if you are scared to let go for a sec when encountering oncoming vehicles, you must be either riding to fast, or not over to the right far enough. Granted there are a few circumstances that merrit exception to the hand signal rules. 2. NEVER PASS. It is plain stupid to think that because the guy in front has mirrors, he actually uses them. The fact that you are going to pass what could be a local, with your US registration clearly visible, just makes them say "Cris d'Americains!" even more. Chances are that sooner or later he, or she, will realize that someone is behind them, and they will let you by. Again there are a few exceptions to this rule, but for the most part I think it is better to wait 20 minutes to pass, than it is to spend one second on the left side of the trail, you said yourself, missiles coming the other way. And what is really going to happen when the leader of your group passes? Chances are that not all the rest of your group will make it around, so you end up waiting for them at the next intersection anyways. Especially late at night when all you can see is head light, is that me your buddy behind you, or is that the guy you just passed who is not in your group? I think the 2 of us argued on this site last year about hand signals for oncoming traffic. I do see your point about letting go of the bars, but I feel that knowing how many are behind the leader when snow dust gets whipped up in the blind corners is priceless. They have a light system for mounting on the sled for signals. Red for more coming, green for good to go. If I though people understood what the light meant I would buy one.

Tracy mon, It is exactly 128 miles to the hotel/unloading spot, from my house. Two stop signs and 110 miles of interstate, then 18 miles of 2 lane highway. It took 2 and a quarter hours to get from home to trail. Hopefully no Ski-Boom this year, if so 3 year engine warranty will have to go into use. Snowbound, The 4 stroke is a renegade. My 800R got slightly better gas mileage, short track to short track would probably be about the same fuel consumption, minus the oil obviously. The 4 stroke doesn't seem to deliver the weight transfer that the 800 does, but it has such a linear power band that it seems to accelerate evenly throughout the RPM's. Where as the R feels like a caged gorilla trying to break free when you hammer down. On the lake we had a rolling start 25-30 MPH, they were ski to ski till about 80, then I pulled out on him a little, I repeat a "little", we let off somewhere after 80. We are both running the 2 per bar stud pattern, 84 on a shorty, 90 something on the gade. I think the 3 lunger has longer legs, i.e. top speed. But I didn't feel like having to change a belt first thing in the morning, so we never found out who has the most top end. The GPS said 104 top speed, and there was a little left to go full out. But I never usually want to do more than 75-80 anyway. For those of you who are thinking I am completely insane, the speeds I am referring to are on clear, straight runs where this is as safe as it will ever be. Like a groomed lake run in daylight with a clear line of vision for miles. In the woods, trail speeds hover form 40 to 50MPH. With all this in mind the 800R was keeping a 14-15 miles per gallon consumption rate. It's no E-tec, but it's way better than my 01 600 ever was. TDI-HAM, La montagne Noire, was a great spot to take some pics. As soon as we got to the summit and shut the sleds down, a pair of Canada Jay's stopped in for a snack, unfortunately, bird seed is not on my must carry on me at all times, list. Here's a few more from the summit.

Had another great 2 day event in St-Donat. 310 Friday, 110 Saturday. Great trail conditions 90% of the time. St-Donat, Saint-Michel, La Macaza, St come, Notre Dame de la Merci, all in pristine shape. Check out the pics.

Chances are that the HI will have better riding conditions than the cabanon in mid March.

Add me in to that e-mail. oh yeah email address might help... gpbirkett@gmail.com or just send a link via the pm on this site

Last Saturday, when we left Sunday they were getting another blizzard, last I looked they only received .65 in. of rain during the warm up. Just enough to make the trails perfect. We are headed up there again on Friday morning, I'll post some fresh pics when I get back.

By the pictures you can see, it was perfect... low traffic, great trail conditions, clear blue sky...

Playing in the Park

Merry X-mas everyone, Santa left a GPS under the tree for me, now I just need to figure out how to upload the Quebec trail maps to it. There is a topic pinned at the top of the general discussion page, however some of the links are expired. Would someone please point me in the direction of where I can find this years updated trail maps for Qc, the handheld device I am using is a Garmin 60csx, thanks for the help. Although signs like the one below are helpful. Sometimes you need a little more info than that...

Took off Saturday morning headed up by myself and ended up with a 300 mile weekend. Great first ride The last pic is of the record moose taken from the park last year. 64" spread, impressive

I may not be Mr. Gutz, however your topic title caught my eye. Let be the first to say. SWEET! Thanks for the good news. Secondly, that link you posted with the frog, is hilarious when you think about your first ride of the season on your sled while watching it. Thanks for the good laugh.

thanks for the link action jack. TDI, you are a lucky guy to get out this early. hopefully the season will be a good one cheers everyone!