mccaffrey

850 etec
 

Well.. until some asshole put gas in your LinQ Gas Can......
Sorry!
GutZ

Haven't been to Quebec since before the Plandemonium.  Been hoping to organize some long weekend hops 2up with the ladies jumping off from Jackman but it hasn't materialized yet.  This video has a weird section where the skidooers seemingly terrorize the townsfolk but it is quite entertaining.  Gotta be playing in a Skidoo museum somewhere.

To celebrate my ridding buddy Mikes 72nd birthday we decided to got for a short trip this week. Left Vermont Monday morning and headed for our drop point , Pont Rouge. Got there about noon, unloaded and headed for the Delta.  3 trail was flat and fast to junction of 73. 73 fresh groomed to junction of 23 and we followed the groomer north on 23 to about 15 miles before the first warmup shack. Passed him and 23 showed us the weekend traffic for the next 15 miles. This warmup shack must be a big destination on sunday for the locals, from there north was much better. Quick bite to eat and gas at Le Etape and back on the trail. 23 north was choppy from the weekend, but not to bad. Mt Apica was closed when we went by, may be a Monday thing? Hit the 83 east and it was very good to the Delta. Arrived at 7:00, 210 miles, good first day. 
        This morning we decided to head down the 83 to 383 and to Lanse St Jean. The first mile out of town is pretty thin, but still worth the ride. Trail was very good first 20 miles, then we picked up fresh groomed all the way to St Felix. 383 to gas stop at Lanse St Jean then 301, that was fresh groomed Monday night. Got to 83 and they had about 10 inches of fresh snow from Sunday night. Smooth under the fresh powder so nice trail, they have so much snow on the Clairmont Express you could probably ride until May up here. Left turn on to the 383 and fresh groomed all the way to Ferland for gas stop. Headed out to find fresh groomed again all the way to 368. Have not been through here for a few years and some changes have been done. Lots of logging has widened the trail out and its very nice. The old Bouliare Relay is gone. Not a trace of a building left, hate to see the old places go, but time marches on. Hit Bills trail {368} and fresh groomed out to the 23. Warm up shack at the intersection had burned down early in the season, hope they rebuild in the off season. Up the 23 to 83 and a stop at the Green Frog for a quick beverage. Out on the lake and back to the hotel.  83 east is getting thin in the logged out areas so it wont be long till the end here. Back around 5:00 with 260 miles in the meter. GREAT DAY.
         Up early this morning. Breakfast at 6:30 and on the trail and headed back to the truck by 7:30.  Nice surprise this morning, 83 fresh groomed last night all the way to Lake Kanigami. Blue sky and temp about 15f, makes this trail a quick ride to the lake. Lake is smooth and its a quick ride across.  Surprise, fresh groomed last nite to the 23. Headed south to Mt Apica for gas and go, trail good as not much traffic mid week. Fresh groomed to Le Etape.  This is one of my favorite trails, Smooth and straight and only saw one sled all morning. From the Le Etape intersection to the first warm up shack was a little bumpy, but it always seems this way. From there it back to St Ray was very good and was fresh groomed from St Ray to Pont Rouge. Back at the truck at 1:00 with 205 miles. What a great last day and season ender. We talked about staying another day, but at our advanced age we both had to be back Thursday for doctor appointments. Glad we can still do it, but this getting old stuff is sometimes getting in the way of ridding.  Hope you all have a good summer. Steve
 
 

Looking at all these other late season reports lately motivated me to call in sick and head out. Trailered up to the no-tell - motel in Ste Anne du lac Tuesday night. I think we were the only ones there. At Breakfast yesterday morning they said the past weekend was packed in town with rigs. Well I know why. It was all purple in the last 2 days. We finally got out about 9:30 and west north. For most of the way up we were first tracks after 20 mile out after we passed a group of 5. First stop was Fer Cheval. Put a few litres in to be safe and went in for a coffee. No food or rooms anymore this winter. Off we go to the wild Town of Parent for lunch. Our lucky? day as the Central was open. apparently its just from Wednesdays on in the week. Not sure if this is seasonal or not. Enjoyed our stay but time to head back to the truck. Wanted to take the scenic route by 100 Lacs or Notawissi but my buddy was pukking a few times on the way up trip so i thought best to go back on the quicker route. There is the road section of about 6 miles that had snow on it. Apparently with half loads they are not working at the moment. Late in the day we got significant wet snow squalls as we hoped on the water where the Barrage Mitchinamecus. Thank goodness for little red pickets here and on the lake as visibility was limited. Overall a great day with 227 miles showing for me. My friend not as great but if you're going to be sick better riding than at home.
Few pic's of the day. Is it the last run, hard to say. Still mid winter conditions up there and more snow coming Saturday. Stay tuned.
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Fer A Cheval was awesome. Clova was PACKED!!! Trails were mostly very good also 😏

We took a look a the map and saw a pretty straight line to Clova a few days ago  🙂
Awesome adventure for sure ! 
Really cool to run into Je me souviens and his team at dinner in Clova ..fun times  ! 

Yeah, armchair-rider this season! All good over here though thanks!
Since we got retired I’ve been keeping the sawbones-docs & physical-terrorists busy! And Mrs. PLAYHARD is THE BEST cheerleader!
Kinda funny too, when people who don’t know my ortho history hear that I’ve gotten into “body work” since retirement, they think I’m talking about cars!
For this winter's chapter, I've got a fantastic new knee in a horrible old leg, and they're slow to play nice together!
But TABERNAK, I put this poor limb through so much over the years, been busted and repaired a couple/few times, so it’s only fair that it pushed back!
Looking forward! Thanks again! Woo hoo!
(Oh, about Aruba, I need to close this chapter first, then DEFINITELY some One Happy Island rehab!)

17 March Friday
bittersweet morning
said farewell for now to Julie and Patrick in MSP. Will miss their hospitality. Also being the last day of riding fir this trip it will likely be the last of this season for us. 
 
Beautiful blue sky as we mount up and head out the valley. Fresh groom headed west like they knew we coming. We made the most of it. Beautiful trail with beautiful views to wrap this season up for us. All good to Relais St Paulin Closer we came to St Adelme then to Matane trail got real maah potato like. Totally different then further east. Into Matane i have seen much worse but won’t be long its going fast there.
Great ride with great partners. We improvised when needed and put it all together.
Not the best trails i have seen in Gaspe but very nice. Seems like everyone was riding Gaspe this year. 
 
We want to dedicate this seasons miles to Playhard. Our missing man this season. Did not get his bodywork finished up in time to thow a leg over, we will make up for it next season mon. ami. 
 
You were missed.
 

Alain, thank you for the ride.
You two covered some ground on your two-up!

Hi Alain, thank you for the ride.
I have tried that same trip to have the ferry cancelled due to ice, I think I'll put it back on the list of trips for 2024

Alain, thank you for the ride.
You two covered some ground on your two-up!

Here is the ride we did on sunday March 12th

it's one of my classics ride but I admit that this season with the St-Maurice river closed and the detour in the Mauricie wildlife reserve on the #360 it added some body work to an already big day ride.
We left at 8:30 towards St-Zénon. The trails near my home were just groomed but very hard in the morning, scratcher mandatory!

There is still a lot of snow even in the south of the area. I had put on the roller skis to do 2 shorts side of the road sections but no mud to start the day. Here in the maple grove in St-Norbert

For the rest, no roadside or marginal section to go north. Here's a guy who holds his right to cross!!!

Beautiful trails going up to St-Zenon.

We fuel up at the Cabanon before continuing towards the Taureau dam on perfect grooming


We went through the dam. The reservoir level is already very low.

And started the #360 to the east. It was not freshly groomed but still nice and fast

Riding the #360 in these conditions on a blue bird day like this is near the peak of snowmobiling happiness!!!


We took a first real break at stop #440, our usual spot

The 2 picnic tables... there's still snow there!

The 2nd part of #360 to Mattawin had been groomed overnight and was perfect

The beautiful Mattawin River

We finally arrived for dinner at Marineau at 1:30 p.m. with 245 km on the meter. The lunch rush hour was already passed but despite this superb day and conditions there are already fewer sledders on the trail.

We took a good lunch break (still so well received by Marie-Josée at Marineau) refueled and continued on the #360 which was perfectly groomed

Past the #355 junction, the #360 to the south had not been groomed recently and was less good. Near St-Joseph de Mékinac village on a plowed road section the groomer will really have to built us a little sidewalk on the side of the snow bank soon, there is way enough snow for the groomer to do that.

To the south of the village there is another short short plowed road section and then it becomes quite nice

On the #23 to the south the rivière des envies is holding up and was solid but this one is always to be watched at spring 
It's not the snow that is missing there!

The St-Maurice was still solid, no slush

We then took back #3, a little bumpy but still going fast. There is a short section of plowed road in the power lines which would also require a small sidewalk to not play in the mud!
Otherwise it was riding fine

We crossed the St-Maurice at the Gabelle and it was still very good

We fueled up one last time and took a little break in St-Étienne before continuing on #3 trail. A little bumpy at first in the woods but nice and fast in the fields.

The whole rest of the trip was nice with a good snow cover

We finally got home around 7:45 p.m. with 475 km on the meter, very satisfied with our ride but haven't took long to fall asleep that night!
Despite the impressive snow cover, the season is already well advanced. Some outfitters in the north, such as Repos and Kanawata have announced that they will close after this next weekend which is quite usual for them. Some others continue to operate until the trails close...
There is still great snowmobiling to do, it's often the best conditions of the year so enjoy these last weeks of sledding
Alain

Arrived at Motel Caribou, many Quebecriders here having supper last night!
Pics of yesterday
 
 
 

Our timing was great arriving at La Cache between during a lull, lots of groups arrived while we were eating.

A view of the summer hang glider bluff in Mt St Pierre above the hotel. We didn’t ride up to the peak this trip though.
Brisket Chili, smoked duck, smoked wings, brisket burgers and pulled pork at Delice…..awesome!
 

13 March Monday
 
Great stay in New Richmond and had a great breakfast. Loaded up and 8:45 up the trail. Mission this morning get to Ski Doo BG Sport here. Gonna get some front scratchers to put on the Backcountry and solve this cooling issue. Gotta want to get there at this point as there is quite a bit of Mud and asphalt to navigate to end up at the dealer here. We were not going to be denied. They have the ones he needs in stock they will install and verify cooling system (check to make sure is circulating) I know it is or this would have been a short ride yesterday. I think around 10am we were headed back to TQ5. Back west and up the 595 today we backtrack but take a left on local orange trail 150 that is a beauty. It bypass’s pin rouge and all the mud and bumps going up that way. Twisty tighter trail. But fun and in fantastic shape. The road less traveled. I have not met an orange trail that i really did not like. But please stay on TQ5 and the 595 and 597 thank you. 
 
Local 150 drops up back on 595 about 5km north or Pin Rouge. Give or take. 595 is good not great. Considering temps and traffic it’s good. Fast run retracing our ride yesterday returning to La Cache. Inside today we score a table and have some lunch even though its not just noon yet. Close though. Less sleds then Sunday but still good crowd. Percy and Little Feather are on shift. Enjoyed great burgers and some good banter with the crew of La Cache today. Good luck to Percy get well soon, having surgery getting his tonsils out tomorrow. 
 
Left La Cache backtrack to orange chic choc. Groomer made it here and turned to go back. Sadly i do believe what we have going on here is pure and simple a lack of knowledge om how to use that machine the guy is grooming with. He is driving it but not operating it. Hard to see any difference after his pass. We catch him he is on keft side of trail going back, i find this bizarre. Plus he has his dozer blade angled pushing snow off back into woods on left side. Whatever i think he is confused and should be pulling snow in with blade and using drag to fill and pack. Whatever his plan was it was just a waste of fuel. After we Past him trail was better as he only went over this sectiom omce. 
 
Skipped gas in Murdoch. Up 597 north. Best trail we seen I think all trip so far. Perfect groom to TQ5 not the same groomer guy doing this. Quick run to TQ5. Looks great here on TQ5 we head east just to see. Quick ride to Rapid Blanc Relais and turn back. Sweet ride in Mont Louis for gas then up and over to MSP and Le Delice. Back with Patrick and Julie. 
 
North shore holding up so far. 
 
Great Day but melty warm. 
 
Really missing petunia’s picture taking skills. 

Hi Alain, thank you for the ride.
I have tried that same trip to have the ferry cancelled due to ice, I think I'll put it back on the list of trips for 2024

Hi Alain, thank you for the ride.
I have tried that same trip to have the ferry cancelled due to ice, I think I'll put it back on the list of trips for 2024

Hi Alain, thank you for the ride.
I have tried that same trip to have the ferry cancelled due to ice, I think I'll put it back on the list of trips for 2024

Day#4: Matane/Forestville
A day that started early to be on the wharf around 7:15 a.m. for boarding the 8:00 a.m. ferry to Baie-Comeau

Once boarding done we go upstairs in the passenger section for a 2.5 hours to relax. We had plenty of time to visit this infamous boat which has caused so much talk for the wrong reasons, but in our case everything went well.

It is therefore a little before 11:00 am that we begin our snowmobile ride on the north side of the St-Lawrence river.

and we went west on #3 trail

The Manicouagan River footbridge is very impressive

Very high in the air, it offers us a very nice view of the surroundings (to be seen in the video)

We stopped at Chute-aux-Outardes for lunch and then continued on #3 trail, which we kept for the rest of the day. Being a mountains, lakes and rivers lover, I really like the north coast.


The famous section of #3 trail in the Pessamit sector which was closed for almost 2 seasons is now reopened and apart from a few 50km/h signs we barely recognized it and realized that we had already passed when we arrived at the Betsiamites river bridge

We continued to Forestville where we arrived around 4:00 p.m. with 181 km on the clock to spend the night at the EconoLodge
I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this fourth day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing.
 
Day#5: Forestville/La Malbaie
We start our ride at 8:00 on the trail from the Econo Lodge in Forestville because we had a good day ahead with a gray weather and a little snow.

Beautiful mountainous and wooded sections on trail #3

We decided to not going down south to les escoumins to keep the day's milage reasonable and cut through by the local trail bypass

Approaching Tadoussac

We ate there before taking the ferry of the Saguenay River.

Here, leaving Baie Ste-Catherine

It was more snowy in the afternoon but it was riding well

We took trail #378 which goes further north instead of keeping trail #3 which went down along the river. The route is beautiful but it was more bumpy on the 2nd half, we regretted it a bit.
Arrived at the petit Manoir du Casino around 4:30 p.m. with 290 km on the dream meter

The services on site are very good and the 2 spa areas, especially the Spa O'Quartz with its tropical decor and its many pools and waterfalls, is an exceptional place to relax after a good day on the snowmobile.
I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this 5e day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing.
 
Day#6: La Malbaie/Quebec
An outstanding sunny day awaited us for the last day of our trip, seen from the hotel on our way to breakfast...

We stayed closer to the St-Lawrence river to continue west taking the locals and trail #378


Here's the view at Baie-St-Paul

We took #3 trail further west. The trails were all very nice.

We took a lunch break at the Relais Ste-Anne, happy to see that it survived the covid's time well.

We resumed after lunch for the last segment, still on trail #3 west

Here crossing the Montmorency River on the west side  of Quebec city

As we expected a little, the trails were more bumpy when crossing Quebec city, especially west of this small bridge (St-Charles River I believe) where my wife seriously think of just walking through it !

But it got back to normal maybe a 12km further just after Val Bélair and we quickly returned to our starting point a little after 3:00 p.m. with a little less than 220 km for the day.

We were impressed to see the foot of snow accumulated on our van and trailer and had a good snow removal job to do, but despite the 2 hour drive to do, we came back home for dinner very happy with our trip and to relax in our stuff.
So an another very nice trip for us without problems which filled our heads with beautiful memories that I try to keep even more present with the help of my videos that I put together for each day.
Here's the last one, Day#6 La Malbaie-Quebec which is very nice with the beautiful sun we had. Set sound and quality to 1080 for best viewing.
Hope you enjoyed the ride!
Alain
 

Here is my snowmobile holiday week February 26 to March 3, 2023  detailed report in pics and video
With several possible options, it is finally this route that Snowcruiser, Kristine and I have chosen for our 2023 snowmobile trip. A trip that we had already done in the opposite direction several years ago and that we shortened a bit starting from Quebec instead of Trois-Rivières which gave more reasonable daily miles.

A total of nearly 1500kms in 6 days starting near Quebec to follow St-Lawrence river south side to Matane and cross at Baie-Comeau to return along on the north side.
DAY#1: Quebec/Tourville
Our trip began Sunday, February 26 in the morning in a somewhat unusual way: we unloaded the sleds from the trailer at the motel Colibri in St-Augustin to load them back directly in the trailer of the official Quebec/Levis snowmobile shuttle which took us to the courtyard of the Hotel Normandin in Levis where the real snowmobile ride began.

The gray sky at start gave way to some sunshine and the cold temperature gave optimal conditions to enjoy some wide trails on the south shore of St-Lawrence river


We had dinner in St-Lazare and then made a loop in the Massif du Sud area


We then came back on fast #35 trail

And end our day ride in Tourville with just over 270kms. We slept at the Maison du Voyageur.

This accommodation was the best value for money of the trip. It's an old village bank building converted into a multi-bedroom apartment with full bathroom and common living room/kitchen area + large locked garage for snowmobiles at $99/night, unbeatable in 2023! Our large 2-beds room was as beautiful and equipped as those of the big hotels we rented the other days (better than some)
I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing.
 
DAY#2: Tourville-Rimouski
We continued south on fast #35 trail . I did not remember we had that long of linear trail, we did clocking many miles fast!

Here's a pic at the club house of Les Explorateurs de Pohénégamook snowmobile club

We dropped the #35 just at the tip of Pohénégamook Lake that we only photographed

We took trail #544on opposite direction which turned out to be near as fast but should be avoided in real spring conditions because there are nearly 15 km of snow plowed trail. In our case, the road base was hard snow covered by just enough snow lube in order to be perfect and very fast.
We then continued with #571 trail to join #3 trail and stop for lunch at Club motoneige l'Étang du Moulin clubhouse

We finally ate outside because they are closed on Monday's!
We continued #5 trail to Rimouski and got there early but just getting around the city and getting to the Rimouski Hotel along St-Lawrence river is quite long and filled this end of the day which ended around 3:30 pm with around 295kms. We choose this hotel because they have a SPA/swimming pool, which is much appreciated by the lady of the group after a good sledding day.

I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this second day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing.
Day #3: Rimouski/Matane + detour from Montagne St-Pierre
The Rimouski/Matane ride being relatively short, it gave us the possibility of stretching the ride south which we did towards La Rédemption

We have been to Montagne St-Pierre several times, but not often on a clear day and we were served quite well this time!


We took the opportunity to go to Val d'Irene hoping to eat there but the ski resort was closed that day

We then continued and had dinner at Jojo's restaurant in Amqui. It's always a bit weird with the #5 trail east/west there because it's near the spot where it loop back on itself. So we took the #5 east (which goes north!) along Lac Matapédia to join the #591 and then the #5 east (which really goes east!)

And reached Matane where we ended the day at the Quality Inn with around 235kms near the ferry dock that we had to take at 8:00 the next morning to reach Baie-Comeau.
I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this third day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing.
To be continued soon...