mccaffrey

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1956884/exploration-haute-mauricie-parent-foret-atikamekw
A copper mine project in the heart of the forest
A company is exploring the idea of setting up the first copper mine to operate in Quebec in years in the heart of the Haute-Mauricie forest. On this vast territory, forestry companies, Atikamekw communities, outfitters and residents are already working together. What do they think of the potential arrival of a new neighbor?
 
The Horseshoe Outfitter is not very busy at the beginning of December. Despite the first deep snow, it will be a while before the snowmobile trails bring the first guests of the winter season.
 
The only visitors are a small team from Kintavar Exploration, who are finishing drilling operations in the area and beginning core sampling.
 
Le Fer à Cheval outfitter welcomes hunters, fishermen and snowmobilers among others.
Here, at the outfitter, there are many tourists. There are tourists who come from a little further away and there are also tourists from the regions who come, and they always ask the same question: "When will the outfitter close? When is the mine going to open?", says Kiril Mugerman, President and CEO of Kintavar Exploration.
The company has been exploring the area since 2017 and purchased the outfitter three years ago. His team has set up its sampling operations in the back of the building, in heated containers.
People are afraid, they think that the mine is the same thing that was done fifty years ago. Everyone has the idea of Val-d'Or in the 1960s, it was not too clean regions... Nobody liked the mining development in the northern regions of Quebec [of] fifty years ago, but today, it is not the same.
 
Not all exploration leads to the opening of a mine, but the results to date are very promising, according to Kiril Mugerman, who plans to move into the development phase soon to define exactly what a mining project in the area would look like.
 
For critical and strategic metals, there is a lot of interest. Here in Quebec, for example, there are no copper mines. Since the 1980s and 1990s, they have all been exhausted. So we are the next wave of copper deposits, of critical metal deposits," explains the company's president and CEO.
 
will post the rest tonight

The big naturally formed snow wheel on the 595 has shrunk a bit since March 1st when I took this photo of Mark wrestling it out of the bank
 

Sunday 12 March 
Matane 
 
I have a love hate relationship with this day of the year. I despise the thought of losing one hour of sleep but gaining that hour of daylight is nice. 
We slid on down into breakfast around 8am. Feeling like it’s 7am. Good amount of sledders here, usually I might have talked it up some with the other groups but we ate up and went to suit up. 
 
Warm out and its gonna be warmer later with big sunshine. Hmmm. Melty as hell. Well Ice likes cold. Good thing i had thought about it and brought my thin klim under garments. No way I could rock the Hypnose in this weather. Too hot. 
 
Outside and loaded up around 9am. Definitely lower snow then when we were just here last week. 
 
This is spring conditions. Its a few weeks early here and all will depend on temperature. Surely closer to coast and lower elevations are suffering worse. Inland and at elevations its much different. Big patches of mud each side of many road crossings. Etc etc with the big puddles today on the south shore . 
 
So it went like this. Right from hotel, better than I expected up and out of town. Ridden this in pure mud a few times. It’s looking decent today, we shall see come Friday when we return. 
 
Very nice trail, frozen and slick for sure. Nice run to St Adelme where we top gas as none of us were full this morning. The 850 Backcountry is not liking the conditions. Deployed both scratchers. Still was hot. We stopped not far up from Relais St Paulin on 595 to check it over. I really believe was just frozen enough the trail to make the 850 run hot. Once we rolled on from that it was fine all day. 
 
Into La Cache right at prime lunch hour. 595 some good some bad. Better as you climb up. No Percy or Little Feather today. Weekend crew is slammed. We will be back this way. Gas took a bit to get paid. Just busy. 
 
Ok bye now. 
595 to orange Chic Choc trail rough but seen it much worse. After orange 595 great to bottom near Pin Rouge. First time through this year here. What is the deal man? This club needs to fix up them small bridges south of ski resort. A bit much the snow cross action there with groomers taking the road around unsafe bridges. Just saying. Get er done for next year please and thank you. 
 
Lots of sleds out have taken the toll on TQ5 from New Richmond to Carleton sur Mer. We arrived here around 3 in New Richmond so we did a bonus ride to Carleton and up around local orange trails there which were stellar. The TQ5 however is beat up. Not down and out. But knocked down and the count down is on. 
 
We slogged out and back on the TQ5  Sad to see what this warm weather has done in a weeks time. 
 
Returned to New Richmond 
Happy as can be. 
Its all riding. 
 
Snirty sleds day 1
Its a first as far as season enders go. 
 

 
 

Wait...what?? Ya know, I thought they looked a little different than the rest, and they did make a funny moo sounding noise....but I guess what really confused me is they didn't run off like the rest of them 😅.  

March 8 / Day 3.          So not gonna lie, the predicted weather was causing some panic as we sat on the south shore and temps in the morning were 35 and climbing through the day! Our plans of heading to the Rock didn't seem like a good idea. No problem,  we'll head into the mountains and see what the weather does. The 5 is groomed perfectly as we depart Baie Blue at 6am and we are first tracking all the way. We break left onto the 595 and head towards LaCache. This was groomed yesterday, but was smooth and fast as you might expect.  Pulled into LaCache, topped off fuel, and we were talked into breakfast sandwiches! We were 'Welcomed to the Palace' by the guy and lady working, great people! The crossover trail to Murdochville did not show any recent grooming, so we were hesitant to take it, but what the hell, off we went. It was very drifted in the first high points, which made for a lot of fun! Not a trail for those looking for smooth sailing,  but if you're up for an adventure,  send it! It got better over the top, and we actually met the groomer in front of a relais, but hood was up with hydraulic fan problems, hoping it worked out. On to Murdochville for fuel top off, quick pic of the Copper, and then on to Mount St Pierre. The mountain trails ran just fine, but when dipping down into towns, it was solid mashed taters! Very tricky on corners, and lots of extra spinning. Continuing on the 5 headed west the trails were really good going, with the exception of dropping into towns. After Relais Moulin the trails were stupid fast.  The long straights were almost boring cruising at 75 and beyond! Just an an amazing day was had after initially worrying about forecast.  Pulled into the Quality Inn in Matane at 5pm with 351 miles. Not bad first 3 days, well over 1000 miles!

So, up and out of the gate at 6am this morning,  trying to beat the crowd.  2 other sleds beat us out, but we leap frogged with them most of the morning,  couple nice guys from Maine. Took the 5 and trails ranged early on from good to wind blown and drifted bad. A freezing fog was sticking to our visors making visibility very tough for a while. The sections of trails that had been groomed overnight were incredible with a couple inches of fresh on top, really great riding.  The ungroomed bumped up sections obviously not great, but they were short lived and gave us a taste of reality! Stayed on the 5 all the way to the 579 which ran us into the 587 and into Groomers clubhouse in Albertville.  Great lunch there, and pics for Chris to follow! Asked if the bearded ex-groomer was around, but no luck! From there we took a few orange trails to get back on 5 east which was in Incredible.  We did jump off left on the shortcut orange into L'Alverne, then onto Carleton-sur-mer where we'll spend night at Baie Blue. Another extremely fast paced day with great trails, shut the motors down at 3pm with 294 miles. Weather not looking promising for tomorrow as temps rising overnight to 35 in the morning. Will check maps in morning and plan the day. Very low snow here.
 

Another great day. Did 175 mile loop around Val Dor. Got caught speeding, got off with a warning.

2 days later still have not hit a bump. Today rode 225 miles all groomed  door to door. LSQ to Lac Fallion to Val Dor. 

No snow at home so 5 of us back in Quebec again. 6 Day Loop in the Abitibi region. Couple pics from first few days. Trails have all been perfect. My rating 9-10. Started in New Liskeard, then La Sarre, now in Amos at Rodeway. Thanks Linda for the suggestion. Nice rooms.

Left from camp in Averill VT this morning at 6am, pulled into Universal in RDL before 5pm with 373 miles ticked off. Easily the most incredible day of riding I have ever had, trails were an 11/10 all day long! We are only two, so pace was kept swift all day with gas and go's and a quick lunch. Didn't take many pics because of that, but I've got thousands of primo shots in my memory bank that I wish I could share! Plans are to head towards Gaspe in the morning and do some exploring. This place is packed with sleds, so need to be on seats early in the a.m.!

It’s another beautiful day in Mont St Pierre
heading to Murdochville via the long way and hope to break bread with team Iceman
 

Yes, those are the pneumatic controlled ski wheels

Day 9
Fresh grooming out of Matane, stopped at the Chap Chat clubhouse for coffee. Trails a mixture of quality as we moved on.  Stayed in Mont Louis, a new place none of us had tried before.  It was full of sleds that night.  Certianly recommend Auberge l'Amerre. 
Day 10 
A short day but beautiful, down through Murdochville (40 sleds lined up out front) for breakfast, LA Cache, to New Richmond and the Fin Gourmet for the night.
Day 11
New Richmond to the truck, 100% fresh groomed all the way. Had to take the picture of the train crossing with lights on the sled trail.  I did stop here last year for a train.
3500km  Trails anywhere from plowed road to 10/10 as you would expect.

Day 7
The sun came out!! We struck off up through Alma toward the Chapelle.  We jumped on the lake at Kilometer 31 to avoid the Zec police.  The Chapelle never disappoints.  We pulled out and took the local orange trail toward Forestville.  For anyone that has not ridden this trail, put it on your list it is truly awesome.  We went most of the way down then found a secret local trail across the rive to the parallel train and right to Forestville.  The cross trail saved about 40km.
Day 8
Sun again we are really starting to like this.  Out of Forestville and z leisurely rid to Godbout for the 5pm boat.  Did I say leisurely,  wow I forgot how intense the second half of the trail is between Baie Comeau and Godbout.  I strongly recommend it to.  Stopped at a little warming shack, then on to Godbout where we sat and watched to ferry come in.  Loaded up crossed the river and into the Quality Inn Matane.
 

3545km nice ride!

Day 4 
Out of Windigo just after sunrise heading West, Wemo was scratchy but such is life on a big trip.  Stopped for gas and soup in Parent, gas again in Clova and landed at Lac Fallion just after dark.  No chef on staff and the bar closes at 930.  The pictures show how this business practice is working for them.  5 sledders there including us.
Day 5
Left Lac Fallion early and slipped into Senneterre for breakfast.  Then run through to Chibougamau.   Gas at Quevilon, next stop Chapais clubhouse. We had supper there then stayed at the truck stop just passed Chibougamau, conveniently 100m off the trail with gas, convience store and rooms.
Day 6
We broke fresh snow, first tracks till 20 miles south of the sawmill. Ross's Polaris with the big tank made it to LA Dore on one tank.  Andy and I both added some up the trail but in hindsight we might have made it on vapors.  South from LA Dore to a little spot in Metabetchouan for the night.

Pierre Columbe here in MSP has secured a groomer. He has backing of Tourism Committee here in MSP and plan is to open sections of old TQ5 to other lookouts here in MSP that were lost when trail changed. 
 
Working hard on putting together a trail from MSP to La Cache. Now that is interesting.