mccaffrey

Jan 20 2024 finally got a chance to blow off the cob webs. Saw there was a few green trails on the app and couple possible loops. Out the door at 10:30 am with my new lake friend in training. 
Rail bed into town a 10/10, 43 east to Lac des Plages 8/10, east of lac des Plages the 43 to the first fork going to St.Remi was not groomed, a single path trail for 10 klms and one open creek crossing. At the fork we head north to the local that will connect us to the 323. Did a 5 klm lake crossing in La Conception which was all staked, had a few slushy spots and a few frozen slush areas too but not a rough ride across.
323 into Labelle for the first trail side break, this trail was first groomed that morning, surprisingly it was pretty good 6/10. 
Up La Petit Train du Nord 325 to 63 into Nominigue for gas, all groomed to perfection 10/10. 
Back track to the 319 for our descend down to La Minerve, 319 was a 8/10. 
Took the shortcut to get on Lac Chapleau and cross, lake trail is staked, careful of the frozen slush parts. 319 through the parc and back on the 323 and 43 for the return, 43 got a little rough from the day. Back at le chalet for 5pm.
226 klm loop for the first ride of the season, awesome day.

Finally, here's the report of our first ride of the season did yesterday January 20, 2024

We could have ridden last Sunday but it was an after a foot snow storm day with mild weather and we knew well that the trail conditions would not hold and be hard for us 2up so we waited until yesterday and were not disappointed . The cold of the last few days has been very good for the trails and the ice... it's about time!
We were able to start directly from home in St-Thomas near Joliette, the trails are open and there is more than 2 feets of snow and it increases over 3 feets in some spots on the route that we did. Here in the fields near St-Norbert. The sky was very gray with a little snow at times which makes the pics less attractive but it still allows you to see what it looked like.

We strategically chose to do the wooded northern section to start the ride and to return via the fields to the south which remain nice for longer under the effect of traffic. Here north of St-Gabriel de Brandon.

And here at #23/#63 junction in St-Damien

5 km north of the Renard Bleu outfitter, the trail turns 90 and takes a new route to connect to #350 this year due to logging in this area.

there are a couple of kms to go on a plowed road but it ride very well

Then we are on the road path which is snowy for a long section it ride really great, I really appreciated this new path groomed wide

After the #350 west junction there is 1km where the trail passes either next to the plowed road or a new path in the woods that the club is at finishing but it is very short

then we return to the usual #350 path which was really very nice and fast

We quickly passed in front of the Koubec

And we went up #345 towards the north which was as nice and fast

And we continued on #23 towards the east which was just as beautiful, just the last 2km which goes up the mountain before reaching intersection #350 which seemed to still be on the first dozer pass...
This #23/#350 junction(Gaston's trail towards Lac Blanc) was our expected meeting point with our friend Snowcruiser who was leaving from Trois-Rivières airport to meet us with the plan to eat together at Lac Blanc. It's a bit ambitious to arrange meetings in the middle of the woods like that... especially on the first season's ride. We had 140km to go and he had around 70km to get there but we had agree that we would wait a little and at worse we would crossed each other while riding, but we were lucky with our estimates that were spot on. I was stopped for less than a minute when he showed up! After a bit of chatting we got back in the saddle to try to get at Lac Blanc before noon to beat a bit the lunch crowd.
The #350 going back down to Lac Blanc was still very beautiful, just a little worn in its big hills and very panoramic in terms of snow, it's impressive


We arrived at the Lac Blanc Auberge at 11:40 a.m. with 165km done from the morning. We obviously weren't the only ones who had this idea!

Given the size of the crowd we wondered how things would go for the meal inside but I have to take my hat off to their extremely quick and efficient organization which was ready. We didn't wait a second to be seated in the dining room and we had our meals in front of us less than 15 minutes later! I was impressed.
After this good meal break and a refueling we left under the snow a little after 1:00 p.m. towards the southeast on trail #350. The view from the lake when we left!

This trail was starting to get pretty beaten up by traffic but was not that bad on our side of the trail heading south. We tested our suspensions up to the #63 junction where we took a break. I was able to chat a little with Jonathan Doucet from Randonnée Motoneige au Québec on Facebook, whom I had recognized and briefly meet as I left Lac Blanc auberge

The trail condition came back nice on the #63 and we were able to ride good trail all the way back home. Snowcruiser left us to return to his trailer via St-Léon/St-Sévère and we continued on #63 and #3 for the return


The Bayonne River is already solid and the trail passes over it without problem near Berthier

We got back home early around 3:45 p.m. with 272 km for the ride, very happy with this season's opener which had been a long time coming.
The trail network is pretty much open and connected in Lanaudiere and Mauricie minus some rivers that are not ready yet. The cold we just had in the last days helped alot for this and I hope that mother nature will continue to cooperate in the next days to complete the puzzle.
Have a  great riding season!
Alain

Quick update on conditions, we landed Thursday, rode friday and saturday, mostly a mixed bag, almost like when we would come up on Dec31st.
Thin in a lot of places, bumpy in others , everything is just ramping up.
Expecting more snow soon.
Two weeks it'll be better!
LOL
GutZ

Rut Row
Very sad the garage at Repo on fire
Bring your gas there's no more generator, it blew up while we were there 💥🔥
 
https://www.facebook.com/michel.massicotte.96/videos/682366953969516/?

SDFS_CFG.BIN

Yes for a bit more up to date info most of the snowmobile clubs have their web/facebook page. For my backyard Lanaudiere/Mauricie I had helped them last season to update their clubs list that should be now good https://www.snowmobilecountry.ca/en/snowmobile-clubs/
For each club you click on you have a small facebook sign that you can click on to acces their page. It's mainly in french but with google translate you should be able to find what you  are searching for

 
to know which club maintain which trail you just have to clic Imotoneige or interactive map trail and the club info will show up

The big change this year is insurance related... i'm not sure if it have already been discussed here but here are the facts
There is an increase of legal proceeding against snowmobile clubs in the last years, especially this last spring there is one that ended up with a $3 000 000 settlement against Rouyn Noranda snowmobile club and there are others pursuits pendings... https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/practice-areas/personal-injury/snowmobile-club-negligent-for-a-tree-stump-that-permanently-injured-a-man-quebec-superior-court/376167
It not only increase the insurance fees for the clubs/FCMQ to get covered but also tend to be an insurability problem and if no company want to insure... no snowmobile clubs will take the chance to open a trail. It's not a joke it is a very serious issue.
So this season each snowmobile club have to follow some new security rules for trails opening, all the signs and opening work on trail need to be complete and they have to fill up a form that they sign and send to fcmq before activate the dozer GPS and the trails can show up open in Imotoneige. They need to do that to make the trails safer and protect insurability of the system in the future.
Other than that are the usuals bugs and delays that can happen with Imotoneige system and the clubs volunteers those lasts days are more on trail work than the web for sure!
We were almost on dirts just a week ago and there are between 2 and 3 feets of snow to the ground right now after this second storm yesterday in my area and many others. Imotoneige picture will change a lot in the next week...
 

Jan 12 update
Situation: St-Félicien was scraped today (373) as far as Roberval. On Saturday we'll be surfacing 20 (St-Méthode sector). Thanks again to the volunteers who helped us today. Our trails are still closed, but those who use them do so at their own risk. If you use our trails, please watch out for our volunteers, as the resurfacing is done during the day.
A few more days and we'll be ready to go!

No restaurant but prepared meals to buy.
 
L'HIVER AU FAILLON!
➡This week's snow makes us happy and snowmobile enthusiasts too. 😜 We're ready to welcome you.
✅Our hostel is accessible with bar service and ready-to-eat meals prepared on site (many choices available). We also offer good hot soup, in a warm atmosphere with a fireplace, which will warm you up after your hike.
➡We also offer continental breakfasts to our visitors who sleep at the inn.
➡You can also fill up with our petrol station.
✨There are activities for all tastes to do with us. 🤩
❄️ SNOWMOBILING ❄️ TUBING ❄️ SNOWSHOEING
❄️ HIKING ❄️ SKIING FOND❄️ ICE FISHING
📲We invite you to contact us in advance to inform us of your arrival.  We look forward to welcoming you 🙂
Patrick and Mélanie
819.737.4429
 
 

10 January 
12:30 pm
-1c 
slacked off quite a bit now
rain falling just sourh of river now
 

Got a few cm of eye-candy in the 'dale...
 

It works.
Thank you

Mike, I think you could handle the Polaris, but.........

https://cmo.evtrails.com/?fbclid=IwAR0zTBj0KIJpXfYHundpbIFsiGfQMWkBdFuxQkRdfGmVn7hv9YqXkiPjUgw#
 

It works.
Thank you

I was finally able to pick up my new sled today!
wife has decided she did not want to ride her own sled anymore, so had to go with a 1+1 heated seat. 
you know Happy Wife , Happy Life !!
 
 

Been using a 700i for past few years. 
 
love the tracking feature and sending links to people to follow all day. 
love options to send and receive texts.
now that said
i find the screen not super bright in daylight hard to see. 
Did freeze on me a couple times. Even powered in cradle just shut down
mounted on handledbar behind big windshield 
i want to bite the bullet and buy the Garmin Tread Overland or Tread XL (10”) not this year but maybe. 

I just ordered a new Garmin Montana 700i GPS.  My Montana 600 started acting funny periodically last spring when mounted on the side by side.  Looking forward to the new unit, it has lots of upgrades from the 600 including LARGER screen size.  One really nice feature of the 700i is the Inreach, and SOS capabilities.   Hopefully will never use the SOS, but the Inreach text gives the option of messaging home when away to say "in safe for the night".  This is handy when staying at remote locations.  You can also send a text saying you are in trouble but not an emergency.   I use my GPS on the sled and side by side so will have lots of different maps loaded on it.  I have already seen the advantage of having multiple maps loaded.

Merry Christmas my fellow Quebec riders ..We're all looking for the gift of snow ❄️  

I would like to wish all my QuebecRider friends a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  May 2024 bring good health,  prosperity, and freshly groomed trails.
 
Steven

Turned to snow in Clova, Chibougamau, club gatineau, Mont Valins, other areas got 15cm+ in the last 24 hours.  Snowing still up there.
 

Anticipating El Nino Jet stream change to bring down the real cold with precipitation Beginning of January 🙏
Just Thinking positive.

With the news of the Pessimite agreement and now the completion of several bridges on the North Shore Sept Isles, Havre St. Pierre and Baie Johan Beetz is now at our grasp.
Below is the translation of the arcticle
🎉 NEW ACHIEVEMENTS 🎉
In the heart of Minganie, one of the largest snowmobile footbridge construction projects in the country is ending, namely the construction of 5 footbridges, 4 of which will serve the FCMQ trail. For almost 2 years, winter and summer, our team has been building footbridges on the Tortue, Aisley, Romaine rivers as well as Lac Cormier.
We would first like to thank the SEIE, Les Constructions Mackenzie as well as the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan for their trust in our organization. Thank you also to all our subcontractors who participated directly or indirectly in the realization of these projects. Without forgetting, a huge thank you to all our valuable employees who brought these major projects to fruition! 💪
Footbridge over the Tortue River
23 ml long. and with a capacity of 20 t.m, this footbridge should allow the resumption of maintenance of the trail east of Sept-Îles which had been ungroomed for several years due to this missing bridge towards Havre-St-Pierre.
Cormier Lake Footbridge
235' long and with a capacity of 10 t.m, this footbridge is located above the Romaine 1 reservoir at km 19 of the access road to the Romaine complex dam site (trail outside the FCMQ networks)
Footbridge over the Romaine River
Located more or less 12 km west of Havre-St-Pierre, along route 138, two footbridges were necessary to cross the river due to their width as well as the size of the Romaine River.
The Romaine Ouest footbridge is 55 m.l. long. and with a capacity of 10 T.M.
The Romaine Est footbridge is one of the largest cable and suspension snowmobile footbridges of its kind (suspension bridge) in the world, according to our research. With a capacity of 10 t.m., it allows a resurfacer and its equipment to circulate. It has a length of 167 m.l. or 550’.
 
P.S. For snowmobilers wishing to visit the North Shore and the Lower North Shore in the years to come, check if the trails will really be maintained by local clubs
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Here’s my babies
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Pumps changed and system upgraded
 
Good news!
 
The La Martre petrol station is up and running with a brand new installation. The counter and pump have been replaced and are very easy to operate, and are even described as infallible! I used it yesterday and the instructions are simple and the service is fast!
 
Don't hesitate to use this local service, it's important to do things that help us to keep what we've got.
 
Let's encourage this initiative by our neighbours, who offer us this essential service.
 
Open from 6am to 10pm.