doo4adoo

You might call the outfitters up that way as well. Often riders if they find these will bring them to the next stop. Say Fer Cheval, Parent, 100 Lacs etc. as well the Resto bar in St Anne if that's the route

You might call the outfitters up that way as well. Often riders if they find these will bring them to the next stop. Say Fer Cheval, Parent, 100 Lacs etc. as well the Resto bar in St Anne if that's the route

Rode to Rimouski and back today with PADragon and his dad.  Tried to use as many orange and green trails as possible over and back, and they were fantastic. Even trail 5 great. Lunch at Tim H as nothing else open. Winds late afternoon were unreal. Watch for trees down tomorrow.
Hoping to hear Big Lake's report on Cabano.
 

Good evening,
We landed back about 4PM as a run to the dealer was needed for one of our crew. New Klim gear courtesy of some cash spent at Jean Morneau in RDL. Always great folks.
Ran through Cabano down to Temiscouata this morning. 85 was aces. 563 has some whippets but is quite nice otherwise. Clicking once in a while but again, no issues. You could see the snowpack decreasing slightly in there. Hooked up with 35 headed toward Sully, there’s a spot of probably 4-5 miles of ungroomed material halfway between Sully and the 563/35 intersection. It’s very rough. 1.4-2’ wumps with the occasional rogue wave thrown in. The SmartShox are a complete game changer. That XRS ate it up at 60+ kmh without breaking a sweat. The sled just doesn’t move. You see one coming you think is going to hurt, and it just glides over?
Anyway, got gas at the Irving on the way down to the village of Pohenegamook. That guy keeps a great store. Had lunch at Auberge de Frontieres. They were just finishing up staking the lake when we finished our lunch. There are some slushy spots for sure, and the staked route is further west on the lake than last year. Good crossing. Made it up to the cross overlook. 526 was great, orange trail 40 is stellar, 546 to 85 to the hotel. Nice day. Highly recommend. Headed for Jasmin tomorrow.

You might call the outfitters up that way as well. Often riders if they find these will bring them to the next stop. Say Fer Cheval, Parent, 100 Lacs etc. as well the Resto bar in St Anne if that's the route

Shot north today to the Marineau Mattawin 
Had a nice shake down loop east of the hotel . Temperature around 0 f° at noon 
360 , 355, 351, 23, 360 ..for a  112 mile ride.   Some really good  and some not so much  . Just happy to have the track back on snow ! Tomorrow we'll ride west of here . 

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.

Trails again just awesome  Very, very low traffic for a Sunday.  Only complaint is some dirt plowed roads have some gravel mixed in that the plow pulled up. I was wrong about Explorateur Club (one arch), it is open this winter. 
Haven't yet been out to the farther reaches from RDL like Rimuski, Squatec, and St. PaImphile.  3 days and 450 miles, friends start arriving tonight, much bigger miles ahead.
Eastmark,     It is always a delight to have you up here.  If I am still the mayor, you and Lisa are Mr. and Mrs. Universel.
Hope to see Big Lake and crew over the next few days.
mike
 
http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_01/DSCF0019.thumb.JPG.d660599d88f80e9fa6aa3c40750ab08d.JPG

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

I’m guessing we will also get a new bar at the Universal report later😂

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

I say it’s “karma” for the over the top expensive gas and canned gravy and peas
my guess is they will make out with insurance and still have “expensive gas and canned gravy”

I’m guessing we will also get a new bar at the Universal report later😂

Today's ride was awesome, great midwinter conditions. 
Two  very minor washouts and a couple trails not groomed yet this year.
Lunch at Frontier's (2 arch) clubhouse.  Unless I was daydreaming, the one arch clubhouse no longer has an arch. Groomers still at the clubhouse. Not sure if they are still in business.

Important things first.  The new bar is pretty nice. It is in the new restaurant, and the bar seats about 25.  Mega big TV  and the restaurant looks pretty impressive. Open style kitchen.  I would say they spent a fortune on the re do. Food is mostly pub food with a few high end meals. My meal tonight was excellent. Whole new menu. I thought the prices were more than reasonable.   Food was slow coming out of the kitchen.
The old bar is still open but the attached restaurant is gone, just a big pool table there now.
It was getting dark when I went out for about a 25 mile ride.  While the snow certainly is not deep, it seems to be plenty and everything was groomed and silky smooth. And it looks wintry out with all the trees snow coated. I will know more hopefully after tomorrows ride. 
New G5 600R 129 goes some sweet. Makes me look and feel 20 years younger. 
mike
 

25 mile ride tonight     trails awesome           see you soon
 
mike

For all you I motoneige addicts.
You will see it light up Tomorrow and Saturday as clubs officially open for the weekend and the grooming info will begin. 

Grooming Schedule 
subject to changes
 
 

First crossing of our resurfacers on the footbridges of the Romaine river. Project paid for by Hydro Quebec because the river no longer freezes following the Romaine 1, 2, 3 and 4 dams. This for the continuity of the TQ3 in the area of the club Le Blizzard of Havre Saint Pierre
 
 

Well folks, it looks like Bas St. Laurent is open and waiting for us.
If you go to SledMagazine.com,  click on 'Services and Tourism, then click on Bas St Laurent, scroll down, and it lists all the clubs and conditions.
Few hours ago it was all red from every club. It is now green for all clubs except one.
Gotta go pack up. See you all at RDL tomorrow.
mike
 

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...
 

13 January 
-6c still some snow squalls on and off
worst is past
good 10”-12” 
 

Yes, snow storm from yesterday has clubs scrambling to satisfy cries to open trails. 
 
I am seeing quite a few places where the ground is not yet frozen. Sure there will be good trail but will be some very bad also. It’s still early. I don’t want to ride first groomed trail of season. In this case I am confident it will be much better in two weeks. 

 
Photo from St Gedeon in Lac St Jean have seen this other places too.