markusvt

Mont-Apica

After 4000 miles this season mostly in the bush, this was the old man luxury trip. 640 miles of mostly fresh groomed and hotels with showers, heat controlled by a thermostat, TV's, lights that work and comfy beds. Nice to see how the other half lives 😉

Last week was nice. No sign of any random kits in the booth and as of last Monday no need to show COVID vaccination card in restaurants and they were at 100% capacity.

2022 V14.1 https://sites.google.com/site/scdiscdi/cartesgps/sentiersmotoneige

Not word on this changing that I can find?

840 miles.

Stay on the tracks and no worries whatsoever. There are areas on the lake that do not freeze but this is not one of them. You would need the tracks to do it. Stay away from the railroad. Look at the scale and you can see how big the lake really is.

9 miles across the lake then a side trail, than a bit of a local road from the camps. Easy! If you need the map or tracks, let me know.

We woke up this morning to heavy snow at Windigo. It looked like 6 inches or so on the sleds and snowing heavy. We decided to take the shortcut across the lake and meet up with the 73. I would say north of La Tuque there was 8-10 inches of new snow from the night, and the temperature was around 15F. As we got to La Tuque the snow changed to freezing rain, and then drizzle but there was still a fresh 6+ inches on the trail. Temp up to 25F. By the time we got to Mattawin it was only just spitting rain and up to 32F. They still have a lot of snow and the fresh 6 inches is going to help them when it gets cold again. The trails on the way down were really really nice, and the traffic was very light. I think people have already started moving into their summer programs. Good for us because there still a lot of snow in the north. 57F here at home, the fat lady has sung,

Arrived at Windigo early actually after 185 miles of off trail from Saint Felician. Stellar day today with bright blue skies and the temperatures that got up to 25F. So much snow, maybe the most I remember in doing these type of things. In the middle of the bush we met three Canadian guys coming from their camp. They asked where we were going and we told them Windigo. They said you can’t get there from here I said oh yes we can. Often the locals know their own little areas but they don’t venture out to far. He invited us to go visit him at his camp in the future, I know exactly where it is so maybe we will on our next trip through. Everyone is so friendly even in the bush. His team was on 24 inch expedition SWT‘s, they are on go anywhere sleds for sure. He is disabled and had a cane strapped to the back of his sled after a recent hip replacement, everyone can stop the whining now on why they can’t get out! We also met a guy out on the rivers with his buddies that is a paraplegic, he is riding a modified free ride sled with his buddies, going everywhere they can go. Super nice guy very helpful, it was an honor to meet him on his local back trails. We did ride a little bit of the 83 coming into relay 22, but then rode off trail all the way into Windigo using some of the Park Roads, the rivers and the Lakes, everything is in really good condition! Relay 22 was rocking for the few minutes we got to hang out there, Sophie, Caroline, and Carrie Ann are there to welcome everybody and are very good hostesses. Most old guys in this group ranging from 53-62. There are two other Vermonters here tonight from Barrie that rode we the trail from Chibougamau , 310 miles one way. It’s an easy day tomorrow back to the truck though we have to decide do we go across the lake and rivers or just stick on the trail, we will decide that at breakfast I think. we did get to see some wildlife today, no wolves but we did feed the gray jays out of our hands. We also saw a snowshoe rabbit hopping through the woods happy as can be, and another one being dragged flopping around by an owl, I think that poor dude was done.

The back country’s shine in 2 feet of powder on a trail, no problem at all and no chance of getting stuck. But once you venture off on untracked in 4 to 10 feet of virgin snow, all bets are off. Today’s mission was the 93 from Chibougamau to La Dore. I know they only groom this once a week, usually Wednesday and Thursday, but they haven’t groomed it since last week. Even so the trail was perfect all the way down The groomer was heading out this morning the same time we were to go groom an almost perfectly groomed trail. The 93 this year has been rerouted some from the old trail, sometimes as much as 10 to 15 miles away, I’m not sure why they did that but it’s actually better all the way down. With 160 miles between gas stops there is very little traffic on it. We did stop at the sawmill and check out the gas situation there. They have a pump, it is powered up and seems to be some type of special key code activation, it does not take credit cards. We also found a safe place to play in the snow a bit. We passed a groomed trail to a outfitter or something of some sort, LaHaulte De some thing, but we didn’t go down and check it out. It is the only sign of civilization on this whole run. Once we got down into population we took some of the orange trails to the hotel, everything was groomed perfect and it was mainly the locals just getting out and about, Tomorrow is off trail from La Dore all the way over to Windigo, big mission, should be fun.

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Yup, trail to Jardin, easy day in preparation for Saturday!

We won’t need to be rocked to sleep 😏

Success. Made it to Hotel Nordic in the daylight, barely! Johnny at Gouin booked us at his place for for 2 nights due to the snow depth and consistency, (he did not thing we would make it and would have to return back), bet we did NOT need it. He said this was not a ride for children 😜 Funny guy. His side trail yesterday was FLAWLESS😏 Very deep snow for the 50 miles on the Gouin made for a bit of tough going and it only got more challenging from there on. More stucks that we bargained for due to the insane snow. ( The 2 recent mega snow dumps have buried everything!) We did ride 10 miles of the 93 coming into the Hotel. Unbelievable nice trail! Don’t walk, RUN to Chibougamau, the snow and trails are that good! They will be riding for WEEKS more here no doubt 👍

After hanging out in Maine for a week riding with the crew up there,(love those guys!) it was time to go back to Quebec on a bit of an adventure ride. We started this morning from Mattawin and headed out the 360 then up the M20 then to the end of M21. All of it very very nice, lots of snow here. I would say there were 40 sleds that stayed overnight in Mattawin so I thought there would be lots of sleds out here, but all day it’s been very quiet, advantage of mid week. Headingout this morning we quickly caught one of the groups that left before us. We passed the back two guys and then the front guy decided to pick up the pace a bit and was riding very very well. Older guy on a Yamaha with textbook perfect riding, I thought it might’ve been Iceman. He was cranking that thing staying inside of the turns and not letting any cobwebs grow on him that’s for sure. We kept the pace up until the intersection of M20 and then he had to stop and wait for his buddies. As far as I know he might still be waiting. We got to the end of M 21 and then did off trail all the way over to Kanawata , beautiful day, no traffic in the bush. We did get to follow a pretty large wolf on the M21 for awhile. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen one up here close, I always forget how huge they are! Celine at Kanawata was in a super good mood today and made us a great lunch after Stefan filled us up with gas, $2.35 a liter please. After lunch we headed off to Barage Gouin for the night. It’s nice to have the restaurant open. Carol is also in a super cheery mood and we are only one of three groups here for the night. A massive group was leaving as we arrived, they had come across the reservoir from Poirier Martin’s outside of Clover. Tomorrow the plan to go across the reservoir and then straight north to Chibougamau, no trails just straight north. We hear we might find snow!

Everyone one is safe and another story to tell, all is good! Awesome following the adventure!

I picked a few from the many 1000's I have 😉

FCMQ says yes if you trust that.

You have to go have it done. The only thing more convenient is that you now have a 3rd test to choose from when scheduling.

Rock on guys, enjoy the trip!

Rock on guys, good times for sure!

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/fully-vaccinated-travellers-will-need-to-take-a-rapid-test-before-returning-to-canada-1.5781926

Ridiculous they are still overloading the system with these tests, they must have money to burn.