markusvt

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It is winter up there, you are going thing you are riding in mid February!

Day 2: -6F, cold today! Back to the truck in Mattiwin at 1:13PM with 214 miles on the sleds. 4600 for me so far this season. Nice day today. 90 miles to Kanawata, good trail with the corners bumped up a bit, but still good snow. Took the lake out back of Kanawata, and stopped at Repos for $10 in fuel. It seems everyone at $1.80 a liter now. Hard to get used to $7 a gallon gas. Trail to the M20 was iced up pretty good from the rain last week, use caution here. The first half of the M20 was a bit bumpy but the ice was gone. The second half is higher in elevation and had just been groomed all the way back to the truck. Awesome! Real mid winter conditions up here. So a nice ride for us. Got to visit with Pat and his Vermont team at Gouin, (they were on a 4 day 1000 mile loop and having a nice time). As always top notch folks at Gouin, (great place for riders, sorry no hot tubs here). We also got to visit Martine and Daniel at Windigo on the way up and thank them for all of their help on our last 2 trips, (Awesome people!). We did take the shortcut to their place again. She said for her things are winding down. Saw only 5 oncoming sleds. There were maybe 20 at Kanawata, and another 20 at Repos, and maybe 20 more at Mattiwin. We did catch a group of slower riders 10 miles before the truck. They are calling for a foot of snow in the surrounding areas for mid next week, so it's still not over for those that want some more saddle time. Happy trails!

Walleye!

Few more!

A few pics, still winter here.

Day 1: Arrived at Barrage Gouin at 4:00 with 259 miles on the day. We started the ride at Mattiwin. It was 11f when we left and 8f when we arrived. Most trails were very good to excellent! A bit snirty for 5 miles out of Mattiwin and 5 miles out of LaTuque. 83 into and out of Wemotaci was SUPER, fast and glass smooth! The snow up here is silly. There is still good snow on the road before the trestle to la-Tuque. Saw NO sleds on the trails. Only 2 small groups stopped on the side. 83 is ridiculous.

Perfect so far!

Looks to still be good snow, will let everyone know later.

I would stay high, stay west, lots of snow. I would not even try Roberval or Mont Laurier.

Wow, very nice conditions still!

Not too worry,we found ton's of snow and most trails were the best of the season easily. Get her fixed and head back up!

http://www.quebecrider.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2881&pid=32557&st=0entry32557

The plan was good, no need for plan B or C, because plan “A” was so awesome! A 3 day trip was the deal. Day one was to head out of Mattawan, then up to La-Tuque, then over to Windigo. End the day by going to Parent, and spend the night in Clova, (325 miles). Day 2 was to cross the reservoir via GPS, eat lunch at Barrage Gouin, then down to spend the night in Kanawata, (225 miles). Day 3 was to then head down to Repo, then M20, explore M21, play a bit, and then back to the truck, (180 miles). Day 1: As planned, we slept in IceMan’s town of Shawinigan. In the AM we trailered up to Mattiwan to start our journey. We headed to La-Tuque. The pipeline was awesome, and to our surprise the 6 mile road before the trestle was completely snow covered! Very, very nice riding. We took the shortcut just after the 355/73 junction to head into town, (1000 feet past it, take a left). It bypasses all of the roads and crossings, airport, the speed traps, the whole bit! We gassed them up in town and then headed up the 73. We took the shortcut to Windigo off the 73, (bypassing Relay 22). After about 5 miles on the Ice, Randy’s 2009 XR with 8K on the clock, spit the track completely in half and out the back with me behind him. He coasted for a thousand feet or more, and I ran over his track at 85 mph, (video to follow). It wadded up my front bumper and broke some of the plastic detail parts, but that’s it. So sitting on the ice, it appears we have a few issues, (there is no way plan ‘A” is going to work anymore). Jay stopped and picked the track, Dave towed the trackless Ski-Doo, and I rode double with Randy the remaining 4 miles to Windigo. Over lunch made by Martine, (they do not normally serve lunch here), we start to go over options. The best we came up with was to tow the sled to a parking area 1.5Km away, then the 3 of us ride back to the truck, and then come back to get Randy. Martine gave us a road map, on back roads it was 90 minutes from La-Tuque. We got back to the truck by 5:15 with 284 miles on the sleds. The conditions were very, very good. We loaded them up and headed to La-Tuque. We got a bite at McDonalds, checked into Motel 9, swaped sleds and trucks around, and then called Randy and told him to meet us at the parking area at 9:30. We used the great map we were given and headed out into the wilderness to save our buddy. We got the parking area at 9:30, and no Randy. We loaded up the trackless sled, got the cover on it and Randy pulled in riding on the back of the owner Daniels sled. The temps were now down to 15F. As it turned out Daniel decided to add 15 minutes to their arrival giving us a bit of cushion so they wouldn't freeze waiting for us. No cell service out here! We got back to La-Tuque and bed before midnight, yeah! Day 2: A quick breakfast and we were out of there. Once back in Grand-Mere we hit the rental location and got Randy a 2013 600 Etec X! We were on the trail by 9:30 against all odds. We left the truck there and hit the trail. We took the 19 miles of river to save some time and then the 345 into Mattiwan. It was thin in the 2-3 mile section of logging, but the rest was really, really nice with a lot of snow. We gassed up in Mattiwan, and headed out towards Kanawata. We took the M20, then went out to the end of the M21 to check it out, (very cool, tons of perfectly groomed snow). We even saw a few groomer’s out. I would say it got up to upper 30’s. It was very sunny and very light traffic. We got to Repos with 120 miles on the clock due to our playing on the M21. With the warm temps, the 600 TNT I am using ran out of gas with 1.5 miles to go, (so close). A quick tow and all was good. Good news is they had fuel, the bad news is the lunch service is still terrible. Hot chicken had nothing hot. Cold bread, cold chicken, cold peas and cold gravy! A disgrace to Quebec! We headed out and got to Kanawata in 45 miles. We were there early, so we headed out on the lake to do some more exploring. We found a shortcut across the lake that saved a ton of miles! We came back and gassed them up and check into our cabin. The dinner was very nice, and served super-fast. When our heads hit the pillow no one had any issues falling asleep. Day 3: After a very nice breakfast we settled our bill and got ready to head out. We decided to head across the lake and save the miles. We rode awesome trails all the back to Repos. No food this time just gas and go. We were out of Repos before the folks sleeping there were even up! Early bird catches the worm.... The groomers had been out and the trail to the M20 was wonderful, first tracks the whole way, (I hate that :^)). The first half of M20 was a bit bumpy, but the second half was great. The trail into Mattiwan was very good. We gassed them up and headed down to the river. The 20 miles of trail down to the river was all fresh groomed the night before, and perfect. 10 of a 10. We buzzed the river back to return the rental sled and load our own sleds. We rode 670 miles plus or minus, and the trails varied between a 7 and a 10, with most being 9-10. Get out while you can, there is a TON of snow still. The traffic was light everywhere we went. Mark.

The whole 5 miles was completely snow covered! The groomer ran down the side and made a trail, it was awesome!

When you go for 8 weeks, you bring a lot of stuff!

Yup, on our do not return to list, no real reason to go back anytime soon.

$0.

Bummer, hope he gets it figured out! Was in Quebec City yesterday. Very warm, 37F and raining. Ton;s of snow, but road crossings are beat. Lot at Berniers was completely full. For 3/14 you may have to start further north, but there should be snow. We will be up there this week-end.

https://www.biteharder.com/#header $59.99 + Shipping.

I have my glass home here in the freezer, it's perfect!

See you next Saturday, Friday!

Day 1: 245 miles. Saturday the 23rd. Low sleep for me as I had to go home and get the spare sled. The guys stayed in St Jean De Martha, a pretty nice hotel by the Subway. We were on the trial by 8:30 heading for St-Foy! All of the local trails were groomed up awesome, no issues at all. We planned to stay on 3, but got off it as much as possible on the orange side trails, and it was worth it. No traffic and super conditions! Got to St-Foy way early, and decided to go to the Ice Hotel. The Ice Hotel is maybe 1/3 of a mile from the Sheraton 4 Points hotel, which is just off 3 after you cross the highway and go along behind the huge shopping center This is about 20 miles 1 way north from the Quebec Inn. It was tough going as every sled and ATV ever bought in Quebec City was on the trail, you really needed traffic lights! The poor trail did not stand a chance. We tried some of the short-cuts to the Ice-Hotel, no dice. Just take the sign to the Sheraton, when you get into the lot, follow along the right of the main entrance road as if you are leaving the property and stay along the fence. You pop out right in the lot of the Ice Hotel. We did the tour, bought a shot each of "accident de snowmobile", very funny. Hung around a bit, had some sugar on snow and took a bunch of pictures. We then saddled up for the 20 mile trip back to the hotel, and for some reason it was much nicer than the 20 miles out. We ended the day in St-Foy with 245 on the sleds. In in plenty of time for a nice dinner and some local entertainment. Day 2: No rush to get out. A fresh 6 inches of snow on the sleds and the trail. We gassed them up and headed out. We took all of the orange trails again, all were in very nice shape. 1/2 way back a few guys warned us of local police giving out tickets for rolling stop signs, we heeded the warnings. After spending 2 hours with the police on my stolen sled on Friday, I had my fill. We got a bit messed up as we got close to St Jean de Martha as there are a zillion intersections. No big deal, we added maybe 5 more miles and got to come in a different way. Back to the truck by 2:30 with 210 miles on the clock. Loaded up and headed home after a super nice week-end! Happy Trails, 3300 for me this year, hope to push over 4000 in the next week. Mark.

Nice trip, nice reporting. At this point the poor shock deserves a break!