markusvt

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Great time sledding with the solid boyz from New Hampshire, Vermont, and  Quebec.
Long last reunion with Team Vermont who are the king of Forest road travelers.
Perfect weather and snow conditions 7 day Excursion.
Had a enjoyable perfect 2 week season.
Looking forward season 2025

Did you guys cause this?
 

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Definitely enjoyed following along, jealous is an understatement.  Nice rip.  West is best

Day 8 Monday 

Trucked it to chez Ice, touchdown home 3 hrs from Lac Bouchette. Snowing up there messy to La Tuque almost 3” new snow overnight there. Less as we drove south. 
 
Yamaha off the Snohorse trailer and Freeride back in. Unloaded gear and said goodbye to the Snohorse and he headed on south. Timing is everything and the timing and planning were on. 
 
The rest of the team had a smooth run back to USA Sunday. 
NHmoose said he was home by 10:30. Nice
 
until next time mes amis

Outstanding trip reporting as always ! So glad everything went well for all of you👍

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Always fun hooking up with fellow Quebecriders out in the bush. Iceman runs with an amazing crew. Windigo never disappoints. Plenty of snow up there. It’s just the access points are dissolving fast. A little creativity and there’s a lot of riding to be had still.

Today rode West on 83 to Auberge Presbytere for breakfast.  83 West was awesome.  Spent the day just riding 83, 23 and especially 383.  Stopped at Relais La Genouille, pretty good sled club. All trials awesome.  Unfortunately, when we got back to the Dela it was 35 degrees.  Snow getting soft and bare spots worse, Calling for rain on Friday.  Not sure I'd rec coming up this weekend.  Was 4 days riding worth 2000 miles drive from Pittsburgh?  YES.  Heading home tomorrow.

We took the risk of leaving directly from the home in St-Thomas and passing through Berthier to go up to St-Zénon and have dinner at Réal Massé

If I had to quickly summarize the report: don't do like us and stay no further south than St-Gabriel de Brandon and go north. We wanted to take advantage one last time of the privilege we have of leaving directly from the home without touching the trailer and we managed to do so but the southern part of St-Gabriel is too lacking in snow... I gave a good beat to my snowtrackers!
From St-Thomas we joined trail #3 to go towards Berthier. Surprisingly, apart from the surroundings of the gas station in the village, the fields were still very beautiful. Here along the railway line.  Scratchers mandatory very hard/icy base

There was a lack of snow in a few inside curves but overall very good

Things got bad when we arrived at the airfield in St-Cuthbert, there was quite a long way to go on a plowed path now on dirt/gravel and it wasn't nice in the wooded area that followed or near the Valrémi sugar shack
We gave a try on the #3 towards St-Barthelemy...It was worse too much south and we had to turn around we lost the trail at some points

We headed towards St-Gabriel de Brandon, the wooded sections are good

But in the fields the trail path is hard to miss 🙄, it has melted too much. There is quite a long stretch like that

Past St-Gabriel de Brandon going north was the way to go, the conditions there are fine and keep going better toward north
We had a checkpoint just north of the village of St-Gabriel, the guys were nice no problem.

And we went up the #23 north which still has good snow cover

I was unsure about a short plowed section but it's still very good and was ok

We got a few bumps from traffic but the snow is still very good in that area

We had a late start around 9:30 and time was passing quickly so we took the #350 south

And we had dinner at Réal Massé. It's been a long time since we've been there and their meals are still delicious and the atmosphere really nice. They are open from Thursday noon to Sunday afternoon.

From there we decided to continue #350 and loop around via #63 towards Ste-Émélie de l'Énergie. Here direction the Glacière


Past La Glacière on #63 heading south it was still very beautiful with good snow cover


Here passing by the La Barrière outfitter


We passed through Domaine Bazinet and continued south

The big hills near Ste-Émélie de l’Énergie are still in good condition

Past Ste-Émilie village we headed towards St-Damien where we stopped to refuel while passing through their courtyard.

Leaving the gas station we climb the mountain and at the very top facing south there is the only mud spot we saw to the north of St-Gabriel on this route very close to the small shack at the #23 junction which joins our morning route. We took a little break there.

We resumed on the morning path in the opposite direction which was still in the same state, beautiful up to St-Gabriel but then with bare spots going south

We returned home around 5:00 p.m. with a little over 250km on the cluster, overall happy with the ride that succeed our wish to start from home.
In summary, there is still some great snowmobiling to be done north of St-Gabriel de Brandon when it is cold like today. This year it's like that, don't be too critical and take what can be done... The upcoming weather forecasts are a bit scary but I still hope they're wrong! we'll see...hoping for the best
Alain

Day 5 215 total miles. A bit of a snowy day today so not as many pictures they don’t look as pretty haha. Tons of sleds today guess everybody is out anticipating, perhaps the end of the riding season unfortunately. Since all the traffic trails were a bit more bumpier than normal, but still not bad at all. Decided to head down to Rapide 7 so left amos south to Rivière-Héva then to Malartic then continued down the 309 to Rapide 7. Back up 309 then into Val’dor and then snaked our way back to Amos the long way! 

Riding beats thinking about it. Nice job stitching it together certainly not what we are used to this year. The end is near.

Day 6, last day left Valga and doubled back south to 5. When we get to 35 we take that, some of the trails around Rimouski are showing red again and since we took 5 on the way out we will try and stay more inland. Stay on 35 to the 546 cutoff and take that, it’s in really nice shape. Local traffic is starting to pick up now but everyone is acting nicely. We take the 571 when we hit it then the 544 into St. Cyprien and have a good lunch at the St. Cyp. Continue on the 544 to the Orange local, think it is 44 but not positive and take that to 85. 85 still in good shape and covered well but icy. After the Adventiers clubhouse things get pretty bad. Mostly dirt and gravel with a little snow here and there to the 526. The 526 is no better and pretty much no snow the last 2 or 3 miles into the Universal. We had a great trip, the clubs are all out doing their best and trails are mostly good. All towns are bone dry getting in and out, even Murdochville is dry blacktop at the gas station. Many areas WILL NOT survive the warm up and rain this week. It will take a good dump of snow after Wednesday to open it all back up. 142 miles for the day 1050 for the week

Day 6 Saturday
 
Cold this.morning. Not sure what was the temperature but a cold start. Cold makes white asphalt. I happen to admire white asphalt quite a bit and we saw lots of it 
Exception being the local trail from La Dore to TQ83. But the local orange was still ok. Just not perfect. 
 
Joined up with the TQ83 and at first was not liking it. Quickly changed at intersection to local trail south. Fast run down as the top of the TQ83 they are grooming the road as the trail for a god part of it and it’s fantastic. Gas and Late lunch after the rush at Relais 22. Out of there we got places to be. 
 
More sleds out today, but duh? It’s the weekend. Even so, we only caught uo to 2 sleds we easily got by. Only the second pair we had to deal with in front of us in 6 days. Sweet. 

Quick burn to Windigo and wrapped up a stellar day with a stellar night reminiscing and breaking bread with our brothers Team Vermont. Always great fo be at Windigo with Martine Stephanie and Daniel….even better on a Saturday night……and even better with the plan coming together to meet up. 
 
Lots to catch up on and that we did. Sure wish we could do this so much more often.
 
Great times with Great people. 

Peek-a-boo Sunday 5:30...