willb

Day 2 2/3 sleds started this morning at -28C. Got the other sled boosted after warming up the pack. Carcajou to Baie Comeau. 770 kms total for two days. mt Valin trails were awesome! Forestville was thinner but still good. Baie Comeau hit and miss. stopped at La chapelle for a break - lots of sleds out, once on trail 3 est no one to be seen - great views though, some were in the dark. to get to forstville we ended up taking the portneif river short cut to the 951 - well travelled. stayed at the grand hotel - bit of adventure to get there through the town but well marked; kind of surprised the le manor was fully booked. The grand - quite the architecture marvel, food was great!

Then on to Mt Apica for fuel…or so we thought. They had some pump issue where the flow was reduced so 10l at a time and it was slow. But thankful as the group before waited 45 mins for some pump maintenance (which did not fix the issue) before they got any fuel. the 10 litres got us to herbertville for fuel. then on to Alma in the dark and across the river to Valin. We stayed at Auberge Carcajou. Nice place and great host. We had the foundue - steak. Breakfast sucks but we are up at em. a quick electrical fix in the garage on the 900 turbo and we are back up to everything working. -29C this morning let’s see if the sleds start!

Was cold enough so we stoped to warm up.

Drove to St Ray Friday to start the annual trip at the Roquemont. Live music with a fiddle and a good time! Anyway on the trail late Saturday morning, by 930 heading towards Mt Valin. As we got on the trail we saw the groomer - that’s why we come to QC. trails were good but a fair share of moguls I assume due to traffic on the 23 N - lots of snow especially as we went north .

Fer a cheval

Windigo or relais 22? Was a toss up for our group and I picked 22 (which was great) but maybe Windigo is the place to be?

This is the snow level and trail at font brune on 30JAN.

Last day (3.5). 100 lacs back to the truck at font brune. Dinner was great at 100 lacs, we even had the “honey moon suite” above the restaurant which is interesting. trails were good till st Anne du lacs after which they sucked. Just not enough snow. Like others mentioned the groomers are doing miracles with what they have. back to the truck by noon completing our 1220 km trip. Happy trails!

Yep. Wish doo could make the easy fix and install more robust rollers!

Day 3 relais 22 to 100 lacs via Parent and the decelles river crossing 😁 realis 22 was great, service was good and very friendly and the pork was great as well! Lunch was a snack in parent at the general store. The longer version of the river crossing is in the other thread but 50 kms was ungroomed (we knew about this and decided to run it) between 345 and parent. Then we checked on the progress of the new bridge and bashed across via the river. after parent we arrived to 100 lacs for the night by 6 pm with another 370 kms (including one wrong turn!). And we have another busted secondary roller to report on a doo g4 with 5000 kms, but luckily it didn’t slow us down and we were able to just run it as is for the remainder of the trip. The trails were great all day. Best yet. however there is a bumpy and stick section before and after Wemotaci. http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_02/IMG_5204.thumb.jpeg.0efe6c6360beca349f94b484cf147154.jpeg

Alright, time for day 2 updates (Sunday 28JAN). Stayed at Marineau Mattawin - good spot but nothing fancy. Rode to relais 22 miles via the 355 shortcut (see other thread for how that went). Trails were a lot better today and only got better as you went north. Had lunch at the La Tuque deli. http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_01/IMG_5195.thumb.jpeg.f6f68eefe06cb296d399e040f14f5c93.jpeg http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_01/IMG_5199.thumb.jpeg.d47ea598b178d30b8ba45f965a5372a5.jpeg

it was a bit deeper closer to the bank - but not much deeper. Like Markus said lots of big rocks and steep bank. It was the ackward depth of not deep enough where the rocks were in the water to water skip, and deep in between the rocks. As well the path to the water was not straight either. it was damed up and no rocks on the bank but then they added the rocks so we had to go through in a different area. When we got there they had big rocks on the bank and were working right in the area. See this picture - you can see the timber they had in the water to dam it up to help when the excavator crossed and the cribs were put in. http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2024_01/IMG_5225.thumb.jpeg.6b1fbf98a9d1d8c03f3a54d6ac78ec4a.jpeg

Yep, they celebrated when we got across!

Picture was from Monday - 29jan. I’d bet another week of work but the deck is 75% done just the approaches and railing left. Forgot to get some more pictures.

We rode through that trail on Sunday. It’s fine. Rough moguls from the turnoff of 351 but there was enough snow and the logging sections are not great but not that bad either. There were worse trails that were green coming from Mt Laurier area on Saturday in my opinion.

Well we are wrapping up our 3.5 day trip so let’s start at day 1. Font Brune to Mattawin. Trails were rough but we got through our 430 kms by 8 pm. This route via 63 needs more snow (it looks like they made some of it yellow now which is accurate). Happy to be on the trails.

Haha that was max depth allowed. belts got wet by the end. Should have taped the vent maybe but we all made it across.