doonali

Maybe there is a mix up in translation? I don't know of a Dominique at Rabaska but they may possibly be referring to Dominique in Clova that maintains the LePine trail from Rabaska to Clova.

Going to fontbrune tomorrow for lunch via Reservoir Baskatong ....I will let you know how it is. We received over a foot of snow since the past 10 days.
Dominique Coquel Gamache....she owns the Rabaska with Martin

Just a warning when crossing the lake from Chambord to Roberval there is a “heave” about half way across that will send you several feet in the air “ ask me how I know” if you don’t see it. I was only going 15-20 mph but I was shot several feet in the air.  It was snowing and blowing sideways so hopefully on a normal day it won’t be a surprise. 

Finally after spending the entire holidays on my back sick as a dog drooling over all the sledding posts, I’m feeling well enough on the last week end before returning to work to brave the outdoors. From the reads I’m getting, the closest snow and trails are a 2 1/2 hour drive away, St.Zenon. Not the ideal area I like to ride in but we will be only riding out of it. Couple phone calls later I got team assembled, Grumpysanta, Vrini and yours truly, reservations made, sled loaded and were off, yup last minute.
We got the last room at Cabanon Friday night, they were booked for Saturday and pretty much everywhere with in a 100 klm radius, everyone’s up there riding. 
Destination, Barrage Gouin 350 ish klms, 345 360 83 and the Gouin trail. 
345 out the gate is a little thin, skippy off rock caps and dodging patatoes till after the river, 360 short’n sweet then back on the 345. This is where it starts getting real nice. 345 up to Repos and it’s noon when we get to the driveway, we take a deep breathe and decide to bypass and head up the Kanawata express to Kanawata for gas and lunch, no one at the pump and quick service inside. Glad we opted for Kanawata, more on that later. 200 k from the Cab.
345 up to Casey sweet as always, after Casey the trail is labelled 83 doesn’t say east or west just 83, kinda confusing but before crossing the road from Wemotachi to Parent the trail detours to the west following the Manaouin river for about 10 klms when it conects to the 83. At the intersection from the east and west side of the 83 there are Casey Detour signs, why they detoured the trail I don’t know, yet! Trails are awesome and I’m behaving myself this week end, got some old timers with me! 
Gouin trail off the 83 was in fair shape till you got to the road going to Parent, on the other side into BG the trail was a single path with branches growing into the trail, last few klms was a little rough, we saw Jean in the trail dragging a crazy looking homemade sleigh with blades on it to cut the branches, very innovative.
BG walleye was bar none, service on the top and foxy was back, she even gave a pose. Josianne is no longer there, they have someone new now her name is Corina. Jean was very helpful with some off trail info but that’s for another time.
A little cooler in the morning and a little more snow on the ground for our departure, down to the road we go, enough of the branches. Buzz down to the Halteparche trail and reconnect with the 83, into Casey then do a little exploring, we’re coming back here another time in search of a trail to 100 Lacs. Buzz on down to Kanawata and it’s too early for the lunch so we take the express into Repos, now this is where it gets interesting....We have 175 k on the tanks and Repos is sold out of gas, sending everyone to Manawan so I dump my spare gas, Vrini with his 900 Expedition still has lots to spare. Grumpy would rather ride the 35 k to Manawan fuel up and ride back the 35 k rather than dumping his spare gas, so after tugging on his beard a bit we got him to dump his gas and stay away from Manawan. Good thing too, later on that.
Now we have roughly 1/2 to 3/4 tank of gas and are taking the 33 down to SMdS 100k, easy peasy. We get there using the shortest path possible, ran all the lakes, took the road around Taurau then crossed the reservoir into SMdS from Auberge Taurau. Got lots to spare, could’ve even made it back to the Cab. Everyone’s happy.
Now back to Manawan, when I got home I saw a post on FB, a quick video of the fuel line up at Repos on Saturday at 1:30 the post said they are all sold out of gas. On Sunday we were told to go to Manawan and I’m guess they everyone on saturday to do the same. Hmmm I’m judging with all the traffic Saturday afternoon and on Sunday it’s a high probability Manawan could’ve sold out as well. It was a tough call pulling on Grumpys beard, he’s a big guy!  615 klms for the weekend, not too tough on the bodies for the first one.






https://www.facebook.com/trevor.russell.37/videos/10216879135983272/
 

One for each team

good morning !!!
back to the main subject !!!.......ahaha
went grooming tq 5  + ste florence...
blowing snow...strong winds 
mini drifts on my way back !!!
-12c at 3 am !!!
 
jean-guy

Ok, now I'm confused.... You mentioned that you did this trip two yrs ago in four days and now your asking if it can be done in seven...

Ok, now I'm confused.... You mentioned that you did this trip two yrs ago in four days and now your asking if it can be done in seven...

Cayamant to black rollway is business as usual. You are probably referring to trail 308 between jim's lake and lac cayamant area. You are right. It is shown in red on viaexplora and no trail on imotoneige.
It will finally be open this year. Please get in touch with the clubs who maintain this trail which are les ours blancs and pingouins snowmobile club for gas availability.
 

We are at Le cabanon tonight

We fueled there on a Sunday last season. No activity, we stopped at the pumps and a gentleman drove up in a truck and filled us up. Cash only. No food on the weekend other than vending machines.

good morning !!!
grey sky ...-24c ...
friend of mine made the video !!!
 
jean-guy
 
 

good morning blueblood !!!
yaaa...a few more ...looking at the hrs on yours...i remember when i started grooming ...years ago...farmer in town told me that tractors could do many hrs ...so , i guess mine is still brand new with only 3000 hrs...
sunny and - 27c this morning !!!
 
jean-guy

bonsoir !!!
 
went grooming a few miles toward st alexandre and then up to the lake !!!!
great run and cold !!!
 
jean-guy

Here's my yesterday (8 december 2018) video from the first part of our weekend ride, report will follow soon
You can click the 1080p on the parameter and put on the sound to better enjoying this one.
**disclaimer:  I'm not responsible for any side effect you may feel after looking at this video or any crazy plans or spent you may initiate. You watch this at your own risk...
 

The conditions were already good in the Mastigouche Wildlife reserve during our last ride when they had received a good layer of big wet snow that had laid down several trees giving considerable work to the snowmobile clubs to open the trails, although they received another one that over-painted the scenery even more but also giving even more work to the snowmobile clubs to re-open a second time several trails they had already logged a week before and putting a layer on those that they had not had time to do. The work is not completed yet everywhere but it advances greatly.
After looking at the information on the open trails, I chose to go once more in the Mastigouche Wildlife reserve, but making a loop this time from the already ready trails. We therefore left the same starting point near the outfitter of Lake Blanc accompanied by Snowcruiser and Toxie. Brutally cold: -28C when starting at around 9:00 am Saturday morning (December 8th, 2018)

As for the exact route, the current map of Lanaudière does not really represent what is groomed so it's difficult to show you on a map. We left the outfitter of Lake Blanc by the trail # 350, then the M10 and trail #23 to the west as our last ride but halfway in the reserve Mastigouche we forked to the south on the trail # 345. Currently if you continue this trail along its length it ended a few miles south of the Cabanon on #23. Halfway along the same trail, we took a fork on the left to go to Koubec Outfitter and then came back on #345 to have meal at Cabanon. In the afternoon we made the same trip as our last ride ie #345 north in dam direction and 12 miles from cabanon took the #23 east up to our  morning path that we redid in the opposite direction.
In terms of trail maps, I went to the sources and was told that an update for the interactive map and Imotoneige is on the way and should be done within a week to adjust those maps to the trails on the field in real
The trails had lost nothing of their beauty compared to the previous week. Here on the #350 near the Lac Blanc outfitter


Toxie who ride in front of us broke in a brand new grand touring 900 ace in these beautiful trails that he also traveled for the first time


Snowcruiser who was with us had pass there last Wednesday and did a lot of zigzagging between the trees lying down to manage to pass after the 2nd layer of snow from last Sunday. Everything was perfect on this Saturday morning, a big thanks to the snowmobile club Mastigouche for their work and recent grooming!

The woman behind the camera: the one who takes all the pictures you see, who has been sharing my life for over 34 years and been on my  snowmobile back seat for almost the same time. She is also the mother of our 4 boys, the woman of my life. She does the meals and the laundry in addition !!! ..... lollll I love you darling !!!

We then forked on the M10 trail to the north, notice the snow ...


And then took the #23 to the west. The difference compared to the previous week is obviously the better snow to the ground but especially the amount of snow hanging in the trees


Halfway in the reserve we forked to the south on trail #345

And switch again on the left to show the outfitter Koubec to Toxie. Everywhere trail conditions looks like of the end of January in the reserve

The Mastigouche outfitter

better known as Koubec by most snowmobilers. A real historical gem.

We then retraced our steps over several miles

to take the back the trail toward the Cabanon in the Mastigouche Reserve

A little less snow going east but trees still well loaded and good ground cover


We had arrived just a few miles south of the Cabanon. There is a little brownish snow around the Cabanon but nothing bad and everywhere else was beautiful

We stopped there to refuel the venture and us

We met by chance Bily a friend with whom Snowcruiser and I had already ride a couple time and he joined us with his daughter for a good sledder meal. 

We then took the #345 trail north towards the Taureau dam

rear shot 

And around 12 miles from the Cabanon we took the #23 trail toward east which takes the path of the Wildlife Reserve road #31 (indicated by big signs). The sun that had been present in the morning let place to some clouds with light snow


We took a short break at the fork to the south that we had taken in the morning. Kristine took the opportunity to  catch this nice shot of a small river next: superb!

We then continued on #23, the same morning path toward the trailer. Notice the amount of snow hanging in the branches everywhere


We took a last little break before taking the #350

The sky was already too dark for the pics but it was special to ride this trail that sometimes looks like a tunnel at the sleds lights

We got back to the trailer a little past 4:30 pm with a 136s very relaxed miles for the day, all 4 very happy with our ride

In the summary, extraordinary conditions for the date for both snow to the ground and scenery. In fact, I don't remembered since I've been snowmobiling that I've seen such large area in Lanaudièrewith scenery so much snow painted in white by the sticky snow that froze there. They preview cold for the coming days so there will be  many other lucky people who will have the chance to admire these beauties of nature
Several clubs are still in the branch cut to open the trails but it is going well and the playground has grown considerably. Bily, whom we met at Cabanon, told us that he had left from St-Gabriel de Brandon(pretty much south) via trail #23 and everything was good on this side. As the clubs complete their work, they will officially open and you will see the details here: https://www.snowmobilecountry.ca/en/conditions/
an outstanding season start that is very promising for having some great riding in the christmas holidays. 

Last pic....One of my favorite sections heading out towards the Repos

Just got back after midnight. Rode from Lecabanon Friday and Saturday. Yesterday morning was -30c so it was quite a challenge.
Rode 405 miles the two days on conditions that were as good or better than any first/early season ride ever. Went to Repos and back both days as it was recently groomed all the way to there. Tried to go north to Kanawata and west to Manawan but neither was groomed or had any tracks so decided against it. People were coming from both St Michele and St Zenon but not any farther north. Typical vigilance was necessary as you never knew if the next corner or hill was going to have a low tree branch or soccer ball size rock laying somewhere. Overall though 98% was perfect. Some stretches you would swear it was more mid winter conditions. I would guess Lecabanon was a little over half full when I left yesterday afternoon. Had a blast and got the monkey off my back for now. Heading up again the day after Christmas for 4 days. Here are some pics....

SPump, Made it back to Moosehead Lake and oh what a sunrise this AM
I really enjoy the Carrier group, hope I get to see them this year. I think he is headed north this week with Early rider for a ride.
Fortunately the Flu only hit a few of the boys, it was violent and not fun to be one of those  afflicted. I did miss that flu .....I think ......fortunately,🤞
 
FloridaSnowman, on the Balaclava, I agree with you 100%. I will most always where one under the Oxygen Helmet.  It gives added neck protection in sub zero temps, helps when sliding the helmet over the ears, and I feel unnatural without it LOL. Probably everyone knows this but You might want to go a size bigger with the Oxy helmet, they seem to run small.
Linda, on the sled comparisons, I did make a mileage trip error earlier, 603 and I got 600 miles on the turbos, an 1350 on the BC’s, a little less than originally thought.   Still a nice week in total. And as implied early these sleds each have their own sweet spot.  The turbo owns the trail spot over the BC handsdown.  It hugs the trail, in all trail conditions, has smooth accelerations, great handling and the stand by R motion is a winner that we all have ridden!
We still find ourselves struggling with the BC when on the perfect groomed trail. The narrower front end and gear we carry amplifies that handling issue. But put the BC on a worn groomed trail and or single track trail or powder and it takes over with nimble light weight riding and great power, and great handling for the conditions.
We did take the turbo out on some single track riding and it does still give you the impression of the added weight up front. Not bad, but a heavier feel over the BC.
 
if I spent 70% or more on trail it would be the Turbo.... no questions for me.
the same percentage or more adventure riding, BC is the winner 
if you do 50/50, you just gotta have both!😁
Our next ride is after New Years
 Merry Christmas to a all
 
Happy Trails
RR

 
 
 

Now that looks like a perfect one Linda!
 
The temps are dropping here this morning, I think it’s is Balaclava weather!
 
we had our biggest day yesterday for riding, a morning loop to the ski mountain, up the Bras Louis and down the Lake Laflame rd. Than an afternoon ride to Escoumin.  A fun 300 miles of perfect groomed trails and single track riding.
 
Th flu has made its rounds this week, so  any are heading south today.  Including yours truly.  1500 miles on the Back Country and 600 on the Turbo gave us a real good feel for these new sleds.
 
As we reported early, these sleds are BRP homeruns.  Anyone who has purchased one will be very pleased when they saddle up and hit the trails?
Pics that I am sure you all have seen when running 93 in Valin😁
Thinks Snow
 
RR

Clova -Lac Faillon 100mi fuel should'nt b an issue.

Clova -Lac Faillon 100mi fuel should'nt b an issue.