doonali

It's pretty neat when you're away (100 lacs) and there is a QR member at the next table. 
Great to meet you Snowdust!
 
lindasledgirl

Lucky me! 
Trailblazer rode to LeCabanon had dinner, breakfast and a great day of riding!
Thanks Jean-Guy, You made my trip!
 
lindasledgirl

Not good.  Time to consider another destination 

local trails !!!
cold and windy ....-20c !!!
 
jean-guy
 

They changed the route on the Baskatong réservoir, now trail 322 goes thru village windigo on the eastern side of Baskatong. The big pond was in good shape on saturday and no slush. Trails were in very good conditions on saturday. Maniwaki area, Devil's mountain area(322) and Ste-Anne du lac.

Go Pats

 

Just to point out maybe the obvious. When you see 30km and building or signs with 30km and residential under it, respect it please, not only to avoid tickets but protect our passage through the area. Nothing ticks off non snowmobiling residents more than speeding or noisy sleds.

Watch for these!!
 

will be there sat nite  myself with 420,and crazy snow      doonali we'll look you up, nice to put faces with names

Thank you Jack for the update! Your a great asset to the region.

Today was a IB Day.   Cold, low of 0F, high of +6F, blueberry skies and great trails.
IB day is as follows:
"Blue skies smiling at me nothin but Blue skies do I see
Never so the sun shining so bright, never so things going so right
Never so the days hurrying by when you in the Saguenay  may how the fly".
Had lunch at the best place in town, Truck Stop.  Then stopped at Relais du Lac for a hot chocolate 
back at 4Pm with 180 miles for the day.

It might be getting old for the people that are familiar with the Quebec areas and the trail system but for us that aren't and are planning a trip up there it's not! Sorry if you're getting irritated but just trying to get some information. 

Closed in Support of the Farmers no doubt. 

With sadness, Ken Casey, known as 'Yellow Boots' or in French, Bottes Jaune, has passed on to the Snow Gods and off to start a new chapter in all that the afterlife has to offer, which hopefully is more snowmobiling. He was 93.
Ken started snowmobiling in the '60's on his beloved Boa Skis. After wearing out Maine's trails, he ventured into Quebec during the '70's. He eventually spent years riding the Lac St. Jean area before moving on to the Gaspe where he would spend each winter going around and around the Gaspe. Often he would do these trips solo. He had thousands of photos from his trips. He had enough misfortunes on some of these adventures to fill a book and make our misadventures often seem trite. He was so excited one winter when he found a Boa Ski museum in Quebec.
One year during the '80's I believe, He and a couple other riders left Washington State by sled and rode to Maine. What made this interesting was a disagreement amongst them caused Ken to decide to leave the group in Yellowstone and finish the trip alone to Maine by himself.
His obituary mentioned that in order to learn French, everything in his house had a label identifying it in a French term.
I remember riding with Ken in the '60's and '70's. I was 30 years younger and far faster on a sled. Ken never went over 40 mph, but never stopped. I would go off ahead. 75 miles later we would arrive at our break stop at the same time.
Several years ago I ran across Ken at a snowmobile show. He told me he was hanging up the boots. He had a great run but it was over. His wife asked he no longer ride, she needed his company during the winter months and she was too worried about him traversing Quebec at his age. It was the first time I saw sadness in his usually sparkling eyes.
Ken always wore those yellow snowmobile boots.  He knew very early on that the trails in  Quebec and the Quebec people are a part of life to be treasured.
Rest in peace, Ken. And keep it under 40!
 

A section of Trail 63 was pulled down south so it goes through La Levendry Lodge. The lodge has new owners and added more rooms and a REAL nice dining room,Bar, Fire place etc. I made the reservations for myself and 7 other guys expecting the old setup. What a great surprise, and made look good ! I tried talking them in to becoming a sponsor here,see what happens. 

I took my 1200X fully loaded with fuel, luggage etc. over them last yr. I came up on the first one and yeh I assumed like others that it is just another smooth big roller to get some mild air so I let er have it.... Well after landing it idk how many yards down the trail I shook it off and was like holy cow!!!!! that could have been bad. I haven't aired a sled out like that since my Rock Maple Racing days....many moons ago...  BE AWARE THERE BAD!

Maybe staying at Meekos or somewhere north of town next time is an option. Less civilization....but likely also less beat up trails. Enough said.

Day 2 continued
out of Sawmill and trail is ok but could use some love. It has not been groomed is over a week. It's not terrible but not like the rest we seen. We push on. The biggest thing were the road crossings the berms at the road were big and it was not the easiest you needed to be on your game to cross the roads and manipulate your way up and over. We found the usual 2-3 water holes (sippi holes) first being 50 km from sawmill headed north. (Will probably change but be advised) it was a pretty big washout on the right. Those of us who actually ride the right would be the ones in danger. Those of you who ride the middle are not affected.
I meet a guy southbound solo at a road crossing. He tells me the 'gratte" is headed south about 10km north coming my way. Well thank you my friend, we move on now I'm on guard cause i don't know if i trust this guys estimate of where surfacer is. Where i can see i go all out. Where my "spidey" senses tingle i take it easy. Well its 20Km and there he is i see him on a long straight coming our way!. Sweet!
we pass. Now its just heaven we roll on and, About 80 km north of Sciere 54 there is a big wet lowspot on the southbound side. Another sippi hole. We arrive to Relais Barriere du Nord(closed) and from here up is like tge section from La Dore to the mill. Hard and big frozen solid. Nice trail. We light it up. We cruise on up the 50 km to Petro Canada to gas up. It's noticeably colder up here and the trail shows it. Very nice. Its 3pm. We go 93 direction Chapais. Into Chapais and its too early to call it, so we go on to Club house on 93. Here we take a local trail down to a lake just because. Then we circle back and run 93 back to Chapais. Into Motel Routier sitting pretty. 
235 miles happy 😊 
tomorrow we double back and go local trail into Chibougamau and judging by the grooming i see on the App. We are gonna be loving the ride up to Mistassini. 
Big snowbanks at the road crossing
 

Well lookey here

Please sir may i have another?

 
 

I would like to donate my $42.00 to a Gratuity Fund for all the well deserving Groomer Operators and other dedicated club members.
Would be nice if all these people realized just how much we all appreciate their efforts. Lot of dark, cold lonely nights spend grooming so the rest of us can have our fun.
Hats off to all you men and women that make it happen.

X2 Amen

Left Maniwaki at 1:30 on Wed. 19th hit devils mountain and on to Mekoos for the night. 
Thur. up 53 to 33- 13 to 83 trails freshly groomed and fast. Saw five different Lynx on 53 pretty amazing! Lunch in Parent and onward across 83. Just before Windigos turn off we saw two moose.. What a day! Windigo for the night.
Fri. 83 to Relais 22 faaaast! fuel and head down 73 -355 -360 -345 to Le Cabanon for the night. Overall trails held up good. Esp. 83-360. LaTuque was wet with water holes.
Sat. 63 groomed to perfection after SMDS through the reserve. Half way through my buddy noticed a bearing race/ring on his foot board.. not good.. Inspection found it to be the jack shaft bearing.. 2017 Pro S Switchback.Decided to try to ride it out hopefully making it out to the west side at Red River a lot closer to our rig than heading back to SMDS luckily he made it to the RR grade and finally she let go shearing the jackshaft completely off!! Dropped a pin and left the sled and onward to Maniwaki on a mushy 53-local-324-63. 1.5 hr trip back up to retrieve sled and back in town by 7:30. Could have let go in a lot worse places.
830mi. 3 days and change.

 

Left Maniwaki at 1:30 on Wed. 19th hit devils mountain and on to Mekoos for the night. 
Thur. up 53 to 33- 13 to 83 trails freshly groomed and fast. Saw five different Lynx on 53 pretty amazing! Lunch in Parent and onward across 83. Just before Windigos turn off we saw two moose.. What a day! Windigo for the night.
Fri. 83 to Relais 22 faaaast! fuel and head down 73 -355 -360 -345 to Le Cabanon for the night. Overall trails held up good. Esp. 83-360. LaTuque was wet with water holes.
Sat. 63 groomed to perfection after SMDS through the reserve. Half way through my buddy noticed a bearing race/ring on his foot board.. not good.. Inspection found it to be the jack shaft bearing.. 2017 Pro S Switchback.Decided to try to ride it out hopefully making it out to the west side at Red River a lot closer to our rig than heading back to SMDS luckily he made it to the RR grade and finally she let go shearing the jackshaft completely off!! Dropped a pin and left the sled and onward to Maniwaki on a mushy 53-local-324-63. 1.5 hr trip back up to retrieve sled and back in town by 7:30. Could have let go in a lot worse places.
830mi. 3 days and change.

 

Pourvoirie Windigo 819-523-8181

I called no one Ignorant. I said "Ignorance of the Law". Means just cause you don't know the law does not mean you are not required to follow it. 
Calling the cops dicks for doing their job, sorry i don't take that well. 
No wrist mirror does not count. Must be attached to sled. How well it works is not the discussion. Just that you must have one fixed to left side of machine. 
I've never had any mirror frost? That is a non issue. 
What the cops do in the USA is their business, 
My point is if you are wanting to come ride here, then it is pretty easy to find out what is required before you come. You know maybe on the inter-web thingy.
If you(he) can find your way here to this site, to bitch about it(cops, mirrors)then you can certainly check before to find out where to get a pass and simply ask what do I need to know about riding in QC. 
Bye Felicia. I'm finished here. 

Left Maniwaki at 1:30 on Wed. 19th hit devils mountain and on to Mekoos for the night. 
Thur. up 53 to 33- 13 to 83 trails freshly groomed and fast. Saw five different Lynx on 53 pretty amazing! Lunch in Parent and onward across 83. Just before Windigos turn off we saw two moose.. What a day! Windigo for the night.
Fri. 83 to Relais 22 faaaast! fuel and head down 73 -355 -360 -345 to Le Cabanon for the night. Overall trails held up good. Esp. 83-360. LaTuque was wet with water holes.
Sat. 63 groomed to perfection after SMDS through the reserve. Half way through my buddy noticed a bearing race/ring on his foot board.. not good.. Inspection found it to be the jack shaft bearing.. 2017 Pro S Switchback.Decided to try to ride it out hopefully making it out to the west side at Red River a lot closer to our rig than heading back to SMDS luckily he made it to the RR grade and finally she let go shearing the jackshaft completely off!! Dropped a pin and left the sled and onward to Maniwaki on a mushy 53-local-324-63. 1.5 hr trip back up to retrieve sled and back in town by 7:30. Could have let go in a lot worse places.
830mi. 3 days and change.