stoney

Funny you post that, I asked the bar owner about the population there and he mentioned a number around that and how much the population has increase in the last decade or so. Quite the bubble there.

We stayed in Hotel Chiboug, it was good, nothing crazy, odd to have no window in the room but a sliding door to some sort of a common area that people from a few rooms can sit, that I think had a window.....a little bit different to get to it being right in town. Spent the night at the bar attached to it, had dinner, some drinks and played some Quebec Quiz game that night......some lawyer from Montreal I think helped us out, she was in town for a case dealing with an indigenous - the bar was packed. The owner/bar tender was very friendly, talked with him a fair amount too. Ate breakfast at the restaurant beside the hotel, maybe one tenant over. Bought beer from grocery store across the street for in the room. The main street out front is crazy busy for such a small town.

x2 - it really is odd, and good, that it does not seem to happen more often. My sleds are normally set up to be predictable, but you hear from some that deal with serious twitchy or darting front ends, thankfully I have not had that issue except for one sled that ended up being a ski alignment issue, but it really messes with your confidence until you find the fix!

I like the light idea, but likely would not invest in the aftermarket system already out there. I do hand signal, when it takes me no effort or raises any concerns or possible safety risk to my riding (corners, hills, rough trails, etc…). I also actually slow down when oncoming sleds are approaching out of respect to the other rider who may not be as confident as me on the trail. And I always assume there is a sled coming the other way - tight to the right unless I have a clear line of sight.

That was a long day!

That upper set of idlers for me have generally been good for the longest duration seeing as they do not see all the crap and mess in the lower part of the skid. A fair amount of ice tends to build up around them though on multi-day trips that I find myself clearing out as often as possible….the tunnel as well.

Senneterre dealer has a bunch of sleds in the show room and parked out front…..

We rode 345 a couple weeks ago and the only stretch that was rougher was the short trail heading to kanawata, asked the folks there about grooming frequency and she said twice a week. 83 heading west from that point was awesome, personally think it was the best run on our trip heading to faillon.

Curious, this zec Valin thing, was it an issue or requirement last year? We ended up riding through this area and knew nothing about it nor did anything about it or did we run into any issues. Stayed at km31 too. TYIA.

Pumps and tank are there, just not able to buy fuel 🙂 My brothers kitty likely would have made the run without carrying gas, but it’d be close.

I was talking to the bar owner at Chiboug Hotel and he was telling me the population there has ballooned the last decade or so - he suggested population is now around 7k compared to around 1500 ten or so years ago. The streets and shops were all quite busy with people coming and going all the time. The bar that night had the Quebec Quiz game happening, or called something like that…..apparently played at bars all across Quebec on same night, we partook for fun even though French language sure wasn’t our strength.

LOL - I do not think I have ever seen so few Polaris sleds on our last trip, it was kind of weird. Tons of Doo's, than Cats and the very odd Poo.

On our recent QC ride saw mostly either Oxygen or BV2S helmets - I was actually surprised at the number of them. I run the Mission - I like it, only plugged it in on the last day that started around -33 (feel like -45ish) with a high of -30 posted, not sure it got there though, seemed like it got colder as the day went on vs. warmer..... I was starting to get a bit of frost on the inside of my visor, nothing of a concern, but figured I'd plug it in for good measure. Other two guys had modular helmets that really sucked, do not recall the names - but they are likely buying new helmets before the next trip, the one guy really liked the Oxygen helmets that he had a chance to look at when stopping at the warm up shacks! Built in tunes and radio would be great if it came on the Oxygen standard, depending what platform you need to connect with in order for either of these to work - might make the Oxygen an even bigger seller. I would like to have music, but not the hassle of ear buds or wires - communication with some or all of the group would be super nice too!

We stayed there this past week, forewarned about the food due to “lack of staff”…..I can see why they may not return to full kitchen unless business drops, it’s an easy no hassle alternative, sadly. We did the Chibougamau loop, clockwise from Shawinigan. Maybe we crossed paths. That run across the bottom from kanawata to faillon was the best stretch / ride from our loop for sure without a doubt, just over 400km. Spent an hour is in that same warm up shack getting a fire going, cutting some wood, restocking the wood in the shack from the storage shed and enjoying the scenery!