Snowbunny

Anyone taken this route yet? I haven't been to the area before but am interested in going, can someone recommend the best trails to take in this area up to Monts Valin from Charlevoix? Other places to stay? Thank you!

Thinking that we might head this route to Val D'Or in a few weeks. Looks like this is where the snow is in the Abitibi region.

Judging by this map and the updates looks like the trails are starting to Open up in the Abitibi region!! FINALLY! http://www.admdq.org/conditionsdesentiersmotoneige.html

The Ottawa Valley is expecting another 15 to 20 cm on top of the 10 cm we already got Christmas Day. And it's already starting to snow here now!

I usually drop my truck and trailer off at the Classic and start from there. Mid Range- Any idea if the La Verendrye Park trail is open again this year, its a sweet ride up the trail to Val D'Or, I think the Val D'Or club was grooming it last year... Here's to hoping there's a white Christmas up North!

Trails were pretty good, around Rouyan Noranda was a little rough with less snow. Wondering if anyone has been up to Val D'Or since the warm weather?

Sounds like you had a really nice trip thanks for the report. Snowing really hard here at home, so looks like we might get some fresh powder! It's just my boyfriend and I this weekend. We have 2 skidoo e tecs, one 50th anniversary and one with the woman's package. I bet you can guess which one is mine I'll be sure to say hello!

We're heading up by truck to Val D'Or this weekend. Forestel was totally booked for Friday night, so we are staying at the Comfort Inn (I haven't before but they guy from the hotel says the trail runs behind it). Heading Saturday morning for Val D'Or to Amos to La Sarre to Rouyn Noranda. Staying at Le Noranda for the night (praying that the trail is groomed to the hotel this time, guy at the hotel did have a clue :S) Driving from Rouyn Noranda back to Val D'Or Sunday morning and trucking back to Ottawa. Short run, but should be a good one! Guessing from the fact the the Forestel is booked trails must be in good shape. I'll let you know :)

Here's a map that I like to refer to. All updates are very current looks like Val D'Or isn't quite open yet. http://www.admdq.org/conditionsdesentiersmotoneige_abitibi_temiscamingue.html Hope you can read Frech...but I bet you can get the just of it :)

Mid-Range, Are the trails around Manawaki open? I'm looking to not drive too far North and go for a test run before we head out for our trips this year. Do you know if the park is going to be open again heading up to Val D'Or? Cheers!!

We saw a wolf this year on the trail between the Indian Reserve and Louvicourt in the Park. It was huge, we were closer to Louvicourt and in the swamps. I was really timid and ran off into the bush quickly when we came up on it. Last year we were driving the rail bed to Temischaming to Ville Marie and we caught up to two Lynx chasing a rabbit. They were the coolest looking animals. They ran into the bush but only a few feet in and we could see them peering out at us. Haven't seen a moose yet though...

Some Pics~ this may be our last trip of the season unless we trailer to Val D'Or or the groundhog was right when he predicted more winter to come. Amos Club's welcome Harricana Front View Barrute Skil Hill Top view of the trail through the Park Through the park, taking off the layers it's really warm!

Trip Report #2 Day 1 We dropped the sleds off at Le Domaine and went through the Laverendrye Park up to Louvicourt, across to Val D'Or, up to Amos. We stayed the night at the Amosphere. Trails were not in as good condition as the week before when we were up. The snow had melted a fair bit in some spots. Le Domaine the trails were ok, then the trails got better towards the indian reserve. They hadn't groomed the Laverendrye Park trail since we were last up so there were lots of moguls on the corners. The trail from Louvicourt to Val D'Or had taken a beating as we met lots of sleds and the sugar like snow was pushed around a lot. There is still a good amount of snow but the trail conditions varied a lot this day due to grooming and traffic. There was a wash out in the Laverendrye Park about 5km out of the Indian reserve to Louvicourt. There was also a creek begininng to open about 15km outside of Louvicourt. Day 2 We drove from Amos to Barrute, to Sennetere. We drove from Sennetere to Louvicourt, then to the Harricana for lunch and back to the Forstel so we could watch the game. Oddly enough the Harricana doesn't serve lunch...argh....reluctantly they made us poutine. We won't be going back there. The 309 from Val D'Or to the Harricana was the worst trail of the entire trip. Beaten to heck, full of moguls, so we took the lake back to and skipped some of the crappy trail. The trails around Sennetere were MINT the best trails of the trip. Val D'Or was out grooming after day 1 so the trails were a lot better, but pretty hard in the morning. Day 3 We drove from Val D'Or to Le Domaine through the Laverendrye Park. We hit the first washout 15km from Louvicourt it wasn't too deep and we made it across, not far after there was another washout developing. We decided to take the road into the Indian Reserve because the first washout was so much larger than when we passed two days ago. We didn't want to break our sleds. We had filled up in Louvicourt with gas and thank goodness. Again we had trouble getting gas! The Indian Reserve had run out, we passed through at about 10:30am, they were expecting a truck around 1pm. We have E Tecs so we kept on going. Close to the T in the trail where you can go to Joncas or go to Val D'Or there is a a trailer that sells gas. They were out TOO. We had an extra gas can, so we didn't fill up in at Pourviorie Laverendrye. We had no problem with the E Tecs making to Domaine (230km or so). We did warn a few sledders we met about the gas problems through the Park. From the trailer to Le Domaine was rough with lots of moguls and sugar snow. The analysis: if it gets really cold up north it will become really icy if it doesn't snow. They coud use more snow in some areas but all in all the trails are passable to good. If it stays warm up North the creeks will continue to open up. NOTE: Carry extra gas this year if you are going up. So far we've been unlucky with getting gas, thank goodness we have E Tec's, if we had my old Polaris I would have been screwed. I hate being towed as I'm sure everyone else does too.

After talking abou trail conditions with a few people we met, apparently Matagami does not have much snow and the trail has just been opened. Some people we met, who were from Val D'Or, said they tried to go up to Matagami but oddly there wasn't enough snow on the trail. You may not want to go this way.

There wasn't any word on when they would be getting gas at Mc Dault. A big issue...we passed a lot of sleds heading to Clova...they were running fast...no sign of any extra gas cans...I bet they ran out. I heard that Mc Dault had their tanks filled for the winter, but with high traffic they have run out. In the past they snowmobiled the gas there to sell. There is no other place to get gas on this stretch. Some people were changing their route and taking an extra day by going to Parent, then down to Le Classic. Seeing as the Park is in such good condition and there is no problem with gas there we are going back through on Saturday. We are taking a three day run starting Saturday the 27th at Le Domaine through the park to Amos. We will probably stay Sunday in Val D'Or and then head back through the park to Le Domaine We had planned to start our trip in Ville Marie, but my brother was out that way a week ago and said the 309 from Ville Marie to Rapid Sept wasn't in good condition (lots of rocks). Mid Range- Yup, my sled is the white one. My boyfriend's sled just barely made it to Le Classic. His is the 50th anniversary edition sled bought last year. The primary and secondary clutch were rubbing against each other. We brought it to the dealership yesterday to get fixed and found some kind of mount had completely come loose Not impressed.

Here's the link to the report: http://www.hardcoresledder.com/forums/inde...howtopic=471774

Just got back. Trip was great, well for me. We had to leave my cousin in Clova with his broken down Yami, costly drive to Mont Laurier. PLEASE NOTE: Anyone going from Clova to Le Classic, Mc Dault did NOT have gas. It's a 220km stretch, pretty long if you don't have good fuel economy. I will post pictures tomorrow. A bit tired. It's been a long trip with some great trails and lots of snow. Oh and we passed Mid Range and his gang on Day 1.

We've book the hotels, Harricana is full for next weekend. We are staying at the Forestel. Our good sledding friend, who beat us to the trails, is in Louvicourt (Val D'Or hotels are heavily booked for the week)already having a blast. If you are around Val D'Or this weekend look for the lone sledder on the Ski Doo and say hi.

Thanks for the reply! We rode a few years ago from Joncas to Belleterre to Val D'Or it was great but there was a lot more snow that year.

We will be heading up through the park on the 19th so I'm sure we will cross paths. Two E-Tec's one pink and white, one 50th anniversary, MXZ (my dad) and a Yami (my cousin). My cousin hasn't ridden the trails up in Abitibi before so he's in for a big treat.

Hi Everyone, I am starting at Grand Remous heading up to Val D'Or through the Laverendrye Park, then from Val D'or to Clova, and back to Grand Remous. We are leaving next weekend Feb 19th-21st We haven't gone through the Laverendrye park before, should we get gas at Joncas before we take that trail? We have E-Tec's so we get good gas mileage, but I just want to be sure. Has anyone been from Grand Remous to Joncas latey? There were lots of sticks poking out of the snow from Le Domaine to Joncas a few weeks ago when we were up, is the trail any better? I will be sure to take lots of pictures for a trail report.

Anyone been up to Val D'Or even before the rain?

We unload our sleds at the Classic in Grand Remous and head to Clova from there. We were up 2 weeks ago there was lots of snow in Grand Remous so you should be fine.