P Hardy

Stayed there a few years ago and had fantastic meals, glad to hear they kept that up. Did they reno the rooms, they needed a little attention back then?

Thanks for taking the time to do your reports Alain, they are a huge amount of work but very appreciated by those of us cyber sledding along with you!

COLD BEER summed it up pretty well, though in 10,000km I've never had a stone caught in mine. They do add more of a power steering feel once you are rolling, as you can imagine when going really slow (2mph/parking) they are pretty heavy steering. I got 10 000km on my first pair of agressive runners and they still had about 30% wear left when I sold the sled, but I only ever run them in QC or real good conditions at home, which isn't often. After running them, they are an absolute necessity for me, way easier on the body on big mile days for the fact that they virtually eliminate darting. A couple of years ago I met an old fellow in Quebec who had 30 sleds in 30 years, of all of different brands, he told me that he had ran Snowtrackers since they came out and that they make the biggest difference on Yamahas, which is what I run, so that may factor into it as well. You do have to take care to hit sharper obstacles like curbs and rail road tracks as perpendicular as possible or they can fetch up. One place that i don't like them is off trail, I find them heavy steering then as well.

I remember seeing that a lot of trail work had been done around Squatec last year, maybe this is what they were gearing up for. Thanks very much for the info!

Just curious as to where the one lane bridge in your pictures is? Been through a lot of the trails in that area, but don't remember that. Looks like a little ways down!

The dog food thing is no joke when going into the States! When they ask if you have food to declare, dog food counts. Spent over an hour at the border one night for unknowingly trying to smuggle lamb dog food into the country. Complete vehicle search & seizure of the food. Also, they were upset to the point of refusal that our dogs were growling at them while they searched our van without us. They certainly are Judge, Jury and Executioner for those few hundred feet.

Drove from Nova Scotia to RDL yesterday to pick up a new to me sled. Pretty much every club from just before Grand Falls NB to RDL was grooming and we saw dozens of sleds out. Obviously early season conditions but the railbed around Cabano looked fantastic! Took a test drive just outside of RDL, snow is thinner there, a decent start, but will not handle any warm weather. Never saw one frozen lake or river the whole way, water and frost are shaping up to be issues this year.

Momojohnny, you explained exactly what we did. We hit the river on the Eastern side of the bridge, went West while staying close to the PQ shore, then crossed just above the pulp mill. In doing this we did go through the smoke shop/gas station and unmarked trail. The B&B owner told us that you can hit the river above the bridge, but after a couple wrong turns we ended up taking the route we were most familiar with.

Hi Ken P, it was good talking to you, glad you had a great ride as well. Always nice to put faces with names. Trailblazer, We crossed the ice as we typically do, however, this time we went West on the river and came off above the pulp mill. This was recommended to us by the B&B owner and it saved quite a bit of time tinkering around in Campbelton.

Got to Quebec for the first time in two years, after being sledless for a season. Absolutely was not disappointed. Typically our trips are fairly structured, but this time with the forecasts we absolutely winged it. Day 1 Wednesday: 380KM Stayed the night at the B&B in Pointe a la Croix. In the morning crossed the river to Campbelton, here the snow was very soft, trials were choppy as they had good snow cover but no conditions to groom. continued on the railbed to Keswick which had noticeably less snow. From there went to Moose Valley, lots of snow in Moose Vally and got on our first fresh groomed trail there. Had never taken the trail to Biencourt so that was a must on this trip, what a gorgeous trail, all groomed seasonal roads and never crossed a plowed road for 60KM, not many places you do that! Took the 548 to Squatec then the 569 to Degelis then the 85 up to Cabano where we stayed the night at Chateau Fraser. Day 2 Thursday: 425 Km Left Cabano, took 85N to 548W then 35N, bypassed Pohenegamook on the 544 then crossed the lake to hit the railbed 35N up to the 561 North and then the 5 west. At 10:00 in the morning we were the first tracks on the freshly groomed 5, hard to believe! there was some brown snow on the 5 but it was well goomed with good coverage. Took the 5 to the 553S, then hit the 35 railbed and continued west on to Tourville for lunch at the Jasmine. Talked to a couple of fellows from Connecuit at the Jasmine, don't know if they were someone on here or not. They were coming in from St Georges I believe. Continued on the 35W where we met a groomer doing an already perfect trail. Took 551W to the 55 then took the 549 and 547 around du Massif du Sud parc. What a gorgeous area! Then we took the 55 into Lac Etchemin where we stayed at Le Manior Lac-Etchemin. Day 3 Friday: 570 Km Left Lac Etchemin took the 55E to 557E, These trails all had been groomed the night before and were superb. Took 35E, 526E, 85S, 544E, 571S, 546E to the 5 behind Rimouski then the 587S down to Amqui. We didn't see any temps above freezing on these interior trails while we were there. Amqui had the lowest snow of anywhere we were. They can't stand massive amounts of rain or warm weather. Stayed at the Auberge L' Ambassadeur where we went into a coma for the evening. Day 4 Saturday: 175Km Back to the truck today. Left Amqui and took the 5 to Albertville where we hooked onto the 587S down to Pointe a la Croix. I have travelled this trail a few times and personally feel it is one of the most overlooked trails in the Gaspe, it has everything; big wide roads, field running, canyon running beside a riverbed, lots of up and down twisties and as an added bonus it was groomed to perfection. Recap: We almost called this trip off due to the forecast, I can't think of any better trips that I have ever had up there. The trail consistancy from area to area was extremely good, anywhere they had the conditions to groom everything was either freshly groomed or done in the last few days with very little traffic. Out of 1650km we might have seen 120Km that was choppy. It was 99% locals on the trails and there wasn't many of them, every place we stayed we were the only snowmobilers in the hotel and we made no reservations, just rode up and a room was available. Hopefully the conditions will hold out and I'll get up to do the Gaspe before the end of March.

Sledded from Edmundston NB to Pohenegamook and passed by RDL on Feb 19th and 20th. Trails were mint, the power line from Trois Pistol to Rimiouski was absolutely incredible. Really good snow cover in this area but it was warm there like everywhere last weekend. They were grooming as steady as temperatures would allow. Just keep an eye on temperatures before you go, they would have to have a huge rain or meltdown for this area not to good for a while.