P Hardy

Great pics and report Alain, always nice to do some weekday riding

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We have returned from supper. 
So this morning, we wake up and look out the window from the tenth floor of the Delta.  Sandi, all of the vehicles out in the parking lot have snow on them.  Maybe an inch or two.  Not a lot but we will take anything Mother Nature will give us.   A good breakfast and we load up the sleds and head out.  Sandi's son, Jason, and his wife, Yushen , are with us.  Not a lot of snow, a few inches, but the trail has been groomed and really not much snirt.  Just a little at the top of a rise or in a corner but better than what we were expecting.
We head for the two dams.  Just before the two dams is the scale house by the gravel pit.  The trail did go straight to the dams and 383 went off to the left towards Spence Ski Doo.  The trail no longer goes straight.  You have to turn left and about 1/4 mile there is a hard right, signed, to go to the two dams.  Easy enough to follow but it made me think for a second.  Be careful of the hard right.  There is a good drop off to the side.
The trail to the dams hasn't been groomed in a few days but is in decent shape.  We are heading to St Felicien so after the dams we go left on 367 instead of taking Pickle Park.  The trail is good.  Thru what were the scrubby pines which are now really tall, the trail is very good.  Cross by Geant Trailer and we turn left on 93.  Oops, detour around the Crevier station.  It is closed and there is the temporary construction fence around it and an excavator in the parking lot.  Looks like that station is coming down.
Not too far into 93 and it bears off the old trail and heads south.  I remember this from last year.  10 miles of a still young new trail and it is twisty, narrow and bumpy.  This is not what Quebec is known for.  Finally we get to road crossing.  I see a sign that says St Charles 2 km.  We cross the road and get on the old St Charles trail heading back to the warming hut where 93 used to join in.  The trail is much better now.  Sit back and enjoy the ride Sandi.  The further we go the better it gets.  The new section of 93 around Alma where the auto road was expanded is nice.  No more bumpity bump in Alma.  That is history now.
Time to tank up at St Henri.  The Petrocan is an easy in and easy out.  Good bathroom break for the ladies.  Now the trail is really getting to feel like Quebec.  The trail thru the fields is wide, flat and fast.  The sun is out bright and it is a beautiful day to be riding.  A fair number of sleds are out.  Everybody is behaving and staying on their side of the trail.  Cruising down the 8 mile stretch of power line after St Monique.  A little bit of chatter in the trail but still a beautiful ride.
We turn left on 367, the Peribonka trail I like to call it.  All of this is just gorgeous riding.  We have found where all the snow is in Quebec.  Maybe it isn't as deep as it usually is but it is smooth.  We pull into Relais Vouvert for lunch.  Only 3 other sleds here.  What a beautiful day.  My phone rings at lunch.  Who could this be?  Oh, I won't say my "friend's name" but he was scheduled to be with us but changed his mind at the last minute thinking the trails would be bad.  I tell him how bad the trails are so he won't feel like he is missing a really good ride.  More snow for us.
Back on the sleds and ride on.  We cross the river at Dolbeau.  Turn left on 901, local trail to St Felicien.  We catch up to 3 slower sleds.  I take my time thru the woods here and stay behind them.  We get to a nice open stretch and we carefully pass and give a thank you wave.  Making good time thru here.  These yellow trails are always well kept.  We cross the river at Relais des Buttes.  Boy is this place packed.  There has to be 30 sleds here or more.  No need for a break now.
We run down 373 and pull into Hotel du Jardin.  It has been awhile since we have been here.  A lot of businesses along the road.  The first time we were here, this was all empty fields.  We came in from the back side of the hotel back then.  What a difference but I'm dating myself now.  That was a time when snowmobiles had pull ropes to start them and reverse was tuggin' on the rear bumper.
It looks like no snow in the forecast but the temps are going to stay below freezing.  We head back to the Delta tomorrow.  See you then.
Jack & Sandi

Here on the Kanawata express 
FYI….i was on the wrong side of the trail (safe straightaway) so I could capture Jeffrey in a video coming by. And that he did….at about 90
turned out sweet 

Here on the Kanawata/Casey express

Arrived back at camp a little before 5
another Awesome day and I can report the roadside from 345/83 jct into Wemo is 10 times better than when we hit it on Monday. Here at the junction 

Not making this up
sent by mrs Ice right next to our house
today
 
 
IMG_2685.MOV

We had been planed this ride with our friends Bily and Snowcruiser a while ago and we were spoiled with a nice cold and sunny day!
 here is the track of the day

Kristine and I left home in St-Thomas to join our partners norther. Here south of St-Gabriel

The meeting point was at St-Gabriel de Brandon

The cold night below -15C had hardened the trails and with the grooming we had beautiful winter conditions. Here in the fields between St-Gabriel and St-Damien

Once we climbed into the St-Damien mountains it was even snowier


First little chat break (thanks to Bily for the pic)

Here on #23 groomed by Mandeville club
ç

And here further north on #23 maintained by the royaume club


We passed in Cabanon's yard and headed towards St-Michel des Saints

This section was a little rougher, especially the big hills near St-Michel that are needing more snow

We had a lunch at the legendary Central

We took a long meal's break/snowmobiler chat, we didn't see the time passing... you know when you're in good company!
We then took a chance by looping down via the local trail which returns towards St-Zenon. We had seen on imotoneige that it had not been groomed for a long time (no info). It wasn't perfect but apart from a few holes it rode pretty well


There is few kms section more difficult with a savannah that the dozer has not groomed yet

After that there's a bit of roadside to get to the Rondeau convenience store and it gets nice again after. We passed through St-Zenon village and then at the Glacière

And took #350 infront to join the morning route on the #23

We took a last chat break at #23/63 junction at the top of the mountain's hill in St-Damien and then returned to our partners' starting point in St-Gabriel before heading back towards home. We passed the dozer which had already started his run south of St-Gabriel

We returned home around 7:00 p.m. with just 300km on the dreameter. Really happy with this weekday great winter run!
We saw some brownish snow especially south of St-Gabriel and the big hills near St-Michel which was really lacking in snow otherwise the rest was OK. I'm hoping for a month of February with cold temperatures, that's what's been missing the most lately and obviously some snow to make the conditions even better. 
I was also able to take some good video sequences with sunshine this time and I hope to have time to make a little edit which I will put here in the coming days
Already in february, time flies!
Alain

It does look like the top of the hot tub is groomed flat,,,, we rode less in spots last week.....sooo that trail is open?
LOL
GutZ

Mmmmm,……good

Hi guys.  I forgot to mention, Sandi has a 2024 Ski Doo MXZ X.  Of course that is one of the sleds that has the potential defective left ski.  The Ski Doo bulletin states not to drive the sled unless the ski has been replaced.  Yuk!
I had borrowed a used ski from a friend yesterday just in case.  I took the ski off and checked the mold number.  The mold number is cast into the ski, under the rubber block that is between the ski and the ski leg.  One bolt, easy removal.  Sandi's mold number is AC1.  The bad mold number is AC2.  Yea!  So, Joe, you can come up and pick up your ski.  It looks like we won't be needing it.  Thank you.
I attached the bulletin but I don't know if you can open it.  I don't have very good luck with attachments.
2024 MXZ X left ski.zip

We are here at the Delta.  It was a nice drive up.  An easy border crossing.  As we approach Drummondville, a little rain sprinkles on the windshield.  Temperature, 37F.  Not good but there is snow.  All the way up route 20 the temperature fluctuates but always above freezing.  The highway is wet but not frozen.  Not much for traffic and I don't see many snowmobile trailers in either direction.
In Quebec, we get on route 175.  As we climb in elevation, the snow off to the side of the road gets deeper.  The temperature is now below freezing.  Not the typical February snow depth but so much more than what we had at RDL last week.  We pass L'Etape and where the trail runs along side of the road, we can see the red stakes.  Looks like a good 2' of snow here.  The sprinkles before Quebec City have turned into a light snow now.  I'm smiling.  I wasn't sure of what to expect but this looks promising.
We pull into the Delta and the parking lot has snow.  Not deep but there is a couple of inches here.  That is all were hoping for.  All we need is enough to get out of town.  From the FCMQ trail map, it is showing decent snow north of the river.  3 other sleds in the lock up when I park ours.
A lot of hockey kids here tonight.  A tournament in town.  As far as snowmobilers, 1 two place trailer and 4 four larger trailers.  Ours being one of them.  There is a grey Proline that looks like the Gutz entourage but I don't see them.
We ate in at Boston Pizza.  I had the "Big Dipper" sandwich in honor of one of my QR buddies.  It was just as good as I remembered.  Sandi had the smoked meat sandwich.  I never ordered one for years until recently because I didn't know what it was.  Now I have learned it is a Rueben and they are always good.
That is it for now.  A ride to St Felician tomorrow.  We will report back.  Happy trails to all.
Jack & Sandi

I like to edit my own stuff for the reward at the end: memories! I don't think I would have fun to do editing on other people's files... but I still have a lot of unedited base files from many trip (snowmobile and others) that I may have fun to work with at retirement!
You are welcome! I had the chance to ride this last monday under sun, i will try to put something together with that soon, it will be handsome!

At Windigo enjoying the finer things in life. 240 miles/smiles today
trails were mint
the section of 83 east of Rivière Trenche is MUCH improved since the other day. All good !!!!!

Waking up at Le Montagnais in Chicoutimi this a.m.
boy it was some kind of fun getting the machines in here last night
we rode around the lake yesterday and it was quite an experience. Would go on conditions ranging from 8.5-9 and back to 2-2.5 in a blink of an eye and just constantly kept changing all day. And it wasn’t t just woods were good and fields bad as some fields were mint and others long patches of snirt. In any event it was a good day. Like most places they NEED a more snow. It was nice waking up to this awhile ago. We are heading off to Windigo for the night and will update conditions at the 22

Day 3 relais 22 to 100 lacs via Parent and the decelles river crossing 😁
 
realis 22 was great, service was good and very friendly and the pork was great as well! Lunch was a snack in parent at the general store. 
 
The longer version of the river crossing is in the other thread but 50 kms was ungroomed (we knew about this and decided to run it) between 345 and parent. Then we checked on the progress of the new bridge and bashed across via the river.
 
after parent we arrived to 100 lacs for the night by 6 pm with another 370 kms (including one wrong turn!). And we have another busted secondary roller to report on a doo g4 with 5000 kms, but luckily it didn’t slow us down and we were able to just run it as is for the remainder of the trip.

The trails were great all day. Best yet. however there is a bumpy and stick section before and after Wemotaci. 
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Alright, time for day 2 updates (Sunday 28JAN). 
 
Stayed at Marineau Mattawin - good spot but nothing fancy. Rode to relais 22 miles via the 355 shortcut (see other thread for how that went). Trails were a lot better today and only got better as you went north. Had lunch at the La Tuque deli. 
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Trip # 2 brought us further east.  We left Quebec City just before 7am and headed Nord Saturday morning.  We were second tracks all the way up to L’Etape.  Had some breakfast and headed up to APICA.  Stopped in for a quick second and continued nord up to the New bridge crossing the Peribonka.  
Our dear friend Jeff left us too early, so his wife asked us to spread some of his ashes for her on a sled trip, he loved riding Quebec and I have many memories of riding with him. 
we stopped for gas and supper at Onatchiway, then made our way back into town at the Delta for the night. 330 miles on the ticker, needless to say it was a late one. Bonus of staying out so late you might get to follow the groomer back into town after he lay’s down some more fresh ribbon.
Sunday we headed back up the east side of the mountain, had lunch at the Chapel, then headed out to the Domaine Hors Piste for a beverage. Turn and burn back to the delta.  200 
Monday we left at 0 dark thirty and found fresh groomed trails awaiting us all the way back down to Quebec, only problem was the heavy freezing mist hanging around until way past 10 o’clock.  The first 25 miles were a chore.  Wipe, scrape, use sun visor only, then stop and thaw the shield out.  Go another 2 miles and repeat.
We had another small ceremony at the top of APICA that morning and spread some more.  Gassed and eat at APICA and headed back to the truck.  700 some odd miles for the three days.  
We saw the good, the bad and the ugly for snow conditions.  The groomers are performing miracles for the snow they have to work with.  Hats off to them.  

Isn't this always the debate.  I've gone both ways.  Am finding with my significant other I book ahead.  Ensure we get a good place she will like and the miles are usually less.
With the guys I still wing it.  It's went both ways.  Our season finale last year we set out from St Raymond to Tadoussac.  Had a big 500 plus km day and didn't get off the ferrry till 8:00.  Never dreamed that half the town closes for the winter.  Ended up in the youth hostile.  It worked, but was definitely not the plan.  Next day worked out better.  Arrived in Saguenay at the Delta by 4 pm.  Was going to stay there and then made the decision in the parking lot to find another hotel further south.  The trails around town were brutal (bare ground) with everything out of town still very decent and we wanted to ride another 100 km loop that night.  Staying at the Delta would have meant having to beat the pavement 3 times vs 1.  So we got another hotel south of there, got our evening ride in after supper and our carbides thanks us for it.  There's no good answer.  I think if I was going anywhere with snow right now I'd side for reservations.  I bet the outfitters that are in the snowbelt are packed full with so many areas still not being rideable.  Completely agree hockey tournaments in the mid sized towns can really mess things up.

I got two words for you guys talking about booking ahead
HOCKEY TOURNAMENT
bwah…………LOL

Wondering, how are the trails "down-south", like in Brazil?...

93 from Chibougamau to Matagami was damn near mint the whole way. We passed at least three groomers. As always, Chapais had the best trails. Staying at a Gite in Matagami tonight $$$ and no supper just breakfast.          

Great video, thank Alain!