P Hardy

Day 1, word of the day….Thin!  Got 2” overnight made it nice leaving RDL. Never seen it so thin here in February. Trails pretty smooth, not enough snow to be rough. Snirt is gone with the fresh snow. Get out of town and take 5 East. Rimouski Club says stay on 5 for best conditions. Hasn’t been our experience but let’s try it. Away from town coverage not bad. Once we get to Trois Pistoles it’s actually pretty nice. Continue on 5 to the 35 outside of Rimouski. Traffic is light all day groomers are doing their thing. Meet back up with 5 East to 587 short cut to 5 at Padoue. Took the 5 all the way to Matane to the Riotel. Very scratchy in town, basically blacktop and dirt.

Here at RDL it  is starting to spit snow with a few inches forecast tonight.  If I understood two men in the lobby a short time ago speaking broken English,  I think they said good snow east of RDL.

Yesterday we rode from Delta to Otis Nature.  First 8 miles until you cross the second bridge were lots of rocks, snirt and dirt. One of the Sidewinders kept overheating.  After the second bridge a Huge improvement. Flat smooth.  Couldn't go WOT as there is ice beneath a thin layer of snow, corners very icy.  Goof smoked meat at Otis Nature.  110 miles.
Today took 83 S to Auberge du Ravage.  Much better getting out from the Delta.  Lots of open straight trials where you could go WOT.  Nice lunch at the Ravage.  87 Octane gas at the Ravage is 2.50/liter.  Was a great day for 160 miles.
 
Tomorrow we're going to head North again and shoot for Auberge KM 31.  Will post tomorrow.
Overall, it's still better then work.  Sled wheels are a really nice to have in the Delta parking lot.  Completely bare asphalt 
 
Fred

Day 3. Escoumins to Baie Comeau. 175 miles. Another sunshine day made for mild temperatures in the high teens. Trails were very good, except for about 30 miles, which were OK, but had chop in all the turns.The building by the water in the last picture is our hotel for the night. Le Manior
 

Late start this morning around 9:30 since the ol lady doesn't like -10F snowmobiling. Rode over to the cave, Begin, Nature Otis, up to 373 across to Onatchiway, then back down 373 to the Ski Mountain 170 miles. Heading south to the cave over to Begin that first 60 miles was nothing to write home about, the rest of the way was good to excellent, met 2 groomers on the way home. Tomorrow heading for the frozen waterfall, possibly Sacre Couer loop if they groom and she's motivated enough. Better than sitting home on the couch, but definitely not usual Quebec conditions as we knew it wouldn't be. 

Staying in Alma now trails coming out of town were little rough not horrible but once outside of town it got pretty good. We got a late start(noon) due to my sled breaking(secondary came apart) 20miles in so had to limp back and get my buds backup sled to ride. We rode 93 over to pic du le dos de cheval for some summit pictures and went over and got dinner at yourte bistro by the ski mountain. The only thing I noticed bad was there is a lot of ice under the groomed snow so be careful. My bud slid backwards down the hill going up to the ski resort for gas lol. Trying to get parts this morning so probably another late start. I posted some pics on freedom sledder I can’t get them to work here for some reason.

I'm pretty certain that the affected businesses and many of the public especially in small and remote areas already know the value of snowmobilers to their business. The impact may not always be positive as there are many "entitled" sledders out there. Although they are the minority the results of their actions are felt and remembered more than the majoritys actions. I can tell you from more than 30 years of club and trail work experience that reroutes and trail closures are not something the clubs want to do (just more work for volunteers to do) but are a necessity based on circumstances. JMHO

Today’s path took us from the Delta to Escoumins through Mount Valin. The Chapel was crowded but service is second to none. Trails leaving Jonquire, where acceptable once we got over the second bridge they got much better. The orange Trail past lor Piste was a little rough. Plenty of snow but needed groomer. Once we hit Trail 330 it was a 10. Surprised to see how much snow is here in Escoumins being near the river. There Has to be 25 trailers here must be a good starting point. Couple guys came from Sept-Tiles and said the trails are perfect all the way. Can’t wait!

Ice Road Trucker???....@%$&^*!!...absolutely brilliant...he must be up for a promotion.

Today we started a eight day 1500 mile saddlebag trip with Myself, Eric, Ken, Dan, Randy, and Kurt .Started in Saint Raymond and on to Sept-Iles. First 10 miles was snirt but not real bad. Got much better after that. All the way to Mount Apica. Rough for 20 miles after their then Pretty good almost all the way to the Delta. Was not bad getting into the Delta with wheels on the skis. 185 miles for the day.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Just back from the Delta, so a quick update.
The Grooming Teams are doing a great job with what they have to work with,,,,,, but they dont have much to work with around town and in the lower elevations.
With all the traffic from the foreigners ( hahahahaha) the trails are not holding a grooming long, smoother on the way out, than a few hours later, stutters back in.
It was great seeing everyone!
Please set your expectations appropriately.....
Later
GutZ

stayed at the saguenee hotel instead and was very satisfied and went back the next night   restaurant was excellent

While we were there, there were several conferences ( business bs ) going on mid week.
That may have contributed to the lack of availability.
Later
GutZ
 

ya but some thing s never get old lol

The missis asked me to take her for another run, so we packed up and headed Nord on Tuesday night.  Small jaunt just the two of us.  Here are some pics 

I have NEVER seen this board this quiet, conditions non existent damn near everywhere, and moral so down in the snowmobiling community. It is literally depressing beyond comprehension. I guess we all have so many other things in life to be thankful for and I’m sure we all are in our own ways (and so am I) but anyone reading this is a tried and true die hard snowmobiler and knows what it takes to be one. Countless hours, money, time and devotion to try and get a couple days/weeks every year doing what we all love so much. To see it all go to complete shit is sad beyond belief. 
 
o.k. enough ranting. But this is how I truly feel:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C28S0rKgbOU/?igsh=Mzc3ZTVlOWMwZA==

Useless, other than motivational eye-candy view from the "body-shop"...
 

Thanks for the write up an pics! Also interested in those helmets, my concern was if they were going to be warm enough for Quebec. Sounds like they will be? The good looked great and the bad is ugly.. I'd be pretty surprised if there wasn't lots of winter left up there.

These are from today

Decided to cancel at the Delta and stay north of the river all trip and rented a Condo on AirBnB near where Passion Quebec was on the ski mountain. Looks like still a good amount of snow up there for a few 200 mile loops which is about the ol lady's limit for loops in Maine.

north shore above the river heading on 3 towards forestville has a lot of trails off 3 and conditions there are good...same story heading all the way to sept ille...certainly isn't going to be a deal where you will find all the fancy places like universal hotel...but with a GPS and a realization that it will be more adventure and discovery...especially since most have never been up that far...it's great riding and exciting...AND WAY BETTER THAN SITTING HOME GIVING UP ON THE SEASON...the temps look like they are cooperating...if we can get a storm...it will be excellent in the north country

I totally agree Chris.  That was horrific!!  We just cancelled for the coming weekend.  Wifey said to me 8 months ago, I have this weekend off and I want to go snowmobiling.  I said, well, the only place we can count on is Quebec to make plans, so if you want to go, that's where it will have to be.  She reluctantly agreed to the 9 hour car ride and the idea of back packing with limited items and well.......Unbelievable! 

We had no freezing in the night for 3 days in a row, not much rain but it raise to 7C saturday noon at home, probably less worse more north but we had a good melt. It will begin to freeze back tonight and we had a good forecast for cold in the next days. The south of my area took a good hit but the snowmobile clubs in the north will try to groom monday night and will comeback with the results. It will be icy with some bare spots in the best scenario but it's hard to tell exact result... we will need new snow for sure but at this point I don't exactly know how it will be without new stuff.

We are supposed to get another foot here in Nova Scotia!  I would be happy to send it to Quebec if I could!