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It might be getting old for the people that are familiar with the Quebec areas and the trail system but for us that aren't and are planning a trip up there it's not! Sorry if you're getting irritated but just trying to get some information. 

Nice. Trying to plan a ride to include St Cone ice sculptures. Haven't been in a few years. 

Ice - I know a certain barmaid at the Valinouet ski resort in Mt Valin who was asked by a Ski Dooer how much was a lift ticket for his motoneige as he wanted to purchase a ticket. It happened to be snowing very hard around 8pm with no groomers on the mountain or anyone in sight and the area had just received 1 ft of fresh powder since the resort closed that afternoon. When asked, she smiled and said No Motoneige which sounded like No lift ticket required for Motoneige. So a certain patron and his friend left, jumped on their sleds, maneuvered through the orange ribbon fencing to the base and skied up the hill and slalomed down the hill on a few "trails" one February evening. No one needed any sticks that night but they definitely skied Mt Valin. Or so the story goes.....

Moving avg tells me you're MOVING!
We took a bonus detour from Shawini to 4-Points and had a leisurely lunch at Roq:

All of guidance apps took us 81 up and back stating as much as 2 hours calculated advantage to the 87 route. We have taken 87 almost all other times to Quebec. We rolled in to Carling at 11:45a and I was home at 10:20p  
Absolutely worth the trip. As is often the case for me one of the four was a first timer. We rode sections new to us, ate great meals, saw awesome scenery and had a blast and have a great new option for safely leaving our truck. 

All of guidance apps took us 81 up and back stating as much as 2 hours calculated advantage to the 87 route. We have taken 87 almost all other times to Quebec. We rolled in to Carling at 11:45a and I was home at 10:20p  
Absolutely worth the trip. As is often the case for me one of the four was a first timer. We rode sections new to us, ate great meals, saw awesome scenery and had a blast and have a great new option for safely leaving our truck. 

Just wanted to say thanks to all the clubs and the Auberge le Cabanon for the awesome 3 days we had riding the area trails.  Awesome job.  Weather was perfect with a little snow every day.  Here's a few pics.

Nice, sounds like it was still worth the trip!  Which way you drive up from MD, rt 81?
Nothing like a good fix in the Bush!!  Been there..

Not sure how much I'll get to Quebec this season in a year when I have a new sled and season pass but 4 of us left MD Thursday at 6a for Lac Carling. Good driving distance for us to reach good riding and the garage for the truck. Met Marc when he rode in on his sled. We got to the hotel a little before 6:30p after getting the passes in town for those that needed.
Just as Iceman described it's a huge beautiful facility, nice rooms, ambiance etc.  Pool and hot tub, and indoor sports amenities. The place was virtually empty I hope they have the ability to stick around. Great place to start a tour. Oh the service was excellent but there was little competition for the staff's attention. The food was excellent.
Rode the choppy p'tit train through Laurier up to Devils mountain and Windigo for a good dinner. A mixed bag some good some bad but hey we're riding. Gas in La Minerve and  lunch at a new bistro with good pizza. 319 and 323 in this area was fairly rough groomer was parked at Gaz in La Minerve.
Rode over to Comfort Tremblant for Saturday night. At the connection to the local trail to La Conception we discovered some yellow snow and soon found the hole in the coolant crossover tube 06 Apex ER. 20 mile tow. Lucky timing. Too late on Saturday for ANYWHERE for pieces but on the way to the pool we asked to speak to maintenance and found enough gear to Macgyver it up after a dip in the pool. Taxied to the resort for an awesome dinner and had the cab stop at a depanneur for anti-freeze. Good lunch in  Nominingue at the Auberge.  Trail passes got checked down the hill after Mt Diable.
Filled up the coolant this morning at 6a elbowed the skiers and sliders for breakfast and scooted 65 fun mikes back to Carling to head home. Band-aid spit a small amount of coolant but held up for the entire ride. 

Not sure how much I'll get to Quebec this season in a year when I have a new sled and season pass but 4 of us left MD Thursday at 6a for Lac Carling. Good driving distance for us to reach good riding and the garage for the truck. Met Marc when he rode in on his sled. We got to the hotel a little before 6:30p after getting the passes in town for those that needed.
Just as Iceman described it's a huge beautiful facility, nice rooms, ambiance etc.  Pool and hot tub, and indoor sports amenities. The place was virtually empty I hope they have the ability to stick around. Great place to start a tour. Oh the service was excellent but there was little competition for the staff's attention. The food was excellent.
Rode the choppy p'tit train through Laurier up to Devils mountain and Windigo for a good dinner. A mixed bag some good some bad but hey we're riding. Gas in La Minerve and  lunch at a new bistro with good pizza. 319 and 323 in this area was fairly rough groomer was parked at Gaz in La Minerve.
Rode over to Comfort Tremblant for Saturday night. At the connection to the local trail to La Conception we discovered some yellow snow and soon found the hole in the coolant crossover tube 06 Apex ER. 20 mile tow. Lucky timing. Too late on Saturday for ANYWHERE for pieces but on the way to the pool we asked to speak to maintenance and found enough gear to Macgyver it up after a dip in the pool. Taxied to the resort for an awesome dinner and had the cab stop at a depanneur for anti-freeze. Good lunch in  Nominingue at the Auberge.  Trail passes got checked down the hill after Mt Diable.
Filled up the coolant this morning at 6a elbowed the skiers and sliders for breakfast and scooted 65 fun mikes back to Carling to head home. Band-aid spit a small amount of coolant but held up for the entire ride. 

Left Maniwaki at 1:30 on Wed. 19th hit devils mountain and on to Mekoos for the night. 
Thur. up 53 to 33- 13 to 83 trails freshly groomed and fast. Saw five different Lynx on 53 pretty amazing! Lunch in Parent and onward across 83. Just before Windigos turn off we saw two moose.. What a day! Windigo for the night.
Fri. 83 to Relais 22 faaaast! fuel and head down 73 -355 -360 -345 to Le Cabanon for the night. Overall trails held up good. Esp. 83-360. LaTuque was wet with water holes.
Sat. 63 groomed to perfection after SMDS through the reserve. Half way through my buddy noticed a bearing race/ring on his foot board.. not good.. Inspection found it to be the jack shaft bearing.. 2017 Pro S Switchback.Decided to try to ride it out hopefully making it out to the west side at Red River a lot closer to our rig than heading back to SMDS luckily he made it to the RR grade and finally she let go shearing the jackshaft completely off!! Dropped a pin and left the sled and onward to Maniwaki on a mushy 53-local-324-63. 1.5 hr trip back up to retrieve sled and back in town by 7:30. Could have let go in a lot worse places.
830mi. 3 days and change.

 

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You take 360 eastbound towards the 355 - than the 73 all the way to St-Raymond. It is a short day but you can go from Mattawin to lake Edouard on the 355 - stop for lunch/fuel and come down towards the 73 on local trail LT2 (nice trail) towards Rivière-à-Pierre and St-Raymond!

There was a press conference this past Friday at the comfort inn in Tremblant to announce the openning of a new trail that will link St Faustin to Tremblant re establishing the the route from St Agathe to Tremblant lost by the closure of the Petit Train de Nord a number of years ago. Here is a link to the announcement roughly translated on the Diable et Rouge club FB page.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1085133484930832&id=115355755241948

Hello from the Auberge Motel Drakkar in Shawinigan. Many of you know, but for those of you who are not familiar with us, we are located in Shawinigan on the site of the former Motel Safari. We are committed to taking care of you snowmobiler's and look forward to being able to welcome you to our completely renovated rooms. We offer secure gated parking and a heated garage for your sleds. We here realize how much Bernard (may he RIP) had an impact on snowmobiling here in this area and are committed to provide you with the best experience possible while here in Quebec. 
Please give us a try you won't be disappointed! We look forward to seeing you. 

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That's amazing. And comforting. 

Decided last wed night that myself and my buddy would leave for Shawinigan Thursday afternoon. Wifee approved, good to go!!! "Just be back on the Island by 3:00 Sun for your daughters recital !!!" Sure no problem, I reply....Basically, plan is that I leave Long Island by 2.  Well my luck, my sister in law has a baby and my wife is off to Jersey hence I'm in charge of my 3 daughters. Well wifee gets home around 6 and I'm head into nyc traffic by 6:15...😰..Uhhg..get him in CT bought 8:30 and arrive at Drakkar just before 5A.M.
Mounted, fed, fueled and rolling by 9:30 with no planned route or destination. Just need to pump out a good first ride. Hammered along 3 east beautiful trails to 23 north. Stopped by the ski-doo dealer in St. Ray, grabbed some oil and headed dew north. Well groomed trails up to Le' tap. Fresh snow, tons of dust north up to Mt. Apica. Overall good trail all the way up to Delta. Arrived about 5:00 ...271 miles.
Niether of us had ever been up to the Delta before. When we walked in, we were greeted by a gentleman holding 2 plastic cups of warm beverage. " you boys look cold, have some Caribou" having never met him or even seen a picture of him before I said "thanks Bill". An honor to be welcomed to the Saguenay region by the Legend himself.
After breakfast and some quick directions from Bill, we were off to go around the lake. Bill said it would be a long day, but dew able to make it to La'tuque. 93 west was fast and beautiful. The same down 373 and all the way to St. Felician. Although the trails were good, the signage was poor and we wasted a lot of time with map guessing, U turns and luck to make it into Roberval and fuel up. Pulling out of Roberval, we see signs La Tuque 150 Km. No problem!! We hit 83 and keep following the signs for La Tuque.....after about 30 miles I start realizing that we should have been off 83 by now to get into Lac Ed. Then I finally see a maker 83 West....WTF..??? Neither of us had ever ridden this region before.  It was pushing 4:00 and we had no idea how far relays 22 was...or if it was even open. I wanted to retreat back to Roberval, but no dice..we pushed on to 22. Now it's just about dark and I figure it would be nice to grab a room at the relais and finish up the trip back to Shawinigan tomorrow. Once again, my ruling was overturned, when my buddy said "we gotta get you home by 3 tomorrow ". With my wife's voice ringing in my head, we run down 73. Kinda shitty trail, very winding and slow especially since it had not been groomed since the fresh 8-10" of snow and maybe only a dozen sleds had passed. Into LaTuque around 8:30 p.m., fuel up and we decide that since we know from here south, let's run it in....down 355 to the power lines, heading for the pipeline and the trail turns horrible. Turned around went back to 360 and ran it all the way in jumped onto the river and took it into Grand mere. Passed the groomer and beautiful trail back to Drakkar by 11:30 with 440 miles on the clicker. Beating my high mileage record by about 60 miles.
711 miles in 2 days....pretty good for an unplanned trip.
Load up the truck, shower, eat, bar and bed around 2:30. Slept a bit and rolled out of there by 5a.m. and I slid into the resital at five to 3. Woo hoo ! Thanks to my buddy Kevin for pushing me and making me a hero to my daughter. Hope to do a couple more trips like that later this season. Need to bust Kevin's 1 day record of 540 miles 😬. 
For now, I'll be packing up tomorrow to catch a plane Wed for West Yellowstone. A change of pace to play in the mountains on 155's and be happy if we do 50 miles for the day.
Thanks again Bill ! ! We did it!

Back up again this weekend. Took a nice ride today after driving up this morning.  Trails soft but in nice shape.  

Thanks for all the help, I booked two rooms for 25-29 at the delta.. Thanks again..

Here's some update for trail conditions in La Tuque / Parent area!
All trails are open for La Tuque,and in good to great conditions, since we didn't get rain in the area this week.(actually almost didn't get any this year)
There will be a little detour on the 355 next week between St-Joseph-de-Mékinac /Mattawin and La Tuque. And there is a detour on TQ 73 towards St-Raymond because of logging (extra 30 km).
TQ 83 Toward Wemotaci / Parent / Clova is in good condition as well!
TQ 13 towards the Fer-à-Cheval is great and the Bazin ice bridge is safe (they started to use it with the groomer before Christmas!)
Tons of snow in Barrage Gouin area (snowpack is 4-5 ft deep alrealdy). Fresh powder everywhere and all the sweet spots for backcountry are still untouched!!! Also the access trail is in very good condition from the TQ 83.
 
The 345 through Kanawata toward Lac-du-Repos is open and in good conditions: but: From Kanawata going  south, it uses the main road (not sanded and fast) toward the Repos.
 
Can it get any better ? The 345 between Kanawata and Casey, on Jan.18th!

The Manawan Club (Kanawata) have been working to open the official trail all week and it should be ready on Saturday (21st) through Lac Chateauvert.
 
Finally, the TQ 83 is open and in good conditions from Clova to Senneterre; but forget about the Woodrunner trail, for now, (going South from Clova). Some guys did it but it's very rough and hasn't been groomed and cleaned. They should be able to get on it next week!
 

Getting a late Canadian start this season.  Heading to the Delta in the morning until Friday.  Already have 1,575 miles on for the season, all in NY and NH.  Well, I actually lied.  When in NH with my son Blake, we rode through Customs and into Quebec for lunch and back again for the experience.  I had told him many times about doing the same when I was his age and wanted to give him the same experience, so I actually have indeed logged a couple Canadian miles.
Looking forward to some more comfortable temperatures than the norm in the Saguenay this time of year and really looking forward to the AMAZING trails and people in PARADISE!  Additionally, looking forward to seeing friends old and new.  Safe trails everyone and hope to see you soon!!!!
 
Shane

I usually have a big group with me. One year I had 14 (we didn't backpack until we were down to 5), last year 4 came as a surprise making us nine and that was worse because I already preplanned a whole trip for five.  And I can tell you unquestionably it is a pain in the ass. Everything you do takes longer. Getting trail passes getting gas paying for your meals checking in and checking out of the hotel. And the poor sucker who rides in the back never gets to take a piss because as soon as he shows up everybody else is ready to go. Then you have nine possible missed corners nine possible blown belts and so on. I read all the time about guys doing 200 300 miles, hell 400 miles in a day. I got guys bitching when we crack 180.  It's all part of the fun.
Your plan looks good to me. your last two days will be short if you divide them up to Quebec city and to Shawinigan.  That's OK some of the guys might appreciate it. I would stay at the four points in Quebec City. There's a few others too such as the Quebec inn I've never been there. 
As long as you are resourceful you will be able to find anything you need almost anywhere when you are not in the bush. If you have some people who like specific oils or other things you should probably carry that. Otherwise a lot of places carry two-stroke oil, iso for gas, spark plugs and even belts but not hotels. Some places you will be  getting gas are servicing cars as well so you might be in a town where you might be able to hit a mechanic shop or at Canadian tire or another kind of box store. 
In a breakdown situation use your heads and get the sled to a town or nearest road and figure out from there. Depends on where you are and what's closest.  It's very common for locals to help even when there is a language barrier. It's also common to pay for a roll back or pickup ride.  RIP Bernard. 
 You should pre-plan where you're going to get your trail passes by calling ahead. Make sure everyone has all of the information they need and the proof of ownership for their trail passes otherwise some group of you will have them and some won't. That's no fun but can be exciting. 
There's already another recent thread about packing for bag trips and you should look into the GPS and security precautions threads. 
Have a great trip. 

I usually have a big group with me. One year I had 14 (we didn't backpack until we were down to 5), last year 4 came as a surprise making us nine and that was worse because I already preplanned a whole trip for five.  And I can tell you unquestionably it is a pain in the ass. Everything you do takes longer. Getting trail passes getting gas paying for your meals checking in and checking out of the hotel. And the poor sucker who rides in the back never gets to take a piss because as soon as he shows up everybody else is ready to go. Then you have nine possible missed corners nine possible blown belts and so on. I read all the time about guys doing 200 300 miles, hell 400 miles in a day. I got guys bitching when we crack 180.  It's all part of the fun.
Your plan looks good to me. your last two days will be short if you divide them up to Quebec city and to Shawinigan.  That's OK some of the guys might appreciate it. I would stay at the four points in Quebec City. There's a few others too such as the Quebec inn I've never been there. 
As long as you are resourceful you will be able to find anything you need almost anywhere when you are not in the bush. If you have some people who like specific oils or other things you should probably carry that. Otherwise a lot of places carry two-stroke oil, iso for gas, spark plugs and even belts but not hotels. Some places you will be  getting gas are servicing cars as well so you might be in a town where you might be able to hit a mechanic shop or at Canadian tire or another kind of box store. 
In a breakdown situation use your heads and get the sled to a town or nearest road and figure out from there. Depends on where you are and what's closest.  It's very common for locals to help even when there is a language barrier. It's also common to pay for a roll back or pickup ride.  RIP Bernard. 
 You should pre-plan where you're going to get your trail passes by calling ahead. Make sure everyone has all of the information they need and the proof of ownership for their trail passes otherwise some group of you will have them and some won't. That's no fun but can be exciting. 
There's already another recent thread about packing for bag trips and you should look into the GPS and security precautions threads. 
Have a great trip.