NSnowCruiser

This solution does work.

Agreed, those who say the end of March are rolling the dice on disappointment. Even if there is a late spring snowfall the temperature aren’t often cold enough for good grooming and the clubs don't seem to be enthusiastic about grooming then anyway. On the south shore of the Gaspe temperatures are warmer than the north shore in mid March and you can have a +10 C day and road crossings are a mess and there are a few sections which run the sides of roads for short distances which become mud. Getting into towns is not fun when the snow goes. Also the area around Matane is wind blown, so not much snow to begin with, so it doesn’t last long here in the spring. Another consideration on late March riding, when day time temperatures hit +5C and above the snow goes to corn snow (great stuff if you’re a downhill skier) and not all that fun to ride mountainous areas in corn snow as you spend your time spinning to the top of the hills and the trails fall apart quickly. I think the best time to go is mid February, up-to and including 1st week of March, and when trails are hard, smooth and cold and will withstand the traffic better. I’ve ridden the Gaspe many times and if I see 50 sleds in a day, that’s a big day.

Where did you get the fuel can rack to fit on the running boards, I've been looking for something for a GTX1200? Thanks

Where did you get the gas can set-up, did you make it or can you buy it somewhere? Thanks

Everyone has different riding styles and goals, but you have 2-3 days and said you want to do Matapedia – Amqui area. People will tell you to do the Gaspe loop but with 2-3 days you will need to ride steady and won’t enjoy what it has to offer, plus you said you wanted to do off-trail riding. Trailer to Pointe a la Croix and park behind the hotel (safe parking, big area), if you get there by noon you have ½ day to explore enroute to Amqui for the night. Stay at Selectotel, not fancy, but easy trail access via 587N and clean, restaturant on-site and MacDonald’s next door. You can also safely park truck/trailer here, and Amqui is about 1 ¼ hours drive from Pointe a la Croix on good road. There are lots of local trails in Amqui area worth riding. Pick-up a local map. I’ve ridden Gaspe loop many times but late March last year spent some time riding local trails out of Amqui. Doing the Gaspe loop is well worth the effort but not if you don’t have enough time. Covering 200-225 mile days in Bathurst area (wide fast trails) is much easier than the Gaspe which has more road crossings, towns and some narrow steep trails. Plus if you’re new to the area you won’t be traveling as quickly and likely be stopping to take pictures etc. Out of Amqui take trail 587 N towards La Redemption, find the trail to the TV Tower (snow covered trees look like ghosts) and obersation tower. This is well worth the side trip of ~ 3-4 km on ungroomed trails. In this area are lots of logging roads for off-trail riding and tends to be a high snowfall area (maybe not this year). Easy gas access in Sainte Irene (near ski-hill), plus a place to eat. On the way to Amqui take trail # 5 and on the return trip to Pointe a la Croix take trail # 587 S. For a side trip out of Amqui head towards Sainte Paule and find Auberge Erabliere (big maple syrup camp) which has a nice restaurant (good food) and rooms. Other side trips include Lac Humqui. This area is a mix of hills/woods and open rolling framland with big views. Once you have a local map (or find Quebec trail system plotted on Google earth) you can see the possibilities of potential loops and the distance you want to ride in a day. Most people riding the Gaspe travel through Amqui on trail # 5 enroute to Matane and beyond, but they’re missing out on this area which has trails and scenery which are hard to beat. Someday when you have time and decide to ride Gaspe loop take the trail between Relais La Cache (595) and Murdochville (597).

Not to get off topic, but a sat-phone & GPS would be the ultimate tools, being able to have a 2-way conversation would be excellent. But to be realistic about costs, I snowmobile 3 months (4 if lucky) which means a sat-phone per the US website is $30/week x 12 weeks + shipping ($80) = $440 + any air-time. In Canada a rental through Roadpost.com it’s $160/month x 3 + shipping ($60) = $540 (plus I’m sure there are taxes). Renting for a week or even a month is not offering adequate protection. It you damage or lose the phone you’re on the hook for the cost, $1000+. An annual SPOT subscription cost about $125 which includes insurance to cover search & rescue costs. I now have a SPOT/GPS combo so I can send 14 messages which I’ve set-up on the computer account. I have messeages like I’m going to be late…. to accident on trail, to health issue in group please send help, to mechanical breakdown, but safe etc. The messages are more detailed but you get the point. I can also type and send a text message on the unit giving current details. I also use my SPOT for summer for hiking/whitewater canoeing trips. We also often travel alone (2-up) so SPOT offers some sense of secuirty that we can contact the outside world, people can easily find us via the SPOT coordinates and the peace of mind, someone will evenutally come find us. The success rate of messages sent is near 100 %, I don’t have the tracking option so I can say about success. The new SPOT set-up allows you to select from various contact group (so you can pick which group meets your needs). My emergency group consists of computer contacts, cell phones and Blackberry’s, which gives pretty good odds someone will get the message asap, since most people are attached to their cellphones and Blackberry’s. Now you can say isn’t your life worth $540 + tax, probably but it’s a calculated risk. I would need a sat-phone on annual basis to meet my true needs and I find it a financial stretch for a phone. I’ve taken the intitative to at least carry some security and SPOT offers an affordable piece of security which every snowmobiler or adventurer can carry.

There are advantages to SPOT over PLB’s, depending on what level of SPOT you purchase. You can have a tracking feature so your family knows where you are, and the help feature on SPOT can activate your own help team. On newer GPS/SPOT unit you can send detailed one-way messages to give help team additional information of your real needs (like sled broken down, stopping to party at camp will be late). The problem with 911 on SPOT and pushing the rescue button on a PLB is it’s intended for desperate live threatening situations, not I broken-down and don’t want to spend the night in the woods until I can walk-out in the morning. IMO to push the search & rescue button you need a serious health issue or you’re going to freeze to death situation, otherwise you’re wasting S&R people’s valuable time. SPOT gives you a method of self rescue which a PLB does not. So for ~$100/year SPOT gives me more and my family more information. The day I would use 911 or push a button on a PLB is going to be a bad day which I hope never comes. However the probability of a mechanical issue or a minor problem where SPOT might be useful is much higher. A PLB does not have any communication flexibility. It really depends on your travel situation, whether alone, long isolated distances or during the week days when traffic is at a minimum. I use SPOT year round, hiking, whitewater river canoe trips etc. One last thing to consider is size, when I looked at SPOT it was considerably smaller than a PLB, but that may have changed and PLB could be much more compact today.

The unit is able to use SD cards, but format might need to be changed on the software provided with the unit. The software provided is much more extensive than other units/brands. I would be interested in learning or finding how to get the trail system so I can see for myself what can be done. Can you help me out with this information? Thanks I use a trail map, so not sure how I woud use or need a gps on the trail, but it would be interesting anyway.

I'm not sure if a Garmin version will happen anytime soon. The Delormes gps is designed to talk to SPOT and I suspect they have a licensing agreement with SPOT. Delomes has taken time to develop the Delormes/SPOT product, other than pair with SPOT communication service, SPOT has no involvement with Delormes as far are design and marketing of product.

You can overlay various map formats over the Delormes map system, so it my be suitable/possible. This is something I will be working on when I have time. The Delormes gps has good storage capacity and if you exceed it, you can add SD cards.

Although I agree a satellite phone would be a nice addition, having it for a week or 2 doesn’t offer me much value, with a couple of week saddlebag trips, weekend saddlebag trip and daily riding I would need a rental for 3 month at a cost of $815.81 plus any air-time used. Having SPOT I’m able to let family contacts know where I’m (ie. on goggle maps) on a regular basis and on bigger trips I’ve given them emergency contact numbers. For those dire emergency SPOT has SOS/911. The message goes to a SOS/911 service which I believe can do a better job than myself on a Sat phone coordinating and convincing someone on the other end of the phone line that I need help and where I am. You can also purchase insurance coverage at time of activation should any search and rescue fees be billed back to you, depend on what country you’re in. There are no guarantees when sledding in back country, you assume a certain risk so always best to be prepared for the little things….fixing a broken leg in the field and prepared for the big issues…heart attack or spending the night in the woods at -20 C. I looked at buying Iridium phone at ~$1926 + annual plan of ~$700 and couldn’t justify/afford the repetitive expense, so compromised with SPOT which is economical to operate, and its better than 95 % of sledders who carry nothing, sometimes not even a tow rope. I’ve been fortunate, sledding over 40,000 miles without issues…..but at least I have some sense of affordable security. Globalstar was much more affordable, however not very reliable in my opinion. SPOT is also useful in summer for canoeing/hiking as it’s lightweight and compact to carry.

Satellite phones ($1000 + subscription) are too expensive for such a short snowmobile season and I have no real need for one the balance of the year, so it's difficult to justify the expense. SPOT has a better success rate (99 %) than Global-star who currently has poor and failed satellite system in place and Iridium which has good satellite system in place is very expensive. In Canada, unless you live in a big urban center it’s difficult to rent a Sat phone for a week at a reasonable price. So SPOT is a compromise at a cost of ~$120/year. I used the old version for 3 years without any failures and recently purchased the Delorme/SPOT combination. Although it sounds expensive at $550, it’s a high-end GPS compared to others on the market and the topo maps (US/Canada) which come with it are high quality and superior to the GPS stuff you find in a car GPS. The maps you download to your home computer are good for planning trips, finding city streets, exit numbers, hotel, MacDonald’s etc, so on a net-book in a car it would be excellent tool (I print paper maps for travel trips, as I don’t have net-book). The unit comes with computer software and you can download maps (and manipulated maps) to the GPS. You can only send text messages one-way (typed it on GPS) and then connects and transfers it to the SPOT, It gives me the added convenience of being able to tell my contacts if I have sled/engine problems or an injury so they can determine the seriousness of my problem and how quickly they need to respond. It removed the panic factor for the contacts by having more information than “help needed” Besides the ability to type messages on the GPS, you can also write a list of standard messages at home on the computer and download to the GPS unit, making it much quick to send various messages. When you send messages you can also send to whatever group or groups you sent-up on-line. So you can have family group, help group etc. I hope to never use SPOT for search/rescue purposes, as I do the best I can to be prepared, but it feels good to have something when you're on an off-the-beaten path trail on the Gaspe. Some significant advancements with Delormes/SPOT combination, however for the cost of a regular SPOT (~$160) and a subscription of ~$120/year it’s pretty cheap insurance to getting help if you’re in trouble out in the middle of no-where.