TDI-HAM

Ile Bizard to st marthe was open and picketed. The trail to Vaudreuil had a "Sentier Barre" picket up, so we headed to the marina in Point Calumet- This year they ahve signs posted no sleds, 4 wheelers.- I have used this shortcut for years, and this is the first time I have seen signs. The club is having a hard time in this area with rights of passage, so I would not advise people to use this shortcut. St Placide to Hudson to Rigaud was picketed. We did a loop and rode down to Point fortune. There were a few tracks on the river so I followed them at a good pace just in case and managed to get over to Cushing and up to the trail. Not sure why the 7 mile to Vaudreuil is closed, but will inquire this week. Maybe a major ice heave or something.

Good- I presume Ile Bizard over to St Marthe and down towards Saint Placide will be open as well. I'll have to check as I know all there trail markers fell over with the exception of 2 when we had our thaw the other week.

Trail 333 is only closed from Labelle road to the rail crossing- (the new commuter train is the cause for this closure).Other than that, so far we are good. Next year might be another story with the "Mega center" going in beside the pipeline on the Bell Helicopter side of the 15.

The trail from St Placide up towards Lachute was opened on Saturday- For those who know "Guy" the dozer operator, he left 3:00 am Saturday from Lachute to head down and open the trail. Didn't get back, until 9:00 at night- That's an 18 hour day all on a volunteers salary. The right of passage dispute was settled hence the opening. All we need now is more snow. What trail closures are there in Hudson - Rigaud?

Polaris Switchback 600 HO 2006, longtrack 144'' x 1 1/2'' lug 15'' wide-Studded 108 Woodys golddiggers with 1 3/8'' woodys washers, extra 2.5 gallon Polaris jerry. All TSBs done. 5122 kilometers, 114.4 hours. Machine is located in Montreal. See LesPAC.com add number 6400740. 6250$

2006 Polaris 600 HO, low chrome 8" windshield as well as original, 1" lightning track 96 studs with double woodys backers, Pure Polaris handle bar hooks and tunnel protectors. Rider select and P.E.R.C. 6338 kms, 138.3 hours.Very clean. Reason for sale- too many toys. 6000$ See LesPAC.com add number 6400984. Sled is located in Montreal.

Hotel Central Thursday night? Oh ya it must be for the special on beer..... Ya the beer....

Bobg57- Stay in st Come and ride up to Lac Taureau to eat!- Problem solved... Have a good stay.

How long you going for and have you been in the area before? Basically St Michel has more night life and traffic, but St Come has everything you will need. Some people come up to ride, others want to party. Either or you'll be good, and if you stay in St Come - St Michel is only about 1 hour away by sled, so you can do the repo run, the dam, koubeks, all the rides up there plus have the extra bonus of racking up some more miles coming back to base through the breathtaking park. Good luck.

Depending on the location of both- St Michel has just about everything you need in the village. Saint come should as well. Saint come will most probably be less busy traffic wise than St Michel. I rode through both areas on Sunday and the trails were very good- Up around St Michel it was a bit rough, but due to the amount of traffic on the weekends, that's expected. Coin lavigne in St Come has chalets for rent. The owners are super nice, and you can be sure the trails around there are good because they are at the entrance to Mont Tremblant Park. Depending on where you are coming from, Saint come might be closer. I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Good luck- ( I have a feeling that this post isn't going to make your mind up)

SMCLELAN- No worries, I was just posting was I read yesterday- This news came out last evening on the big french quebec site (CMIQ) and it started a major flooding of comments- As the internet would prove, most of the comments were bashing and plain old crap. I have been a Polaris guy for 9 years now, but ride with Cats, Yammies, and Doos- I don't care who makes it - I go out to enjoy life with whoever who rides whatever. If DI can make the emissions "Police" realize that 2 strokes can burn clean (which most people realize can burn cleanly without DI) this might give the whole "snowmobiles polute are noisey and are not enviromentally friendly" a different outlook. Unfortunately most likely we will still lose rights of passage and be seen as poluters and be fighting an endless battle to save the sport we all love. I've been on a sled since 1977- 31 years- I wonder what the whole snowmobile sport will look like in 2039.

By the way I'll take a 2-stroke smell in my hotel room anyday over an %ss smell- I ride with middle aged beer drinking men...

Holy crap the fuel economy has gone from 25 mpg to 30 mpg in less than 24 hours!!! I was reading about it yesterday. I hope that this is something that will work and that 2 strokes do have a future. From what I was reading yesterday the guys with the 2 stroke e-tec (Direct Injection) outboards love them. I would be interested to see how the oiling system will work and see how the whole package is going to be. The SDIs already are sippy on fuel- I wonder if you weigh the extra cost of purchase compared to an SDI if you'll really come out ahead- I'll be kind of like paying an extra 5000$ for a Hybrid car- (5000$ will buy you a lot of gas...)

Doesn't look very good at the moment. With the amount of rain and warm weather we had the past few days, the trails will be shear ice. Rivers are overflowing, there are wash outs on trails. Not pretty at all. The good news if they are calling for snow they say anywhere from 5 to 15cms (2-6"). I think that we are going to need alot more that that to get the trails system back up to par. On the positive side of things, this will give an excellent base which should stretch the season out in the spring. Until we get a good deep freeze for a few days the waterways are going to be very dangerous.

Excellent report, excellent pictures, and nice to put in where you stayed and ate. Reports like this make it real easy for people to plan trips like you just did. Just one thing that would heve been nice to add in is the mileage you did each day. For people that do not have a map in front of them they wouldn't have a clue. Looks like the weather was real nice as well.

Narrow it down to where you want to ride and maybe I can help. As of this evening the damage is not too bad, however if the rain comes back tomorrow it might be another story

I can't speak for the Mauricie, but the south shore trails looked pretty Icy from what I saw from the car today. I'm sure with some sled traffic, the surface should break up pretty easy.

I was told that they are possibly going to open the 333 from Ile Bizard to St Marthe sur le Lac this weekend. Can anybody confirm this? It would be great if they did, but I kind of wonder what the ice is like at this moment.

From what I saw and heard on the news- It would appear the gas pumps where untouched and the owner was saying he should be able to pump gas by later today. The garage was reduced to ashes. No injuries reported. Supposedly the cause of the fire was a generator that had something fall on it.

Fantastic news!!! Might just give it a shot this weekend.

This was taken from our Hotel room. I basically opened the window and stuck my arm out, pointed towards the rock and took a shot. This was around 3:30 - 4:00 in the morning. The second picture was taken at the bird colony on the rear side of Bonaventure Island. My wife and I hiked across to see what it was all about. At the time she was 7 months pregnant Real trooper! The sanctuary was well You have to see it to believe it. UNREAL, oh and of course the stench of bird poop does wonders for a pregnant woman's senses.. If you ever visit this area in the summer, take the cruise around the rock and the island, pack a lunch and have a picnic on the Island. It's breath taking. And take the hike across to see the birds. It's a good workout getting there but worth it. Coming back is much easier as it's mostly downhill.

Groomer went out in your area? If there is enough to fill the ditches and plant the pickets, with the supposed storm coming Sunday night thru Monday we might have a good early start in the Monteregie!!!

I guess some things will never change. I hope all turns out okay.

Snowbanks as high as the hood of your truck... In November....They are calling for a system to hit Sunday night through Monday. So far this season is looking good!!

It's sad that nowadays people will steal anything regardless. Probably young kids with nothing to do. I once had a trailer that wasn't good enough for a boat anchor- I sold it to a friend for the price of the tires, he sold it to friend 1 month later for the same price. The 3rd owner had it stolen from his cottage. It wasn't even sturdy enough to pull behind a lawn tractor...Never mind on the road with a sled on it!!! Yup stolen.. Hawled off his property and down the highway.. Hope all is repaired soon, the season is on it's way.