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Joliette/St-Michel des Saints/ Taureau lake+Dam 9/1/2010


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An other ride start for us on saturday morning. Wonderful blue sunny sky with a -19C outside... brrrrrrr. Trail #43 is hard with loose snow blowed in the trail by the night winds: perfect

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We have two ride partners today, Coyote ( a good friend of mine from Passion Yamaha) and Yamtech. We also go to join an other group from Outaouais/Ottawa that are lodge in St-Zenon for the week-end and that ride south to meet us on the trail in St-Damien area

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We take the #345 trail and ride north.

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The old rail road near St-Gabriel de Brandon

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Here, Yamteck in the big drops near St-Damien...

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Few pics and we continue...

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We meet our group exactly where we had preview, perfect timing !!!! We meet the gang, quickly plan the next and continu on the #345 to St-Zenon

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With the cold there is a fine snow mist that stay in the air but nothing to make us miss to beautiful scenery. A rear shot at speed...

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The trail between St-Damien and Réal Massé is a little bumpy but the next is perfect...

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We took the #350 trail...

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to be continued....

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And we take the lunch here...

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Meeting on the luch, we decide to ride the trail around the Taureau lake. So we take back the #350 trail and #345 to the Cabanon

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We are a group of 8 sleds (i'm the only two-up) with pro riders so the pace is pretty fast...

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The scenery in this part is amazing...

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Beautiful trails, beautiful place, beautiful sunny sky... hard to ask for more !!!!...

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Pee stop...

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just before fuel stop at the Cabanon

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We take the trail in Taureau Dam direction. Trail is near perfect and very fast we are at the Mastigouche park gate....

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To be continued...

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Note that the one way is not groomed yet, the #345 is then two-way near all the way to the dam. There is only the last 2 miles than have been groomed on each side.

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And we arrive at the Dam

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The Lake level begin to drop down....

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The flow is huge

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Rx1Ken on the footbrige crossing the dam

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We take a good break time

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And we take the #360 trail to comeback to St-Michel on the west side of the Lake. This trail is groomed wide, very fine and fast. Be careful as there is 2 spots where the trail is damaged and you need to slow down. Other than that, many miles of fast trail out there.... a break near a little river...

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And we continue. The 2nd part is a little bumpy but we still can ride pretty fast up to L'Auberge du Lac Taureau. At this point, we have the choice to go by the mountains or the Lake to St-Michel... The lake with no doubt...

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We then speed to St-Michel without exeeding the 45mph speed limit... ;) ok, 5 minutes later we are at the other end of the lake...

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We go in the village near the Central to fuel up and because it is late enought, we took a good evening lunch with all the gang in St-Michel. A last night pic when we start back after lunch...

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We took the 318 from St-Michel to Cabanon where the rest of the gang will lodge for the night. The huge traffic of the day damage the trail pretty well but with the lights, we see the bumps very well and we can use more the trail width because we always know if somebody is coming front. I have to admit that i love night riding and have alot of fun in this mountain trail...

We arrive at the Cabanon. We have to quit the rest of the group because they all stay there for the night and my wife and I have to go back home. So after greeting, we start to ride the 82miles that left us to go home... The advantage to ride so late is that the groomers have start their job from a while so near all the trails we ride to go home have just been groomed. The pace is slower than what we did on the morning because the cold is back and we ride alone pretty late but we arrive home around 22:00 with 235miles on the dreammeter...

To conclude conditions are still very good, very similar from last weekend. We still hope for more snow to get perfection and whiten the few spots where snow tend to brownish but as the pics show, winter is there and there's very good sledding to make here. I don't been further north but all what i ear from was good :good:

Bye

Alain

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Thanks viper2 :drinks:

Have you heard anything about the trails north toward Kanawata and Casey? Are there any major trail reroutes this year? :drinks:

No, i don't know about those trails but Dennis at the Cabanon will be able to answer you for sure. I only heard about the trails down the Repos, Manawan and also the locals orange trails on the maps between the #360 to Mattawin and the #345 down to Repos that were the way to go to have good conditions but i don't got the chance to try them myself...

Here to link to Lanaudiere trail conditions: http://www.snowmobilecountry.ca/en/index.jsp?numPage=235

have a very good trip and ride carefully :good:

Alain

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Just returned from Kanawata

Trail was different then my last ride to Kanawata

Guys with me said it was the same route as last year (I did not use it last season)

the trail to chateau Vert and Kanawata used to be right at the driveway to repos

Now it is 30k before if you are coming from the Barrage Taureau and Cabanon

otherwise was the same and real nice no traffic at all last weekend trails near Kanawata very sweet

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Just returned from Kanawata

Trail was different then my last ride to Kanawata

Guys with me said it was the same route as last year (I did not use it last season)

the trail to chateau Vert and Kanawata used to be right at the driveway to repos

Now it is 30k before if you are coming from the Barrage Taureau and Cabanon

otherwise was the same and real nice no traffic at all last weekend trails near Kanawata very sweet

Yes, I think I know the trail you mean it actually is the old trail from ?8 years ago it was open 2 years ago but I don't remember it being open last year. After passing Dam Gilardo(going north) you go maybe a couple miles and make a right.If this is the trail you mean that's good I always liked that trail. When you cross the road on that trail if you would go left (on road) it would bring you to the T intersection where you could go left to Repos and right on the road takes you to River Rats.The new 33 up to Repos last year was a big plus, but I still miss the trail from a few years ago that went through the zec Gros Brochet. One of my favorite day trips from LaCabanon is down to St. Michel across lac taureu up to repos for gas and coffee then up to Casey back to Kanawata for lunch then back down via 345 to Barrage and back to LaCabanon. :yahoo::drinks:

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Sounds right on viper2 has been a few years since riding the area there But you desciption is right on. for the location of the trail to kanawata now the guys with me say it was that way last year but I did not pass there last season.

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Note that the one way is not groomed yet, the #345 is then two-way near all the way to the dam. There is only the last 2 miles than have been groomed on each side.

DSC07090Large.jpg

And we arrive at the Dam

DSC07093Large.jpg

The Lake level begin to drop down....

DSC07097Large.jpg

The flow is huge

DSC07098Large.jpg

Rx1Ken on the footbrige crossing the dam

DSC07103Large.jpg

We take a good break time

DSC07107Large.jpg

And we take the #360 trail to comeback to St-Michel on the west side of the Lake. This trail is groomed wide, very fine and fast. Be careful as there is 2 spots where the trail is damaged and you need to slow down. Other than that, many miles of fast trail out there.... a break near a little river...

DSC07118Large.jpg

And we continue. The 2nd part is a little bumpy but we still can ride pretty fast up to L'Auberge du Lac Taureau. At this point, we have the choice to go by the mountains or the Lake to St-Michel... The lake with no doubt...

DSC07132Large.jpg

We then speed to St-Michel without exeeding the 45mph speed limit... ;) ok, 5 minutes later we are at the other end of the lake...

DSC07133Large.jpg

We go in the village near the Central to fuel up and because it is late enought, we took a good evening lunch with all the gang in St-Michel. A last night pic when we start back after lunch...

DSC07137Large.jpg

We took the 318 from St-Michel to Cabanon where the rest of the gang will lodge for the night. The huge traffic of the day damage the trail pretty well but with the lights, we see the bumps very well and we can use more the trail width because we always know if somebody is coming front. I have to admit that i love night riding and have alot of fun in this mountain trail...

We arrive at the Cabanon. We have to quit the rest of the group because they all stay there for the night and my wife and I have to go back home. So after greeting, we start to ride the 82miles that left us to go home... The advantage to ride so late is that the groomers have start their job from a while so near all the trails we ride to go home have just been groomed. The pace is slower than what we did on the morning because the cold is back and we ride alone pretty late but we arrive home around 22:00 with 235miles on the dreammeter...

To conclude conditions are still very good, very similar from last weekend. We still hope for more snow to get perfection and whiten the few spots where snow tend to brownish but as the pics show, winter is there and there's very good sledding to make here. I don't been further north but all what i ear from was good :good:

Bye

Alain

NICE PICS TRAILS LOOK IN VERY GOOD SHAPE FOR THE SNOW WE HAD SO FAR . KEEP THE PHOTOS COMMIN

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We are in Hudson right now. Rode 225 miles yesterday everything from fresh groomed to rocks and bumps reminiscent of riding at home in New York. We are trying to decide if we should load up and head to Le Cabanon and ride up there instead of down this way. We were originally thinking of riding to Ontario today. Does anyone have an up to date report from the Lanaudiere area more specifically the St. Zenon, St. Michel, St. Donat, St Jean de Matha? Thanks in advance. Shane

Edited by Shane
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We are in Hudson right now. Rode 225 miles yesterday everything from fresh groomed to rocks and bumps reminiscent of riding at home in New York. We are trying to decide if we should load up and head to Le Cabanon and ride up there instead of down this way. We were originally thinking of riding to Ontario today. Does anyone have an up to date report from the Lanaudiere area more specifically the St. Zenon, St. Michel, St. Donat, St Jean de Matha? Thanks in advance. Shane

I am not really sure what you are asking, but if you read the report above from towing and saw the pics it should be a no brainer. I am leaving tommorrow afternoon for a week at LaCabanon, maybe not quite as much snow as normal but temps have been cold enough and they groom every day up there. :good:

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