towing Posted March 11, 2023 Report Share Posted March 11, 2023 (edited) Here is my snowmobile holiday week February 26 to March 3, 2023 detailed report in pics and video With several possible options, it is finally this route that Snowcruiser, Kristine and I have chosen for our 2023 snowmobile trip. A trip that we had already done in the opposite direction several years ago and that we shortened a bit starting from Quebec instead of Trois-Rivières which gave more reasonable daily miles. A total of nearly 1500kms in 6 days starting near Quebec to follow St-Lawrence river south side to Matane and cross at Baie-Comeau to return along on the north side. DAY#1: Quebec/Tourville Our trip began Sunday, February 26 in the morning in a somewhat unusual way: we unloaded the sleds from the trailer at the motel Colibri in St-Augustin to load them back directly in the trailer of the official Quebec/Levis snowmobile shuttle which took us to the courtyard of the Hotel Normandin in Levis where the real snowmobile ride began. The gray sky at start gave way to some sunshine and the cold temperature gave optimal conditions to enjoy some wide trails on the south shore of St-Lawrence river We had dinner in St-Lazare and then made a loop in the Massif du Sud area We then came back on fast #35 trail And end our day ride in Tourville with just over 270kms. We slept at the Maison du Voyageur. This accommodation was the best value for money of the trip. It's an old village bank building converted into a multi-bedroom apartment with full bathroom and common living room/kitchen area + large locked garage for snowmobiles at $99/night, unbeatable in 2023! Our large 2-beds room was as beautiful and equipped as those of the big hotels we rented the other days (better than some) I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing. DAY#2: Tourville-Rimouski We continued south on fast #35 trail . I did not remember we had that long of linear trail, we did clocking many miles fast! Here's a pic at the club house of Les Explorateurs de Pohénégamook snowmobile club We dropped the #35 just at the tip of Pohénégamook Lake that we only photographed We took trail #544on opposite direction which turned out to be near as fast but should be avoided in real spring conditions because there are nearly 15 km of snow plowed trail. In our case, the road base was hard snow covered by just enough snow lube in order to be perfect and very fast. We then continued with #571 trail to join #3 trail and stop for lunch at Club motoneige l'Étang du Moulin clubhouse We finally ate outside because they are closed on Monday's! We continued #5 trail to Rimouski and got there early but just getting around the city and getting to the Rimouski Hotel along St-Lawrence river is quite long and filled this end of the day which ended around 3:30 pm with around 295kms. We choose this hotel because they have a SPA/swimming pool, which is much appreciated by the lady of the group after a good sledding day. I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this second day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing. Day #3: Rimouski/Matane + detour from Montagne St-Pierre The Rimouski/Matane ride being relatively short, it gave us the possibility of stretching the ride south which we did towards La Rédemption We have been to Montagne St-Pierre several times, but not often on a clear day and we were served quite well this time! We took the opportunity to go to Val d'Irene hoping to eat there but the ski resort was closed that day We then continued and had dinner at Jojo's restaurant in Amqui. It's always a bit weird with the #5 trail east/west there because it's near the spot where it loop back on itself. So we took the #5 east (which goes north!) along Lac Matapédia to join the #591 and then the #5 east (which really goes east!) And reached Matane where we ended the day at the Quality Inn with around 235kms near the ferry dock that we had to take at 8:00 the next morning to reach Baie-Comeau. I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this third day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing. To be continued soon... Edited April 1, 2023 by towing smclelan, mikerider, MrsGTRider and 7 others 9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towing Posted March 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 (edited) Day#4: Matane/Forestville A day that started early to be on the wharf around 7:15 a.m. for boarding the 8:00 a.m. ferry to Baie-Comeau Once boarding done we go upstairs in the passenger section for a 2.5 hours to relax. We had plenty of time to visit this infamous boat which has caused so much talk for the wrong reasons, but in our case everything went well. It is therefore a little before 11:00 am that we begin our snowmobile ride on the north side of the St-Lawrence river. and we went west on #3 trail The Manicouagan River footbridge is very impressive Very high in the air, it offers us a very nice view of the surroundings (to be seen in the video) We stopped at Chute-aux-Outardes for lunch and then continued on #3 trail, which we kept for the rest of the day. Being a mountains, lakes and rivers lover, I really like the north coast. The famous section of #3 trail in the Pessamit sector which was closed for almost 2 seasons is now reopened and apart from a few 50km/h signs we barely recognized it and realized that we had already passed when we arrived at the Betsiamites river bridge We continued to Forestville where we arrived around 4:00 p.m. with 181 km on the clock to spend the night at the EconoLodge I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this fourth day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing. Day#5: Forestville/La Malbaie We start our ride at 8:00 on the trail from the Econo Lodge in Forestville because we had a good day ahead with a gray weather and a little snow. Beautiful mountainous and wooded sections on trail #3 We decided to not going down south to les escoumins to keep the day's milage reasonable and cut through by the local trail bypass Approaching Tadoussac We ate there before taking the ferry of the Saguenay River. Here, leaving Baie Ste-Catherine It was more snowy in the afternoon but it was riding well We took trail #378 which goes further north instead of keeping trail #3 which went down along the river. The route is beautiful but it was more bumpy on the 2nd half, we regretted it a bit. Arrived at the petit Manoir du Casino around 4:30 p.m. with 290 km on the dream meter The services on site are very good and the 2 spa areas, especially the Spa O'Quartz with its tropical decor and its many pools and waterfalls, is an exceptional place to relax after a good day on the snowmobile. I put together a fairly complete musical video memory of this 5e day that I share with you below. Set sound on and quality to 1080 for best viewing. Day#6: La Malbaie/Quebec An outstanding sunny day awaited us for the last day of our trip, seen from the hotel on our way to breakfast... We stayed closer to the St-Lawrence river to continue west taking the locals and trail #378 Here's the view at Baie-St-Paul We took #3 trail further west. The trails were all very nice. We took a lunch break at the Relais Ste-Anne, happy to see that it survived the covid's time well. We resumed after lunch for the last segment, still on trail #3 west Here crossing the Montmorency River on the west side of Quebec city As we expected a little, the trails were more bumpy when crossing Quebec city, especially west of this small bridge (St-Charles River I believe) where my wife seriously think of just walking through it ! But it got back to normal maybe a 12km further just after Val Bélair and we quickly returned to our starting point a little after 3:00 p.m. with a little less than 220 km for the day. We were impressed to see the foot of snow accumulated on our van and trailer and had a good snow removal job to do, but despite the 2 hour drive to do, we came back home for dinner very happy with our trip and to relax in our stuff. So an another very nice trip for us without problems which filled our heads with beautiful memories that I try to keep even more present with the help of my videos that I put together for each day. Here's the last one, Day#6 La Malbaie-Quebec which is very nice with the beautiful sun we had. Set sound and quality to 1080 for best viewing. Hope you enjoyed the ride! Alain Edited March 12, 2023 by towing blackjack1, Phil 1, mccaffrey and 20 others 22 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smclelan Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Awesome pics as slways. The videos are excellent as well. Thanks Alain. PLAYHARD and towing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P Hardy Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Wow! Fantastic pics and write up, thanks for taking us along! PLAYHARD and towing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snobeeler Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Incredible journey and report! PLAYHARD and towing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyskidooerinnewhampshire Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Enjoyed those videos very much. Fortunate to recognize a few of the relais and sights. Thank you for taking the time to put together and post. towing, RWM NH and PLAYHARD 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT Rider Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Hi Alain As always we look forward to following your trips. Thanks for the excellent write up, Pictures and video. Thanks for keeping us informed and entertained all season. Seeing your early reports gets us psyched for our yearly trip. PLAYHARD, towing and Florida Snowman 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florida Snowman Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Beautiful trip & awesome reporting Alain & Krikri! We all enjoy your posts! PLAYHARD and towing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceman Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Hi Alain, Very super voyage! Thank you for sharing it’s awesome. PLAYHARD and towing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neksledr Posted March 13, 2023 Report Share Posted March 13, 2023 Incredible everything Alain, really appreciate it! towing and PLAYHARD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHsrx701 Posted March 13, 2023 Report Share Posted March 13, 2023 Awsome report. Thank you for posting. PLAYHARD and towing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wng-2 Posted March 14, 2023 Report Share Posted March 14, 2023 What an awesome report! Thank you for sharing! I wish I had the techno skills, and patience to deal with the gopro and it's batteries. PLAYHARD and towing 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mccaffrey Posted March 14, 2023 Report Share Posted March 14, 2023 Hi Alain, thank you for the ride. I have tried that same trip to have the ferry cancelled due to ice, I think I'll put it back on the list of trips for 2024 dooright, wng-2, PLAYHARD and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towing Posted March 16, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2023 Thank you very much for your good words guys. The last weeks have been very busy on my side and I have been less present on here and still have many good reading in backlog from many of you ahead! On 3/14/2023 at 7:13 AM, wng-2 said: What an awesome report! Thank you for sharing! I wish I had the techno skills, and patience to deal with the gopro and it's batteries. I had to admit even with my experience and skills it is still complicated to capture video. Even externally powered the gopro is not reliable, neither the remote control and I don't talk about fogging issues when snowing or getting some dirt in the lens that I haven't seen that ruin hours of video shots... but when it work, results are outstanding!!! On 3/14/2023 at 8:19 AM, mccaffrey said: Hi Alain, thank you for the ride. I have tried that same trip to have the ferry cancelled due to ice, I think I'll put it back on the list of trips for 2024 this year the ice was not a big challenge with the so mild season we have( the south half of the St-Lawrence river was at clear water!) but with the infamous ferry we have there is always a doubt! We had plan the whole trip 2 days before leaving and were reserving hotel just one day in advance. We were mentally ready to change our plans accordingly if the ferry would have been last minute closed... so many great trail option in Quebec! PLAYHARD and poltodoo 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wng-2 Posted March 16, 2023 Report Share Posted March 16, 2023 6 hours ago, towing said: Thank you very much for your good words guys. The last weeks have been very busy on my side and I have been less present on here and still have many good reading in backlog from many of you ahead! I had to admit even with my experience and skills it is still complicated to capture video. Even externally powered the gopro is not reliable, neither the remote control and I don't talk about fogging issues when snowing or getting some dirt in the lens that I haven't seen that ruin hours of video shots... but when it work, results are outstanding!!! this year the ice was not a big challenge with the so mild season we have( the south half of the St-Lawrence river was at clear water!) but with the infamous ferry we have there is always a doubt! We had plan the whole trip 2 days before leaving and were reserving hotel just one day in advance. We were mentally ready to change our plans accordingly if the ferry would have been last minute closed... so many great trail option in Quebec! I would love to produce some nice videos like that. I just don't have the patience or skill to deal with it. I decided I wasn't going to carry the gear also. A quarter Ceuntury (plus) ago I rode Quebec a lot, and never made restervations at all. Now it is essencial, but like you, I make them only one day in advance. This leaves the options open as much as possible to deal with weather, break downs, illness, and trail conditions. PLAYHARD, towing and smclelan 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLAYHARD Posted March 17, 2023 Report Share Posted March 17, 2023 On 3/12/2023 at 10:37 AM, nyskidooerinnewhampshire said: Enjoyed those videos very much. Fortunate to recognize a few of the relais and sights. Thank you for taking the time to put together and post. For REALLY-REAL! Thank you thank you! Excellent armchair-therapy! Snobeeler, MrGutz, towing and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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