Saint-Raymond North & Northwest 1/17-1/21

[PLAYHARD]

(I don't know if a Saint-Raymond trail report belongs in the Mauricie or the Quebec-center section so I'm playing it safe by putting it here...)

Short version: St Ray to L-Etape, then St Ray to Lac Edouard & La Tuque was (almost) all good. Reports from riders coming down from both Roberval (73) and Saguenay (23) were that conditions were excellent up there too.

Long version:

It’s really amazing what the clubs (and our sleds) can do with minimal cooperation from Mother Nature. Our “season opener” wasn’t the biggest miles, but it still kicked ass. On the trails that had been maintained the conditions were nearly all perfect, and on some trails the “pre-season” type conditions were still excellent from the recent fluff that had fallen.

Going on crumbs of info on where the crumbs of snow were (and where they weren’t), we rode out of the www.roquemont.com hotel in Saint-Raymond, which is especially convenient if you’re a Yamaha or Cat rider because they share a parking lot with www.performancevoyer.com who also has gas (and for Ski Doo’ers: www.dionmoto.com is very close).

When we got to the Roq on Sunday night the parking lot was pretty much empty, and so were the trails. By the end of the week when we left Friday morning the parking lot was pretty much full, but the trail traffic wasn’t noticeably heavy, probably since most were jumping up north on trails 23 or 73 to Lac Saint-Jean.

Day One, Mon 1/17: No matter how pissed you were that last season was over, even if there’s a gas station at your starting hotel, DON’T store your sled with an almost empty fuel tank and no dry gas, especially if your first run will be at zero Fahrenheit . So after we had the dealer change the fouled plugs on the Apex, we had a short shake-down run 30 miles up trail 23 and back, which aside from the first few (icy) miles out of St Ray was in excellent condition. (60mi)

Day Two, Tues 1/18: Back up an almost perfect 83 miles on trail 23 for lunch in L’Etape, and returned to Saint-Raymond. George, the newbie rider in our group who’s an avid skier, turned out to be a natural sledder and actually liked the short sections that had some bumps that he called “moguls”(?). On the way back home our group got separated briefly, which we refer to as a “bonus ride”, due to scarce pre-season signage and not much noticeable groomer berms, which also caused lots of “soft shoulders” all around that try to suck you off trail. (166mi, not counting the bonus ride)

Day Three, Wed 1/19: We saddlebagged up to Lac-Edouard. With a fresh 6 inches of fluff we had a magnificent (fast) ride up trail 73, stopping at Relais le Marmite @ Riviere-a-Pierre for chocolat chaud and to say hi to Clem, with just one (minor) mishap due to ice in a corner just below the fresh stuff. But ya gotta hand it to the local club! There were orange road cones right there! We bypassed the 355 turn up and went into LaTuque to top off the gas, then went to check out the 73 north of there. It was not yet set up/groomed, but we had a blast breaking it in. It was like the best of the Berkshires. A couple of us took the nickel tour of the “game” room downstairs at www.clubodanak.com, then turned back and took 73s to 355n to www.pourvoirielegoeland.ca in Lac-Edouard. The chalets have tons of private room (Steve snores), there’s gas on site, with the sleds safe right between us and the dining room/bar. (193mi)

Day Four, Thurs 1/20: Scenic route back to Saint-Raymond. We took 355s to 73n back into La Tuque to top off, then down 355s to check out the pipeline. IT WAS ALL PEFECT! Damn that’s a cool view down the pipeline. At about 40 miles we forked left down trail 351 (marked as M7), which was virgin groomed with a fresh couple of inches on top. (Don’cha love that?!) Then we took 318e which was also perfect, until Montauban. It’s never groomed between that little river and Lac Froid, but this time aside from being rough it was also unmarked and unridden, and for one section was closed off. So we broke out the GPS and video-gamed it thru some streets to hook back up with the 318 just before the intersection of 353 (some of Bill’s favorite 15 miles). And around the first turn on 353n… perfect timing: The groomer passed us from the other way! We got back to the 73s rail bed and cooked back to St Ray, got the toys put away by sunset, and took the black trail to dinner. With no complaints about the restaurant at the Roquemont, if you have a chance (10 miles by road/20 miles by trail) check out Duchesnay on Lac Saint-Joseph www.sepaq.com/ct/duc/ even though the ice hotel is gone from there. (161mi)

Total Miles: 580

(Total bumpy: Maybe 30)

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