Sled Dog Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Another great trip in Quebec. Good friends and good miles! (I posted this in the Gaspe forum also, I meant to only post in the General Discussion!! Sorry!) Day 1, 220 miles. RDL to Matane. 5 all the way. Trails were great. Had snowed Friday and Saturday before we got there. Had a solid hiccup early in the trip around 10:00. Right after the relais at Trois Pistole, missed the left hand turn for 5, no problem, cut through the deep snow to the trail. First sled (me) makes it, second makes it, third makes it but hits a rock slightly, 4th sled was turning and hit the same rock, lots of damage. Yamaha Apex. Bent the a arms so that the ski was almost twisted under the sled. We decided to go back to Trois Pistole relais station. Tried bending the a arms using a bar and heat and got them pretty good but sled was still messed up and we were only 50 miles into trip!!! After much thinking and phone calls, a guy at Trois Pistoles would drive the sled in his pickup to Mont-Joli Yamaha dealer. We continued on with the other 4 sleds and met him at the dealer. Dealer was great, P. Labonte et files. They took parts off a new sled to fix ours. When it was all said and done, it cost a father $1400.00 to fix the sled for his son!!! But what are you gonna do, trip must go on! What a Dad! At the end of the day, we still made our final destination with 5 working sleds. Day 2, 310 miles. Matane to Perce. 5 to 597 to 5. Long day. The trails were again great but the Murdochville area had lots of snow. I had my GPS out for a short while and we were seeing elevation changes of 18 feet to 1800 feet...in a matter of minutes!! Pretty cool. First time I've seen 2 groomers working together. 1 plowing the snow with no drag and the other with a drag behind it. We filled up in Murdochville and there was a groomer there. He said they had gotten 3 feet of snow over the weekend and he had just opened up part of 597. When we got where he had turned around, it was single track. Pretty fun going off into the fresh powder!! Day 3, 265 miles. Perce to Pointe-a-la-Croix. Pretty uneventful day. Day 4, 225 miles. Pointe-a-la-Croix to Amqui. 5 to 587 to 5. Trouble starting a Yamaha, changed out the fuel relay and off we went. Also had a Yamaha blow a belt which took a while to clear out. 2 of the Yamaha's blew belts...not normal for them in my experience. 587 was amazing! Great trail. At at the Albertville clubhouse, left a note for Groomer. Waitress said she would call him but we didn't want to bother him, he needs his rest for grooming!!! Rode some of the trails around Amqui, fabulous! Day 5, 220 miles. Amqui to RDL. 5 to 591 to 587 to 579 to 5. We really wanted to find the "ghost trees". We found em and they were very cool!! I highly recommend this sight. I posted pics of these on my facebook page and got lots of "likes"!!! Made it back to truck at decent hour and loaded up. Bittersweet day, tired of snowmobiling but I didn't want it to end either!!! All in all, I'd say 95% of trails were excellent. The other 5% would be considered excellent here in Central NY!!! I think we did luck out kind of. We crossed a road and there had to be a couple mile long, straight trail with a slight up hill. Easily a 100mph trail. I could see at the top some lights flashing so I only did about 40 mph up to the lights which were indeed police. They had some sleds pulled over and seemed to be either writing trail permits or tickets. When we went through, they checked our permits and waved us on. In the bar at RDL we saw a news bit on sledding and excessive speed and how they were cracking down. Not sure if what we saw was a speed trap or permit check. Done for the year, supposed to be 60 here on Wednesday. Ended the year with over 2800 miles on new 2012 Renegade X 1200. Not even a hiccup! 277 local miles, the rest Quebec. Thanks QR for all the info you guys provide! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
actionjack Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Wow those a arms are fucked. $1400! Ouch. Hmmm ghost trees are on the list now. Cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scranton1 Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Great report and pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hparaptor Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 We really wanted to find the "ghost trees". We found em and they were very cool!! I highly recommend this sight. I posted pics of these on my facebook page and got lots of "likes"!!! Made it back to truck at decent hour and loaded up. Bittersweet day, tired of snowmobiling but I didn't want it to end either!!! Those are cool. Looking forward to seeing those in person. Can't wait to ride Gaspe... Thanks for the report and pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groomer Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 great pics sled dog !! don t worry ,i m used not to sleep much during winter time !! im on my way to groom tq 5 in about 1 hr. groomer !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldsmoke1 Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 (edited) did u guys stay in sainte anne des monts ? im thinking it was u i was talking to outside the room in the am Edited March 5, 2012 by coldsmoke1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailblazer Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Also had a Yamaha blow a belt which took a while to clear out. 2 of the Yamaha's blew belts...not normal for them in my experience. Ya thats an odd experience, take a look at the alignment or quality of the belt. On my 04 RX1 i blew the belt at 12000klms at 140, whatta mess. My 08 Apex, i changed it this year at 14000klms only because it was terrible worn down but did not fail, got a new one on now and have 19000klms, belts were original Yamaha parts. Nice pics and trails, Gaspe is the Glory Hole for sledding. A arms, hmmm...snowmobiling is always an adventure. Glad nobody got hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sled Dog Posted March 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 did u guys stay in sainte anne des monts ? im thinking it was u i was talking to outside the room in the am Not us. We stayed in Matane and then Perce. Ya thats an odd experience, take a look at the alignment or quality of the belt. On my 04 RX1 i blew the belt at 12000klms at 140, whatta mess. My 08 Apex, i changed it this year at 14000klms only because it was terrible worn down but did not fail, got a new one on now and have 19000klms, belts were original Yamaha parts. Nice pics and trails, Gaspe is the Glory Hole for sledding. A arms, hmmm...snowmobiling is always an adventure. Glad nobody got hurt. Yeah, that was the main thing, no one got hurt. Belts had some miles on them. Both sleds have clutch kits. Maybe something to do with it? I sold my 06 Attak with 17,000 miles and it had never blown a belt. No clutch kit and Yamaha belts though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mid Range Posted March 8, 2012 Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 Great report Rich.Thank you for sharing.Despite a few incident,looks like you guys had a blast on both of your trips. I was in Abitibi last weekend.they got a snowstorm last weekend.Artic blast on sunday morning.Tried to go up to Matagami but we turned back in Beaucanton. 5 feet high snow drift near Lasarre upon the trail,my sled roll over and broke the windshield.Otherwise it was good.Holy shit!!!! Barraute-Senneterre-louvicourt-Val d'Or was like a hardwood floor.These guys are lucky to ride on such trails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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