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3 Day trip to Val-D'or.


markusvt
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Day 1: Decided to stay at Club Fontbrune, (a few miles south of Rebaska). Very nice, you get your own chalet, many are new. Very nice owners. We planned to ride to Val-D'or, Mapsourse said 278 miles. We headed out at 9:30. Got gas in Mont Laurier with 48 miles on. Headed to La Domaine for gas and lunch with another 60 miles on.

Crazy town for lunch, but it worked. WOW, the 386 to the village to Kitciskik was so nice, it should have been illegal. Super nice 114 mile run, with no options for fuel in between that I could see. Gassed them up and headed to Forestel. Got here with 280 miles on at 5:20, not too bad. HemiDoo, JayBird and Greg Du Vermont make up the foursome for this ride.

Very, very, very nice conditions. Fresh snow all the way. Temperatures were getting colder, supposed to be -20F in the AM. Sleds have been piling in and right back out for the last hour as the desk gives them the news that they are full.

Quick clip from Today:

http://youtu.be/9KXtpSaAeuc

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Edited by markusvt
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Good Stuff Mark. Love that 386 very nice run there.

I'm amazed at how many people I saw last week with no reservations that is nuts. Especially in the region with the best trails right now.

Have a great trip.

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Day 1: Decided to stay at Club Fontbrune, (a few miles south of Rebaska). Very nice, you get your own chalet, many are new. Very nice owners. We planned to ride to Val-D'or, Mapsourse said 278 miles. We headed out at 9:30. Got gas in Mont Laurier with 48 miles on. Headed to La Domaine for gas and lunch with another 60 miles on. Crazy crown for lunch, but it worked. WOW, the 386 to the village to Kitciskik was so nice, it should have been illegal. Super nice 114 mile run, with no options for fuel in between that I could see. Gassed them up and headed to Forestel. Got here with 280 miles on at 5:20, not too bad. HemiDoo, JayBird and Greg Du Vermont make up the foursome for this ride.

Very, very, very nice conditions. Fresh snow all the way. Temperatures were getting colder, supposed to be -20F in the AM. Sleds have been piling in and right back out for the last hour as the desk gives them the news that they are full.

Quick clip from Today:

http://youtu.be/9KXtpSaAeuc

That's always a really rice run.........70klm/hr speed limit.......real challenging trail.

Gotta love Abatibibi for those flat wide fast trails.

Nice run guys

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Day 2:

We had two choices to get to Club Trout Lake. One way was 180 miles, (down the 309), one was 280 miles via Rouyn-Noranda. -18F, and we chose the 280 miles route, we are riders after all. We spent a bit riding around town to find the Polaris Dealer to get oil for the one 2 stroke in the group. Val-D'or has trails EVERYWHERE!

Gas at 48 miles, and all new groomed, wide and very fast. 70 miles more to Rouyn-Noranda for lunch and gas. Food at the local restaurant was nice. Very good trail, but close to town the traffic was insane. Never saw so many sleds on the trails, EVER!. 35 miles and we gassed them up again, then 90 miles more to Belliterre. One horse town with a crazy line at the 1 pump that was working. Traffic got WAY lighter as we got away from town. Lot's and lot's and lot's of snow.

We saw 4 groomers yesterday, so this area is serious about keeping things nice. GPS with the Quebec maps came in real handy, as we have not been on these trails before. 303 south was very nice. Tight woods, park roads, some rail-bed, then fields, all really fun.

Pulled into Club Trout Lake at 6:30, really nice place on the trail. 280 miles, (466KM) In the bush, only riders staying here. :^)). Noel said he has had a good year, guests every night, Mondays have been busy for him, sometimes filled right up!

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Edited by markusvt
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Tell Noel we said hello...Love Trout Lake Lodge, cool place...

Great place, still no boots allowed in lodge ?? Nice touch. Very nice place and I had My slippers,people walking around in sox.Good food good people.
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I am heading up to St. Zenon on Friday. The plan is to leave St. Zenon, head towards Valdor which I understand is approximately 450 miles. Does anyone have a good, (3) or (4) day loop including where to stay between St.Zenon and Valdor and back to St. Zenon?

Please let me know, any help would be greatly appreciated.

C.

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Day 3:

Not sure about the boots in the lodge, we all carry slip on shoes after we get off the sleds so no issue there. We had a great nights sleep, which we needed after staying out a bit late in Val-D'or. Noel starts breakfast at 7:00! Awesome. We were on the trails bit after 8:00 AM, and the temperatures were at 8F, above zero! We gassed up at trout lake before leaving. The gas is $2.10 a liter, but he trucks it in with 5 gallon cans from town 20 miles away. We only took $14 each to top off, so not too bad. They told us that gas was 190KM away in La Domaine. Hum, 118 miles. There is supposed to be a gas option off a goat path somewhere along the way, but we decide to go for it, (I did not see the other gas option, but I did not know what I was looking for)..

The first 20 miles of trail is on an unused summer road, which was very nice. Then there was about 5+ miles or so of trail that was severely grown in. The groomer had been grooming it, but you had to stay in the middle unless you liked slapping 1-2 inch diameter saplings. Then the trail opened up and wow was it nice. 50 miles of very, very nice trail. The trail by Joncas was AWESOME. Lot's of sled tracks there, but no sign of life. It's been a tough year for the outfitters not on the power grid in the bush. We drove by a fresh sled carcass that had melted into the trail. There was not enough left to put into a zip-lock bag! The last 50 miles into La Domaine were a bit bit bumpy, but not too bad. The traffic around and into La Domaine was very light on Sunday. The lady at the gas station said Sundays are usually very light. Once we rolled in, we had 125 miles on the tank.

We headed out on the 63 after lunch to Le Classic, which was a bit bumpy, but not bad really. We picked up the 322 to head back to the truck. The first 30 miles were nice. After crossing the reservoir it was ugly. The area had seen a ton of traffic. The trails were beat, but we expected that really. This tank had 109 miles on it, but we could have gotten gas many times if we needed it. Total for the day was 234 miles and back into the lot at 3:30PM. Nice thing is the truck was where we left it, always a good feeling.

Total for the 3 day trip was 794 miles. 2800 miles for the season for me so far. Plenty of snow in the north, and plenty of cold. Everything we have read about the trails in the region was true and we will be back!

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Edited by markusvt
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Nice run Mark.

No doubt the west is best. They got it going on.

Usually little traffic too but with things being what they are elsewhere, its the only place worth it right now for big loops.

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Nice run Mark.

No doubt the west is best. They got it going on.

Usually little traffic too but with things being what they are elsewhere, its the only place worth it right now for big loops.

Usually not a lot traffic there, but the weekend of Feb 9/10 didn't require a QC pass so a lot of guys from southern Ontario were there ripping up the Abitibi trails. Some were planning weeks in advance knowing accommodations were going to be a problem that week. Still haven't seen any posts on the Ontario site yet how their weekend went.

Kaz

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