Joliette/St-Raymond Portneuf, after thaw photo ride-report 23Feb2014

[towing]

Beautiful sunny Sunday morning, we know we are going to ride but we do not know where ... This last night was cold and after Friday’s thaw, the trails should be pretty nice here on the north shore of St-Laurence river but we give-up the plan to make a loop on the south side after the rain. An idea pop in my head: Is it feasible to go to St- Raymond for the lunch?? I look on the map : 160+ miles to go ... let's go to St-Raymond !

Here are the final track f the day:



As expected, trails were real highways waiting for us in the fields. Unlike most sledders, I love thaw . After storm riding is nice but the trail is too soft, you've got no ski grip and the trail got beated in no time But after the thaw when the rain is over and it freeze back .... yahoo!!!!



The groomer was still at work here in St-Elizabeth near Joliette



The trails were perfect and very hard. My venture fly as an arrow with just a light pressure on the throttle and when I let it, I feel it will continue forever. Here in St-Barthelemy area with the trail in the background above the barn ...





Here just a little further, on the most southern trail section closest to the St-Laurence river. There’s still a good snow cover, no earth in sight on the trail.



Here north of Louiseville in St-Leon le Grand area, the river is still strong





A little further back on the #3 trail we passed this Dozer still at work



And only a few miles away, his predecessor died on duty...

...

[towing]

No water or ice on the crossing of the St Maurice River near the La Gabelle dam



There was only a section that had not been recently groomed in this sector in Mauricie

To get the most direct and fastest route, we headed on the #351 trail along #40 highway



Nice and very fast



Here near Champlain





The Batiscan and St-Anne rivers are still perfects



We followed the signs in St-Raymond direction. It went well up to the #353 trail in this area where the #23 north junction is really marked bad ... it's when I saw a #23 south sign while riding a few miles later that I realized that we had missed something...



We tacked and took the right direction

To finally arrived at the St-Raymond Roquemont around 1:15 p.m. with 169 miles on the dreameter... pretty much a new record for us in terms of milage before lunch but done in optimal conditions.

[towing]

After a good meal we left, a little past 2:00 p.m. We took pretty much the same path to come back, except here where we passed through St-Basile village



Another groomer at work here on #3 trail



Here the #3 must be 4 dozer’s drags wide, impressive...



Here on the north side of the #40 highway just before the Batiscan river



We crossed to the south side of the highway under the river bridge to continue. Take very seriously the warning sigh in this area, despite the beautiful speed tempting straight trail there’s a deer yard in the side wood. It’s when we stopped to look at a dead deer carcass on the side of the trail that we realized that it was full of deer tracks and small paths traced by these deer in the woods beside the trail. So be very careful…





Unless that, beautiful trails for our return





We only got few a few miles section really ruff near Lac à la Tortue who gave some work for the suspension



here just before crossing the St-Maurice river

...

[towing]

We took a break to do a last fuel up at the Shell in St-Étienne des Grès. Police ride on Polaris here!



While waiting for Krikri that was inside to pay for gas, I saw our buddy RollerBoy that was just arriving there to fuel-up! It was really funny to meet him there, him a guy from Sorel who with his partner went having their lunch in St-Raymond too, but from Trois-Rivières. By the way, he is very satisfied with his Viper who had already 8400km made ​​this winter with just fun!



We then continued with the setting sun. We took substantially the same trail as when we went with the difference that we kept the #3 trail and passed near Berthierville. The trails were all still beautiful on the west side of St-Maurice up to home .



We finally came dback home for super just a little past 7:00 p.m. with 337 miles on the dreameter. Speaking counter, our Venture celebrated its 35th (kms) on this ride



In summary, the thaw was not destructive at all and instead the conditions are in their best all across the north side of the St-Lawrence river. I know on the North of Lanaudière and Mauricie the precipitation were mostly sleet and snow, so very beautiful conditions through there too.

I would take the opportunity to thank the Grégoire Sport team



Through their representative Miguel Rodriguez, they allowed me to make a trail test ride on a Venture Gt matter of seeing how my Krikri and I would like it. In fact, it was in every point better than my old Venture except for darting because it had no SnowTracker like mine and obviously the rear skid, which unfortunately can’t be compared with the Expert-X skid I currently have .



Bye!!!

Alain

[lindasledgirl]

Great post and excellent pictures once again!!

Thanks for all your hard work!

Linda

[Trailblazer]

Nice ride Alain 169 before lunch with two on a touring hmmmm those trail were really sweet, when we passed through there on our way up to St.Zenon on Friday in the rain they were all groomed from the night before, made for a very flat wet ride. Good strategy on the clubs part, now look at the pay off beautiful trails.

Thank so for sharing Alain too bad about the south shore but I think you made the right decision.

JG