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800 miles 3 day Val-D'or run February 20, 21, 22 , 2014


markusvt
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Thursday February 20, 2014. 309 miles.

We spent Wednesday night in the Forestel in Val-D’or. We headed off to lunch in Rouyn-Noranda on the 83. The trails were really, really nice. We got to visit a bit with one of the local police at a trail-side stop. He told us he hates winter, and we are crazy! We took all the green and orange trails, including the side trail across lake Abitbi which was really cool. We came on a lake where the locals had plowed a track and were riding their studded tire motocross bikes. We did a few laps around for grins.

Very light traffic in the area, and finally we got to ride in the double digits, above ZERO! Double wide trails everywhere with groomers out grooming smooth trails, love that!

We then headed to north of La-Sarre in search of the most northwest trail in Quebec. It is a small orange trail, but it is on the map, ungroomed and not marked very well. Failure was not an option and with a bit of work we found it! We took a few pictures not being sure we will be back. The amount of snow in the north was really crazy!

We then headed down all of the orange trails to spend the night in La-Sarre at Motel Villa Mont Repos. A few of the local trail did not work out, but the exploring we did was awesome. Again all really nice trails. The Hotel was a bit of a jaunt off the main trail but not too bad. For sure a nice place to stay with a great restaurant.

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Edited by markusvt
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Friday February 21, 2014. 232 miles.

First mission of the day was to head into Ontario. It was only 15 miles so it seemed fun to go get a nice picture of the welcome to Ontario sign, except there was none! We headed in for 5 miles, still no sign. Best we got was a trail 105 sign, (it would have to do).

Next we headed east on the 93, then took local trails to the junction of 307 north of Amos. This is your last chance for gas, and then its 104 miles on 307 and 396 to Matagami. This trail follows the power lines for a long time. There is very little signing but very few options for errors. We started in freezing rain for the first couple of hours, and then snow and a lot’s of it! On the 307 there is a 7 mile section of plowed road that looked like it was for the miners more than the loggers and without the fresh snow it would have been really ugly. The whole rest of the way was awesome. The last 40-50 miles in the going got tougher as it was snowing like crazy and they use very little in the way of stakes or signs. It seems like the snow is so white this year with very little contrast. The GPS saved the day again for us.

We arrived at Hotel-Motel Matagami with 232 miles on the day. It was super fun because it was also the first layover for racers racing off-trail out of Chibougamau! 9 (3) man teams were coming in over the next few hours.

The hotel and dining were great. It was a very nice town so far north, I think close to 1600 people. You are very north here as the road starts at KM0! It was nice getting gas for $1.35 a liter here too.

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Edited by markusvt
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Saturday February 22, 2014. 260 miles.

We had been pushing a fresh 6-10 inches of snow all day yesterday, and we got another 2 inches overnight to complicate things. We headed out and went down the 396 to Lac-Quevillion.

This is a 90 mile jaunt, so again with the snow we were careful with the throttle. 2 groups got out ahead of us. We ended up passing them were on virgin trail with nothing to follow which was super fun. The wind was also making some pretty huge drifts!

We took the side trail to the 83. This section of the 83 is fast, very fast, very, very fast. It is an easy way to use a lot of fuel and oil, and there are no options for you out here.

We then took as many orange trails as we could on our way back to the Forestel. There was still all the fresh snow from the day before, and a lot of it had not seen a sled yet. As we got closer to Val-D’or the groomers had been out making it all so very awesome for us.

We got to the hotel with 252 miles on the day and 792 for the trip. A quick blast out of the hotel and up the newly groomed stuff put us at 800 miles for the trip.

We have never been this far north/west in Quebec, close many times but never to Matagami. It was awesome fun, really nice trails and very accommodating establishments. Bring a camera as the scenery is spectacular.

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Edited by markusvt
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Yep, That was it and now we've been there. I've always liked pointing to far points on the map and knowing we've been there.

It's nice to check things off the list of stuff that you want to do, while your still alive. My Meme' always said, "You're a long time dead", "if there is something you want to do, you better get doing it" wise words indeed from a lady that never did too much. May she rest in peace. Thanks for the report Markusvt. I always look forward to reading about our trips and enjoy them as much as anyone. Maybe more!

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Nice report, that region of Quebec is far and away the biggest gem for snowmobiling. I have alot of the same pics from back in January on our trip when we went across into Ontario we too were looking for the welcome to Ontario sign but the trail wasn't groomed so we only went about a mile looking for it. When we were up in Matagami this year we saw a few pickup trucks headed south with Caribou on the back

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