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Ontario to Quebec crossing via THURSO


nodie
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Our club, the Hill & Gully Riders, grooms the Regional Trail 323 down to Thurso, where we used to meet up with the AMVN who continued on to Plaisance.  However, with the creation of the "National" Park de Plaisance, the AMVN lost the route between Thurso and Plaisance, the 323 was interrupted,  and our trail became a dead end.  When you cross the river from Ontario to Thurso, you end up on a tiny sliver of park through which we have been unable to obtain a right of way (we'd been requesting a 14' wide strip, couple of hundred yards long - we'd even offered to snow fence it!) but have been consistently refused.  People have been crossing just the same, and the adjacent private landowners have no objection, but the government has been obstinate.  What makes it more ridiculous is that, when the Autoroute 50 was constructed a few kilometres to the north, the Ministère of Transport included an off road vehicle underpass costing several hundred dollars because new highway construction is not supposed to block inter-regional trails! Jacques Fecteau of the AMVM has tried ever since to reestablish the link between Plaisance to Thurso, but has so far been unsuccessful.  Tourism in our area has certainly suffered because of this bone-headed policy, but we're up against eco-bureaucrats,so what can you do?

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That would be it.  However, I've never crossed there myself, so I don't know where the Ontario trail leads, or whether or not anyone has crossed there this season.  To my knowledge, no one is checking the ice, and, with all this snow, finding this particular cow path could be problematic.  The actual groomed trail crosses a farm just north of the village that belongs to one of our club's directors. I'll check with him to see if he's aware of anyone crossing this year and get back to you.

Right now, the provincial government is looking to expand the park but the municipal and regional governments, feeling burned by all the restrictions that came with the park's creation are blocking that expansion.  They'll only consider it if the province eases up and allows a few corridors for motorized vehicles.  The province is standing firm, so, for the time being, the snowmobile corridor is a no-go.  Too bad, because the trail was there for over forty years and the assorted geese, muskrats and mud turtles didn't mind one little bit!

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Agreed   Gullyrider.  all the parks in quebec have been closed to sleds in the last few years.and it sucks . esp when u think ontario is opening them up. there is no reason for what qc. govt. does...  let me know what directio says, i will go saturday i think.

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21 hours ago, Trailblazer said:

One year I rode the river from Thurso to Grenville, could the connection between Thurso and Plaissance be made by the river. Has the club entertained that idea?

The AMVN, who used to groom the section between Thurso and Plaisance, probably want to keep their dozer away from water crossings as much as possible. Finding someone to continually check the ice conditions is not easy either (I know ... I used to monitor the ice on the Lièvre River in Buckingham when we had one back in the day. A lot of lonely nighttime walks across the river with my chainsaw).  They were working on a land route roughly following Autoroute 50, but the costs were prohibitive, and there were the usual right-of-way issues.

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18 hours ago, grumpysanta said:

Agreed   Gullyrider.  all the parks in quebec have been closed to sleds in the last few years.and it sucks . esp when u think ontario is opening them up. there is no reason for what qc. govt. does...  let me know what directio says, i will go saturday i think.

I spoke with him yesterday (Thursday) and he mentioned that he had seen tracks the day before.  Anyway, we're far from the only ones suffering from government intransigence ...http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2017/01/23/saint-donat-boude-par-les-motoneigistes .

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The 50 did screw up a number of trails in the area from Grenville to Lachute as well IMO and one must travel miles out of the way to get around. As for the parks, not all are closed to snowmobilers. The Papineau Labelle reserve comes to mind and a number of trails run through the summertime park roads. The re openning of a trail next season from St Agathe to Tremblant should help the St Donat situation. 

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11 hours ago, Cnc said:

The 50 did screw up a number of trails in the area from Grenville to Lachute as well IMO and one must travel miles out of the way to get around. As for the parks, not all are closed to snowmobilers. The Papineau Labelle reserve comes to mind and a number of trails run through the summertime park roads. The re openning of a trail next season from St Agathe to Tremblant should help the St Donat situation. 

The magic word is "Reserve".  Papineau-Labelle was considered a park at its creation in the early seventies, but was "downgraded" to reserve status to allow more varied use.  I think it's only relatively recently that snowmobiling has become prohibited in actual parks. Hence the re-routing of the trails out of Parc Mont-Tremblant and into the adjacent Rouge-Mattawin Reserve.  As far as the Thurso crossing goes, I happened to be at our clubhouse today when a group of Cornwall snowmobilers came through the yard, and they had all found their way across near Thurso.  There was about a dozen of them so I expect they left lots of tracks!

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On 2017-02-11 at 9:43 AM, nodie said:

Hey all,

 

is it possible to cross the river at Thurso from Ontario to Quebec? Once on the Quebec side, is it possible to access the 323 north?

 

Thanks!  

Grumpysanta told me he just did the crossing on Saturday I'm sure he'll chime in with the details of where to get on and off the river on both sides and land marks to look out for.

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