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Gaspe tour 3/4 to 3/11


fredsleds
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Our Gapse Trip with Gary Pruit and Bon Voyage Sowmobile Tours

 

3/4 Arrive Hotel Universal RDL

 

3/5 RDL to Matane...trails bumpy, lots of unexpected 3 foot snow drifts but all an all not bad

 

3/6 Matane to Mont St Pierre, blue skies, best day on a sled in my 21 years of riding, amazing views

 

3/7 Mont St Pierre to Gaspe with detour to Perce Rock, again amazing day

 

3/8 Gaspe to Maria 216 miles in freezing rain/drizzle.  Thank God for Klim gear to keep us dry

 

3/9 Maria to Amqui, despite going to bed in Maria with the trails slush/mashed potatoes woke up to groomed perfection, these groomers are amazing.

 

3/10 Amqui back to RDL cold and windy but very sunny and nice

 

1,121 miles in 6 days.

 

Bob Voyage crew was great, nice pace of riding, every morning you packed your small bag, left it in room, gave you key to support truch driver who loaded you gear after you leave/  When you arrive, he gives you your room key and ytour bag is in the room waiting for you.  No waiting to check in/out.

 

Very professional and highly recommended operation

 

Fred

 

 

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17 hours ago, fredsleds said:

Our Gapse Trip with Gary Pruit and Bon Voyage Sowmobile Tours

 

3/4 Arrive Hotel Universal RDL

 

3/5 RDL to Matane...trails bumpy, lots of unexpected 3 foot snow drifts but all an all not bad

 

3/6 Matane to Mont St Pierre, blue skies, best day on a sled in my 21 years of riding, amazing views

 

3/7 Mont St Pierre to Gaspe with detour to Perce Rock, again amazing day

 

3/8 Gaspe to Maria 216 miles in freezing rain/drizzle.  Thank God for Klim gear to keep us dry

 

3/9 Maria to Amqui, despite going to bed in Maria with the trails slush/mashed potatoes woke up to groomed perfection, these groomers are amazing.

 

3/10 Amqui back to RDL cold and windy but very sunny and nice

 

1,121 miles in 6 days.

 

Bob Voyage crew was great, nice pace of riding, every morning you packed your small bag, left it in room, gave you key to support truch driver who loaded you gear after you leave/  When you arrive, he gives you your room key and ytour bag is in the room waiting for you.  No waiting to check in/out.

 

Very professional and highly recommended operation

 

Fred

 

 

Well, I dont think the lead rider and his 3 "wannabe racers"  were very professional passing at high speeds when i was slowing down for a stop sign! Then stopping again on the other side to wait for the rest of the group and then the same thing again! And the 2 last guy's (one with a gopro and back packs) always doing a hole shots on takeoff, leaving craters behind, I thought I was back on "tug hill". ! . Good thing we were not on any schedule and no reservations so i googled your tour route and went the other way! I hope you were not one of those if so i apologize, this is a family fun sport, not a " i paid so i can do whatever i want"  attitude.  Everyone i have met on QR are seasoned professional snowmobilers. Glad you enjoyed it.    

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I agree with what you said. I seem to notice the piles of snow in the trails where people take off. What bothers me is that the groomer operators work so hard and to have people disrespect the trails by having to tear them up at every stop. We drive many hours to ride trails that are normally in perfect shape and now there is times when it reminds me of Hill I won't mention.  Maybe the problem is we as quebec snowmobiler's have told to many people of the  Paradise we have found. Maybe we should choose the riders we bring to Quebec be better educated on how to ride. 

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To mcstar:

As always there are 2 sides to s story.  This was out first day, after we saw the 2 riders (who we just met) doing the hole shots, we explained that this was not proper  trail etiquette.

To your other statement.  We followed you for 10 MILES.  You had FOUR chances at stop signs to let us pass you.  Everyone is entitled to ride to their abilities.  The "wannabe racers" are aged 46 to 61 each with 20+ years of experience.  This is like the guy driving 55 in the left lane of 70 MPH highway, eventually people pass on the right because it seems that person thinks they "own the road".

We ride faster than you, you all had mirrors, had FOUR chances to wave us on before we passed on a straight away.  Then when the last 2 didn't get past you and we were in the parking lot of the Relais, you STILL wouldn't let them by (your FIFTH chance).  At this point you had to know that we wanted to get by you.  So finally after the SIXTH attempt to pass you let us get by.

In our 6 days in the Gaspe your group of 4 was the ONLY group who intentionally didn't let us pass them.   At least 10 other groups just waved us on. Why didn't you stop at a stop sign and wave us on?  Your entitled to ride at whatever speed you want and so are we.  Did it hurt your ego to let us go by?

Finally, we got passed by young guys on fast sleds at least 10 times.  The minute we saw them "on our asses" we waved them on.  No big deal.  Your stubbornness created the entire situation. You had SIX chances over 15 minutes to let us go by, I just can't understand why you did what you did. TQ5 is not your personal trail where you can dictate the speed to everyone else.

As far as it being a family sport, of course it is.  Every 2 up going 30 MPH lets the faster people go by.  The 3 trailing sleds in your group clearly wanted us gone, it was your leader who saw us and decided that we should have to ride at YOUR speed, not what we wanted to ride.  We were well within our capabilities, you were going way slower then the average and I bet you had multiple similar encounters with others unless you interaction with us made you change your behavior.

Anyway, all can learn from this, if someone wants to pass, I say wave them on at the next stop sign and save everyone some aggravation.

And to Shore1066, this was my 12th trip to Quebec since 1999, we HATE Tug Hill and would never ride their because of the bad behavior/alcohol consumption that goes on there. mcstar's group was the ones who need to be educated.

 

Fred

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Fredsled I have to respond.  I wasn't speaking to any one group.  I was just talking about the trail misuse I have noticed in the last few years. I happen to be the one who is always last in line and happens to see any danger our group does to the trail and I let everyone know how I feel.  As for education for the  group what I meant I believe if you invite a friend to go with you that person should be informed before you leave home on proper riding. To me the trails our the most important thing and leaving them as good as possible for the next person. I know and I'm sure you know people that you would never invite to quebec because of their back yard riding style. 

As for slower riders I won't go there because everyone has his or her safe riding speed they go and I respect that. 

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Thanks Shore1066,

The ones doing hole shots were people that we doing the hole shots were people we never meet, we signed up for the tour and they put them with us.  We respect the work of the groomers and the trails signs, never been off a trail on purpose (have been on an ATV trail or two by accident though).

Have a good rest of the winter, we're hoping Stella brings us another opportunity to ride in PA.

Fred

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With no disrespect to Gary Pruit, I would suggest that ultimately the tour leader bears responsibility for the conduct of his group. This would apply to both trail etiquette and safety. Generally the leader rides at a pace equal to the slowest rider and everyone else follows along. When you come to slower riders, they should acknowledge you and allow you to pass when it is safe to do so. IMO, passing on the right is never OK - period! Depending on the size of the group and the lay of the land at the stop signs, maybe someone thought it wasn't a place to be able to safely pass?
FWIW tour groups/large groups of sleds tend to be a bigger problem for the rest of us than vice versa.

Edited by vt_bluyamaha54
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I've never been on a Bon Voyage tour & never will. Bon Voyage was in the booth next to the one I worked for Tourism Saguenay at the Syracuse show last year. This was my first show as a representative, While I didn't recognize it at first the veterans in our booth didn't appreciate the way Bon Voyage extended their area to such an extent that it blocked the traffic to our booth. If they are this disrespectful at a trade show I can only imagine how they might conduct themselves on the trail.

Edited by 182ray
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Tours are tough man. Hard to control the actors... whats one guide to do? Believe me I've thought long and hard many times about starting to do some serious Guiding. I could put together some great trips. The problem is until you get enough repeat clients to really know if they can ride. Cause everyone who calls will tell you they are a rider. Then they show up and 3 of 4 have drama and you spend all week or however long the trip dealing with who's got the poopy diaper now and dealing with whatever that is, only to have the next "rider" have a poopy diaper and so on. 

You can make wicked money fast. And the bigger the group the bigger the bucks. 

Obviously people wanting or feeling they need to have a guide they are paying the big bucks and therefore those poopy diapers come with the job.

I'm just scared of who would call. I need a screening process. They need to be vetted thoroughly and then pass a background check. Is that asking too much ya think?

Team Ice Tour Service.    It's T.I.T.S.

youl'll love it. 

 

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Maybe the tour may have been a mixed bag of fast and slower riders so it was hard to keep it together?

No one passed on the right, I was radioed that some one wanted to pass and so i was going to stop after I crossed the street but they passed as i was stopping for the crossing then they stopped on the other side maybe because the others were not there?. So I just went past them and kept going and I think the same thing happened again.

 At the next show I will look out for the T.I.T.S. booth !!! 

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Heh mcstar,

 

No worries.  I guess each of our groups wasn't communicating with all the others.

Maybe we'll meet up one day.  Next year we're going to do the trip unguided with just people that we know.

Fred

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Much better on your own with a smaller group, do your own thing at your own pace.

I dont like to make plans and reservations , just go day by day , sometimes the weather does not always work out so you dont have to push for a reserved destination or the opposite, get there early and you have to stay!  when you could ride farther!.

Next year we will probably do the LSJ area, i dont like doing the same thing over at least for a few years, but the Gaspe is a favorite!   .  

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You'll like LSJ, great riding.  We went 3 years ago and one morning it was-45 degrees F!

Amazingly all the sleds started, it was a short day with lots of stops.

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On 2017-03-12 at 9:25 AM, mcstar said:

Well, I dont think the lead rider and his 3 "wannabe racers"  were very professional passing at high speeds when i was slowing down for a stop sign! Then stopping again on the other side to wait for the rest of the group and then the same thing again! And the 2 last guy's (one with a gopro and back packs) always doing a hole shots on takeoff, leaving craters behind, I thought I was back on "tug hill". ! . Good thing we were not on any schedule and no reservations so i googled your tour route and went the other way! I hope you were not one of those if so i apologize, this is a family fun sport, not a " i paid so i can do whatever i want"  attitude.  Everyone i have met on QR are seasoned professional snowmobilers. Glad you enjoyed it.    

Mario you are in your right, I always tell everyone I ride with to ride you're own trail. Be aware of what's up front and what's in back.

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On 2017-03-12 at 7:23 PM, fredsleds said:

To mcstar:

As always there are 2 sides to s story.  This was out first day, after we saw the 2 riders (who we just met) doing the hole shots, we explained that this was not proper  trail etiquette.

To your other statement.  We followed you for 10 MILES.  You had FOUR chances at stop signs to let us pass you.  Everyone is entitled to ride to their abilities.  The "wannabe racers" are aged 46 to 61 each with 20+ years of experience.  This is like the guy driving 55 in the left lane of 70 MPH highway, eventually people pass on the right because it seems that person thinks they "own the road".

We ride faster than you, you all had mirrors, had FOUR chances to wave us on before we passed on a straight away.  Then when the last 2 didn't get past you and we were in the parking lot of the Relais, you STILL wouldn't let them by (your FIFTH chance).  At this point you had to know that we wanted to get by you.  So finally after the SIXTH attempt to pass you let us get by.

In our 6 days in the Gaspe your group of 4 was the ONLY group who intentionally didn't let us pass them.   At least 10 other groups just waved us on. Why didn't you stop at a stop sign and wave us on?  Your entitled to ride at whatever speed you want and so are we.  Did it hurt your ego to let us go by?

Finally, we got passed by young guys on fast sleds at least 10 times.  The minute we saw them "on our asses" we waved them on.  No big deal.  Your stubbornness created the entire situation. You had SIX chances over 15 minutes to let us go by, I just can't understand why you did what you did. TQ5 is not your personal trail where you can dictate the speed to everyone else.

As far as it being a family sport, of course it is.  Every 2 up going 30 MPH lets the faster people go by.  The 3 trailing sleds in your group clearly wanted us gone, it was your leader who saw us and decided that we should have to ride at YOUR speed, not what we wanted to ride.  We were well within our capabilities, you were going way slower then the average and I bet you had multiple similar encounters with others unless you interaction with us made you change your behavior.

Anyway, all can learn from this, if someone wants to pass, I say wave them on at the next stop sign and save everyone some aggravation.

And to Shore1066, this was my 12th trip to Quebec since 1999, we HATE Tug Hill and would never ride their because of the bad behavior/alcohol consumption that goes on there. mcstar's group was the ones who need to be educated.

 

Fred

Clearly you are not a rider! A Quebec Rider! That is!!  If I were in your position, meaning no disrespect to you MCStar when approaching a group of riders especially on a Gaspe trail the 401 of Quebec HELLO!  That are bird watching I would tickle their footboards with my ski tip, which would certainly capture thier attention then zip by the guy or 2 or 3, why $$uck around !!! just get on with it!!!! You're a rider righf!!!! Get by the guy.

Sorry Mario if I've affended you but if I come up on someone even if it's you and you tiring me out I'm just going to let you know and get on with business. I'm not going to shit on you later with excuses.

ta da

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