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Icemans Season Ender part 1


iceman
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Not meaning to hi jack the thread, just continuing on lol, heading north this am out of charlevoix was gorgeous , blue sky, up the 83 and they had run the machine up without the drag to open the drifts up, not bad going.  when I looked at the grooming report, thought it was funny that l saw the l anse st jean Groomer had only come down the 301 local trail about 2/3 of the way, well we found out why we got to the trail and only a faint single track mark came out on the 83. The wives were fine with running in the 30 to 36" of powder, as there was a sled thru during the storm Wednesday probably, so we headed in. I am still thinking I saw a green line in here about 10 miles so the Groomer either turned or??

 

sure enough we found out why, they ended up walking an excavator in 15 miles this morning to pull it out, that was a long ways to do that. He was just getting there at 11:30!

The guys working on the Groomer there were all talking about the meter of snow that they had gotten. Gotta love it!

RR

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Last Day of Ender Part 1....

the skies cleared and it was time to bid farewell to the Fairmont. A guy could get use to that quite easy. Staying there. I'm gonna give the summary of our epic return trip from Charlevoix to Trois Riveres. Leaving the Manoir, the trail is broken by the ski dozer for us up and out to 378 the all the way to Clermont. Up to TQ3 and here we are on our own. No trail broke open here by tge machine. Marty and Scorpionbowl are busting it, I'm third then Al, Andy and David. This would be our order for most of this ordeal. It was to be a long day. 

Got to go eat dinner, part 2 of this Ender is underway i am in Chicoutimi and need to go see Sylvie and get some food. I will finish this tale tonight for you, and give you  rundown of Day 1 of Ender part 2. 

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Last Day of Ender Part 1....continued

TQ3 was not broken all the way to St Aime de Lacs, like surfing in the powder, unbelievable. After crossing the Lake it's more of the same. Down to St Urbain here the road crossings are broke open and the trail had been opened with the Dozer without the drag, not sure if this is better or worse. Better at road crossings but in trail is two big trenches to ride from the tracks. Not always easy especially for the new guys. A bit further on and we catch the dozer. Back to ooening it ourselves. Just a bit further and Al is stuck, looses momentum and down he goes. We pack it down around him and get him going. Some serious hills out there and was not easy. Looking back it was quite challenging and fun, but at that time knowing we had far to go made it daunting. We push on but its slow going. We arrive at Relais outside BSP at 11:30am. No tracks headed west on 3, deep deep snow. We know dozer is coming (we past it not far back) but where is he going when he gets here? We decide to wait and see. The ladies who run the relais arrive. playhard starts to shovel out the front door for them, i decide he should not have all the fun i grab another shovel to help out. We finish the deneigement and anxiously await the ski dozer. Two others artive behind us on widetracks. We hear him getting closer. He arrives and clears the snow in the intersection, he then spins around and we are not sure where he is going, then he throttled up and headed west. Yes! Finally catching a break. Well might as well eat and give him time to work. We wait 45 minutes and go. Its better for sure being busted open by him. The two widetracks waited with us but left ahead of us so now we catch up to Dozer, taling a break. Ahead of him is tge tracks from the widetrack guys. Hey this will work. We fight on and after one more stuck for Al on the powerlines(really really deep) these guys did great considering their experience levels. Really good. Bit further along we realize gas is gonna be a problem. We make it to the forrestry camp there on 3. Well no gas or resto this year. Oh well time to pour the gas we got. We push on to 320 to St Anne du Beaupre. Trail is marked Cul de sac. And not showing gas. GPS says petro canada 3 something miles. We gotta go. Down down down, trail on powerline past entrance to Ski Place says Fin Sentier. End of trail. Still 3.5 km to gas. Theres tracks so we follow down and into a new development, bare pavement for a bit and we see tracks along road and red sticks. We got it, into gas and quick chat with a local tells me keep going to rejoin 3. Excellent. Now we roll more traffic has been here. Trail choppy but bigger. No bobsled track. Up to rejoin 3. Here Scorpionbowl and Marty bid us farewell as they will run ahead to get to St Raynond. Slow going through QC city but better trail. Through QC and to Donnacona at just after 6;20pm. 

Falling asleep typing. I am spent. I will finish for you tmmrw. 

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7 hours ago, RoadRunner said:

Not meaning to hi jack the thread, just continuing on lol, heading north this am out of charlevoix was gorgeous , blue sky, up the 83 and they had run the machine up without the drag to open the drifts up, not bad going.  when I looked at the grooming report, thought it was funny that l saw the l anse st jean Groomer had only come down the 301 local trail about 2/3 of the way, well we found out why we got to the trail and only a faint single track mark came out on the 83. The wives were fine with running in the 30 to 36" of powder, as there was a sled thru during the storm Wednesday probably, so we headed in. I am still thinking I saw a green line in here about 10 miles so the Groomer either turned or??

 

sure enough we found out why, they ended up walking an excavator in 15 miles this morning to pull it out, that was a long ways to do that. He was just getting there at 11:30!

The guys working on the Groomer there were all talking about the meter of snow that they had gotten. Gotta love it!

RR

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Tabernack!  

Not a hi jack at all! That's hi confirmation!

McLuvin it all! Photos, ladies fine, blue skies, heavy equipment, duct tape on the full-sized windshield!...

Thanks for sharing!

 

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Just before we got to the Groomer, the back pack shovel boys had come in L'anse St Jean , behind the Groomer, and we're playing on the side hills. Man can they mess a trail up. It was worse trying to stay in the trail after they had gone thru than before!

From the Groomer incident into L Anse for lunch and than onto to Riv Eternite and than back down to Ravage was Quebec perfect! Fresh groomed all the way to the door!

A ride up to the Baie to check and see what they are catching for fish at the village and than lunch. The wives have declared that we must be back by 3:30 As Noel will have the wood fired sauna ready for 4😉

Gotta keep the wives happy!!

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Edited by RoadRunner
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That's a sweet day for sure RR!

The Tremblay brothers Jack & Noel run a fine establishment at Lac Moreau.  Sure wish the trail thru the Haute Gorges was still open to snowmobiles.  Some of my favorite rides in PQ were thru the Gorges.  The Relais at the bottom had the best hot chocolate! One can only wish one day it will open again..............

Enjoy!

Edited by Florida Snowman
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Last Day continued

we get gas here in Donaconna. We also go to take care of the waistline at PFK (KFC)  to most of you. During our meal (oh how the mighty have fallen compared to the two dinners at the Fairmont) lol. We chat a bit. Shorter ride to our Yamaha dealer Moto Thibault then back to Chez Ice. We still got 2-3 hrs to go depending. 

We decide it's time to use one of our lifelines and we decide to "Phone a Friend" well two of them. First call Pierre at Moto Thibault. He will be there till 9:30, ok, we arrange it so he will leave us the shop truck there with the keys in it, so we can go up to my house get the truck and trailer and brng both back there. As trailer stays there anyway and boys are making a quick change and even after the marathon day are southbound and down. Drive to NY an all nighter. Second call Snowhorse he is two hours out from chez Ice inbound with kwiknick. Hmmm this is even better. We put him on standy explain our situation he is gonna drive David's truck and trailer to Moto Thibault. We tell him we call him when we are within striking distance. Next call to Mrs Ice. Explaining all this. (Hat's off to my girl who knows tge guys are gonna have a long night so she was in the driveway snow blowing around and cleaning off David's rig when Snowhorse pulled in.) That's my girl. 

Ok feeling better about shaving at least 45 minutes off what's left we head out. 302 groomed a bit here just through town then back to Bobsled run single wide. Made a error and did not go up to trail 3 when I should have and now 302 is getting deeper. I come to a section where everyone turned around. Rut row? I see the next red sticks and go for it...snow is over my bumper and at times up to my headlight but I ain't stopping or looking back. I reach the far side and here are more tracks ok good. We all make it as the freshman have learned quickly today. We had enough of this. We get to a road, Playhards plots a run to join TQ3 by road. Its close. We are going. Up throught this town(too frazzled to remember where) but we cross 40 on the over pass and up the road another 1/2 mile and here we are. On TQ3. Up 3 to 351 near st Anne de la Perade. 351 been well traveled as has TQ3 we get to Champlain and call Snowhorse to head to thr rendezvous. Perfect timing as he just pulled in to my house. Down into Moto Thibault. Shut off sleds. Take a minute to let it soak in that we are here. Group hi fives, and in pulls our ride. Timing. 

Load Trailer put girls to bed. Slide tge toybox into its spot. Pile in the navigator and up to my house so the guys can change and hit the blacktrail.

awesome trip with a great team and glad my Brother in law Al and our buddy Andy got to experience both sides to of QC riding. 

Hell of a run. 

Part 1 was a great ride. 

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29 minutes ago, RoadRunner said:

 

Just before we got to the Groomer, the back back shovel boys had come in L'anse St Jean , behind the Groomer, and we're playing on the side hills. Man can they mess a trail up. It was worse trying to stay in the trail after they had gone thru than before!

 

This is a fact. 

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Awesome last day for sure Don, David, Al & Andy!   You boys had a long & hard trek for sure!   I had gotten gas on 302 in Donaconna also many hours earlier on my sling shot to Motos Thibault.  When you got past Cap Sante and saw where the sled tracks stopped & turned around those were my tracks.  I had been breaking trail for a few miles, realized TQ3 was probably a better option & since I was solo decided to backtrack.  Decided to stay in Saint Raymond for the night and finish the following morning.  Marty & Gary showed up at the Roquemont later that day.

Safe travels on round 2!

Great seeing you at the Fairmont.

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1 hour ago, Florida Snowman said:

That's a sweet day for sure RR!

The Tremblay brothers Jack & Noel run a fine establishment at Lac Moreau.  Sure wish the trail thru the Haute Gorges was still open to snowmobiles.  Some of my favorite rides in PQ were thru the Gorges.  The Relais at the bottom had the best hot chocolate! One can only wish one day it will open again..............

Enjoy!

We talked about that gorge ride yesterday on our way up,  my wife and I were the only ones in this crowd to have done that, it was an awesome trail but I think the snow shoe/ cross country crowd put the end to that??

 

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13 hours ago, Florida Snowman said:

Awesome last day for sure Don, David, Al & Andy!   You boys had a long & hard trek for sure!   I had gotten gas on 302 in Donaconna also many hours earlier on my sling shot to Motos Thibault.  When you got past Cap Sante and saw where the sled tracks stopped & turned around those were my tracks.  I had been breaking trail for a few miles, realized TQ3 was probably a better option & since I was solo decided to backtrack.  Decided to stay in Saint Raymond for the night and finish the following morning.  Marty & Gary showed up at the Roquemont later that day.

Safe travels on round 2!

Great seeing you at the Fairmont.

Ha!  Small world!  I was really tempted to take the photo of that perfect beautiful graceful circle around that electrical tower connected to that perfect trench in (and out), but I was too flustered about the trench ending, and too chicken to take the thumb off the flipper after dark!

Speaking of whittling out a niche "THIS WIDE", for any who haven't experienced it, this is what the Apex sounds like when the train keeps a rollin'...

 

 

Edited by PLAYHARD
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55 minutes ago, PLAYHARD said:

Ha!  Small world!  I was really tempted to take the photo of that perfect beautiful graceful circle around that electrical tower connected to that perfect trench in (and out), but I was too flustered about the trench ending, and too and chicken to take the thumb off the flipper after dark!

Speaking of whittling out a niche "THIS WIDE", for any who haven't experienced it, this is what the Apex sounds like when the train keeps a rollin'...

 

 

I gotta give it to you guys doing that route after me at nighttime no less!

 Kudos!!!

When I bailed on breaking that trail my Apex train was howling!  Had the flipper to the bar and didn't let off!

Fun stuff David!

Edited by Florida Snowman
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We won hearts and minds today, out for a perfect Blue Sky Quebec day trail ride, short ride up to La Baie, lunch and a ride back to the Ravage.  In by 3 PM , Sauana time for the wives...and us. Things are good!  A happy wife is a good wife🍻🍷

Tons of sleds on the trails, I was going to show them the fishing village but it is gone??  I think we interpreted right that the village was removed at the last thaw due to ice conditions?? Anybody know?

Deer, Duck, Elk and Trout tonight, Noel has a full house thus evening! 

Home tomorrow!

Back to Forestville Wednesday night for a boys run.

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15 hours ago, RoadRunner said:

We won hearts and minds today, out for a perfect Blue Sky Quebec day trail ride, short ride up to La Baie, lunch and a ride back to the Ravage.  In by 3 PM , Sauana time for the wives...and us. Things are good!  A happy wife is a good wife🍻🍷

Tons of sleds on the trails, I was going to show them the fishing village but it is gone??  I think we interpreted right that the village was removed at the last thaw due to ice conditions?? Anybody know?

Deer, Duck, Elk and Trout tonight, Noel has a full house thus evening! 

Home tomorrow!

Back to Forestville Wednesday night for a boys run.

RRIMG_0652.thumb.JPG.db08ff8659cd330e4f8e70354253072b.JPGIMG_0653.thumb.JPG.ed9e75c63dafcb468c0365592dff6dab.JPGIMG_0651.thumb.JPG.3703178acabd753d045a206e77619817.JPG

Hi RR

In past years the fishing huts must be off the ice by March 15.  Then they start breaking up the ice with the ice breaker.

Bill

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2 minutes ago, PLAYHARD said:

I couldn't find the "Where am I now" thread, so I'll throw these here:

I TOTALLY respect the wife-riders, but it just isn't Mrs. Playhard's thing. 

Here she is stickering the airport bar in Aruba!...

 

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Nice job by the Mrs. 

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