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St-Gabriel de Brandon/St-Michel des Saints photo ride report 27 déc 2017


towing
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Even if the trails have begun to be groomed  near my home in St-Thomas de Joliette, considering that it is very recent and with the deep cold (-29C in the morning) the fields trails are less attracting so we decided to make our late start more north in wooden sections from St-Gabriel de Brandon to have a lunch at St-Michel des Saints. Here is the final trail path.

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Krikri and I dropped the trailer at the St-Gabriel de Brandon Highschool where the trail passes in the courtyard.

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Short stop at the Belvedere for a final adjustment of our clothes to fix all the air infiltration in this cold day,  still around -25C at 10:30

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and we start riding on #63 North

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The trail was not freshly groomed but correct on this  season's beginning where the club is still on opening their trails and install their signs. The fields north of St-Gabriel still lack some snow but ride fine. Here in the big hills in St-Damien


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Once up snow is good

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And the scenery snowy too

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A little north of Pourvoirie St-Damien, St-Charles de Mandeville snowmobile club had freshly groomed their trail: perfect as a carpet


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My sweetheart  was at trying a gift of mine: an heated jacket + heated gloves! What a good day to try them!

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She had always refused to try one before, but she was delighted with the result. Not only her body stay warm but the thin heated gloves are really a big plus for her that get her hand out her mitt to take pictures. I am myself impressed that even at this cold temperature she only kept the heat setting at minimum most of the day to be confortable.

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The snow is surprising on some spots

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It's the same every time when riding in very cold conditions: trails are mint and almost no traffic

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All these beautiful trails for us alone ... or almost!

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A short stop in Réal's yard to check if my Krikri was frozen

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She's almost overheat she says !!! Ya I know her helmet is the next upgrade but I have to convice her to make the move. She tend to keep her old stuff very long time... something good for me i guess!

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So we continue on #23 north

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Still on #23 in Cabanon direction

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A couple of other braves in the cold

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In the spruce section

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Pass the Cabanon

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And take the #63 north towards St-Michel des Saints

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very nice

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It is a trail with a more rocky base so was not surprised to hear a couple of tocs in the skis but really much less than I expected. The new snowmobile club of St-Michel had reworked the base of trail in the fall which helped a lot. Also the last section of trail that brings us to the bottom of Trinity mountain goes through a new path a little further south.

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We stopped for lunch at the Vieux Moulin à Scie restaurant in St-Michel des Saints. We had 2 nice surprises there: a work colleague and also another friend, Red here on the forums with which we had ride a few years ago. He joined us for our lunch.

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After a good meal in good company and fuelup for the sled, we left with our friend Red to make a loop on the west side  on #33trail

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Next we headed west towards the Rouge-Mattawin relay. The snow is good but it was a little weird because some segments are like in the middle of winter but others seem to just open with some little twigs in the bottom of the trail but in any case it was riding well.

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We passed the Rouge-Mattawin relay

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The # 33 south towards Coin Lavigne was very nicel.  It was already a bit dark to pic while riding, and at this temperature our old Sony had a hard time ...  


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We took a local orange trail and with the #63 got to the Glaciere where we stopped for a nice hot chocolate break. After warming up, we left on the #350 to join #23 and resume on our morning path to St-Gabriel de Brandon while our friend Red returned on the #23 north to the Cabanon to join his sweatheart.

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The return went well and we got back to the trailer at around 6 pm with 150 miles on the dreammeter. A beautiful ride for us in real winter conditions.

Even though it's still season's beginning  the conditions are already very good in the north and with the cold temperatures on the weather forecast and the snow received in the last week, no doubt the trail network will continue to grow up quickly in the next few days. You can  have a look here to see the latest developments on the trail conditions, updates are frequent:

 https://www.snowmobilecountry.ca/en/conditions/
 

Bye!

Alain

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Alian, 

thank you for the great report and picture , Plan to be in that area mid feb for several days of riding with my wife .

i will need to take some clues from you on daily loops 

 

schooter

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3 hours ago, schooter said:

Alian, 

thank you for the great report and picture , Plan to be in that area mid feb for several days of riding with my wife .

i will need to take some clues from you on daily loops 

 

schooter

I will be offline for the next days but will be back in a week. Come back to me at this time with the kind of mileage/day your looking for and I will give you some good hints. Feel free to post the question on the forum too, alot of knowledge and experience here on QR

3 hours ago, Ferrarif40 said:

Great report, I love riding in that area ! I'm curious about the heated jacket your wife has. Does it plug into your machine or is it a separate battery ? My wife is always cold no matter what I try.

the one I bought is a Venture heated vest (no link with my sled model name) they sold them alot to motorcyclist in summer. 

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It heat every where even in the collar! I personnaly connect the wiring directly on the sled battery with the supplied fused harness. The vest have an integrated control button on the bottom left to choose low/medium/high setting but when dressed up with few layers over the button had been hard to reach so i also bought the remote control that is small and can be put on an handle bar or a pocket. Kristine had kept it in her mitt and played with it while riding. She also appreciate alot the thin gloves that also heat pretty much. A great buy that will help her appreciate the ride even more than before.

 

 

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11 hours ago, towing said:

I will be offline for the next days but will be back in a week. Come back to me at this time with the kind of mileage/day your looking for and I will give you some good hints. Feel free to post the question on the forum too, alot of knowledge and experience here on QR

the one I bought is a Venture heated vest (no link with my sled model name) they sold them alot to motorcyclist in summer. 

DSC02771_zpsiczynyhh.jpg

It heat every where even in the collar! I personnaly connect the wiring directly on the sled battery with the supplied fused harness. The vest have an integrated control button on the bottom left to choose low/medium/high setting but when dressed up with few layers over the button had been hard to reach so i also bought the remote control that is small and can be put on an handle bar or a pocket. Kristine had kept it in her mitt and played with it while riding. She also appreciate alot the thin gloves that also heat pretty much. A great buy that will help her appreciate the ride even more than before.

 

 

Thanks for the reply, great tip on the wiring directly to the battery !

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Nice report Alain, looking good up there. Ferrarif40, my wife has some heated gear that she has been using for about 3 seasons. Pants, jacket, socks and gloves.She wears it as a mid layer and everything links together and is controlled by a rheostat knob I mounted on the handlebars. It is made by First Gear if I can I will find a link

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 30/12/2017 at 8:05 AM, snowfarmer said:

Nice report Alain!

Happy New Year and keep them coming!

 

I'm back on-line!  Happy New Year to you snowfarmer and all QC riders readers here!!!

Wish you many healthy miles and smiles this year

Alain

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