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I'm truly deplorable.  I absolutely LIVE for enjoying anyone's and everyone's ride reports, then I finally get out there and get caught up with being out there and stay up too late and wake up too early and don't frickin post?!  So sorry!  Here's a bit of last week's ride snippets:

Sunday Auburge Drakkar, great to see Reggie and be back in Shawini after the too-long off-season.  Kick-ass visit for eats & brews at the Devil's Hole. Congrats to them for naming an obscene price for their commercial production business and Molson-Coors paying it!‎ (Rumor is near $50mil: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/trou-du-diable-joins-the-ranks-of-six-pints-specialty-beer-company-656394273.html)

Monday 1/15 Day #1) Truck to Trois Rivières to the sled shop to take delivery of the new love of my life. There's not a thing wrong with the old '13 XTX except a new Ice-Ripper after 20k miles. But this '18 model was last-call for this platform.

 

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First fill up of fun-juice in Cap-de-la-Madeleine and we were off for a 4 day bagger. Four of us with totally different riding experiences ranging from Virgin to Addict, but all great on the chemistry.

Had some drifted up & whooped out fields on the first leg over to Grand Mere, then up the river with some single track up top by Mekinac but all pretty smooth. North & west of the river we had the trails we came for.  

After the river we got gas @ Mattawin, no need for a sit-down lunch across the street @ Marineau‎, so we grabbed some deppenauer snacks and continued across the top of Reserve Mastigouche. We had some fluff and mostly indy track. Really hard base with plenty on top. Pretty cold when out of the sun, but no complaints.

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West of the park plenty of refrozen ice spots across the trails from the warm up, some puckery "hang on" moments, but most patches groomed flat to the trail.

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Some needed navigation, but almost all are frozen solid:

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The very cool (and English speaking) groomer out of Canad Adventure was kind enough to wait with me while my guys caught up and passed safely:

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Then on to a fine dinner & cocktails @ Auberge du Lac Taureau. No gas dude on duty. Waited a while at -15f. Dinner time!  Came to find out the next day he was colder than we were, walking a mile and a half in from the lake where his sled went kaput, but he had a GREAT attitude about it! Anyway, too bad our first day was so long that we had no umph to drag our sorry butts to the pool: 

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To be continued...

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Edited by PLAYHARD
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Tuesday 1/16 Day #2) Gourmet buffet & gassed up at Taureau. Plan A was to continue west to Rabaska. Dominique was terrific checking on real-deal trail conditions for us. Said it was definitely all open. But we opted to stay closer to a destination. So we headed straight north up 33. One scratcher down was plenty.

Arrived at Repo a little early for gas & soup & chocolat chaud @ 11:30. Perfect timing to beat the Cabanon lunch mob by a few minutes.

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South on 345. Perfect conditions (especially on the far right)!

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In to the center of the snowmobiling universe to top off with the legendary Dennis @ Cabannon.

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He sent us on the shorter cut to Auberge du Vieux Moulin by taking 23s to 350w thru La Glaciere, vs 63 all the way. In any case we found the snow was better toward the east of that area.

 

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Another great stay with Sylvie & Yves & Sortilage maple whiskey. And another night of the gang opting for beds vs hitting the indoor pool or outdoor hut tub.

 

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Edited by PLAYHARD
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bonjour playhard !!!

 

groomer operator speaking english....that worth a piece of pizza !!! ahaha

just curious.....did you notice the extra tank behind window was for ???.....hydraulic oil...extra fuel ???

 

 

jean-guy

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Wednesday 1/17 Day #3) Cook your own toast on the wood burning cast iron stove in the dining room to go with a great dejeuner. The Mighty Thor did some iceberg removal.

Decisions-decisions… With the skinny snow & ice patches around the western Laurentides we head back east to position day 4 without bags out of Drakkar in Shawinigan Sud (QR Supporting Advertiser thanks to Iceman).

We pass down to Real Masse just to check the box as we would have stayed there if we’d made it out to Rabaska. Top off at La Glaciere. Then 350e & 345n & 23e.

Mother Goose takes the point on the Apex and I took tailgunner postion with a Vector, destination Saccacomie for lunch. Oops, combination of HP & old GPS maps & their 8’ billboard facing east (and MINT trail conditions) we blew right by there. OK!

Burgers at Ralais de Pins? Nope, boarded up. OK! Burgers at Relais Trappeur? Nope, closed until 6:30 supper. OK! What are all of these signs for Chez Natalie? She’s GOT TO have burgers right?

Oops got a little unbunched out of Trappeur. My bad not staying together where it’s a little ziggy-zaggy out back. Sgt. Soto does perfectly with his family Disney play: “Get to the place we last saw each other!”  Voila! 

On to the old Cabane Hill and guess what Chez Natalie does not have any of @ 4:00!... NO cheeburger-cheeburger. Melody highly recommends the steak hache w/frites and accommodates with warm rolls, for THE BEST deconstructed burgers w/poutine EVER! 

(I just noticed a lot of my commentary has nothing to do with actual sledding. Hmm.)

Snapped the pic at the ski hill on 23e then topped off at Petroplus northeast side of Shawinigan and dropped onto Grand Mere. Took that south under the bridges to the local to hook up with 3w to the local to Drakkar.

All day excellent conditions east of 63. Reggie joined the gents’ cigar fest in his heated garage with another round of Sortilage.

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Edited by PLAYHARD
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Thursday 1/18 Day #4) Lunch run to The Roquemont St Raymond. Tr 3e, thru Chez Roger (closed), down to 351ne (fast & wide as usual). Visit Centre de Peche Marchand in St Anne de la Perade. Trailside rendezvous with Iceman & Snohorse! Little detour just before St Ray (prob washout from the rain?) off 23 over to 73, same miles to The Roq. Saw Team Iceman again there. Chow & gas & return on 351sw right into gas & home base in Cap de la Madeleine.

 Total miles 680’ish

 LOVING the ’18 Apex XTX. Single can for both front shocks (YRSS) really does feels flat. And 146 Ice Attack XT out back doesn’t feel “long” at all. Didn’t bother recording fuel mileage during break-in, but it seemed close to the ’13 @ 100+ miles per tank.

Red!...

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White!...

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And Blue!...

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New toy delivery in St Raymond!...

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Damn, gotta turn in the toys in Trois Riviere already?!...

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The Man, the Myth, the Legend, Mssr Iceman...

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Edited by PLAYHARD
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57 minutes ago, groomer said:

just curious.....did you notice the extra tank behind window was for ???.....

Sorry JG!  I didn't notice.  I was concentrating on begging the operator to not go forward into the twisties!

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Great report thank you for posting. Heading up in 2 weeks for the Saint Zenon area and you did most of the loops my dad is interested in doing. 

 

Looking forward to the snow they are going to receive in the next two weeks so it can only get better one hopes.

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10 hours ago, groomer said:

bonjour playhard !!!

 

groomer operator speaking english....that worth a piece of pizza !!! ahaha

just curious.....did you notice the extra tank behind window was for ???.....hydraulic oil...extra fuel ???

 

 

jean-guy

Hi JG, 

to me looks like Hydraulic tank probably for the drag. Could be extra diesel though. Good Question.

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18 hours ago, iceman said:

Hi JG, 

to me looks like Hydraulic tank probably for the drag. Could be extra diesel though. Good Question.

 

hi iceman !!!

 

thought about that again yesterday.....looking at the size of the tank......you must be right....hydraulic oil tank !!!

 

great pics and video playhard...nice shots !!!!

 

 

jean-guy

 

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I am thinking it is an auxiliary fuel tank, there is more than enough oil in the tractors normal hydraulic system to run the drag.  Once you start grooming there is usually only one cylinder that runs the level on the drag and the front blade up and down.   I bet that is fuel and it drains directly into the tractors main tank for 12hr or longer grooming session.

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2 minutes ago, smclelan said:

I am thinking it is an auxiliary fuel tank, there is more than enough oil in the tractors normal hydraulic system to run the drag.  Once you start grooming there is usually only one cylinder that runs the level on the drag and the front blade up and down.   I bet that is fuel and it drains directly into the tractors main tank for 12hr or longer grooming session.

Surely Possible. No doubt. Makes sense to me. 

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