Saint Zenon – Chibougamau Loop

[Banker]

My apologies for not reporting trailside; just thought I would share our recent trip.

 

A group of us (normally 6, but 7 this year), had our annual trip planned to leave out of Mont Laurier on Thursday 1/18, riding West through Val D’Or, up to Matagami, and around the Abitibi Region.  As everyone does, we were checking conditions and reading everything we could on QR the week before leaving.  Things were not looking good, especially in the Mont Laurier area.  Executive decision on the Tuesday before to reroute the trip.  We’ll head East and North as the conditions looked much better.  Changed our starting point from Mont Laurier to LeCabanon; a few phone calls later and reservations were changed (funny how you plan the trip for 6 months and can then re-plan it in only a couple of hours 😊).

 

 

Day 1 - Thursday 1/18 – Drive to St. Zenon.  Stay at Auberge LeCabanon.  Short trial ride to Le Glaciere to test everything out (50 miles) – 2 brand new sleds making the trip this year.

[Banker]

Day 2 - Friday 1/19 – LeCabanon to Roberval.  23 to 345 to 360 to Mattawin for fuel.  The trails around LeCabanon had “enough” snow, but could certainly use more.  They really did a great job with the snow that they had – groomed flat and safe.  As we got closer to Mattawin, the snow depth improved, but the grooming was not as good.  Everything was acceptable.  360 out of Mattawin to 355 North towards Lac Edouard.  355 was very rough until we hit the rail bridge.  From there North into Lac Edouard was groomed.  Stopped in Lac Edouard for lunch and fuel and then onward towards Lac Bouchette.  Rough again all the way to 83.  83 into Roberval for the night.  It was getting thin again as we got closer to Roberval; groomed but they could use more snow.  Hotel Chateau Roberval for the night.  260 miles for the day.

[Banker]

Day 3 - Saturday 1/20 -  Roberval to Chibougamau. 373 North to Saint Felicien.  20 miles of pure torture.  Hind-sight is 20/20 for sure.  Everyone talks about the wind-blown fields around Roberval.  We know this and have seen it first hand in the past.  This was nothing we could have imagined.  Essentially no snow for much of the 20 miles (at least it was frozen).  I would call it impassable, but we did it.  If they didn’t get new snow with the last storm, I would not recommend this section.  In hind-sight we should have probably added a day and went around the lake to the East.  Funny when you’re in it – are we almost out of it, or should we turn around?  Oh well, the 20 mile mistake was behind us.  Fortunately, nobody overheated, and nobody broke anything.  We find snow in Saint Felicien, a quick apology to the sleds and on we go.  373 to La Dore, top off on gas and hit 93 North to the Saw Mill.  There was some grooming around Saint Felicien and La Dore, but as we headed North, no signs of a groomer.  We stop at the saw mill for gas and a quick snack and then on to Chibougamau.  Nothing groomed until we get closer to Chibougamau.  Into the Nordic for the night.  205 miles for the day.

[Banker]

Day 4 - Sunday 1/21 - Chibougamau to Lac Faillon.  Minus 17F as we head out.  Trails were in excellent condition.  Groomed wide and safe.  A beautiful morning to ride.  Stop in Chapais to top off on gas (figure if we have an issue in Desmaraisville, we have a shot at making Quevillon; if we don’t top off, we have no shot; everyone on a 1200 Renegade that we’ve yet to run dry; but, we have a 900 Ace in the hole this year, he’ll bail us out for sure 😊).  Down 93/the railroad bed - they’ve rerouted us off of the rail bed in what seemed like about 50% of the trail.  A nice change for sure!  The railroad bed is fun for about an hour or so, then it tends to get old imo.  We pass the groomer on the way to Desmaraisville, even before him, these were the best trails we’ve seen so far.  Thank you!  Into Desmaraisville for gas, and then onto Quevillon and Seneterre.  These trails were in excellent shape.  Seems as though they always are.  Top off in Seneterre and then onto 83 heading East towards Lac Faillon.  We pull in around 6:00 with 305 miles for the day.  Slight issue with our reservation – seems as though they were expecting us on February 21^st, and not January 21^st.  No worries they say; we have the place to ourselves and they’ll get supper started.  Very friendly and accommodating!  Got to catch the end of the football game, had a great meal and a great time.  We’ll be back for sure!

[Banker]

Day 5 - Monday 1/22 -  Lac Faillon to Fer A Cheval.  Out the door around 9:00am.  83 towards Clova.  Trails were in OK shape into Clova.  Stop in Clova for lunch and gas, and then onward toward Parent and the Jct with 13.  There was some logging around the junction, but it wasn’t terrible.  Onto 13 heading South towards Fer Cheval.  Crossed the new bridge over the river and the trails were excellent all the way along the river into Fer Cheval.  Got in around 4:30 with 200 miles for the day.  Another excellent meal and stay in the Condos at Fer Cheval.  We’ll be back again.

[Banker]

Day 6 - Tuesday 1/23 - Fer A Cheval to Windigo.  We wake up to some new snow which was great to see, but now it’s spitting a little freezing rain.  We hear reports of LOTS of freezing rain to the South.  Right where we are supposed to be heading for the day (Saint Zenon area).  The area was a little light on snow when we started, so now we’re a little concerned.  Executive decision time – after breakfast we make a call to Martine at Windigo.  She says no problem, see you tonight.  We’ve never been; we were supposed to go last year but had an issue and never made it there.  Out the door around 9:00am with a “nice easy day planned”.  No such thing as we all know 😊.  As we’re leaving, it’s still freezing rain a bit.  One of the guys says “well I’ll take this over rain any day”.  Sounded good at the time.  Wrong!  We head North on 13 to catch 83 towards Parent.  We gas up in Parent and the freezing rain starts to pick up as we leave.  Do we stop for lunch and hope it passes, or push on.  We decide to push on.  As we get closer to Wemo, it’s REAL bad.  Everyone is plugged in, but that’s no help.  We could only go about 2 miles at a time and we’d have to stop altogether to clear shields as they were completely iced over.  You could ride for about a mile using your left hand as a constant windshield wiper (and I mean constant), then lift your shield and ride for about another mile until the pain was unbearable, then it was time to stop and start all over again.  This was going to be a LONG day.  We make it to Wemo and stop for gas.  As we’re there, it starts to turn to snow.  Thank goodness.  We leave Wemo on 83 and most of the freezing rain had passed.  We’d hit it occasionally, but it was at least manageable now.  East to the local trail down to Windigo.  We get in around 5:00 with 200 miles for the day.  Again, we have the place to ourselves.  Excellent meal, hospitality, and accommodations!  Sorry we haven’t been here before now, and we’ll definitely be back.

[Banker]

Day 7 - Wednesday 1/24 - Windigo to Mekoos. Wake up to a great breakfast, grab enough gas to get us back to Wemo and off we go.  Same route we came in yesterday (83 West back towards Parent).  What a difference a day makes.  We don’t love to backtrack, but we didn’t see a thing on this route yesterday.  Seemed like a completely different ride.  83 needs grooming!  The roads around Wemo were fine, but when things narrowed up they got rough.  Doesn’t look like it’s seen a groomer in quite some time.  We hop on 345 and head south towards Kanawata.  As we get closer to Kanawata, the trails turn real nice.  Groomed wide and flat.  A nice ride down past Kanawata and onto Repos.  Everything was good in that area.  We stop at Repos for gas and lunch.  It was busy as usual, but we were in and out in no time.  Onto 33 heading East towards Manawan.  We weren’t looking forward to this.  It was groomed nicely as we left Repos, but then, as we expected, as we get closer to Manawan, the trails are beat up real bad.  Not sure we’ve ever been through this section on smooth trails.  Yuk.  We take the Manawan bypass (to avoid town), but continue the beatings for about 30 miles.  We also catch a section (5.5 miles to be exact) of active logging.  Very little to no snow on the road, and it’s sanded to boot.  We were glad to get on snow again.  We catch a break later on 33 where it’s been freshly groomed.  I’m thinking we’re good to go all the way to Mekoos but this only lasts for about 20 miles or so as we head South on 53  We seem to lose the groomer (not sure where he went).  The last 50 miles on 53 and 319 into Mekoos are pretty rough as well.  We get into Mekoos around 6:00, tired and bruised, with 252 miles for the day.  Bobby, Sebastian and company always take good care of us.  A nice cabin, nice meal and a great atmosphere.  Always love coming here.

[Banker]

Day 8 - Thursday 1/25 - Mekoos to LeCabanon.  We step outside our cabin at 7:00am to this very loud howl.  Takes us a minute and we realize the sled dogs live just on the other side of the woods from us.  They must have been hungry for breakfast as they were all howling in unison.  Pretty cool to hear.  We had planned to take the southern routes back to LeCabanon, but Bobby says to stay North.  Parts of 319 and 63 along the rail bed are closed due to lack of snow.  Decision made, we head North the way we came in.  Yuk; back through Manawan.  Out 319, up 53 North onto 33 heading East.  Manawan was worse than yesterday.  We had checked the grooming reports before we left and it looked like Manawan to Repos had been groomed.  We all have our fingers crossed.  33 towards Manawan, across the bypass, and boom; there were the fresh groomer tracks.  Thank you!  Groomed nice into Repos.  We stop for gas and lunch again, déjà vu.  Out of Repos on 33 heading South, jump onto the lakes and head all the way down until we can jump back on 33.  33 for a short bit until we hit Canada Adventure, and then onto Lac Taureau.  Quick stop at the tepees for some pictures and then South to Saint Michel and then 63 into LeCabanon.  In around 4:00 with 165 miles for the day.  The trails around Saint Zenon could use more snow, but again they had done a great job with the snow that they have.

[Banker]

Day 9 – out of the truck compound at 7:00am heading back to the States.  Minus 26F when we left and we beat the weekend crowd.

 

1600 miles for the week (had to make a quick trip around the lake before we parked them just to turn over the 1600 😊).  For this trip we went where we saw snow – made some changes before we left and then one time in the middle of the trip.  Every trip is an adventure.  No issues for any of the 7 sleds (although my reverse would not engage after day 2; that was more of a nuisance than an issue; read something about that happening on some Ski Doo’s riding lots of miles in Quebec; maybe creates a ridge or groove on one of the gears preventing it from shifting into reverse? oh well, it’s at the dealer now under warranty; we’ll see what they say).  We had another great trip!!  We took a vote at dinner – good vs. not so good trail conditions for the week – the score was about 40% good vs. 60% not so good.  Not sure we’ve ever had that.  Oh well; still nobody complaining.  Hopefully they get more snow and the groomers can do their magic.

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[603backcountry]

nice report thank you

[smclelan]

Sounds like an adventure!  No worries with the reverse, if it was like mine it is a minor adjustment in the linkage.

 

 

[Florida Snowman]

Thanks for the reporting & pictures Banker!

Snowmotouring is ALWAYS an adventure indeed.  

At Lac Faillon was Gastone the dog still there?  I know Peter had sold the business in 2016 to his brother Francois.   

 

Edited January 28, 2018 by Florida Snowman

[Je me souviens]

Nice run. Great report. Good pics. 

[mikerider]

Nice report, enjoyed reading it. Thanks for posting.

mike

 

[viper2]

Interesting trip for sure, sounds like we made the right choice. We had planned to do Western Quebec this year leaving from Mont Laurier but changed to the Gaspè leaving from the Universal in RDL  a few days before because of conditions. Just on our way home now, the Gaspè is in great shape for anyone thinking about it

[actionjack]

Excellent report. 

[Phil 1]

If it is a manual reverse shut motor off and it will engage, my 1200 just began doing the same thing. Seems a common problem.

Great report thanks.

[markusvt]

Dealer will re-index the gears under warranty.  It will only get worse if you don't.

[iceman]

Awesome trip report. Much appreciated. Nice job!

[Phil 1]

39 minutes ago, markusvt said:

Dealer will re-index the gears under warranty.  It will only get worse if you don't.

Mark re-index the gears? I hope my dealer is capable of this repair it is a pain to shut the damn thing off every time I need reverse. Do you know if Doo has a bulletin on this? I understand it is a common problem.