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Trip Report


kgallis
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Last trip of the year-

I left Havre de Grace, MD at 6:00 pm on Friday, March 14th and headed north. I met up with my brother and friend Bill in Scranton, PA, hitched up the trailer and headed off to QC. The ride up to Bernards was uneventful, with the exception of some freezing rain on the 401 across Ontario. We arrived at Bernards at 7:00 am Saturday morning. My sled sounded louder than normal when we took it off the trailer and it turned out that my "Y" pipe had a hole rusted in it. It took an hour to swap it with the one from our spare sled. Bernard has a nice heated garage that made the work much easier. We headed out around 10:00 and arrived in LaTuque at 2:00. After lunch at Motel 9 (I can't remember the exact name, it is the first hotel coming into LaTuque on Rt 73), we decided to spend the night since we drove all night the night before. We got 100 miles for the day and the trails were excellent.

Sunday

We left the motel in LaTuque and headed up 73. 73 was excellent, groomed to perfection. We also got about 4" of snow the night before which made the trails even better. We had lunch at Relay 22 and continued on to Chateau Roberval. There was one bad section of trail at about 20 miles south of Roberval. It was so bad I thought we were on Tug Hill in NY, but it only lasted about 20 miles. We finished the day with 200 miles. Other than that one section, the trails were great.

Monday

We headed north on 83 up the west side of the lake and then picked up 93 east. It was a bright sunny day and the trails were flat and fast. We ran into 6 guys from Ontario along the way, but they were the only sleds we saw. We arrived at the Passions by the ski resort on 93 near Mt Valin by 4:00. We finished up the day with 185 miles. The trails were perfect.

Tuesday

We headed through Valin on 93, gassed up at Auberge 32 and continued on to Tudassac. 93 through the mountains was groomed to perfection and with the bright sun and warm temperatures (high 20's), it was one of the nicest riding days that we ever had. We took the ferry across the Saguenay river and continued on Rt 3 to the Casino. We stayed up the just up the hill from the Casino. We finished with about 165 miles.

Wednesday

There was a storm coming into the area and we decided to cut the trip one day short and head back to Bernards. We got on the trails at ~ 9 am and headed west on rt 3. About three hours into the trip, it started to snow. It snowed heavy and being able to see the trail was as we approached Shawinigan was difficult. There was about 6" of snow on the ground when we arrived at Bernards, soaking wet. Other than the visibility problems, it was another great day of riding on trails that were excellent. 260 miles for the day.

We left for home for the next day with about 925 miles for the trip. The got about 10" of snow total for the storm and there is a ton of snow everywhere in QC. It is not a question of how long you can ride this year, but a question of when they will stop grooming. This was one of the best trips that we have done to date, with the near freezing temperatures, the bright sunny days and the excellent trails. We only saw about 25 or 30 other sleds all week long. Now it's time to get the boat ready- it goes in the Chesapeake on April 15th. Our season is over for this year. I finished up with 2200 miles, all ridden in QC- not too bad for living in MD.

I'll post some pic's in a few.

Karl

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a few pic's

deep snow on 73

a river along rt 93 (I think)

93 north of Lac St Jean

River along RT 93 near Valin

BJ on 93 in the Valin Mts

Crossing the Saguenay River on the Ferry

BJ overlooking the St Lawrence on Rt 3

A shot of the Hotel next to the Casino

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Hi Karl,

Sounds like an awesome trip.

Any more thoughts what next years sled will be? Yamaha or SkiDoo?

Mike

Hi Mike,

I have 7,010 miles on my '05 500SS. I stopped in our Doo dealer on Saturday to inquire about some new iron. They would only give me $2500 on a trade for an '09 E-tech TNT, which means about $6800 out of pocket for a new one. I really don't want to spend that much money for a new sled, especially since I only get to ride for three weeks a year. It looks like I'm going to run my sled for another year or two. I'll go through the whole machine in the off season and replace broken/worn parts as needed. My bro and I also have another '05 500 SS that we bought for my dad. It only has 1800 miles on it so I can run that as well (my dad has been going to florida in the winter and not using the sled too much). It really sucks that sleds are getting so expensive. I'm going to wait at least another year before I pull the trigger on a new one.

Karl

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