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Joliette/St-Zenon photo ride report 12january2019


towing
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Back to sledding for our first 2019 ride, the snow cover has improved and the trail network get pretty much completed in the south of the region while it is already well run further north. Being able to start from home we then  improvise our ride that happened to be this in the end


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It was pretty cold yesterday, -21C blue jay day, top conditions to have beautiful trails. Here in the fields near home in Joliette direction


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To go toward St-Félix de Valois the trail configuration have been modified to pass nearer of Joliette city just behind Lapointe sport brp dealer

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Here is a screen shot of the interactive map for this sector and I added in red dashed the old approximate route for Joliette (who is not there anymore) just to give you an idea of the change. On the interactive map the trail to St-Norbert is still in red today but I confirm that it was groomed yesterday, we passed there on our return

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Here near Notre Dame de Lourdes where the old junction was in the past years

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We then crossed St-Felix and continued north. The small club shack that was in the same place for years has been moved
 a hundred meters in the woods just behind where it was and the trail path rearranged a little differently but as before, left St-Jean de Matha and right St-Gabriel de Brandon


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the snow condition is very good everywhere, here taking the old railway bed near St-Cléophas


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And here just behind St-Gabriel de Brandon city

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And here, riding up the big hill in St-Damien

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We continued straight on #23 toward St-Zénon. Snow is obviously even better going norther, both on the ground and in the trees


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Another important change, the #350 coming from Koubec now arrives on the #23  five miles south of Real Massé instead of  five miles north. We came back from this side in the afternoon

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The interactive map has also been updated, the red trail showing the old closed route and the #350 trail in green below representing the reality

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We continued through the #23, past Réal Massé ...

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we then turned left on the # 350 toward La Glacière. Another interesting change there, the trail instead of going through the big hills now pass by the old route of several years ago. Some may recognize this big gazebo left on the trail side


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Just infront, the magnificent auberge de la pourvoirie St-Zenon! I was so surprised to pass there that I had not even think to stop for lunch but by looking on https://www.snowmobilecountry.ca/en/ they are really open. I put them on the bucket list for a next time...


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We continued just a little further to La Glaciere

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Where we had already planned to stop for lunch

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After warming up with a good meal we continued on #63 trail toward St-Zénon village

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And then north of the village we continued toward Le Cabanon

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There was a small segment of an half mile that was really rought on this trail,  We then know from the Cabanon that this is because the dozer is not able to climb one of the icy hill just before ... The new dozers with rubber tracks spin on the ice while the old Gilberts with steel bars tracks were able to climb up ... the club will have to find a solution.

Otherwise the snow is really good in this area, impressive how it increased in the last month.


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We stopped to refuel the venture at Cabanon.

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And then took the  #23 toward south

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We then forked into the Mastigouche reserve still via #23 east

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The Mastigouche Reserve was one of the first places to ride this season and is still top notch. Here a picnic table buried under the snow

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We then turned on the #345 south to go down toward Koubec. We just went into the yard and continued, there were many sledders there!

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We turned to continue the #345  and then switch on the #350 a little further continuing west

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it's here that the #350 route is changing this year. There is this indication and the trail turns to the left


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A brand new trail to discover in Zec des Nymphes, very panoramic on the first part. In fact this new trail sectiion has everything from great fast stretch to narrow zipper on the mountainside!

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We then ended up on the #23 trail five miles south of Real Massé where we already pass in the morning. We took it south and took a break a little further at the restaurant of the Pourvoirie St-Damien. We must have passed 100 times infront since all these years but we were never stopped. They are well installed, a beautiful fireplace inside with bar and dining room. It was a particularly cold day yesterday and the hot chocolate was really nice!


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We then continued south, here the setting sun just south of St-Gabriel de Brandon

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We then continued on #63 trail to go toward St-Norbert. Here the sun lying behind us when crossing the # 347 road

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We then went through the local trail from St. Norbert/St-Elizabeth to St-Thomas which was closed in the morning. this trail had just been groomed during the day and had no time to harden so not very nicel but with a couple of days and  a couple grooming pass it will be top shape. We finally got home around 5:15 pm with a little over 191 miles on the dreammeter. In the end a beautiful ride with very nice conditions overall but pretty cold despite the beautiful sun.

The season is well started, the trail network is pretty much connected to travel between the regions, you can take a look here to have some more details of the areas you want to ride: https://www.snowmobilecountry.ca/en/conditions/

the best of the sledding season is beginning. It's time to enjoy!

Alain

Edited by towing
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On 1/13/2019 at 8:26 PM, viper2 said:

Looks like you had a good ride Alain, the snow is there for sure

Was one cold and sunny,  I'm at planning a two day ride for the next weekend and seems it will be a cold and snowy! pretty much snow on the forecast...

On 1/13/2019 at 8:54 PM, mrgrumpers said:

Alain, again another amazing report.  I enjoy reading these over and over.  Thanks for the continued posting of the reports.

Thank you mrgrumpers ! should have some more to come...

On 1/13/2019 at 9:01 PM, Cobra said:

Hey Alain, looks like you had excellent ride!!!!.Noticed a lot of changes myself on certain trails while I was in your back yard.

Ride on my friend!!!!

Chris

Yeah, at least with the interactive map, it can be updated now and those changes give us the chance to ride some new spots in our same area. 

On 1/13/2019 at 9:01 PM, snowmaster2112 said:

Perfect day. Glad you had a great ride. So glad to see the areas all good with snow now. 

Saturday cant come soon enough. 

Seems we will have a cold and snowy weekend so you will play in powder!  There are big chances that I spend the saturday night at relais 22 if you are in the area...

19 hours ago, Carman said:

Great report Alain, I really enjoyed reading it and the pictures are beautiful. 

Thank you Carman! The beauty of the pics are really from my best half talent with her old camera. I will have to improvise if I want to post something from my next weekend ride because she won't be with me for this next one.

12 hours ago, Trailblazer said:

I’m happy to see the trails are that nice that far south, means less of a drive for me. Lapointe Sport 1 hour to the trail. Another storm should bring southern trails connected.

I'm impressed myself too and it seems the next snow layer is already on the way!

5 hours ago, grumpysanta said:

SUPER looking pics. and good to see u can leave from home.. Hope to see u soon..

 

Thanks Grumpysanta, always nice to start from the backdoor! would be nice to meet you on the trail.

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