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North of the Wall. Valin 2019


RoadRunner
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With the summer version Game of Thrones well over and in the history books it is time for the, “Winter Edition” to begin😊.  
 

We have a scouting crew that arrived at the KM 31 Sunday night and are reporting, as many others have, of good snow conditions for our Season opener. Not epic snow, but good snow for Dec 3!   
 

With 2 already at base camp and 5 more headed in Thursday, the games begin on Friday! 
 

We should hear back from our scouts on what roads are plowed this year and which ones are not, than our trips will begin.  As I had mentioned earlier, we have a bunch of the new 850 and 900 T versions of the new Skidoo expeditions to test. One of the scouts yesterday confirmed what the spring riders had said. His comment this morning was “The 850 expedition is a Weapon, he is very impressed”. They logged their first 160 mile ride yesterday.  More to come!
 

Think Snow

 

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A weapon you say, really happy to hear those words from the king of test pilots. All the more to expect from mine when I jump on her.

Looking forward to hearing more reports on those Expeditions in testing.

Enjoy Valin boys.

Edited by Trailblazer
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3 hours ago, Trailblazer said:

A weapon you say, really happy to hear those words from the king of test pilots. All the more to expect from mine when I jump on her.

Looking forward to hearing more reports on those Expeditions in testing.

Enjoy Valin boys.

TB
the scouting crew is cranking on the miles, yesterday they were over in Onatchaway, reports were that while in the Onatchaway park there is heavy logging and plowed  and “sanded” roads again this year, the trail to Onatchaway is good and good snow cover everywhere,

Today the scouts went East, stopped at the club house in Escoumin and as of mid afternoon were in Forestville. More reports from them tonight.  They did say the shortcut trail off 93 , just north of Sacre Coure over to the Escoumin club house is plowed and sanded currently☹️.

As I mentioned earlier, the next reinforcements will be in Valin tomorrow afternoon.  
Loading the 900 Expedition this morning  and as the back up, my last years 900T enduro that has had a few summer modifications . Really anxious to give this a whirl too.
 

Enjoying both backcountry riding and trail riding we are always searching for the best cross over.  So for the enduro, we added the radiator cooling, some front reservoir shocks, and extended the R motion skid to 146 and put the 1.6 ice ripper track on it.  The extension to the r motion rails seems very robust , we did not extend the tunnel but did tilt the rear flap back a few more degrees.  This hopefully will come close to being a “4 stroke Backcountry “ 😀.  LOL.

Valin, here we come!

We will keep you updated on the” Weapon”. Trailblazer!

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2 hours ago, RoadRunner said:

800R,  looks like you hit those trails in mint conditions! Must have felt great the hit the flapper in trails like that!
RR

 

 

 

It was great conditions, had to take it easy for a few miles to break the new sled in but after that it felt good to be back out there.

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Well, kind of on schedule, after a nice greeting with the tourism coordinator in Quebec City who wanted to know where we were going in such a hurry 😉.

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After that we continued on to Valin, and had a nice 75 mile late afternoon ride on the awesome groomed trails here in Valin. 
 

So far both the expedition 850  extremes. Our scouts have over 700 miles logged on them, are a big hit.
 

 The 900 t seemed very responsive too but only 75 miles on that one today , so more to come on that.  these sled will be discussed in depth as we go along..

 

The 850 extreme is putting out very  good fuel mileage( for the conditions)  and low oil consumption so far.  The engine mapping seems near perfect.

 

Happy trails

RR

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On another note, We ran down 93 to the ski slope and up Bra Louis and back around on the trail system yesterday afternoon, we noted, unfortunately, that the lower 5 to 6 miles of the Bras Louis has been rerouted into the woods east of the old route, it’s twisty but smooth enough, so the lower end, Piston Alley, is not being used this year, we did not get a chance to see if they are logging here or something else is going on.  They did spend some resources for the reroute so it must be for the season or longer.  Does anyone know why the reroute?

A loop to Escoumin today, we want to see  if we can find a bypass for the plowed and graveled road that shortcuts over to the Escoumin club house.

 

Happy trails

RR

 

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Yesterday’s rides was intended to go to Escoumin via the cut over trail in Sacre Coure, we knew it was plowed and graveled but we were hoping to find a worm hole around this section.  We spent most of the morning down here seeking but not finding that work around.  The 93 trail south out of KM 31 was near perfect, flat and fast.  Sacre Coure is low snow, so the groomer has only groomed to the sawmill.

Since Thursday. Backcountry rider sand I have logged  just over 300 miles on the new expeditions and I got to ride the 850 version yesterday as well. As I have been sharing, so far we are all very pleased with these sleds.  They handle nicely on the trail and on single track conditions, the 900t is smooth as silk, quiet, and rides awesome. The 850 has that awesome 2 stroke wallop, and is made for more aggression riding, but this sled is an absolute blast to ride,  you have to keep asking yourself, is this really and expedition. 
Running North East today to see what we have for conditions this way

Happy trails

RR

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When I rode the extreme last spring I kept looking back and could not believe that all that sled was back there, it is a really fun ride with the 850, I liked it a lot more than the backcountry I rode for 2 seasons.  I saw those lights and brackets for sale at Troy powerspots in troy New Hampshire, they do ups.

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Hi RR and folks,

It is great to be getting into the snow season.  It has been a long summer and seeing groomed trails brings a smile to my face.  Keep the reports and pictures coming.  We appreciate it.  You are making many riders happy.

Jack & Sandi

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6 hours ago, Kyles dad said:

Where did you get the led lights and brackets?

i bet they work well and way less expensive than OEM. 

Kyles dad, The light is a Rigid E2 10” spot and flood combo, I purchased it on Amazon with the hardware to mount, which is Ram Mount brand hardware.  We have used this light for 6 years, very pleased with it.  Comes complete with a wiring harness as well. 
 

Happy trails RR

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32 minutes ago, revct1 said:

Hi RR and folks,

It is great to be getting into the snow season.  It has been a long summer and seeing groomed trails brings a smile to my face.  Keep the reports and pictures coming.  We appreciate it.  You are making many riders happy.

Jack & Sandi

Revct, great to hear from you,  looking forward to seeing your posts soon!! We had a great day today on the logging roads north of KM 31. A nice 240 mile run with no traffic, as the maintained trails on the mountain this weekend are very busy, we were happy to be back for the day.

 

Happy Trails RR

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RoadRummer,                  Enjoying the stories, sled reports, and pictures. Thank you for taking the time  to post these reports. I really enjoy them and know many others do also..

mike

 

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Hi RR,

We are scheduled to go to the Sag from Christmas to New Year's for our maiden voyage.  We have snow here in CT but no where to ride that is worth while.  Only a couple of  more weeks.  Hopefully we won't get a melt down between now and then.

Someone needs to design a 100 liter tank to mount on the back of the tunnel.  It would be about 165 lbs. plus the weight of the tank and mount.  About the same as a passenger.  Hmm!

Jack & Sandi

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4 hours ago, sledzz said:

Just curious, what is all the fuel for? Are you a guide for some long distance trips?

Thanks for the pictures and reports.

 

Matt

Matt, when we leave here and head north, we try to plan on having a 300 mile range for each sled, some of the expedition sleds can carry that fuel, but the smaller sleds cannot, so we pull sleighs for that capacity.  The added bonus is pulling he sleigh is much easier on the snowmobile than trying to carry it. But we do both.  Today we had a 285 mile ride and turned early because we were concerned with fuel range.  We enjoy these types of adventure rides.  We found good snow North and west of the base camp today, some really good going.31CE41DD-509A-443F-8EF0-13C6B34E4AC5.thumb.jpeg.272ef659f93adfacc7389d06f54f48ba.jpeg0DD44802-AEDE-4725-A130-BFA2634C94C4.thumb.jpeg.c0e8d1fb454fccdd5235adc5f19a9f78.jpeg0DD44802-AEDE-4725-A130-BFA2634C94C4.thumb.jpeg.c0e8d1fb454fccdd5235adc5f19a9f78.jpegBE0FA898-6D78-4DEC-9B2F-79870FAEE853.thumb.jpeg.2fcd87c96daff722148a3c9a5c6f9e7c.jpeg05102264-EB0A-490A-9954-53E6D67948A0.thumb.jpeg.0ae3f3b2055efe80d218d35f2cc2819a.jpegF81B1239-A58B-4A35-AA3B-31E77FB6F121.thumb.jpeg.fca149cb1ca6f7fb2efd6474c3b7893c.jpeg

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On 12/7/2019 at 7:06 PM, mikerider said:

RoadRummer,                  Enjoying the stories, sled reports, and pictures. Thank you for taking the time  to post these reports. I really enjoy them and know many others do also..

mike

 

Mike, it won’t be long and you will be on the snow, hope to see you in RDL this winter.  Happy trails RR

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RR,       Hope we get to at least say hi this winter.

I assume the remote rides you do out of Mt Valin that you are not running into any outfitters etc. that are open and making you lunch or at least a coffee stop. I think most of us reading your posts are riders like myself who like a mid day destination.  If not Club Med, at least a restaurant with some food and a place to unwind and get warmed up.

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Hello RR and Crew,

Been following your adventure like many. I wasn’t familiar with the spec’s for the Expeditions so finally looked them up. 

Here’s the basics for anyone else also interested:

20” track width

154” long, 1.8 inch lug

Intrigued by the Hi/Lo transmission. Was wondering how you were able to haul all that fuel and weight. What kind of speed can you cruise at in Lo Range?

 

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Fuse, 15 gallons of fuel on over the rear seat and storage compartment will weigh 120 lbs.  The sleds manage to haul this weight with the driver being accountable to drive at a reasonable speed according to gallons on rear.  We dump the fuel as quickly as possible.
 

We do use heavier rear springs and install HD bumpers that reinforce the tunnel. We would not intentionally run more than 30 mph in low range. We very rarely do that unless in a very tight, rough trail. 99% of the time we are in high range.  The new chain is very smooth and much quieter than the old XU transmission was. 

Think snow

RR
 
 

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10 hours ago, mikerider said:

RR,       Hope we get to at least say hi this winter.

I assume the remote rides you do out of Mt Valin that you are not running into any outfitters etc. that are open and making you lunch or at least a coffee stop. I think most of us reading your posts are riders like myself who like a mid day destination.  If not Club Med, at least a restaurant with some food and a place to unwind and get warmed up.

Mike, you are right, we usually plan to have our water and a snack with us for lunch as none of the northern outfitters are open for food or fuel.   Yesterday , we were able to get back into Onatchaway for a late bowl of soup. We do enjoy a nice lunch spot but for these early rides many times they are not in the cards.

Happy trails

RR

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