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Team Iceman 2020 #3 Abitibi


iceman
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Saturday 22 February 

Black Trail Day

Well time is now. Ride them or look at them all off season thinking about where you could have gone. 

We ride again. Snohorse and Kwiknick arrived at Chez Ice. Around 10:15 am. All the hardware is  staged here at my house. Snohorse’s Trailer and Ski Doo’s are here already. Left weeks ago and won’t see US soil until the end. Much easier to travel for the boys without trailer. Why drag it back and forth if you don’t need too. So the 18’ 850 BCX has been in trailer since returning from Saguenay last Sunday. The 19 Freeride 850 was getting a new track installed after Kwiknick burned the 2.6 paddle off it going to Chapais awhile back, Freeride is a backup sled with low miles, Kwiknick has 300 miles on his 2020 Summit Expert 154” 850 3” paddle track. He climbs mountains he loves Chic Chocs. 

The Freeride has been finished and waiting for me to go get it from St. Étienne, I chose to have Mrs. Ice drive me by car to Dealer. It’s a quick rip home from there by trail. In fact quicker than by road. Thursday night i go over with her. Freeride now has 146” 1.75 track. Very exciting for me as it will be the first 2 stroke sled I been on since 2006. Surely a big difference from the Apex XTX. Pretty snappy this thing but not used to big lugs no studs takes a little adjusting to my style. Pretty much any sled it don’t matter the setup if trails are nice, if you are a rider you can adjust your style and get on just fine. Doesn’t take me but a couple lefts and rights and I like this. Feels wicked light so light I am afraid of breaking it in half. Not my yamaha for sure. Nice fun ride back to house. Cool ride and way cool with almost non existent winshield. I liked it. I need to try me a Ace 900turbo just because. Anyway now sleds are all back together at my house and beat the wife home by easily 10 minutes. 

All my gear is packed. My sled is in driveway with Freeride next to it. Waiting. We load Freeride in bed of pickup, its up on the tailgate strapped down solid. Pin the trailer, slip Apex next to BCX in trailer. Gear packed in trailer. Kiss the wife(most important) she is used to winter and me being on trail. On the road 11:00am. 

Quick stop at ATM in Cap de Madeline. Hammer down 40 west. Smooth sail until near Louiseville, detour autoroute is completely shut down. Off onto the 138 seems like an eternity to loop off and parallel the autoroute bumper to bumper. Traffic. Sucks we loose one hour. 

Turns out was a police pursuit of a guy who had threatened suicide earlier and ended with him having his tires spiked loosing control and pretty sure from what i gather he crashed hard and was killed. Big police investigation. 

640 not too bad once on the 15 pretty slow here lots of traffic. We roll pretty steady to Mont Laurier typical stop. Gas candy candy bars some chips. Out of there up 117 hammer down now. Gotta watch it with these temps today very melty. Lots of lakes taking up lanes in places. No joke, water pooling and some places all the way on both sides just to yellow line. Deep too. Need to thread the needle. Most traffic headed down its clear in front. I push to makeup time. Pushed it hard. Touchdown Val D’or. 6:10pm. Checked in unloaded everything. Chilling in room.

Lots of sleds here and lots of trucks and trailers. Tomorrow probably some bingo here and up around Amos and Back. Here again tomorrow night then off to Chapais monday i think, then back through Lebel and up to Matagami Tuesday night. We shall see where the trail takes us.

Playhard we have your Monkers. He rides too. 

 

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14 hours ago, iceman said:

Saturday 22 February 

Black Trail Day

Well time is now. Ride them or look at them all off season thinking about where you could have gone. 

We ride again. Snohorse and Kwiknick arrived at Chez Ice. Around 10:15 am. All the hardware is  staged here at my house. Snohorse’s Trailer and Ski Doo’s are here already. Left weeks ago and won’t see US soil until the end. Much easier to travel for the boys without trailer. Why drag it back and forth if you don’t need too. So the 18’ 850 BCX has been in trailer since returning from Saguenay last Sunday. The 19 Freeride 850 was getting a new track installed after Kwiknick burned the 2.6 paddle off it going to Chapais awhile back, Freeride is a backup sled with low miles, Kwiknick has 300 miles on his 2020 Summit Expert 154” 850 3” paddle track. He climbs mountains he loves Chic Chocs. 

The Freeride has been finished and waiting for me to go get it from St. Étienne, I chose to have Mrs. Ice drive me by car to Dealer. It’s a quick rip home from there by trail. In fact quicker than by road. Thursday night i go over with her. Freeride now has 146” 1.75 track. Very exciting for me as it will be the first 2 stroke sled I been on since 2006. Surely a big difference from the Apex XTX. Pretty snappy this thing but not used to big lugs no studs takes a little adjusting to my style. Pretty much any sled it don’t matter the setup if trails are nice, if you are a rider you can adjust your style and get on just fine. Doesn’t take me but a couple lefts and rights and I like this. Feels wicked light so light I am afraid of breaking it in half. Not my yamaha for sure. Nice fun ride back to house. Cool ride and way cool with almost non existent winshield. I liked it. I need to try me a Ace 900turbo just because. Anyway now sleds are all back together at my house and beat the wife home by easily 10 minutes. 

All my gear is packed. My sled is in driveway with Freeride next to it. Waiting. We load Freeride in bed of pickup, its up on the tailgate strapped down solid. Pin the trailer, slip Apex next to BCX in trailer. Gear packed in trailer. Kiss the wife(most important) she is used to winter and me being on trail. On the road 11:00am. 

Quick stop at ATM in Cap de Madeline. Hammer down 40 west. Smooth sail until near Louiseville, detour autoroute is completely shut down. Off onto the 138 seems like an eternity to loop off and parallel the autoroute bumper to bumper. Traffic. Sucks we loose one hour. 

Turns out was a police pursuit of a guy who had threatened suicide earlier and ended with him having his tires spiked loosing control and pretty sure from what i gather he crashed hard and was killed. Big police investigation. 

640 not too bad once on the 15 pretty slow here lots of traffic. We roll pretty steady to Mont Laurier typical stop. Gas candy candy bars some chips. Out of there up 117 hammer down now. Gotta watch it with these temps today very melty. Lots of lakes taking up lanes in places. No joke, water pooling and some places all the way on both sides just to yellow line. Deep too. Need to thread the needle. Most traffic headed down its clear in front. I push to makeup time. Pushed it hard. Touchdown Val D’or. 6:10pm. Checked in unloaded everything. Chilling in room.

Lots of sleds here and lots of trucks and trailers. Tomorrow probably some bingo here and up around Amos and Back. Here again tomorrow night then off to Chapais monday i think, then back through Lebel and up to Matagami Tuesday night. We shall see where the trail takes us.

Playhard we have your Monkers. He rides too. 

 

40 was still closed when we went through at 3 PM cost us at least a hour and a half. Not complaining though,  that poor soul lost his life

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Sunday 23 February 

We were on the fence as to what to do today. After breakfast we decided to loop out and back to Forestel. Give Kwiknick a day to shakedown the Freeride before we get too far away. 

Spring conditions already after this warm spell. Blacktop at alot of gas stops. Big puddles at road crossings, just sloppy. Trails are hurting. Traffic and not much grooming for sure. Hope it gets better for us because saw alot of junk today. Not so much traffic for a warm Sunday. There was some sections very good. 396 to 307 and the 93 from Amos and down to Seneterre., 83 also from Seneterre back to Val D’or. Nice run for a Sunday. 

252 miles 9:30am to 5:15pm

we will decide in the morning which direction to shoot. 

Todays Ride......

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6 hours ago, PLAYHARD said:

That Nick is a true gentleman!

Bringing along all that spare Apex fuel!

That boy has a heavy flipper finger, he will be needing all that gas. I might get me some of Philly’s if I need.

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Monday 24 February 

I check grooming first thing, as expected not much action. Too warm yesterday and last night. They only thing groomed is trail 313 from Val D’or going up toward 93. Well one is better than nothing. Decision is made it’s gonna be Matagami tonight. 

Quick stop at Beric Sport for the Ski Doo boys. We are out early by our standards, its 9:30 and we are off. Local to 83 then quick run to hang a left on 313. Yes it’s true, fresh groomed. We love it. Fast and smooth. Beautiful run up to 93, then we retrace our path from yesterday a bit over and into Seneterre for gas. Gas and go. Back to 93 and blastoff for Lebel. Have seen no one yet. (Been waiting to give a hand signal watch for it)  I realize it’s Monday and surely less people than yesterday’s ride but surely we are not alone. My spidey sense is tingling. Sure enough along comes the guy and his gang who believe they are all alone. Big wide trail this first guy (black Apex) swinging it wide like he’s driving a tandem trailer or some shit. I see him long before he sees me. Quite funny actually when he realized he had someone coming at him. Anyway it happens everyday. Fast run to Lebel gas, Quick break here and then back to run up the 396. Trails are super up here. From Seneterre to Lebel very nice. 396 is just as good. We hammer it.  Few kilometers before warming hut here is another one thinks he’s on private one way trail. He almost puts it in the trees trying to move over and signal me. He says 1 he has a friend. So for fun as we oftentimes do  We roll to the next corner, for us a hard left for him a right. We like to wait and watch the group take the corner. Then we applaud as they pass right through middle  usually 8 of 10 times. There has been some fresh snow here. So easy to see the tracks. We wait, and wait and wait. Hmmm, maybe this guy is just messing with us. No other rider. Snohorse radios and says “his buddy is off the trail further up” ya think? Sure as hell not far up here he is. Big straight next to road, then for him a sweeper to the right. Only he went straight. You could see he locked her down the fluff helped slow him but he was in there pretty good. Obviously a lack of talent here. Oh well I guess we will. We stop. Snohorse nods and Kwiknick runs over helps pull front end around a bit and yanks ski while guy drives out. Good riddance. What’s next is even scarier. Now I can see their tracks headed down, and to say they were using it all is an understatement. How do people ride that clueless I just do not understand. Break at warming hut, temps not bad here. Clouds kept it colder no sun. Grey flatlight day. Temps falling with light flurries as we pull into Matagami after looping up to Lac Matagami and down. Sweet day. 

Sorry not alot of pics but a few. 

225 miles

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14 minutes ago, zeusand said:

Don, nice moving average speed , I noticed you have it in kilometers. Is that what you prefer? I ask because I know you're from the States originally.

Yes I prefer KM just used to it now. 

 

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2 hours ago, iceman said:

".....What’s next is even scarier. Now I can see their tracks headed down, and to say they were using it all is an understatement. How do people ride that clueless I just do not understand."

It is very unsettling when you see tracks like that on freshly groomed trail. One   thing that really scares me is how they go over a blind hill in the middle or on your side of the trail I don't know how person can have that much nerve  or be that stupid. 

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2 hours ago, Byrd said:

It is very unsettling when you see tracks like that on freshly groomed trail. One   thing that really scares me is how they go over a blind hill in the middle or on your side of the trail I don't know how person can have that much nerve  or be that stupid. 

I think it boils down to stupidity & inexperience!

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9 hours ago, Byrd said:

It is very unsettling when you see tracks like that on freshly groomed trail. One   thing that really scares me is how they go over a blind hill in the middle or on your side of the trail I don't know how person can have that much nerve  or be that stupid. 

X2.    See it way too often

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31 minutes ago, snowmaster2112 said:

I don’t hand signal anymore because of my beloved “Ride Lite”.....but if I see that monkey coming at me this week I’m giving it the finger......LOL

If you see this monkey coming at you this week, either you messed up or I am backing up, he rides on back with me. Only with Playhard is he riding up front. 

B1B93556-F865-4F62-A539-7B2D4C3F5FC5.jpeg

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10 hours ago, snowmaster2112 said:

I don’t hand signal anymore because of my beloved “Ride Lite”.....but if I see that monkey coming at me this week I’m giving it the finger......LOL

Don't be surprised if the monkey gives you one finger back!  

And monkeys love to spread rumors.  "Psst, yo beavers. Guess what Snowmaster's favorite meat is!"    Next thing you know there is a tree across the trail.

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