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Ender Spring Fling 22’


iceman
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20 March Sunday

After a painful wait these last few weeks, watching the Meltdown commence at home. I am trading in my 12 wheeler for my snowmobile. We have regrouped and waited it out due to commitments on all sides we had no choice. But we got the band back together all three of us. Playhard is back with me and we got none other than NHmoose back in la belle province. So great to see John. Playhard arrived at 6:15 chez ice. Made quick work of loading my gear. Pinned the trailer I had prepositioned Saturday for launch today from home, All locked and loaded. Playhard visited with Caro and the kids while I ate as many as i could of the “Baby Arm” chicken tenders playhard smuggled in from Champlain on the other side..Damn good . Time to Roll, said goodbye to Mrs Ice. I took the wheel enough hours for him. Rain on off alll day in Shawinigan yesterday and most of today....Wet all the way to just near Levis now snowing. Not white knuckle but a few iffy spots for sure. Backed it way down compared to if i was seeing a dry black trail. We landed in RDL late at 10:30. NHmoose already arrived and did recon checking some trailheads. All good here its golden 2 more weeks easy I do believe. After that still will be good but I doubt grooming will continue. We are headed east. 

 

Edited by iceman
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12 noon now looks like the boyz just made Nascar speed on the Ramouski power lines.

3:15 Taking Gaz Mt Joli

5 pm now guessing Matane Evening Rest stop

7 hours ridden sleds. You Guys are Rock Stars !

Edited by Snohorse
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21 March Monday

 

Fair amount of activity at RDL Universel has alot of trucks and trailers for sure. We had breakfast and then finished getting sleds on the ground and packing them up. Secured trucks and trailers and pulled out just around 10am. No worries as temps are great and we got all day. We called an audible with the late arrival last night knowing we would not be out early. We switched up for Matane a shorter run but give a chance to shake it all down. Originally it was St Anne des Monts. Good call. Lots of snow all the way to Matane. I was here a year ago on this date and it was down to dirt in many places then. Not this year. It’s normal to be Asphalt in all the gas and hotels by this time of year. Rough trail from RDL to Rimouski needs a grooming, with temps dropping at night they will be grooming. Lots of flat light today and reading trail. Despite rough trail we made good time the XTX was eating up the bumps at speed but with the flat light the occasional bigger bumps were not easy to see before its too late. Then it breaks your rhythm and you need to wind it back up again full well knowing there are more of those ahead. Sections of bumps seemed to never end then some decent stuff then back to bumps. Hard to explain. Into the front Door at Rimouski went to a gas stotion I never been to before. Got a Tim Hortons right next door. Always good finding new stuff. Roughness continues to just after Rimouski. Not terrible close to Mont Joli it’s colder here and snow feels different not as wet as closer to RDL. Outside of Mont Joli, we cross paths with MXsenior and Wild Bill his partner. We chat fir awhile. We are all headed to Matane. We leap frog with them all the way to Matane. Hoping to see some more grooming on the map tomorrow. Inevitably that will determine our next move. Sweet ride nonetheless and great to be back out with NHmoose and Playhard. 

5pm arrival at Hotel. Think like 178miles. 

 

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I hope you find some flat trails.  Our experience two weeks ago was rough and rougher unfortunately.  Seemed that the clubs just aren't able to keep up with the traffic.  Weather isn't helping them any either (storms, high winds and warm temps).  Further east around Cap Chat and east was better though.  Have fun.

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Nothing to do with QR'ing, but Resto-Bar l'Imprévu, inside Hôtel Quality Inn & Suites Matane, does a fine job in the kitchen & out front.

And we appreciate that some QR's appreciate food-porn, so we hearby submit Shepherd's Pie & Fried Brie & Classic Poutine:& Wings...

 

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Saturday was our last day riding there. We rode down the 595 30 km from the 5 towards LaCache. It was getting choppy on Saturday and l see it still hasn’t been groomed since.

Have you guys ever went to the lookout on Mont Joesph. About 10 km north of the Carleton clubhouse on the orange trail. Over looks Carleton Seur Mer. As good or better than the Mont Saint Pierre lookout.http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_03/A9ECE4BB-337C-4FCB-A052-001ABF46C3E8.thumb.jpeg.b05ef833251ceaa45d374f9edaa74337.jpeghttp://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_03/4964600C-8153-427C-BCFD-AE6718650D95.thumb.jpeg.540b47ad911d8db1c1fb48eb3d37288a.jpeg

D0D5A706-F94F-4358-9ABB-AE6097C82E86.jpeg

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looks like the three amigos got a earlier start before 9. 

East on 5. 11:45 at St Paulin club house 5-595. Continuing East on 5.

11:30 Gaz Cap Chat

1:38 Gaz La Marte

4:07 Guessing Mt Sainte Pierre Layover

Edited by Snohorse
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17 minutes ago, Snohorse said:

looks like the three amigos got a earlier start before 9. 

East on 5. 11:45 at St Paulin club house 5-595. Continuing East on 5.

My bet is they make happy hour at the Copper Hotel by 5:00 pm

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10 hours ago, Snohorse said:

looks like the three amigos got a earlier start before 9. 

East on 5. 11:45 at St Paulin club house 5-595. Continuing East on 5.

11:30 Gaz Cap Chat

1:38 Gaz La Marte

4:07 Guessing Mt Sainte Pierre Layover

You stalking me?

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14 hours ago, Fuse6 said:

Saturday was our last day riding there. We rode down the 595 30 km from the 5 towards LaCache. It was getting choppy on Saturday and l see it still hasn’t been groomed since.

Have you guys ever went to the lookout on Mont Joesph. About 10 km north of the Carleton clubhouse on the orange trail. Over looks Carleton Seur Mer. As good or better than the Mont Saint Pierre lookout.http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_03/A9ECE4BB-337C-4FCB-A052-001ABF46C3E8.thumb.jpeg.b05ef833251ceaa45d374f9edaa74337.jpeghttp://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_03/4964600C-8153-427C-BCFD-AE6718650D95.thumb.jpeg.540b47ad911d8db1c1fb48eb3d37288a.jpeg

http://quebecrider.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_03/D0D5A706-F94F-4358-9ABB-AE6097C82E86.thumb.jpeg.78746da627e58a715ff8b79db79acc9d.jpeg

The view from there is fantastic. Both summer and winter. Jim and I went up there in the summer more than ten years ago and the a few years ago when we did our annual snowmobile trip .Jim posted that trip in the Gaspe section.

 Thanks for posting.

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22 March Tuesday 

 

Great stay in Matane. Nice chatting it up with MXsenior and wild bill during dinner and breakfast. Cloudy skies nice cool temps. Decent start this morning, early as hell compared to say a gentlemen of leisure morning. Had to get the reverse linkage checked on Playhards Apex. Headed to Boutique Moto they took it right in Serge tightens things up and fixed it no problem. He even let me borrow a cordless drill to poke two holes in my running boards for my saddle bag binder strap. NHmoose (aka MacGyver) had a spare set bolted on his sled he was not using and hooked me up. Liiterally! He is the man. Any ride with NHmoose? yes please. All sorted we go. 

 

Leaving Matane not terrible excellent for this time of year. We saw no grooming this morning up to La Cache on 595 or the Murdochville trail from 595. Mission aborted. More promising purple trail recently groomed is 5 straight shot to Mont St Pierre. So it shall be. We will revisit the other route when we like the color better. 

After St Adelme it is now snowing and pretty good too. No raging blizzrd but enough. 

Up at elevations was easily 8-10 if not 12” of fluffy stuff. Minimal traffic. i am following tracks east 2 sleds. Eventually the snow has erased these. Breaking trail fresh fluffy goodness march 22. Snow gets heavier and continues all the way thru Cap Chat (gas n go) confirmed by Snohorse. Then really snowing east of St Anne des Monts. We are having fun. 

 

Riding the twin this week. aquired a second 18 Apex XTX But these twins are not Identical. This one has a 1.5” track and I love it. Liked it yesterday on all different types of trail. Loved Loved it today in the fresh snow. It hooks up and very little track spin. Rides night and day different then how my first born 18 Apex XTX rides. Shows me i need to tweek the first sled and mirror the adjustments on the second sled. 

 

Picking sticks. Oh how much fun it is trying to find that next set of sticks. Those red sticks are hard to come by sometimes. One set at a time we pick our way east. 2 sticks are awesome. When you are on what looks like the moon and there are big wide open areas up on top. No tracks to follow. Its one pair at a time. Then you realize the next pair is not a pair there is only one. Damn single stick. It’s like....left or right take you pick. Not easy to figure it out in this kind of weather. We make it to La Marte and use the self sreve gas. Working perfectly. 

 

By mid morning, the Skidoo’s center shock decided to call it quits. Springy, but no compression or rebound dampening, making an abrupt transition to the coupling blocks on the bigger bumps.

 

Called all around, none available quickly out here, only in Montreal.  Parts shortages like everything else. Stopped at Yamaha dealer in Mt St Pierre, Pierre got us up on the lift ASAP, confirmed trailside diagnosis. Pierre had located some used shocks but would be mid day tomorrow, and no guarantee it would work. Awesome effort, but not in the schedule.  Cranked up the center and torsion spring preloads, good enough to keep rolling. its just all been groomed way out here and fluff on top, so it should be cushy enough. Will have a shock delivered to Amqui to pick up on our way through in a couple days to cure the problem.

 

Theres more but not tonight. 

To be continued...

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16 hours ago, Fuse6 said:

Have you guys ever went to the lookout on Mont Joesph. About 10 km north of the Carleton clubhouse on the orange trail. Over looks Carleton Seur Mer. As good or better than the Mont Saint Pierre lookout

We love most Oranges, but HELL YES, we love all of those over Carlton!  Great pics!

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35 minutes ago, iceman said:

Picking sticks. Oh how much fun it is trying to find that next set of sticks. Those red sticks are hard to come by sometimes. One set at a time we pick our way east. 2 sticks are awesome. When you are on what looks like the moon and there are big wide open areas up on top. No tracks to follow. Its one pair at a time. Then you realize the next pair is not a pair there is only one. Damn single stick. It’s like....left or right take you pick. Not easy to figure it out in this kind of weather. We make it to La Marte and use the self sreve gas. Working perfectly. 

For real for real, great job on the point today mon ami, different type of fun, definitely puckery at times, we'll be jonesing for it all summer!

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