My recollection was correct… the ONION soup at Auberge 31 is a solid 4.0. With a little persuasion, and a little more begging, I asked Natalie, our bar maid, waitress/server, and bar maid (yes I know I repeated “bar maid”, it was the chronological order of things) for the last 2 days, if I could please get ONION soup before my lasagna dinner. I must be living right, because she said for a small up charge, tonight, I could have the ONION soup. And for dessert, I had the chocolate cake with raspberry drizzle, and I pushed my luck and asked to have it a’la mode with a scoop of vanilla icecream… Natalie must’ve taken a shine to me, she gave me the scoop of vanilla with no extra charge. I also noticed Action Dan’s and Bond’s choclate cake come al’a mode, as well as Muninsing Matt’s suger (coma) pie. Guess the shine didn’t last.
Departure time was 9am, and the Sunshine shining accross the lake, and beating the trail ahead of us. The first 20-25 miles was a little messy with small roller moguls, but then opened up to a fun ride all day long. Lotsa straightaways and soft turns you could see through and keep the momentum rolling. Still warm compared to what we are used too, but the plan is working out… Later departure, more sunlight, warmer temps.
We stopped at a relais on the trail for a quick lunch of tomatoe with noodle soup, grilled cheeses, burgers all dressed, and club sandwiches. We gained another Facetube follower with Josee’ the waitress, cashier that helped us today. Very nice relais on the trai, Relias des Labrecque that is supported by the local club that also maintains the trails in the area, has a pretty full menu and is a fine stop along the trail to warm up on a cold day.
But this wasn’t a cold day, and we were walking back to our sleds carrying our coats and helmets, and gettying trail ready at a leisurely pace at our sleds, accross the road. There wasn’t much hurry, because we had to add some more coolant to Indiana Jeff’s Arctic Cat, because he has been heating up on the trail with our warmer temps (plus his coolant was low, nice ride prep Indiana Jeff). But we were soon back on the trail, sunshine shining. Fun trails to rip down, and not much traffic on a Tuesday afternoon is nowhere Quebec.
But too much of anything can lead to trouble. Hedgehog making a semi tight left turn, felt a little lazy and didn’t put much effort into his turn (his words) , and was off trail, and tyring to tackle a birch tree. I couldn’t get a picture quick enough to show the full effect, because Connecticut Jim was quick on the rescue to get Hedgehog out of the snowditch and back on the trail ( I have already had a private conversation with Connecticut to slow his rescue, once he knows the rider is ok… we need pics, bro, we’re writing a blog here). But to answer the question, a hedgehog could have chucked about an 4” Birch.
We got into Dobeau-Mistassini and the Auberge la Diligence, our overnight stay for today, around 4:30pm. 165 Ski Doo miles. Good day, no rush, good trails, sunshine shining. Plan is on.
Our Auberge, (lodging) does not have a dinner restaurant, nor bar, and there are 5 taxis scheduled to take us to dinner at their sister hotel accross town about 12 minutes, where there is a dinner restaurant and bar. But fortunately for us, while the rest of Darkside was showering and unpacking, Munising Matt and his partner were busy hitching a ride down the road to get the Team a case of tasty Labatt Bleue, and Coors Light. Nice treat after a warm shower.
We hung in Munising Matt’s and his partner’s room until the taxi call time, enjoying tasty beverages until the 6:30pm call time/taxi ride. Our five taxi’s ended up being one taxi making 5 trips. Double double while we wait for all Teammembers to arrive.
I’m uploading pictures finally because we have some decent wifi, you will have to use your imagination of where they belong…
Double Double, Same Ole Same Old, bye for now…
Stick
