Last nights dinner was a working dinner. But a LOT of laughs were had, all around. Probably one of the most entertaining nights on the trail yet. Unfortunately it’s not suitable for this forum, I don’t remember the details and so on and so forth. You had to be there.
This morning’s snowmobiler’s breakfast was at the standard 7:30am. Naturally, as I made the trek from my room in the lodge accross the parking lot from the main lodge, I passed Yamaha Kevin working on his sled, again this morning. It was deja vu’, as when I went to bed last night, I passed him in the same position then too, just less sunshine.
By 9am we were on the trail, on our way to La Tuque, and the Marineau A La Tuque, our overnight stay tonight. Probably about a 130 miles for our ride today. That would be accurate if we had pulled out of the lodge going the right direction on the trail this morning! Instead we went about 8 miles back down the trail we came in last night. Fortunately, Action Dan and Fearless Craig are quicker learners these days. In the old days, we would have gone 30 miles in the wrong direction before doubling back to the correct direction. Good job gentleman.
As we came back into last nights lodging, we continued accross the parking lot we had just departed from about 40 minutes ago, kept going, like we knew what we were doing, and crossed the lake that the trail departs on for our day.
We stopped around the 90 mile marker at a Relais for a quick lunch. It wasn’t that quick. But it didn’t matter, the sunshine we have enjoyed for the last 6 days was now converted to heavy clouds with heavy snow falling. And we were ready for some fresh snow on the trails.
Relais Du Trapper was very rustic, and with a couple wood burning stoves and a single, one armed gentleman doing all the work… host, order taker, cook and server. As he was cooking our burgers, hot dogs and frites, the small venue began filling with the cooking smoke coming off his hot griddle. Munising Matt opened a door on each side of the small one room building to ventilate a little for us. When the orders would come ready, he was setting them on a tray in the serving window from the kitchen, and Indiana Guy played server to help the gentleman out, and he could keep cooking the meals still to be prepared.
Bond entertained us with an acoustic guitar that Chip Nasty found sitting in a corner, making up his own lyrics to such classics as Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive, and Poison’s Every Rose. Entertaining for sure. Outside, the snow was still falling and putting a nice layer on top of our sleds.
After dinner, the bill was paid, and the gentleman was tipped well for his hard work. We dusted off our machines and continued down the local club trail, headed to Trans Quebec Trail 73. It cannot come soon enough. The local trails we were on today were rough, and we only did 113 miles on them!
At the juncture of Trail 73, we started with a left turn, went 100 yards down the trail, realized it’s the wrong direction, and pulled to a stop. During this hiatus, Bond decided now was the time to get his big Ski Doo Expedition stuck, just like he has told us all week that couldn’t wait to do. He shot to the right up a small hill, crested it, and promptly rolled it. As he was attempting to get up, and sank in snow up to his chest. The rest of us sat on the trail, a couple of us made the comment, well he finally did what he wanted to do.
Action Dan couldn’t wait to mount his new Ski Doo Expedition and go on rescue mission. We watched him disappear over the crest now too. A couple of us softly said to nobody in particular, that somebody is probably going to have to go help those two. Fearless and Stick politely declined, and Munising Matt promptly said, I guess I should go see what’s going on. Sounds good, go ahead.
The rest of us enjoyed the entertainment from the trail, and Connecticut filled us in with the conversation on the other side of the hill, as he and Bond have helmet communicators and he could hear everything being said. Like listening to ball game on a transistor radio when I was a kid. His main narration was “there’s a lot of huffing and puffing”.
Finally back together on the trail, we did a quick U Turn and was on to a much smoother trail for the remainder of the ride in. We got fueled up for tomorrow’s ride, and Yamaha Kevin stopped at the beer store and grabbed us a case of imported Coors Light to enjoy in our “drive up” rooms accomodations tonight.
Dinner is the standard 7pm call time for chow. We gathered in Yamaha Kevin’s room (he had the cold Coors Light on the sidewalk outside his room) and Bond was playing videos on his laptop of some videos that Indiana Guy has made from the GoPro attached to his sled. Quite humorous the things we see and discuss when there is evidence to the storys we hear about at night.
The Darkside Team would like to give a shout out to Mama Nasty back home following Chip Nasty’s exploits on the trail. Apparently she caught up on Frostbytes yesterday, and when Chip Nasty got in last night, he had a voicemail from Mama Nasty wanting to know what he has done to get his new moniker.
Hell Fire, I almost forgot an important detail of the day… Fearless Craig, a true blue, dye in the wool Yamaha man, took Munising Matt’s Superior Bombardier Product for a good ride down the trail today. Could we be witnessing a conversion that nobody could suspect? I can’t wait to find out either!
Double Double, Same Ole Same Old, bye for now…
Stick
