FrostBytes Day 3, 2-22-2020… Sunshine Shining, But Cloudy Heads This Morning!

Dinner last night was perfect.  Seated in the dining room of the lodge, dinner was going to be a served at a leisurely pace.  A couple of Rodney Strong Cabarets were de-corked. 

Some of the choices from last night’s chef’s menu was a Salmon appetizer, Bison beef slider, shrimp & scallop, Duck, or for upgrade there was the tasty sirloin.  Gourmet for sure.

The after dinner is when today’s cloudy heads rolled in last evening.  When I snuck out the back door to my room, Slackin Dan, formerly ACTION Dan, was leaning against the bar like a palm tree in a hurricane (*credit Dylan for that analogy), with Dylan next to him speaking Portugese.  There were a few others holding the bar up as well, but I didn’t have a view of their status.  This year’s motto, Double Double, is really taking a toll! Even Munising Matt is in… he only drinks Coors Light, but he orders them two at time now.

Breakfast was at 7:30am and it took until 8am for everyone to be at the table.  I counted at least 4 sets of bloodshot, puffy eyes, and moans & groans as the last few arrived.  Breakfast was the snowmobiler special with your choice of egg style.  I didn’t see the chicken that was roaming the lodge last night, so I’m sure it was busy preparing the main ingredient to our breakfast?  What’s with a chicken roaming around the lodge, free range?  Can’t make this stuff up.

We were on the trail by 9:05am, and smooth trails were rode.  Not a very good news day again.  Oh wait, Yamaha Rob went off trail, hit a rock, and split his skis around a tree. Stopped just before connecting with the front bumper.  Ron and Chip Nasty pulling on Snobungees’ and we had him back on the trail within minutes.  Huffing and puffing, but we got him out.

And just before that, Yamaha Kevin felt something in his Yamaha steering/suspension.  At our next pull over on the trail, for a quick break, he noticed the sway bar on the right hand side of his Yamaha, had broken.  He spent lunch searching the web on his phone flipping between Yamaha/Arctic Cat dealers nearby, and shopping the Ski Doo site.

We crossed the Saguenay River by open deck ferry.  UNBEIEVABLE!!  The ferry was loading as we were coming of the trail directly across from the port for the ferry, and we were first to load… If any of my 8 followers recall, our percentage ratios for on time ferry trips is lacking.

We stopped just after de-boarding the ferry for a quick lunch at the restaurant/motel on the trail.  We actually stayed here, I think, 2 years ago, when weather and trail conditions would not let us make it to our scheduled reservation one evening.

We thought it was another 20-30 miles to our evening stay, after lunch, and it wound up being right about 10.  We are at Club Tadoussac  with a total of 100 Ski Doo miles today.  Beautiful trails, sunny blue skies, just a tad warm at 35 degrees.  I’m pretty sure everybody dropped a layer for todays’ ride, and it is supposed to be a high of 40 on Monday. 

Our lodging tonight is cabins around a lake.  We are split into 3 cabins, and are currently sitting in our cabin, enjoying an adult beverage, telling lies and making memories.  Compliments to the lodge owner for taking one of the Indiana guys up to the corner store for the adult beverages, in his Ford truck,  as there is no bar at this location.  Should make for less clouds in the morning.  We shall see.  Dinner is at 7pm at the main lodge, back up the trail a couple hundred yards. 

Double Double, Same Ole Same Old, and bye for now…

Stick

PS: I have pictures but not good enough of wifi to load, coming soon…

FrostBytes Day 2, 2/21/2020… Double Double

This morning’s ride was scheduled for a 9am departure.  Per usual, Connecticut Jim had to thaw the steering on his Yamaha, using the hotel room trash can filled with hot water.  Speaking of Connecticut, if you recall he made the author’s trip last year when he stepped up and bought a new Yamaha Sidewinder on our trip.  He now has over 6000 miles on this sled.  Pretty impressive Connecticut.

After that, we were headed out the freshly groomed trail, on our way to Pourvoirie Du Lac Moreau Auberge du Ravage.  This should be one of our first lodges on the trail that will be tolerating our Tom Foolery.

The temps were a bit warmer this morning, and the sun shine is still shining.  The temps are predicted to continue rising over the next days, and one less layer of clothing will probably be in store for us.  Looks like our plan is falling into place with the later Trip schedule this year.  We shall see…

The trails were smooth and quick. Our first stop was around the 65 mile marker for fuel.  We did do a quick loop around another fuel station around the 30 mile marker, which I found strange so soon in the day.  I quickly realized our trail guides just followed the wrong trail signage!  Loop around the gas station like rookies and back on the trail.

Our fuel stop was after our approximate 25 mile blast thru …..National Forest.  This is a fast ride with wide sweeping turns, and quite a bit of fun. 

After the gas stop, we went a few miles up the trail, and had lunch.  I walked to my seat next to Fearless Leader Craig, seated at a table with Action Dan and Kevin the Brinch, and stated “I remember eating lunch at a place like this before!”  Fearless replied “Yea, it was here!”  To aid my defense, they changed the tables and their positions in the room (my story, dispute it if you have first hand knowledge).

Lunch was chicken noodle soup, no chicken, just broth and noodles and a couple carrots, and a grilled cheese.  Nice trail warmer right there.  A short lunch stop and back to the trails of Quebec that keep bringing us back.  Nice pace, soft turns, not a lot of work, smooth and fun.

We arrived at the Auberge du Ravage right around 3pm.  Slow news day for your writer.  We are at a beautiful lodge in the woods.  All the rooms are upstairs along an open balcony overlooking the open lodge sitting rooms, pool table, and, of course, the corner bar we are gathered at.  Dylan and Matt (we will introduce Matt and the rest of the Indiana Gang at a later date, when I’m not sucking up my evening writing two blogs to catch up) are playing pool, our dinner time is set for 6:30pm and it’s a tasty menu in store for us, with choices such as duck, scallops, salmon, and beef to choose from.  Double Doubles are being served, trash talk trashing, and a great group of snowmobile fans are enjoying a peaceful easy ride thru the Bush of Quebec.

Double Double, Same Ole Same Ole, bye for now…

Stick

PS: I do not have wifi/cell service, I will post when its available.

FrostBytes Day 1 2/20/2020… It’s All About Ron

Last night’s dinner was fantastic, as expected.  The ONION soup was absolutely a 4.5 STAR, and the pasta dishes are always top notch.    Unfortunately for our author, the Onion Soup and the Lasagna put me into a food coma, and it was not long after dinner that I tucked myself away for the night.

This morning’s scheduled departure time was 8:30am.  We were gathered and ready by 8:15am, standing in the -13 degree parking lot, waiting for Action Dan to finish his last minute sled check, double check and triple check.  Our first scheduled stop is the Ski Doo dealer, 15 miles up the trail.

We need the Ski Doo dealer because Ron’s Superior Bombardier Product need a nut for his suspension’s left side spring, as it currently dragging on the track.  Nice Pre Trip sled inspection Ron, ready for the trail, eh?

We are only at the Ski Doo dealer for approximately 30 minutes as members of the group join together and jump in to solve the problem.  The area that this Ski Doo dealer is in is a obviously a major tourist area.  While we were there, a Guide departed with about 20 2up sleds with a group from Switzerland that was in town for a pee wee hockey tournament.  The rental room looked like a ski lodge rental room, with all the gear and protective equipment necessary to outfit such a large group for their day’s expedition.

Back on trail, off we went with the sun shine shining, and the pack gelled nicely into formation.  We actually got to have lunch today at our gas stop too!  Lotsa cheeseburgers all dressed was for lunch, and delicious chick pea soup!

Oh yea, Ron found a bad spot on the trail.  It was right in front of tree off the right side of the trail.  Apparently the snow dust conditions and the Sunshine shining thru a break in the trees in the turn, got him sidetracked.  I don’t know, 12 other sleds made the turn.  But with Stick pulling on his Snowbungee, and Ron working the throttle, we were back on the trail pretty quick.

Today’s ride was intentionally made longer, if anybody watched our Spot Tracker, as our night’s destination was only about 100 miles away, and there are lots of loop trails in the area to sight see.  However, we may have made a few too many miles as the day wore on.  We fueled around the 65 mile mark, and we were now approaching 175 miles, and sleds were getting thirsty.  Kevin the Brinch ran out of fuel, and had to tap Connecticut Jim’s gas caddy for a couple gallons to get in.  The rest of us rode in with a bright orange gas pump light burning our retinas.  We ended with about 194 Ski Doo miles at our final destination.

A large hotel, I don’t know the name, if it’s that important for you check the website, with a No Vacancy notice posted on the door.  Fortunately, Fearless Leader Craig got the right night for our reservation, and we were in like Flint.  The place was filled with high school age kids and their chaperones, probably for a hockey tournament.

Dinner here was average, and the standard hotel food.  However they did have a strong  representation of Chinese food?  After dinner is when the fun and memories began.

 We retired to the quaint 6-7 person seating bar the rest was standing room, in the dining room, and continued ordering our Double Doubles (Dylan & Stick have added a variation to the Double Double, by now just saying Same Ole Same Ole after three).  While overcoming our language barrier obstacles in ordering our beverages of choice, a gentleman, seated with his 21 year old son, explained to us that “they don’t speak English”.  We all chuckled at this, and began to engage in conversation with the two. 

Come to find out they are from Pittsburgh, Pa. USA.  It is their first trip to Quebec.  As conversation developed, the son, Bryce Evans had talked his father into bringing him to a local Red Bull Ice Cross 2020 where Bryce is attempting to quality for the USA Team for, what we understand, to be a season long series. (an example of a track layout can be, if I did it correctly, viewed here https://www.redbull.com/int-en/videos/red-bull-ice-cross-world-championship-atsx500-quebec-3d-track-animation.)  Bryce was quite a conversationalist, and very nice young man.  We had many laughs at his expense, as when he got quiet, he was contemplating and rewatching the track layout for tomorrows qualifying race he was about to encounter, and he would mutter “it’s freaking steep” with a slow shake of his head.

As our conversation wondered on, and the Darkside Team continued with Same Ole, young Brice was sipping his soft drink, while is father sipped a cold beer, shaking his head at times as well, as if saying “what has my kid talked me into taking him too?”.  As our conversation continued Stick posed USA team hopeful… “This is obviously not a cheap endeavor… do you have any sponsors?”  Bryce replied “No… well one guy at home gave me $100 for gas!”  I went further and said “I bet I could get this Darkside Team to pony up $500 in sponsorship money, if you were interested in wearing a DarksideAdventures.com sticker on your helmet!”  Bryce’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”  and before you knew it $600 was collected, Bryce was getting his helmet from his room, and Stick was getting a handful of stickers from his sled for our new Sponsoree.  Not long after, our future Red Bull athlete was off to bed, and his father continued on with the Darkside Team for “just one more”. 

Good Luck to Bryce Evans as he competes on Friday February 21, 2020 for his “Lose Yourself” moment! (credit Eminem) Go get ‘em Kid!!

 Not long after, the rest of the Team was dispersing back to their rooms for night of rest before the next days ride.

But that rest was short lived too!  Around 12:50am the power went out in the hotel.  My life support machine (cpap) was sucked into my face, and wide awake I was.  After 15 minutes of trying to find a working plug in my room in a drunken stooper, I was finally convinced the power was out in my room.  I opened my room door, and the hallway was dark.  Using the light on my iPhone, I staggered down the long hallway to the stairwell, trudged down to the first floor lobby, also blacked out, and heard voices down one more floor in the mechanical room.  I continued my search for electricity when I finally came across the voices I heard, and it was the Hotel manager and an electrician playing with the breaker box. 

After my presence was noticed, the manager, in a perhaps perturbed demeanor, questioned my presence.  I simply said I can’t sleep, I can breathe, making a hand gesture of a mask over my face, as my attempt to translate my dilemma.  He, again not so accommodating, replied “yes, a CPAP” and returned to his desperate attempts to correct the situation with the electrician.  I wandered back to my room on the second floor in the dark, and was resolved that I had just checked into the Hotel California.  The power did come back on about 20 minutes later, and I survived the night.

Tomorrow’s ride is about 150 miles, estimated, and is a nice lodge in the woods.  Tune in tomorrow to see what the trail holds in store for us.

Double Double, Same Ole Same Ole, bye for now…                             

Stick

FrostBytes Pre-Ride Day 2... If Today's Travel Conditions Are An Indicater... We Are Off To A Good Start

(Above is Action Dan’s 900 Turbo, which happens to match his yellow Dodge in the background)

After our celebratory reunion last night in Kingston, most of the group was feeling ready for our final leg by road to Pont Rouge, Quebec, and the Bon Air Motel, where we launch on sleds from tomorrow. There were a couple cloudy heads this morning, but your author was not one!

We departed Kingston around 8:45am and the roads were dry, and the sunshine shining. Much better travel conditions than we encountered last year! A couple stops to stretch, one for fuel, and we arrived at the Bon Air around 2:30pm. Let me repeat that…2:30pm!!! That is so not in our playbook, I can only hope our luck continues. The guys from Indiana had a pretty heavy foot and actually arrived about a 1/2 hour before the other two trucks, but who can blame them for their enthusiasm!

We weren’t in the parking lot long, before we began our checking into rooms, unloading gear, and finally our sleds. During this process, our East Coast Team arrived, consisting of Connecticut Jim, Bond, Rob and ChipDip. Chip’s arrival was eagerly anticipated by his wingman Ron! There is some serious separation issues with those two? After quick bro hugs and fist bumps amongst the fully gathered Team, the unloading process resumed. And man, have a couple of these guys gotten serious about their sleds. (As a side bar, the monkeys from the East Coast have been in Quebec since Saturday, and have already put 600 miles down)

Action Dan and Bond each have new Ski Doo Expeditions with a 20” wide and 154” long tracks. These machines are monsters, and their cargo systems can make you envious. If they have a repeat of last year’s off trail adventures, and are stuck in the woods for an evening, they are PREPARED. Check out the pictures of these beasts above and below…

(above is Bonds 850 Ski Doo)

The tribe of 13 monkeys are now gathered in the motel bar/restaurant, having translation issues with the bar maid, attempting to find out if they sell Federation Trail Permits for a few of us that didn’t pre purchase our trail permits, prior to our arrival. This may take a while…

If I recall, dinner should be excellent. I believe the ONION soup here is one of the best that Truck Driver Vinnie and I found on the trail…4.5 stars out of 5, if I recall. Vinnie you can comment what you recall.

Well I have to sign off now, we have to figure out this trail permit thing. It appears my blog device is now the trail device… we shall see.

We will be Skis Up around 9am tomorrow, headed to Baie-Saint-Paul (for the record, I asked our Fearless leader where we were going, and he didn’t recall, he said “check the website”… oh boy, here we go) Apparently he DOES recall it is only about 100 miles to our destination, but there are several paths there, and we may do some sight seeing of the St Laurence Seaway, after we get past Quebec City. I won’t hold my breath.

Bye for now, and Double Double…

Stick

DarkSide Adventures 2020... A New Decade... And Going Nomad

Wow.  Here we are. 2020. A new decade, a new adventure.  I haven’t used my Surface Pro since the last day of this trip LAST year.  Took me 20 minutes of updates and 5 text messages to my Tech Support (Thank you Mrs. Mitchell) to get live again.  And here we go…

The DarkSide Adventures group gathered at our  Launch location around 8am eastern time in Fenton MI.  Most of the group gathered for a Pre-Departure celebration at the Fenton Hotel last night to “warm up the trail” so to speak.

You may have noticed, our you may not have, that our trip is a bit later than prior years.  This was “by design”, so the idea is we may have more snow, more sunlight, and warmer temps during the excursion this year.  We shall see.

We were on the road by 8:40am, with a scheduled first stop of Grace Performance Motor Sports outside Port Huron, MI. Action Dan and his new Superior Bombardier Product (wink wink Ole) needed to return a couple add on parts, Craig and Hedgehog (Phil) bought some new MotorFist gloves, while the rest of us worked with Kevin while he still comes to terms with purchasing a new Ski Doo 900 turbo (he is still riding his Yamaha Sidewinder, but we’re making progress).

We were soon back on the road… time to get to our layover stop of Kingston. We trucked along pretty well, after our obligatory stop at the Duty Store to stock up on provisionals. The weather was mostly cloudy, mostly dry roads, and not much issues (shocking for this group), and arrived around 4:30pm.

We have 3 trucks and trailers, 13 riders, and all the excitement that our group of monkeys can handle.  I stand corrected, we currently have 9 monkeys, as 4 of our chimps have been in Quebec since Saturday (Connecticut Jim, Bond… Dylan Bond, Rob, and ChipDip are getting some pre ride fun in already).  This group arrived in our usual layover of Kingston ON, around 4:30pm today.  We are currently gathered at the Boston Pizza across the parking lot from our room at the Courtyard by Marriott.  A new decade, same scenery.

We have 3 new members in the group this year, and we will introduce you to them when I have more time and less technical issues than I have had tonight. But so far the group is excited and anticipating a good ride.

(To bring you up to date, I have had to depart the Boston Pizza and revert back to the hotel lobby bar for better wifi service. If these technical issues do not improve soon, you may all be left behind, just saying… facts ain’t funny)

We are expecting 3-6 inches of snow overnight. Hopefully we have decent travel conditions on our way to Pont Rouge, a familiar place to us, and a great place for a home cooked meal.

Tune in tomorrow to see how things go…

in the mean time…

Double Double, and Cheers,

Stick

A nomad is a wanderer...an individual (our a group,) who have no particular home but wander around the country season to season, place to place, just winging it.

FrostBytes... Day 12... Riding Along On My Snowmobile...

This morning we departed La Gaspesiana around 9am, after our standard snowmobiler’s breakfast. Rob was on semi tilt again with something to do about his snowmobile, exactly what it was I don’t recall, but it gave me a chuckle.

About 6” of fresh snow was covering our pack of 11 snowmobiles, and it was not as cold today, probably in the neighborhood of around 25 degrees. A steady snow flurry was falling around us and the winds were pretty steady, as well, probably around 15-20 mph. A good wintry day of riding was ahead of us.

Once on the trail, the fresh powder and falling snow made visibility about 50 feet in front of you as we cruised down the trail. I pretty much saw nothing all day but the reflective “Klim” logo on the back of Joe Snowmobiles snow jacket. These kinds of conditions make you pay solid attention to the rider in front of you, because your basically following his helmet and body movements to warn you about bumps in the trail, upcoming turns, etc. And, needless to say, it does lead to few mishaps along the way!

The first mishap was a hard right turn after a long straight away, and Tabassco Ron missed the turn, and Joe Snowmobile was right on his bumper. Fortunately, the trail continued strait at the turn, it just was not groomed, but still covered in about 3 foot of snow. They both hit the brakes, sleds sliding sideways, and avoided a collision. Then I could I see them both looking back at me to see what my outcome was going to be. I hit the brakes, made the turn, and watched them use the reverse option to back their sleds on to the trail in the right direction, again.

We made a stop at a club relaise around noonish for lunch. I had the vegetable soup, but I saw several hotdogs and cheeseburgers all dressed (all dressed is basically the term for everything on your cheeseburger, and is easily communicatable when ordering with the French only speaking staff).

While at the relaise’, Action Dan noticed the “brick” covering on the wall that contained sponsers that had stopped in on the trail and made a donation to the local club to thank them for their trail maintence, and relaise on the trail that offered warmth, relaxation, and a bite of food on the trail. He suggested the group each put 10$ together ($110 total) and immortalize the wall with our Darkside Adventures stickers thay we carry to tag the places we have been. We actually tagged the wall twice, as Dylan hand wrote our Darkside Adventures.com on an actual brick, free hand, and one of the club members saw that we had stickers and he allowed us to put one on the wall above our purchased brick.

Back on the trail, and we are headed to Cap Martin for our overnight stay. But not before I come around a corner and find Dylan off trail with the nose of his Ski Doo pointed into a pine tree. No contact, however. Again, another use of the reverse option, and he was back on the trail. But not before I asked him what had happened? He said his in helmet music that he listens to all day had just started a White Snake song, Still of the NIght, and he was rocking out in his helmet Action Dan style and simply blew the turn! Funny to me, because for some reason, in my helmet I kept thinking about the Chuck Berry song “Riding Along In My Automobile”, but I was substituting snowmobile for automobile, all day long.

As dark settled upon us, the winds were increasing and temps were a dropping. The all day flurries were still ongoing. Visibility was even more reduced. I was down to only being able to see the bright red LED light on the back of Joe Snowmobiles helmet, and I followed it intently, watching for every dip and wobble it took, to guide my sled thru the night like Rudolph.

As we approached Cap Martin, we did pass a groomer, but trails a few miles behind him had already started to drift over. Not enough to slow us down, but something to pay attention to. And it was COLD.

After 203 miles, we finally saw the blue/purple neon lights that run along the peaks of the front of the Cap Marting, as we came down the hill accross the street from it. None too soon, either, as we pretty much humped along all day, taking few breaks along the way.

Once we were checked in and showered, I got to work in the bar area on this life sucking blog, where Dylan and Fearless Leader had already convened and started happy hour. Dinner, I was told, is going to be prime rib with a baked potatoe and mixed veggies.

Time to go, Caroline, our bartender for tonight, but in reality is the Hotel Manager of Cap Martin, that her mother owns, is waiting for me to take my seat at the dinner table.

Somehow we convinced Fearless Leader to allow us a late start in the morning of 9:30am! The wind is howling now, and its below zero outside. Tomorrow is supposed to be a short ride of about 80 miles to our trucks. Should be easy peazy.

We shall see.

Bye for now,

Stick

FrostBytes Day 11... Connecticut Jim Breaches His Apex

This morning we are having the snowmobiler’s breakfast, you should know by know that means eggs, meat, potatoe and your choice of white or “brown” toast. We are scheduled for a 10am departure, for the reason I mentioned prior (to let the sub zero temperatures “rise”) but also there has been another overnight dilema.

Back in Hotel Copper, apparently Dylan placed his insulin in the in room fridge. Apparently, the in room fridge is set at keep beer cold temperature, not keep insulin just chilled. It froze. Again. At 8am, the owner of the Grande Nature drove Dylan into town and to the local hospital. There, Dylan paid the local Doctor $20 American for a prescription, then they drove to the local Pharmacy for fulfillment. Once there, it was social hour for the lodge proprietor, as he knew everybody in the the pharmacy! Problem was, they only had one vial of the needed juice. So, load em up, we’re headed accross town to the other pharmacy. Once there, the proprietor told Dylan to wait in the car, otherwise they would play 50 questions with Dylan about allergies, etc., and the proprietor could just go in and get if without the fuss.

By 10am, Dylan was back to the lodge, and within 20 minutes of his return, we were on our trail to meet up with Connecticut, who was in Matane dealing with his broken Yamaha Apex.

In a parallel world, Connecticut Jim was at the local Yamaha dealer at 8am when they opened. He was informed that the electrical problem infesting his machine was something their “Master” mechanic would have to address, and he won’t be in until 1pm.

This is where the boys and the men go their seperate ways. Connecticut whipped out his favorite credit card, said get that Blue & Gray Sidewinder on the showroom floor prepped, I’m riding it out of here today! Prep began with a flurry. Until lunch. When they shut down the dealership, booted Connecticut to the curb, and they had their lunch in peace. He meandered down a block to the A&W Restuarant, had his lunch, and went back an hour later to the dealership. I tell ya, these East Coast fella’s will stop at nothing to get their name in ink with this blog!

We rolled into Matane around 1:30 and went directly to the Yamaha dealership to get filled in on the above info. Needless to say we were all impressed. Apparently he told Rob & Dylan that if they did’nt have a Sidewinder, he was going to walk down to the Ski Doo dealer and buy a SKI DOO!!! Now that would have been the cherry on top for me, but, alas, we were just glad he was getting back on the trail.

The rest of us rode down to the A&W, stopping to fill up our sled’s tanks at the gas station next door, prior to filling our tanks. By 3pm, Connecticut was riding his shiny new Sidewinder into the gas station, as we all watched thru the windows from within the warmth of the A&W. I guess sleds aren’t like cars? They don’t top the tank off for you when you purchase new!

Once the new sled was fueled, it was time to ride it like he stole it. And he was ready. He wasted no time pulling into the A&W parking lot and saying “Lets go, I’m ready to ride!”

Our destination this evening is in Saint Flavie at Le Gaspesiana. Fearless Leader tells me I have been here before. I have zero recollection of ever being here. But we arrived around 5:45 pm. and promptly checked into our rooms, and headed to the bar for happy hour.

Dinner was excellent! It was like days of lore, when dinner was an event, a 2 - 3 hour process. We were served an appetizer of cheese covered shrimp soaked in a butter sauce. It was killer good. Then came the soup, a tasty potatoe soup ( some chose the upgrade to Onion Soup) and then the entree’ of steak with mashed potatoes and aspragus* (sorry, I can describe my dinner, cus I was hungry and working on this life sucking blog for my 7 followers). Not to mention a nice bottle of wine or 2 and a few double doubles of our favorite tonic. Problem solvers, we are.

Tomorrow we are scheduled for our standard departure time of 9am. Trails have been groomed, snow is in the forcast, should be a good next to last day of riding

We shall see.

Bye for now…

Stick

FrostBytes Days 9 & 10... Smoother Trails Prevail

Dinner last night was a hit. I had the baked spaghetti with melted fromage’ (cheese) on top, and I saw some seafood macrabe’ dishes (some sorta heavy cream sauce with shrimp & scallops) some baked chicken with BBQ sauce on the side. Always a nice dinner here.

Call time for departure this morning was the standard 9am. There is no gas facility in Perce’ this time of year, but,fortunately, the owner of Auberge Roland keeps a few 5 gallon containers of high octane on hand for the snowmobilers. At 30$ Canadian per 5 gallon can. Unfortunately, only Connecticut Jim, who has the small tank on this crew, needed to splurge for a can! (I have the feeling his days of being the small tank on the trail could change, but you will need to follow along and see what develops…).

We were on the trail by 9:15 am, and did our customary stop on the trail and got a group shot of ourselves with the Perce’ Rock in the background. We also took a moment to video record our group singing Happy Birthday to Action Dan’s mom, Marianne, and sent that to her on her special day (Hello Mom!).

Today’s ride was going to be thru the Chic Choc mountains and ending in Murdochville. We went thru this pass 2 years ago and it was simply stunning. The snow covered trees at elevation, and the sunny day provided spectacular views. This time we had a partly cloudy sky, but the snow covered trees and views were exceptional. Days like today is what this trip is about.

Also, days like today on the trail is what this trip is about! Surprisingly we had zero issues. Let me repeat that… ZERO issues. Let that sink in. I’m stunned myself.

We arrived at Hotel Copper at 1:10pm!!!! Let me repeat that…1:10pm. Let that sink in as well.

A plan was hatched at a break on the trail, since we really didn’t anticpate this early of an arrival ourselves, that we would go check in, take our saddle bags off, have lunch and go ride into the nearby mountains.

So, we checked in, removed our gear, had a nice lunch of Onion Soup and split a club sandwich, and then pretty much everybody retreated to their rooms, where I’m not sure what everybody else did, but Joe Snowmobile and myself took a nice afternoon nap.

Fast forward to 5:30, and it’s the witching hour. The group caught up with each other downstairs in the combined dining hall/bar, and I punched out another one of these life sucking blogs for my 7 followers, and we enjoyed happy hour until the dinner hour.

Pretty sure my self imposed curfew of 11pm was adhered to, and tomorrow’s call time is again 9am. It sure would be nice to string 2 smooth days together. Can we do it? We shall see…

Bye for now,

Stick

FrostBytes Day 10… So Much For Stringing Two Smooth Days Together…

This morning, it was standard operating procedure, up at 7am, breakfast at 7:30 and on the trail by 9am.

We had about 6 inches of fresh snow on the sleds, and we were all pretty much ready at the designated time. Except for Rob. He was going full tilt over his saddlebags. This is noteworthy. Rob is usually the most easy going guy on this trip. And to hear him dropping F bombs like a sailer startled me. The bitter cold and his exposed hands didn’t help his plight any. In normal circumstances I would have pushed a couple buttons, and seen how far we can take this, but better judgement prevailed ( I wasn’t sure he was aware of my rule of “No Hitting”). Instead I simply offered encouraging words of support and gave him a hug. He gathered himself, got his shit straight, and we were off.

It was a nice ride, probably a foot of new snow as we progressed up into the mountains, on the recently groomed trails. The first 45 miles went well. But that 45 mile mark has proven to be the stumbling block on this ride.

Connecticut Jim started his day with a Yamaha that wouldn’t start, but he narrowed it down quickly to a blown fuse. Problem solved.

Not so fast. At about the 35 mile mark, his sled just quit on the trail. He tried replacing the secong 20 amp fuse for the day, and it promptly blew upon insertion. Some locals were going by us in the opposite direction, stopped, and offered assistance as well. They gave Connecticut another 20 amp fuse, that promptly blew upon insertion. Now he borrowed a 30amp from Dylan, and it seemed to do the trick. We justed needed to get another 15 miles down, to the Cache Relaise’ on the trail. Well, he made it about 10 more miles before it just quit again. Time to pull the belt, tie the ski to the rear bumper of Chip’s sled, and hop on Action Dan’s two-up for the ride to the relaise.

Chip was doing a pretty good job be the tow truck driver. I was pleasantly surprised, as most days it’s entertaining enough watching Chip handle his own sled, let alone drive and tow one. But he did not disappoint. After about 3 miles of towing the down sled thru snow blown trails, and getting stuck off trail trying to pass a down tree, the broke down sled came detached, and the 6 sleds behind it came to halt, as we watched Chip continue down the trail, oblivious that he had lost his cargo.

Dylan took over tow truck operater status, and as we were about to get rolling again, Chip came back down the trail looking for his lost load. But that didn’t last long, as a big hill was coming up, and Dylans turbo charged superiour Bombardier Product just dug into the snow covered trail, and came to a halt. Back your sled up Chip, you’re getting another shot at this.

Chip got the broken Yamaha into Cache Relaise, where the leaders were already waiting for us. We fueled, and went inside to warm up and have a delicious lunch of Turkey a’la king. At the same time Connecticut was doing his best to remain calm, explaining to AAA that he needed a tow truck for his sled. He finally got that resolved, was told a tow truck would be at the relaise within 2 hours, take him to Matane, where the nearest Yamaha dealer is, and the rest of the group busted back out on the trail. (Thats’ how it is out here, once we know your ok, and your ride is coming, it’s Adios, see you tonight!)

Our destination was Village Grande Nature in Cap Chat (pronounced Cap Chaw). A beautiful lodge at the base of the Chic Choc Mountains, with cabins that sleep two comfortably. They come with a kitchen and living area on the main floor, and two bedrooms upstairs. And a wood burning stove that is kept stoked the entire time we are socializing.

A beautiful dinner of your choice of trout, ribs and I don’t remember the third option, as I don’t think I saw it on the table. The appetizer was ahi tuna, or blood sauasage ( I declined both) but the soup was a delicious combination of cauliflower and tomatoe. A great dinner and social hour was had, as we discussed Connecticuts plight and the odds of him abandoning his 30,000 mile Yamaha and getting a new SideWinder.

After dinner, a few of us gathered at Fearless Leaders and Hedgehog’s cabin for an adult beverage or three, and kept their wood burning stove stoked to the max. Chip came down and enjoyed a liesurely dip in the hot tub and -20 degree temps.

In a parallel universe, Connecticut was in Matane, and had checked into the local Quality Inn. He had dinner and a drink or four at the hotel bar/restaurant. He met a group of snowmobilers out of New York state, and they all commiserated his situation and made the best of his situation and enjoyed a little quality time with himself for the evening.

HIs last telephone conversation with our group, prior to our dinner, he had stated that if the dealer couldn’t get his sled ready before we came thru Matane, he was buying a new SideWinder, and he would be back on the trail with us! I love that attitude. No problems, just solutions. Plus that fact that we have waited 10 years for this situation to arise, where somebody would have to crack the nut and buy a sled on the trail!

Departure is scheduled for us at 10am, to let the sub zero temps, hopefully, rise to a more tolerable riding condition.

We Shall See…

Bye for Now,

Stick

FrostBytes Day 8... The Leader's Wheels Went Off Trail...

Breakfast went off on schedule, 7:30 back in the pub where we had dinner the night before. Snowmobiler’s breakfast for everybody, eggs, bacon/ham, diced potatoes, and juice/coffee.

We are planning on leaving shortly after 9am, as Dylan needs to run down to the pharmacy to refill his insulin prescription. If any of you are dilligent followers, you may recall Dylan’s medical alert last year at this overnight stay… He had carried his prescription in an outside pocket of his coat, we hit severe cold weather, and the juice froze and lost it’s effectiveness. Last year, the pharmacist opened up after hours to save Dylan’s life (I made that up for dramatic effect), this year, fortunately, Dylan was able to await regular business hours before seeing his neighborhood pharmacist.

By 9:15am, we were on the trail, with one more stop scheduled before really hitting the trail to make some time. Four riders needed to hit the local Ski Doo dealer, Rob needed a new helmet, Joe Snowmobile needed a new viser shield, Action Dan needed a new lower piece for his flop down viser, and I’m not sure what Dylan needed, but he went too. But first we swung into the local club’s relaise to use the bathroom facility, and let the 4 riders get a head start to the dealer and get their needs fulfilled.

After the 7 of us riders killed a few minutes at the relaise, we headed down the trail to the trail head where the 4 other riders would catch up with us. Naturally, we picked a spot to wait in the wide open, no shelter, and wind blowing like hell, and it was 2 degrees (I don’t know what the wind chill was, but it was COLD). We wound up waiting on the trail about 40 minutes before they finally got their shopping done, and down the trail we went.

The crew was humping today. The sky’s were clear, there was beautiful scenery, and the most traffic on the trails we have seen since we bagan, last Monday. We pretty much humped along all day, stopping for gas when necessary, and finally around the 140 mile mark, we stopped at the relaise on the trail, and had a quick lunch. I had vegetable soup, and I saw hamburgers ( well 2 hamburgers and then those were sold out) and hotdogs being served.

It was now 3:15pm, and time to get on the trail, as we have about 50 more miles to go to Perce.

About 100 yards up the trail, the train came to a screeching halt. Action Dan, our bullet catcher, has blown a front bogey wheel. This is the bogey wheel that is attached to the spring, and the spring was now stuck down into the track. We are going no where fast.

Chip spoke up and said,” I’ve got two extra bogey wheels on my sled, we can steal one of my sled, and put it on Action’s if we need to.” In the meantime, they had found the missing bogey wheel on the trail near the down sled, and Fearless Leader Craig searched his miscellaneous parts bag, found a front ski bolt and miscellaneous spacers and such to make it work, and amazingly it was a perfect fit for the found bogey wheel! A quick 20 minute down time on the trail, and we were back on the clock.

We arrived in Perce around 6:15pm, again in the dark. We quickly unloaded our gear, got our showers done, and headed accross the road to the restaurant for our dinner. On a side bar, while I was wondering around the front stoop of our drive up room, I heard the sounds of passion coming from the room between mine and Fearless Leaders. I looked around, and went to Craig’s room to see if Hedgehog had some porn playing on his phone. As I passed the dark room between us, it was now evident where the action was. It must of been good, because I couldn’t help but stop for a minute to be sure it wasn’t a tv, and quickly went and grabbed Hedgehog to listen in to what was now giving me great amusement!

When we all gathered at dinner, and I shared my story, the first 10 minutes of our dinner hour was the group speculating as to who the happy couple was!

Tomorrow we are headed to Murdochville, about 100 miles away. We have not had a day yet without some issue, tune in tomorrow to see if the problem solving continues, or we have a smooth day.

Bye for now,

Stick

FrostBytes Day 7... Sounded Like A Hair Blow Dryer Testing Facility

Well, we had a very relaxing evening at Domaine Valga. We dried out from the day long rain ride in the comfy leather chairs and couches around the wood burning stove until our scheduled dinner time of 8pm. It was a much more subdued evening, than the night prior, when we kinda tore up Moose Valley.

Dinner was a chicken kabob, without the kabob, over rice and mixed veggies. Very nicely done, as they served us at the 12 person dining room table, with bread rolls in baskets, and a couple of nice bottles of Cabernet. They topped it off with a piece of vanilla cake with chocalate frosting as dessert, over which we sang Happy Birthday to Hedgehog.

This morning , breakfast was at 8am, however, everybody was already gathered at our table from the night before, pretty much in the same seating order, by 7:30am. After breakfast, when we all went upstairs to gather our gear from one of our respective 5 bedrooms, with 2 beds in each, it sounded like a Hair Blow Dryer Testing facility. Each room came with a blowdryer, but nobody was coifing their hair. The dryers were laying on the floor in each room blowing into your choice of gloves, boots or socks. Until one blew up, and then another blew a breaker.

By 9am we had our sleds out of the heated garage that they dried out in the night before, in front of the lodge and saddlebags packed and attached and ready to roll. It should be a good day, as the groomers are beginning to catch up after the prior weekend’s snow storm, and our gear is dry.

6 miles in, the first of the day’s issues rears it’s ugly head. Chip’s new Yamaha Vector is in limp mode, and won’t accelerate much pass an idle. In the trail, in the middle of a prairie, with wind howling and the snow covering the ground, whipping around us viciously. An error code 84 was flashing on his electronic dashboard. Apparently each of the Yamaha riders knew that was a throttle override code, perhaps an issue from yesterday’s rain. There was a gas station less than 1/2 a mile away where we were going for fuel, so we towed Chips sled into the 60’s era gas station with the attached, heated, 2 bay repair garage.

Craig and Connecticut Jim jumped right into pulling the plastic panels off Chip’s sled and figuring out the throttle cable issue. Within a 1/2 hour, the sled was fixed, for the first time today, and we were back on the trail. But not before Rob discovered he had left the blow dryer on his helmet visor a little to long, and warped the hell out of it! It was like looking thru a kaliedoscope for him. Since it was a dual pane viser, they cut away the warped, outside viser, and told him thats as good as gets, suck it up, lets go. BUT not before Action Dan jerry rigged his helmet, as the drop down face shield latch had broken some time recently and he was getting cold air on the face, on the trail. Finally, after all these little nuances, we were back on the trail.

Everything was going good, smooth groomed trails, and after about 45 miles we came up to the largest snow drift I’ve only seen on Facetube. While we were doing photo ops in front of the drift, Chip came up to the front of the pack, sled limping again. We decided to take his belt off, and tow him up the road to see if there was a more hospitable place to work on his sled.

About 2 miles up the road, we came accross a crew of “linemen” working on a wind turbine, in a field of dozens. We pulled up next to their walk in tool shed (which they had set up as lunch room, with a large heater blowing warm air inside, while they ate their lunch around a work bench. We pulled up beside it, as a wind block, and the tear down process got going. This time they chose to just disconnect, and bypass, the sensor causing the troubles. No problem there, as long old Chip doesn’t get whiskey throttle, and let’s her eat!

It was now around 12:30pm, only 45 miles in, and another 140 to go. We needed to roll. The next stop was about 2 hours later, at a gas station. Action Dan made the call, “sorry boy’s we are not stopping at that club relaise your looking at for lunch, grab a snack out of your pack, and we are going to keep cracking.” Ron busted out some sausage and crackers for the group, we ate like mongolians, and got “cracken”. But not before Jamie told the group that his helmet viser was fogging/freezing and his visibility is about 25%, basically a little hole on the side where he was looking sideways out of, and driving Bird Box style (if you don’t get the Bird Box reference, google it, or rent it on Netflix). Obviously vision is a necessity, and if you are familiar with Joe Snowmobile, he doesn’t need any other detriments to his riding game. Unfortunately, there was no solution on the trail to his dilema, and we would just have to stop periodically to let him clear his viser manually.

We cracked it pretty good, too. We made a few stops to stretch, or smoke em if you got em, but pretty much kept at it. We made Hostellerie Baie Bleue by about 6:15. We have been here a few times before, and we quickly checked in, unpacked, showered, and headed to the pub for the “snowmobiler dinner”. Good food here, I’m partial to the baked chicken breast and 1/2 slap of ribs entree’ myself, but there was some good looking burgers put down at the table as well.

We retired by 11pm, some a little earlier, a few a little later, and breakfast call time was 7:30am. We are anticipating even more grooming activity for our next day’s ride, and are looking forward to day of riding, and hopefully no issues.

We shall see.

Bye for now…

Stick

PS. you only get one picture because I am at dinner and want to eat warm food tonight. Beat it.

PSS. I couldn’t resist, you get 3 pictures, proceed with caution…

PSSS. Today’s headline was lifted from Dylan.