It was a cold one this morning...-15 degrees F. We were prepared for an all day cold. We got lucky and by noon it was 5 above. Still required a stop by the local Ski Doo dealer for a little extra cold weather gear.
Currently we are in La Tuque where it is currently 6:20 pm with a local temp of -6 (feels like -21 according to the online weather) with a high of -10 tomorrow. (side bar, for the 3rd day in a row I just deleted my Frost Bytes edition(this time my error) but BIG kudos to Big Al, he hit the "undo" button for me! Saved me from tilt, too). We rode about 160 miles today... not bad considering our projected number was 190, so we are now net positive on the overall!
Our day began at around 9am, with our first stop for RS Young to get an extra pair of thermal pants for the extreme cold we are about to run into. Reports are a possible -40 on either Monday or Tuesday, depending upon the front coming in. (Factoid: -40 is the meeting point where Celsius & Fahrenheit meet at the bottom end of the scale, and my references to the temp is always F ). We had a nice day of riding, with a combination of mountain, twisty, to open valley/power line runs with varying heights of rolling hills. Beautiful scenery and beautiful trails, real enjoyable with the variety we had. After about 50 miles through the National Preserve. The whole day was full sun, and by the time we were back on the sleds after lunch, it was very comfortable 5 degrees (we were prepared for worse). We made our destination by 4:30 today. If any of you recall from our prior adventures, this is pretty impressive. It seemed our usual arrival time was well after dark. We will contribute this to our Leader Jim "Olee" Oleander, and congratulate him, on getting his new Ski Doo 1200 4 stroke. He' s definitely upped the pace during 25 -30 mile jaunts between 5 minute breaks on the trail.
Our lunch today was quite enjoyable at the Restaurant Marineau, in Mattawin. One of our servers was fluent in English, and quickly joined in on the praise and affection that was being heaped upon Big Al at the lunch table. She gave us all quite a few extra chuckles, thank you.
This is completely irrelevant...I took a break to take a shower before dinner. The BEST shower I've ever had on a snowmobile trip. I may be prejudiced right now because I couldn't shower last night because the other guys ran the hot water out while I was working on this stupid blog.
Another uneventful day, really. Nothing on the trail too exciting. Big Al did piss off a local when he wouldn't move out of the center of the trail so the local could pass. For about 5 miles. RS Young left his company ring on the nightstand of last nights motel, and to call them to have it shipped home COD. That's bout it. Just another day.
It's now 7:15pm, we are sitting in the room having a tasty adult beverage, listening to Kid Rock, while I type tonight's edition... Tomorrow's Frost Bytes is going to be brought to you by a guest writer, so tune in tomorrow night to get a different perspective of this DarkSide Adventure!
Cheers
"Stick"