We currently are at Le Relais 22. A "lodge" with unattached barracks/rooms with community showers and bathrooms. Tina Bear will enjoy sharing this shower/restroom facility I'm sure! Relais 22 is deep in the Bush, I'm surprised I have wifi, as there is absolutely no cell service. The temps are cool, around 20 degrees; A 40 degree swing from when we pulled in here last year at -20! Oh, yea, and Connecticut Jim and Craig are in the heated garage working on Jim's Yamaha.
We had a pretty good 100 mile day, and shocker, we actually made it in before dark. Way before Dark, around 2:30 pm! Not that we didn't have a few issues along the way. Wouldn't be right if we got in early AND didn't have issues.
The first issue was Big Al, naturally. He came out of a turn hot, got sucked into the loose snow on on the left side of the trail, and pooof, was stuck up to his mirrors in the soft snow. Fortunately there was plenty of thicket under him, so we hand shoveled some snow out from the front of his machine's tunnel and told Al to get on and throttle out. But not before RS bet him $50 that he couldn't get it out on the first try. Bet accepted. Big Al gets the $$$!
So we go about a 1/2 mile down the trail, and, voila, Big Al is now in the snow bank on the right side of the trail. And cursing Metro Dave and Big Booty for being side by side on the trail and stopped waiting for him to catch back up with them. So, we dig him out again, and down the trail we go. For another 1/2 mile.
This time we came upon Video Mike, off the trail on the right side coming out of a turn, and buried pretty good. Metro Dave jumped Video's loaner Polaris 800, and used his superior mountain skills, and throttled the sled back to the trail for him. Ok, lets try this again boys.
So we start down the trail again, and Big Boss Jamie and his Garmin (he is now Big Boss, not Trail Boss), was coming back from the front, where he had taken point at this morning and bumped Craig & Ole to 2nd & 3rd. When he saw Big Al and Big Booty coming at him he jumped to the right side of the trail, and subsequently went off the trail and was buried up to his mirrors! Another extraction, and off we went, again.
There was not any lunch breaks on the trail today, as there is NOTHING between here and Saint Felicien. Except for a couple of club's warming huts along the way, which weren't necessary today with the mild temps.
But the ride was fun. Along a good portion of the trail there was a snow covered, untouched logging road. Probably about 12-15 inches of fresh powder on it. We were actually bouncing back and forth off the trail, on the road, off the road, on the trail for quite a while. So at one junction RS just stayed on the powdered road, I followed my wingman, and we had fun for a couple miles until the trail popped back out onto the road, and the other jokers we're riding with realized what we were doing, and decided to join our fun.
We were WAAYYY ahead of schedule, and arrived in around 2pm! I But there's more to the story. After fueling, Connecticut Jim, who has been having trouble with his reverse function all day, was checking his machine when a pretty significant thing jumped out at him. The bolt inside the chain case for the reverse feature had come loose, and subsequently, backed out, chewing a hole thru the chain case. Uh oh. That's an issue.
They drove the sled to the warm garage out back to prep for surgery. Apparently they have rethreaded the shaft and bolt, filled the case with oil, and apparently his Yamaha will be ready for the trail tomorrow. We shall see.
I just got a report that Big Booty has officially been put over the edge with our accommodations. As the showers are not to her standards. They are gender specific, hope her French was good enough to take the correct one?
We are now sitting around the horse shoe bar in the lodge. We have also hooked up with 4 New Yorker's that we met last year on the trail, on our last day. We apparently made a good first impression for a change, because they are riding with us tomorrow and the next 2 nights thereafter. They actually hooked up with us at the same hotel last night, but they arrived late and we were going down early. Funny thing though, when they came into the hotel restaurant last night, they were making their gratuities to the group and when they saw Big Al, they all shouted "DONKEY" (he is finally more Big Al, then Donkey for us... for the time being.)
Not sure on my wifi capabilities the next couple days, I know for a fact Saturday we are off the grid, so I will post at my next opportunity.
Until then,
Cheers
Stick