On his way to the County Lock Up
Last night Team Darkside had a nice dinner. The Onion Soup was definitely 4.5 stars, and the Italian dishes that were served, lasagna and chicken parmesan, were exceptional. One bottle of wine courtesy of Connecticut Jim was the extent of the night. Another early night.
Breakfast at 8am, as usual, on trail by 9. It was a crispy -9 degrees, with a strong wind. Definitely happy that I put on the extra layer today. The trails were in good shape, with minimal drifting from the winds. Visibility was at a minimum, however, due to the fresh dusting of snow, and the light flurries that were falling. You had to maintain a safe distance between riders to maintain visibility from the snow dust hanging in the air, along the trail.
But, it didn't take long for issues to arise. At the 8 mile mark, Chip, our newest Darksider, missed a turn and rolled his sled over, and wedged himself against a tree. No damage done, except to his pride. We rolled him over, got him back up on the trail, and we were rolling again.
I wish I could say this was the only time today we saw more of Chip's track than we should have...
The next 20 miles were much smoother for Chip. At the 28 mile mark, we took a short break on the trail where there were plenty of trees to block the heavy wind. After our approximately 10 minute break, as we were preparing to continue down the trail, the local constables came rolling up on Po-Po sleds with lights on in full regale. The first officer on the scene hopped off his sled, ticket book in hand, and began checking sleds for Quebec Trail Passes (on a side bar, before you complain about your local trail pass back in the states, an annual trail pass for Quebec is around 300$ if purchased before December 9 each year; there after about $340 Canadian. And, quite honestly, for the way the Clubs and Providence groom the trails, and offer warming stations along the way, I will never complain about the fee). After checking the first sled, and getting into a conversation with Ole, our Club Ambassador, the officer stopped looking for permits (we all had them) and became quite jovial with our group, posing for pictures, and letting us get a couple shots of him & his partner and their department issue sleds, lights on and all!
After our fun with the Law, we ran 3 miles to a local restaurant to warm up, and have a hot chocolate, coffee, and, perhaps a couple of us had a bowl of vegetable soup! The warm up felt good, but it was time to get back on the trail after about 45 minutes. The wind was still howling, and the snow dust was still providing poor visibility. Caution was the word of the day.
We rolled down the trail to about the 68 mile marker, found fuel on the trail. Not a lot of stops today due to the cold and wind.
Seen at the gas stop
Around the 88 mile mark, Chip let that string that runs from your brain to your thumb get a little bit extended out again. This time he took out a arrow warning sign and rolled his sled. Again. After humiliating him for a few minutes by posing for picture with said sign, we rolled his sled over and got rolling again.
Around the 100 mile marker, and 2pm, we found a combo gas station/restaurant. We had a quick lunch of pizza and cheeseburgers all dressed. The warm up was welcome, too. We now had about 65 miler to get in to our destination for the night.
We had a stretch of trail, about 10 miles that was a plowed logging road. A couple guys had issues with their hyfax getting warm, and stinking up the trail, but we continued on and got back to smooth trails that brought us in.
We currently are at dinner at the 1212 Hotel, in Degelis. Very nice place, with very spacious rooms. The shower was a 5 star too.
Craig just wanted the picture taken, and hurry up!
My Onion soup was just delivered to the dinner table, it's time to go.
Tune in tomorrow to see how the last day of sled riding turns out!
Cheers,
Stick