The Darkside Team is back together again for another action packed adventure thru the BUSH of Quebec.
We have some familiar faces, we are missing some regular faces, and we have a return face who’s last ride on the Darkside was back in 2013!
The Michigan crew gathered yesterday, Sunday February 15, in Rudyard Mi, in the Upper Peninsula, at Orange Helmet Craig’s shop, Marine Specialists. His shop provided the perfect launch location, and Daytona 500 viewing party.
The Team was pretty much congregated by the 2pm start of the race, and most last minutes preparations were completed. Except for Action Dan, naturally, he is never done tinkering, puttering and obsessing over his and his sled’s preparation.
Stick brought up a nice 6 pound beef tenderloin, some home made baked beans and Robere’ helped prepare the fried potatoes. A superb dinner was going to be had for our Michigan crew. My thought was, we tend to skip lunches on the trail for some reason, we may as well take the opportunity for a hot delicious meal to start us off!
After our dinner and the viewing of the Nascar race, the crew members settled into the shop area for evening cocktails, inappropriate conversations, tales and lies of our previous adventures.
By about 8pm, the crew was ready to retire at their respective sleeping arrangements. Some guys went down to the Northern Country Suites, about a mile down the road from the Shop. Action Dan went back to Orange Helmet’s home, where he has taken up residency in the Action Dan Suite, as he has been there for close to 30 days now! Stick & Robere’ got to sleep in the Class A Motorhome that Orange Helmet has stored inside his shop. Our accommodations worked out pretty good for us; At my 1:30am restroom break inside the office of the shop, I passed Robere’ in the shop kitchen, making out with a couple slices of pizza one of Orange Helmet’s staff leftover in the fridge! I may, or may not have, also enjoyed a slice.
This morning at 8am we gathered at the local breakfast joint, Pure Country, for a snowmobiler breakfast. I saw quite a few orders of the French Toast Cinnamon Swirl being passed out at the 9 person table.
By 9:15 we were back at the Shop, getting trucks parked that weren’t going on the trip, and trucks and trailers that were going, staged for departure. Thankfully Sean saw that Stick had a low tire on the Official Darkside Trailer, and a quick tire/wheel change took place behind the shop!
By 9:45 or so, three trucks with trailers and I think nine riders, were on their way to the border crossing in Sault Ste Marie, about 25 miles away. Pretty uneventful border crossing, so our next stop was at the Casino on the Canadian side, to convert some American Dollars into Canadian Dollars.
Action Dan and Robere’ were front of the line for the currency exchange, so they plopped a few bucks into a couple Wild Buffalo Slot machines. They each hit a bonus real, and each made about $45 on their time killing expedition. Nice way to start the trip.
We only had about 350 miles today to get to our Launch location at the Auberge Canadienne. The East Coast guys, Connecticut Jim, Yamaha Rob, and Chip Nasty arrived around 3pm, and the Michigan crew got in around 5:30. The roads were good, we had some slight mist rain, some limited sunshine, and finally some light flurries on our road trip.
I’m pretty excited for this trip. The last time I was in Temiscaming, was my very first ride in Quebec, way back in 2009! And we going to some locations that we have not been to in about 12-14 years. I’m excited to be back in this region, and we have a couple new stops along the way, that we haven’t experienced prior. It’s gong to be a good ride, I believe.
Right now we are gathered in the attached restaurant, with most of the guys around a big community table, while Robere’ and I are sitting at a small table in the corner, eating our just delivered All Dressed Burgers, while I write this stupid effing blog. I don’t even know if i still have 7 followers, but these guys seem to think they are entitled to my writing of their daily adventures. Well, let me tell you something. This years Frost Bytes is going to be unedited, un-redacted and brutal with the happenings on the trail. The last couple years, whether by my own judgement, or at the request of an individual rider that errored, I have withheld “The Rest of The Story”, or just flat out omitted their errors. Not this year, fellas! You don’t want to be wrote up, don’t screw up! The new rules are in effect now, and you’ve all been put on notice. Act accordingly.
Bye for now…
Stick