All riders are in and safe at Auberge du 31 for the overnight. We arrived at 5:15pm after 157 miles. I can’t figure out how we can accomplish 280 miles in 9.5 hours, but can only do 157 miles in 8 hours? The math ain’t mathing.
Last night’s dinner was at 8:30pm!!! That’s a late dinner after a long day on the trail. The hotel restaurant was very busy and the dining room never did clear out. Everybody was enjoying their Friday evening out, apparently. They had to seat our group of 13 in the separate dining room that is used each morning for breakfast. So we had the entire room to ourselves. Probably just as well. A couple of the guys took advantage of the extra time before dinner to have room drinks. Action Dan had his phone on the table with music blaring from it for “ambience”.
The best dinner on the trail to date. We had choices of Braised Beef, Chicken Skewers, Shrimp or the 1/2 slab of ribs with frites, that Robere’ and I chose. Connecticut Jim did not heed my advice to avoid the Onion Soup, and confirmed my 1.8 star rating. I know what I’m talking about, when it comes to the Onion Soup guys, pay attention. There was dessert offering of I don’t know what, because by the time my dinner was finished, it was 10:10pm and I needed to get some rest.
As we were warming up and loading our sleds, a young man with a very professional camera setup was walking past our pack of sleds, and noticed a Michigan trail permit on a windshield. His curiosity was peaked, so he asked one of our group if we were really from Michigan. He was very intrigued that we had journeyed so far to snowmobile. He struck up a conversation with Orange Helmet, they talked for a few, he then did a video or his windshield and the Darkside Adventures.com sticker that is attached. As he was walking past to join his group, he noticed our large group, and asked me, are you all from MIchigan?! I replied Yes, for the most part. I have been coming to Quebec for 17 years to snowmobile, and the guy you were just talking to has been coming for over 30 years now. He was very surprised by this and asked for an interview with Orange Helmet. Their Quebec TV show is called Snow RIde and airs on Quebec’s largest outdoor TV channel, apparently. Naturally, I told Orange Helmet after his interview, that he has a face for radio.
Call time this morning was for skis’ up at 9am. We did good and were pulling out of the parking lot at 8:45. Then we were not doing good. We headed out on the trail, and at our first intersection to navigate, Orange Helmet, Action Dan and Connecticut were not confident we were on the right trail. There was debate about a trail that ran along the road, which we wanted to avoid, there was talk of back tracking the way we came in the night before, to a header trail back that way, there was talk of a trail accross a lake…to many decisions. So we headed back to the hotel and plotted our options.
Connecticut spoke with the Snow Ride group, that was just hitting the trail, and they said they knew the trail that we wanted, and for him to follow them to get the path. In the meantime, Action had already gone back to the original trail to further scout work.
After they all gathered back together with their respective reports, the decision was made to back track our night before trail, and follow it thru town, and jump on the lake for about a 9 mile lake crossing that was well marked. It was now 9:30am when we finally headed down the trail.
Another blue bird day on the trail. The trails were a mix of twisty/curvey, tight trails, and the wide open trails that we can make time on. More twisty/curvey than wide and open, and that is the difference between a high mileage day and a day like we had today. Beautiful trails and beautiful views all day, however.
At our fuel stop, at about the 60 mile mark, The Mail Man went a bit postal. Apparently he left a gap in the line of sleds and a young man on a long track sled slid in to gap for his fueling turn. That was ok, and quickly resolved peacefully, but apparently when the young man went to move to another pump he accidentally spun his track a bit, and threw some slush up on the windshield and hood of the Mail Man’s sled. That’s when he went postal. He didn’t take it out on the young man, but he sure let us in the group hear about it.
And down the trail we went. Our next stop was at a relaise on the trail, that was very busy with Saturday sled traffic. We went in, and a warming session, and ordered lunch. Many in this group really enjoy the hotdogs in Quebec, because I saw many hotdogs, being served, a couple vegetable soups, and Robere’ and I had the hot hamburger with frites. A great stop on the trail, by about 2pm, we were headed back down the trail.
About 20 miles from our overnight lodge, we stopped for one last old man break on the side of the trail. That’s when Connecticut Jim came up and told Orange Helmet we were missing two riders. We really hadn’t noticed, because there was a lot of trail traffic. Now, I don’t know the details, but the short version I got was that Farmer stopped along the trail somewhere behind us for photo opportunity and nobody was aware of it. Ole Man Ron decided he was the man to go back and look for him. Now we are missing two riders. So, we waited a bit longer, those that have them, had another cowboy killer, and before long, the two missing sledders had rejoined the group. As my friend Axl Rose said, have a little patience, it’ll all work out.
The final 20 miles were absolutely beautiful . We are in the Mt Valin mountain range, and we were twisting around stunning mountain views with snow covered pine tree’s that you could see out into the distance for just about forever.
Dinner is at 7:30, and IF I remember correctly, they have a pretty decent Onion soup here. I know the meals are always top notch, and I am looking forward to it.
That’s all I know for now, I’m sitting in the small bar section of the dining lodge with Bent Bumper Dave Terrell, having a cold Labatt Blue. I need to mention some thing about Bent Bumper… this man is 82 years old! And he is having the time of his life! He just told me that today he turned over 15,200 miles on his Ski Doo 850 Renegade and has over 1015 miles in the last 5 days alone! I can only hope I am as spry as this guy.
I have a few pictures but the wifi is not conducive to uploading, you’ll have to wait.
We shall see.
Bye for now
Stick