Day 10 Frost Bytes: Our Favorite Spot On The Trail

We were on the trial by 9:30 on Day 10.  And we were off to see our friends Mark & Natalie at Club Gatenau.  Club Gatenau is always our favorite stop and best way to finish our trip.  RS & I always make sure to get our favorite cabin, with the floor that slopes from the front door to the back door at about 14" over the span.  And the cellar door in the "kitchen area" that I always have to move the table over at night before bed (I swear there are dead people down there).

Our cabin usually becomes the pre-rage party for the last night, and tonight was no exception.  Connecticut Jim, Rob, Action Dan, Trail Boss Jamie, Vinnie, & Big Al joined us for the 3 hour cocktail hour.  Cocktail hour took it's toll on your writer. I didn't make the 7:30 dinner call, instead I was passed out on my lower bunk of the bunk beds in my & RS's room.

I understand dinner was exceptional.  Less than filling for me.

Today is our Travel day back to Kingston ON, where we started on January 26.  We had about a 60 mile ride today from Gatenau to the Quality Inn in Mont Laurier.  We arrived at our trucks by noon, and was loaded and changed into street clothes by 12:30 and on the road.  

We are currently at the Boston Pizza next to our hotel watching the Super Bowl, enjoying adult beverages and laughs and memories from another great ride through the Bush of Quebec.  Approximately 1400 miles were knocked down this trip.

If any of you were wondering about the italicized phrase at the end of each of the first few Frost Bytes, check out the video that will be attached by Mrs. Mitchell to see it in all it's glory.

Thanks for tuning in, I complain alot about writing this blog, but it is a good way to remember the trip.

See you in 2017... Already some CRAZY ideas are floating around for that ride! Like riding up the North side of St Lawrence Sea Way and along the Atlantic Ocean and ON the frozen Ocean!!  We shall see...

Cheers until then,

Stick

Day 9 Frost Bytes: The Trail Was Fast That Day, TOO Fast For One!

Day 9 was leaving one of our newly favorite locations to stay... Relais 22.  A lodge in the middle of no where, with a horse shoe bar and attached dining area.  The bunks are in an un-attached building about 50 feet away.  We usually start at the bar, move to dinner, then return to the bar. Bob & I sat in the wooden rocking chairs by the wood burning pot belly stove, after dinner, and spectated the actions going on at the bar by the rest of the group.

The trails were fast and smooth and we were on our way to Parent.  The farthest north we are going this trip.  The temps were around -10.  Not too bad.  We've been lucky this trip, and we have not had the arctic cold we experienced last year.  We also have had less snow, but nothing that stopped us from having a great ride.

Trouble started around the 50 mile marker.  Big Al got tangled up at the back of the pack with us, and Video Mike.  Video was doing some trail filming, and Al wasn't aware so when we weren't in his mirrors he stopped to wait for us to catch up.  Video Mike passed Al, and Al fell in line in front of me & RS.  And the string that is attached to his thumb from his brain to keep him under control snapped.  He had a great idea to catch Video and get some camera time.  Didnt' work.  Instead he came over a hill with a sharp left turn immediately following,  Shooop. right over the edge, down about 15 feet over the edge, and into some broken tree limbs, I think even a couple hidden logs!  Gota give him credit though.  He has been off the trail so often the last couple days, he has gotten pretty good at getting himself out.  He quickly cleared the snow from out of front of his sled, and with just a minimal of tug from me on his ski to get him rolling, he power blasted his way out and back on the trail.

A few other minor incidents not worth mentioning here, and we were into Parent by 4:30.  A good day!

That evening, Sylvia, the proprietor of Hotel Central in Parent, and a great friend to the DarkSide Team, had a live musician in the bar for our happy hour and after happy hour.  She also always makes sure that we have a great Ribeye Steak dinner prepared for our arrival! Thanks Sylvia, it was great seeing you again!

That's about all for day 9.

Cheers,

Stick

Day 8 Frost Bytes: Potential Rental Waiting in the Wings

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

Frost Bytes Day 7; Roll Overs, White Outs, Wrong Turns (Again), Just Another Day.

We left Carcajou Lodge around 9 bells this morning.  Temps must have been in the mid teens, with light flurries flying down.  Video MIke did his morning routine, and filmed us as we departed down the trail.  Hum drum way to start the day.

Until we got to the 10 mile marker. The trails were iced over underneath the light snow that had fallen, and the corners were sheets of ice. No big deal, we have studded tracks and good carbides.  Then I came into a turn the same way i've come into the last thousand, and my sled was headed in the right direction of the turning trail but I was still sliding to the ourside edge of the trail. No biggies, the 18" tall snow bank along the trail will stop me.  POOF, blew right thru the turn sideways and stuck on a 45 degree angle in the soft powder off the trail.  My wingman, RS, comes over to assist, because we are the last 2 in line, and god forbid would anybody in front of us contemplate using those mirrors attached to their windshields and stop and come back and be of assistance.

So i grabbed the front ski, he pushed the throttle, and we ALMOST got my Ski Doo back on flat ground.  But our legs were hung up in the soft snow, and we couldn't move along with the sled fast enough. And now it was turned all the way over, back off the trail in the 4' deep soft snow along the trail.

Thankfully, one genius looked in their rearview mirrors and saw we weren't there.  Big Al, our donkey, the Original Canadian Cowboy, was there to assist. But wait, he need's to get a picture first.  So, track back in the manufacturer's recommended position, we were off to catch the pack.

At this point, the snow flurries had turned to near white out conditions. The snow was accumulating pretty good. There was lots of snow dust in the air.  A couple blown turns, which fortunately had wide run offs, were completed (RS & I had one real good one). Pretty uneventful, and we showed up for lunch at an appropriate time, around 1pm.  

Our day's tend to go to hell after lunch. Today was no exception. Actually we probably set a new record on how fast we made a wrong turn. 100 meters to be exact. Went right, down into a cul-de-sac, turned around, went back to where turned right, and then caught our trail.  

Things were pretty smoother from there. Still white out conditions. Except for Big Al. Around the 80 mile mark, riding down a snow covered road, attempting to catch the trail again on the left, Big Al power brakes his Ski Doo, spins side ways, and then over. Another sled toes in the air.  Metro Dave helped him put it back to the manufacturer's recommended position, and off we went.

Until we stopped for gas at the 105 mile mark.  Leaving back on the trail after fueling, we naturally took another wrong turn.  After about 12 miles, Trail Boss Jamie couldn't take it any more and shot to the front to voice his opinion with our faithful leaders Ole and Craig.  They concurred. Let's flip flop back and follow the suggested Garmin Route. 

As we were finishing our 170 mile ride (that was guestimated at 140) the last 20 miles was freezing mist.  Many, myself included, tolerated frozen helmet shields, and stopped periodically to rub our our warm hand over the shield to melt the frozen H2O, and then use our glove's built in finger blade to wipe it clean. Pain in the arse, truthfully, but what are you going to do? 

It's probably time to introduce you to the Darkside's latest victim.  Metro Dave Josselyn. We met Metro back in 2010 when we were on the Soo to Alaska ride.  When we ran out of snow in Alberta, we trailered up and drove 2.5 days to Brooks Lake Wyoming. Metro was/is a guide there. We hit it off with him, and every year when we go back to Brooks Lake, we always make sure he is there to guide us for the mountain riding. Dave has always ridiculed us "Trail" riders. But now that he has become entangled in a sordid affair with our own Tina Bear, Big Booty Moody Judy, he lowered himself to a lowly trail rider, and is on his first saddlebag ride with his lady love.  Dave started riding when he was around 5 years old, the only boy out of 5 kids.   He did ride trails around Minnesota growing up, so he shouldn't hate so hard. His father, Bob, was a Polaris dealer in Pine Island, and took Dave to Wyoming to mountain ride when he was around his mid-late teens.  David is a great young man that we enjoy his company, and are glad he finally relented, and is suffering along our saddlebag ride through Quebec.

It's time for dinner, and this place we are at is out of wine AND vodka. 

Cheers,

Stick

Frost Bytes Day 6: It's Pajama Day

Today is the day I have been looking forward to!  We have 2 nights here at Carcajou, and while everybody else went for a local scenery ride, Rob and I stayed back and had a pajama day!  Rob read his book, took a siesta, and I worked on this *&@*%$* blog for all 6 of my followers. From the pictures I've seen the others had some nice views and had some fun in the snow when they boondocked and found some fresh powder.  We are all now gathered in the downstairs bar enjoying our first happy hour within daylight since Meekos!

Our command center has got a ton of great pics from today to share...

All which brings me to our Command Central back in Flint, MI, dutifully monitoring our movements and filling in for me when we are having "technical issues"; whether self inflicted or just circumstance.

Stephanie Young-Mitchell, or Mrs. Mitchell as I prefer to reference her, is our eye in the sky. But she does a whole more behind the scenes to make this blog and our website the viewing pleasure it is.  

Mrs. Mitchell is an avid and accomplished snowmobiler herself! She has saddlebagged with her dad, RS, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, rode extensively in the Upper Lower Peninsula out of Frederic, Michigan, as well as high marked and mountain rode in Wyoming.  We know she would like to join us out on the trail, but her responsibilities at home with her 5 month old son, Knox, and husband, Tim, keeps her plugged into our shenanigans from the warmth of her desk.

Mrs. Mitchell built the website, updates it, plugs in the pictures you see in our blog, (limited wifi capabilities prevent me from uploading pics on the trail, and quite frankly, it's one less thing I want to do, so THANK YOU Cupcake!) as well as creating Frost Byte posts when I am unable to from the trail so all of our devoted followers know we are not being derelict in our duties.

So if you enjoy reading this blog, be sure to leave a nice comment on this page for Mrs. Mitchell and thank her yourself for all she does for this group of knuckleheads that love the adventure of saddle bag snowmobiling.

Frost Bytes Day 5: 40 Miles The WRONG Direction, (not a typo, FORTY)

Vinnie got up early and headed to Gobeil Equipment for his Polaris clutch parts. Craig and Connecticut Jim went with him for moral support.  By 11am Vinnie's sled was fixed (we thought) and we were ready to hit the trail.  It was warm this morning, and the prior night's steady drizzle made the first few miles of trail slushy and thin. But after about an hour on the trail, the temps dropped significantly, and we were riding in pretty good snow showers for the first part of the day. And high winds.  Several times on the trail there was blinding snow dust and poor visibility for us in the back. But the trails needed the cool temps and snow.  Once the trails froze over, they were excellent for us!

After the first 2-3 miles, we discovered that the repairs to Vinnie's clutch did not resolve the issue.  We called the Polaris dealer and they said to bring it in on the trail and they would get right on it.  So Craig got the directions via trail to the dealer and off we went. For 40 (forty) miles.  Finally Ole piped up and said the dealer can't be this *@!$*@% far away.  A study of the trail map, and the trail signs, and low and behold we just went 40 miles EAST when we are supposed to be going WEST!  And what is even more humorous is that everybody was happy this morning when we left, we ONLY had a 50 mile ride to our night's location.  Not now, folks we are getting a 150 mile day in now.

So at 90 miles in for the day, we were 10 miles in the right direction from where we left at 11am. It is now 3pm.  The group fueled again, and Craig, Action Dan, Connecticut Jim and Vinnie rode to the Polaris dealer, while the rest of us hung at the Tim Horton's next to the gas station.

Around 5pm, the dealer had Vinnie trail ready.  The group at Tim Horton's suited up, and we met the other 4 on the trail. But it's never that easy.  A special thanks to Michel Morin the Service Manager at Gobeil Equipment in Chicoutimi and Samuel Lavoie, the mechanic there.  These 2 guys worked diligently to get our group back on the trail in a prompt fashion. 

We got about 4-5 miles from the Tim Horton's and Big Al had panic in his eyes that you could see through his tinted helmet shield.  He left his phone back at Tim's!  Metro Dave and Big Al quickly rode back to see if they could find Donkey's phone (Donkey always rears his ugly head at some point, it's inevitable).  As they were pulling into the parking lot, I am told, Metro Dave was using his superior mountain skills to jump a snow bank, that was not a snow bank, but a concrete curb of some form.  This promptly ejected Metro from his sled and flipped his brand new Ski Doo 800 onto it's side, where it slid for about 20 feet across the asphalt parking lot.  Nice road rash there on the plastic panels, Metro.

Donkey got lucky, his phone was still there on the counter where he was sitting 20 minutes ago.

It's now about 5:30pm and we have guestimates of anywhere from 50-70 miles to go. It's gonna be another late one coming in guys. And the trail coming out of town was rough and slow. For about 15 miles.  Then it opened up, smoothed out, and we opened them up.

But, remember, it's never that easy.

About 25 miles into the ride, an intersection where a decision needed to be made came upon us.  Left or Right.  A look at the trail map, and the trail signage, and Left it is.  Much to the chagrin of Trail Boss Jamie (you notice he got capital letters in his name now?).💋‍

About 2 miles into this leg, he frantically waves for Stick & RS to stop and look at his Garmin.  He correctly pointed out that yes we can go this way, but it is much longer.  We need to go back the other way.  Jamie & I sat on the side of the trail, while RS sped to catch the rest of the pack, now a couple miles ahead of us, and still going.

After sitting on the trail, in the dark, for about 10 minutes, I told Jamie let's keep moving forward because if they have a reason why not to take the Garmin route, we will at least save somebody from coming all the way back just to get us.  So we flew down the trail, and it took us about 6-7 miles before we caught them at a trail stop sign discussing the situation. Trail Boss Jamie showed them his Garmin map, and turn around we did.   Twice today, if anybody is keeping count.

Fortunately we had fast smooth trails and we arrived at the Carcajou Lodge, around 7:45pm.  A very nice lodge out in the woods, that can accommodate up to 14 guests.  Gourmet meals, and a very nice setting.  A place we like to find. An even better place to settle into for TWO nights. Which we are. This is the first time we have stayed 2 nights in the same place, intentionally!

Again, dinner was killer with several bottles of wine, and since we are not leaving in the morning, several more hours of happy hour after dinner!

Time to sign off, this is two blogs back to back. I'm drained. I will have a Special Edition coming soon for Day 6.

Cheers,

Stick

Frost Bytes Day 4: Another Day Another Mechanical Issue...

Sunday morning came early.  After the country & western night at the downstairs bar, we had the same John Hammond taxi driver from the night before, make the 4 trips back and forth to get us and our gear all back to our sleds.

By 8:30 we were all back together having breakfast and sharing our stories from the night before.  The guys who has the brothel rooms definitely has better stories, like the mother/daughter combo team that was trolling their hotel bar. But this is a family friendly forum so I will leave those stories on the trail.

By 9:30 we were rolling. North bound now.  Trails were great and fast for the first 80 miles. Apparently too fast. So fast that Video Mike's pocket zipper opened up along the trail and his cell phone fell out.  In my 20,000 miles of sledding, I've never had a pocket zipper do a Houdini opening on it's own, but it's his story, I just report it. 

At one warming station stop, Metro Dave got out on the frozen snow covered lake across from where we were all sitting on our sleds to dazzle us with some of his mountain skills trickery.  He was riding his wing WOman's sled, Big Booty Moody Judy's, and putting on a bit of show, when all of his skills mustered him into rolling her sled over and ripping the mirror and windshield side deflector off her machine.  He must have thought his playing it cool as he returned was working, until Tina Bear pointed out the missing accessories and promptly sent him back to the lake to retrieve and re-install the missing pieces.

We were back on the trail. We stopped for lunch at a trail side Clubhouse that was made of pre-manufactured log walls and was very impressive.  By 3:30 we were back on the trail. Mostly good trails, that allowed us to open them up for quite a while and make some good time.  Until another Darkside issue cropped up.

Vinnie the Driver's Polaris's clutch began malfunctioning. Apparently the clutch would not DIS-engage, and every time he stopped he had to shut the machine off, manually adjust the clutch, close the hood, and restart the machine. For the next 80 miles!  Needless to say, we took many fewer breaks from this point on.

We ran about 205 miles and arrived at the Auberge 21 a little late, around 7:30pm.  We had a fabulous gourmet meal with the choices being rack of lamb, trout or a filet.  And I think about 5 bottles of a delicious Cabernet wine.  The adult beverages were flowing pretty easily, as we knew Vinnie had to go to the local Polaris dealer at 9am when they opened to get the parts for his sled.  11am was going to be our departure time. Perrrfect.

Happy hour went well after dinner, until our waiter told us he was cutting us off, he wanted to go home. Yes sir, we're out.

And that pretty well sums up Day 4 on the Darkside, tune in later and I will have Day 5 posted, and a Day 6 Special Edition.

And do it again,

Cheers,

Stick

FrostBytes Day 3: Job Posting: We Need A Reservationist STAT

Currently it is Sunday night, 8:16pm est. We are in La Baie, at the Auberge 21.  A beautiful hotel, restaurant facility, with the proprietor, Marcel as our host and gourmet chef. It is apparently above freezing, as there is currently steady drizzle outside. But let's start from where we left off..

Yesterday morning we departed Real Masse' around our daily 9am departure time.  But not before our new "trail boss" (lower case for a reason) took his position.  Our first question was "where do we fuel up at trail boss".  A quick glance at his trusty Garmin, and the quick response was "it's 8 miles away".  Ok.  Instead we informed him we get gas right here at the lodge, pull around back genius. (interesting fact: we didn't fuel up the night before, because Real Masse' has a heated garage that we park our sleds in overnight, and if we had fueled the night before, the fuel would expand in the tank.)P

As we headed out onto the trail, trail boss took the third position, right behind Ole and Craig.  That lasted about 30 miles...29 more than I expected.  But when we stopped for our first break around the 15 mile mark, squabbling had already begun.  trail boss was adamant that we were to go one direction, while our 30 years of experience Ole and Craig informed him, no, we go this way.

So at the trail head, and more squabbling, at the 30 mile mark, junior trail boss was sent back to his rightful position running P11 out of 13.  The pecking order resolved, harmony ensued. Temporarily.

Everything was going according to plan. We arrived at lunch Petite' Palace around 2pm.  Pretty nice place for a bunch of sledheads. 

After lunch, is where things jumped to high tension.  We usually only ride a trail once, sometimes twice if made a wrong turn, but we rode this particular trail THREE times. A new record as far as I am aware of.   All the while, junior trail boss telling us we need to go the opposite direction. Why won't anyone listen to me? If I was a betting man, I'd say we need to go this way.  NON STOP.

After our third trip back down the same trail, Ole went into the local Ski Doo dealer at the end of the trail head.  We knew this was going to be a 20 minute ordeal.  To occupy his time, Big Al began reviewing his trail map of the Quebec Bush, and throwing out his suggestions of a way through.

Right on schedule, Ole came back 25 minutes later, with a plan. Go back and pick up the trail behind the gas station in town. Perrrrfect.

We found the gas station, but to be sure Ole, flagged down the local constable to see if we could get some confirmation on our directions.  The very friendly and helpful Officer Felix Denis, quickly informed us that the trail we need is currently closed.  The trail crosses a couple rivers. And the rivers are not frozen.

Officer Denis has a quick resolution though.  He knew the local President and Trail Master of the ORV trails, Francois Fugere, and he just happens to live a couple blocks down the road.  A quick discussion, and he said he would lead us through about 10 miles of local/private ORV trail, and reconnect us with the trail we need without crossing any rivers! Perrrfect. ( inside info: I have to think and make mental notes inside my helmet all day so I can write this stupid blog each night, my original headline was going to be "A River Runs Through It")

Once we were escorted with, flashing strobe lights on the ORV of Mr. Fugere, back to the snow trail, we had a couple rough miles of a connector trail and all was smooth. For a short time. 

We now had a quick 40 miles of smooth trail to our warm accommodations for the evening. The facility we were supposed to stay at had a brew pub and very nice accommodations.  We arrived around 7:45, ready for an adult beverage and an evening of fun. Perrrrfect.

Craig went inside to check our group of 13 in, while the rest of us began taking off our saddlebags.  Not so fast, he came back out and said.  This is where our new job posting comes in to play.  If anybody would like to submit a resume' for creating and VERIFYING our reservations, we are hiring.  Our reservation was for Sunday the 31 of January, not Saturday the 30!  And they are full, with a little league hockey tournament in town. 

With a lot of help from the hotel front desk we found one hotel with 4 rooms ( 2 suites with 1 bed each and 2 rooms with 2 beds) and one hotel with 6 rooms. Perrrfect. But the snow trail doesn't go to either of them. We have to take our gear in taxis to the 2 separate hotels. And leave our sleds at the place we thought we were staying, in the their secured snow machine parking area. So we called a taxi.

The taxi driver, who Big Al aptly described as the Grandfather, John Hammond, who created Jurassic Park, made 4 trips back and forth dropping off team members and their gear at their respective hotels.  How the hotels were chosen for each, I am not privy to.  But the snow gods were in my favor as I got to share a cinder block room with 2 beds, off the floor, with my riding partner, RS, as did Craig & Ole. Tine Bear and Metro Dave got their usual honeymoon suite, and Big Al, Mr. International, got his own one bedroom suite. 

According to the pictures I saw, the others did not fare so well.  Upon check in, Jamie "junior trail boss" stated he wanted the room for the whole night.  The "receptionist" retorted "the whole night? Usually it's by the hour."  Needless to say each of the remaining six got their OWN room, and for the bargain discount of only $25.00 per night!  Perfect right? (steph could you plug in that pic?) 💋‍

Back to our hotel... so after a quick check in, we headed to the adjoining bar. It was Country Western night!  There was plenty of cowboy hats and line dancing and Kenny Chesney going down.  You haven't seen country night at the bar until your the lone 6 English speaking Americans in a French speaking country night. They even know all the words to the American country artists. 

While watching the evening unfold, Big Al decided that if he just had a cowboy hat, he could go International again.  So the challenge was set.  Big Al promptly set about searching for a cowboy willing to part with his cowboy hat.  When nobody would bite at an American $100 bill, he switched up to a Canadian $100 bill (why I don't understand, the American bill is worth $135-$145 right now).  He was in business. Big Al the Canadian Cowboy was in from Wyoming for a one night engagement.  (stef could you insert big al here)

I retired shortly thereafter, before the midnight hour. We had a 7:30am curtain call to catch a taxi back to the hotel we were supposed to be staying at to load our sleds, grab breakfast, an get on the trail.

Another bottle of wine has just been sent to the table, tune in later for Day 4 Frost Bytes.

Get up all stinky

Cheers,

"Stick"

Command Center Update via few word texts!

Command Center here just giving everyone an update until "Stick" checks in tonight after the boys & one girl complete their 200 mile jaunt today... and yes, my updates will be exactly that of which I was receiving during the day...

2:20P - We are about 110 in to today trip trails are good lots of sleds out today it's the weekend

4:29P - We are lost

5:01P - (CRYING LAUGHING FACE AND GUN EMOJIS)

5:06P - The river is not froze might have to call flat bad (crying laughing face emoji)

5:19P - We are lost.

5:20P - They are so happy.

8:56P - Waiting for the taxis.

10:15P - This is where we are tonight.

10:20P - We had issue trail close approx. 50 miles where we going to stay, then we had no hotel rooms.

10:45P - Nice rooms 25$ a night no door just a curtain to pull shut.

Annnnnd there you have it, be sure to check back in tonight!
-Command Center 

FrostBytes Day 2: We've got a new Trail Boss

We left Meekos today around 9 am, with about 4-6" of fresh snow over night. We set out for a 150 mile trip, supposedly, to Real Masse Lodge.  We've been here a couple times in the past, and it's always one of our favorites.

Today's trails started great with fresh powder and good trails, then progressed to bad trails (bumpy) to great trails, to bad trails to good trails on our way in to Real Masse.  Wound up being 185 miles according to my Ski-Doo.

Right now we are enjoying a great dinner in the dining room with full windows over looking the lake (it's dark right now, but we will be able to see the view in the morning over breakfast.  It's always nice pulling into Real Masse after dark as the 2 story white clapboard lodge is nicely decorated with string red lights and always a festive feeling when you show up.

Today was pretty uneventful, actually.  Now that our spot trackers are working, you can probably see it looks like we did a big zig zag. That was not intentional, just the way things go on the Darkside.  I used to think when Craig and Ole named our group the Darkside Adventures there was some sort of other message in the name, I've come to find out it means the odds are we are going to arrive on the darkside of the day!

Which leads me to our NEW Trail Boss tomorrow... Junior Trail Boss Jamie has decided that he and his garmin can do a better job of guiding us.  We are humoring him right now, but there not's a chance that he is moving from his 11th position of 13 on this ride!

Since not much for bloopers to report on today, might as well as introduce you to one of our new Darkside Riders.  Kristina "Tina Bear" Young has been riding since she was 1-2 years old on the front of RS Young's snowmobile breathing in exhaust fumes and sniffing the carburetor fuel.  She has progressed into quite an accomplished rider in her 25 years.  She has mountain rode and high marked in Wyoming, and is extensively knowledgeable of the trails in northern lower Michigan.  She has been eagerly awaiting her opportunity to do a saddle bag ride in Quebec with her dad, and is proving her mettle.  She was riding today with out her gloves on, just using the handle bar muffs,  and a couple guys made mention of this.  That's when she proved she can hang with the guys!

Dinner is over, I am DUN writing for today.

Get down, get kinky.

Cheers,

Stick