FrostBytes Day 8... The Leader's Wheels Went Off Trail...

Breakfast went off on schedule, 7:30 back in the pub where we had dinner the night before. Snowmobiler’s breakfast for everybody, eggs, bacon/ham, diced potatoes, and juice/coffee.

We are planning on leaving shortly after 9am, as Dylan needs to run down to the pharmacy to refill his insulin prescription. If any of you are dilligent followers, you may recall Dylan’s medical alert last year at this overnight stay… He had carried his prescription in an outside pocket of his coat, we hit severe cold weather, and the juice froze and lost it’s effectiveness. Last year, the pharmacist opened up after hours to save Dylan’s life (I made that up for dramatic effect), this year, fortunately, Dylan was able to await regular business hours before seeing his neighborhood pharmacist.

By 9:15am, we were on the trail, with one more stop scheduled before really hitting the trail to make some time. Four riders needed to hit the local Ski Doo dealer, Rob needed a new helmet, Joe Snowmobile needed a new viser shield, Action Dan needed a new lower piece for his flop down viser, and I’m not sure what Dylan needed, but he went too. But first we swung into the local club’s relaise to use the bathroom facility, and let the 4 riders get a head start to the dealer and get their needs fulfilled.

After the 7 of us riders killed a few minutes at the relaise, we headed down the trail to the trail head where the 4 other riders would catch up with us. Naturally, we picked a spot to wait in the wide open, no shelter, and wind blowing like hell, and it was 2 degrees (I don’t know what the wind chill was, but it was COLD). We wound up waiting on the trail about 40 minutes before they finally got their shopping done, and down the trail we went.

The crew was humping today. The sky’s were clear, there was beautiful scenery, and the most traffic on the trails we have seen since we bagan, last Monday. We pretty much humped along all day, stopping for gas when necessary, and finally around the 140 mile mark, we stopped at the relaise on the trail, and had a quick lunch. I had vegetable soup, and I saw hamburgers ( well 2 hamburgers and then those were sold out) and hotdogs being served.

It was now 3:15pm, and time to get on the trail, as we have about 50 more miles to go to Perce.

About 100 yards up the trail, the train came to a screeching halt. Action Dan, our bullet catcher, has blown a front bogey wheel. This is the bogey wheel that is attached to the spring, and the spring was now stuck down into the track. We are going no where fast.

Chip spoke up and said,” I’ve got two extra bogey wheels on my sled, we can steal one of my sled, and put it on Action’s if we need to.” In the meantime, they had found the missing bogey wheel on the trail near the down sled, and Fearless Leader Craig searched his miscellaneous parts bag, found a front ski bolt and miscellaneous spacers and such to make it work, and amazingly it was a perfect fit for the found bogey wheel! A quick 20 minute down time on the trail, and we were back on the clock.

We arrived in Perce around 6:15pm, again in the dark. We quickly unloaded our gear, got our showers done, and headed accross the road to the restaurant for our dinner. On a side bar, while I was wondering around the front stoop of our drive up room, I heard the sounds of passion coming from the room between mine and Fearless Leaders. I looked around, and went to Craig’s room to see if Hedgehog had some porn playing on his phone. As I passed the dark room between us, it was now evident where the action was. It must of been good, because I couldn’t help but stop for a minute to be sure it wasn’t a tv, and quickly went and grabbed Hedgehog to listen in to what was now giving me great amusement!

When we all gathered at dinner, and I shared my story, the first 10 minutes of our dinner hour was the group speculating as to who the happy couple was!

Tomorrow we are headed to Murdochville, about 100 miles away. We have not had a day yet without some issue, tune in tomorrow to see if the problem solving continues, or we have a smooth day.

Bye for now,

Stick

FrostBytes Day 7... Sounded Like A Hair Blow Dryer Testing Facility

Well, we had a very relaxing evening at Domaine Valga. We dried out from the day long rain ride in the comfy leather chairs and couches around the wood burning stove until our scheduled dinner time of 8pm. It was a much more subdued evening, than the night prior, when we kinda tore up Moose Valley.

Dinner was a chicken kabob, without the kabob, over rice and mixed veggies. Very nicely done, as they served us at the 12 person dining room table, with bread rolls in baskets, and a couple of nice bottles of Cabernet. They topped it off with a piece of vanilla cake with chocalate frosting as dessert, over which we sang Happy Birthday to Hedgehog.

This morning , breakfast was at 8am, however, everybody was already gathered at our table from the night before, pretty much in the same seating order, by 7:30am. After breakfast, when we all went upstairs to gather our gear from one of our respective 5 bedrooms, with 2 beds in each, it sounded like a Hair Blow Dryer Testing facility. Each room came with a blowdryer, but nobody was coifing their hair. The dryers were laying on the floor in each room blowing into your choice of gloves, boots or socks. Until one blew up, and then another blew a breaker.

By 9am we had our sleds out of the heated garage that they dried out in the night before, in front of the lodge and saddlebags packed and attached and ready to roll. It should be a good day, as the groomers are beginning to catch up after the prior weekend’s snow storm, and our gear is dry.

6 miles in, the first of the day’s issues rears it’s ugly head. Chip’s new Yamaha Vector is in limp mode, and won’t accelerate much pass an idle. In the trail, in the middle of a prairie, with wind howling and the snow covering the ground, whipping around us viciously. An error code 84 was flashing on his electronic dashboard. Apparently each of the Yamaha riders knew that was a throttle override code, perhaps an issue from yesterday’s rain. There was a gas station less than 1/2 a mile away where we were going for fuel, so we towed Chips sled into the 60’s era gas station with the attached, heated, 2 bay repair garage.

Craig and Connecticut Jim jumped right into pulling the plastic panels off Chip’s sled and figuring out the throttle cable issue. Within a 1/2 hour, the sled was fixed, for the first time today, and we were back on the trail. But not before Rob discovered he had left the blow dryer on his helmet visor a little to long, and warped the hell out of it! It was like looking thru a kaliedoscope for him. Since it was a dual pane viser, they cut away the warped, outside viser, and told him thats as good as gets, suck it up, lets go. BUT not before Action Dan jerry rigged his helmet, as the drop down face shield latch had broken some time recently and he was getting cold air on the face, on the trail. Finally, after all these little nuances, we were back on the trail.

Everything was going good, smooth groomed trails, and after about 45 miles we came up to the largest snow drift I’ve only seen on Facetube. While we were doing photo ops in front of the drift, Chip came up to the front of the pack, sled limping again. We decided to take his belt off, and tow him up the road to see if there was a more hospitable place to work on his sled.

About 2 miles up the road, we came accross a crew of “linemen” working on a wind turbine, in a field of dozens. We pulled up next to their walk in tool shed (which they had set up as lunch room, with a large heater blowing warm air inside, while they ate their lunch around a work bench. We pulled up beside it, as a wind block, and the tear down process got going. This time they chose to just disconnect, and bypass, the sensor causing the troubles. No problem there, as long old Chip doesn’t get whiskey throttle, and let’s her eat!

It was now around 12:30pm, only 45 miles in, and another 140 to go. We needed to roll. The next stop was about 2 hours later, at a gas station. Action Dan made the call, “sorry boy’s we are not stopping at that club relaise your looking at for lunch, grab a snack out of your pack, and we are going to keep cracking.” Ron busted out some sausage and crackers for the group, we ate like mongolians, and got “cracken”. But not before Jamie told the group that his helmet viser was fogging/freezing and his visibility is about 25%, basically a little hole on the side where he was looking sideways out of, and driving Bird Box style (if you don’t get the Bird Box reference, google it, or rent it on Netflix). Obviously vision is a necessity, and if you are familiar with Joe Snowmobile, he doesn’t need any other detriments to his riding game. Unfortunately, there was no solution on the trail to his dilema, and we would just have to stop periodically to let him clear his viser manually.

We cracked it pretty good, too. We made a few stops to stretch, or smoke em if you got em, but pretty much kept at it. We made Hostellerie Baie Bleue by about 6:15. We have been here a few times before, and we quickly checked in, unpacked, showered, and headed to the pub for the “snowmobiler dinner”. Good food here, I’m partial to the baked chicken breast and 1/2 slap of ribs entree’ myself, but there was some good looking burgers put down at the table as well.

We retired by 11pm, some a little earlier, a few a little later, and breakfast call time was 7:30am. We are anticipating even more grooming activity for our next day’s ride, and are looking forward to day of riding, and hopefully no issues.

We shall see.

Bye for now…

Stick

PS. you only get one picture because I am at dinner and want to eat warm food tonight. Beat it.

PSS. I couldn’t resist, you get 3 pictures, proceed with caution…

PSSS. Today’s headline was lifted from Dylan.

FrostBytes Day 5 & 6...We Are Not Going To Let It Rain On Our Parade!

Wednesday was a pajama day for your writer! I got to stay in the lodge all day with the lovely Josie’, and write this blog all day! The rest of the Team left around 11:30am for a day ride on the local trails, and returned about 3:30pm.

They apparently enjoyed themselves, not nearly as much as myself, and did happen accross 7 moose, at different parts of their day. With all the recent snow accumulation from the winter storm that passed thru, the moose have been using the snowmobile trails to traverse their territory. They said it was amazing to see the moose move off the trail, and how deep the snow was, and they just trudged right thru it.

Good for them, they had a good day of local riding, without all the issues that have challenged this trip from Day 1. Apparently only Fearless Leader Craig was the one to get stuck more than once that day.

Dinner was around 6:30pm, and I saw everything from ribeye steaks with Frites (french fries) to baked spaghetti and garlic bread being served. After dinner happy hour progressed to about 9:30pm, as Josie’ kept the lodge open an extra 1/2 hour for our trail of degenerates. Moose Valley runs off a generator in the winter, a large one for the day, and a smaller one for the evening hours. In the summer months they run off of solar panels, and an inverter at night. Pretty cool place in a desolate area, one of everybody’s favorite stops along the trail.

Breakfast was scheduled for 8am local time. Local time is one hour ahead of Eastern Time, as we went east so far that the clocks jumped forward an hour. Departure is scheduled for shortly after 9am.

We shall see…

FrostBytes … Day 6, Thursday, January 24, 2019 It Was Like Riding Thru A Car Wash All Day!

Today started off on schedule, with everybody in the lodge for breakfast by 8am. The only thing hanging over the team was the weather. There was a light freezing rain falling from the overcast sky, and temps were projected to be around 37 degrees.

We had two paths to get to Domaine Valga, in St. Gabriel-de-Rimouski, QC. The short path is about 100 miles, the longer path is about 150 miles. We had planned on taking the longer trail, but with the freezing rain, it was decided it would be better to take the short path.

We were on the trail by 9:15 am, and fortunately the freezing rain, and warm temps started off as icing our helmet visers and windshields, but by our gas stop at about 60 miles in, it was just light rain, and the water just dripped off our raised visers, and the ice melted from our sleds. But before all that, the trails were groomed, and very enjoyable to start our day. We even had a moose on our trail about 5 miles in, that slowed our progress, as we gave it plenty of room to move at it’s own pace, and depart the trail when he damn well felt like it!

The trails were very nice all day, with a combination of woods with loose twisty trails, to long stretches with sweeping hills. A very enjoyable ride now that the Clubs have been able to catch up on their grooming activities. The only negative was the 685 times I had to remove my hand from the handlebar gauntlets, to use the rubber blade on my pointer finger of my left hand to wipe my helmet viser, like a windshield wiper.

We stopped at around 45 miles at a club relaise’ for a small lunch, since we had plenty of time, and the riders appreciated the opportunity to place wet gear around wood burning stove to dry a bit. Kevin even “borrowed” a Hefty garbage bag, punched a head hole and two arm holes thru it because his gear didn’t prevent the steady drizzle from penetrating. He was soaked all the way thru.

We arrived at our overnight stay around 3pm today, with an otherwise uneventful ride. Other than when Fearless Leader got stuck and tipped over in the deep snow, just off the trail, just before our lunch stop. (I’d hate to leave that detail out :))

Now everybody has dried out, some have showered, some have given their wet attire to the lodge staff to place in their clothes dryers to speed up the drying process. We have now all joined together in the lodge community room. Fearless leader and I are at the little counter top/bar doing this blog and the rest are around the wood burning stove, sharing their conversation and perspective on the day’s trail ride.

FYI: Today is our buddy’s HedgeHog’s birthday, we can’t light candles on his cake cus it would burn the lodge down, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHIL!!

Bye for now…

Stick

FrostBytes... Day 4, January 22... SOS Button Is Pressed... Need Help On The Trail

Breakfast was in the lodge, and the Darkside Team joined our friends Gaf, Ed, and Dan in the lodge. We should be on the trail by 9:30am, we have only about 100 miles to Moose Valley today. Should be an easy run… Right.

After breakfast, we all retreated to our respective cabins for last minute detail before our trail ride begins, finally, on Day 4. We all gather our sleds on the trail out front of the lodge, I had to change a blown fuse for my rear light before departing, and off we went. The trails were swoopy, still not groomed, but definitely passable.

It was the first ride of the year for many of us, and it showed right away. Action Dan blew past the trail head within the first mile, quickly recalibrated, turned himself around and then promptly went into the deep powder off trail and into the guide rope along the trail. We got him out, and now we’re off.

About 5 miles in, we pass a groomer. Super duper, this day is about to be ok. But not before Hedgehog attempts to pass the groomer and gets stuck in about 6 feet of powder just off the trail. All we could see was his helmet head popping out of the snow, looked more like a ground hog looking for his shadow, then Hedgehog! Fortunately the groomer saw the rookie mistake, and backed up, attached a tow strap to his rear bumper, and pulled him out for us with ease.

We continued down the trail another few miles, I wasn’t really watching my mileage at this point of the day, and from my position at the tail end of our group, I see one of our guys off trail in deep powder, going along a gully and side hill. I’m asking my self who needs to be off trail, looking for deep powder when the trail had plenty. Then I notice it is Chip. And he’s not doing this for fun, but because he just got sucked off the trail. He’s looking good, though, about 20 yards off trail, wide open, on his new long track Yamaha Vector, and I say to myself, damn, he’s doing good on that new sled, he looks like he’s going to make it back to the trail. Then I saw the clump of 2”-3” trees that he is quickly approaching. And into them he goes. With a tree stuck between his right ski and front hood, and 6 feet of snow, we are going to need a couple guys up front to come back and help out. Then a young man on a Quad is coming up the trail, laughs at Chip’s predicament, and jumps in to help. He says he has a chainsaw on his quad, we’ll just cut a couple of these trees down, and pop him out. While the chainsaw is warming up, it runs out of gas. Just another day on the Darkside. Since everybody runs 4 strokes, we don’t even have any mix fuel to syphon out of a tank. Fearless Leader Craig returned, grabbed his folding saw out of his sled, and Chip began making fire wood.

After cutting a couple 3” diameter trees out of his path, Chip had his Yamaha back on the trail, with the only damage being loosing a reflecter on the front and a hit to his pride.

As we progressed out of Quebec, and into New Brunswick, groomed trails were still another day or 2 away. The marked trails were really wind blown with serious drifting. Too much for 11 sleds to break, and get in at a safe time. Dylan and Connecticut Jim referenced their respective GPS units for alternate routes, and we tried a couple, but were not sure they were going to be any better, and it was so close to dark, around 4pm. Instead of taking a road in, that we thought would get us to Moose Valley, but not positive, Dylan suggested we try one more trail, that his GPS said would be only 12 miles in to our destination.

We got about 1.5 miles down this trail, with Action Dan out front, Dylan and his GPS right behind, and then rest of us. We came accross a log, buried under the recent heavy snow fall, that Action & Dylan crossed before it was exposed to the rest of us, now blocking our path. Connecticut Jim tried going around the fallen log, and promptly got buried in 6 foot of snow just off the trail. Dan and Dylan, had kept going, breaking trail, and not really able to stop and see what was happening to the rest of the group. It took about 45 minutes to get the remaining 9 sleds, loaded with saddlebags, turned around in the deep snow and facing back the way we came in. It was safer to take 9 sleds back to the road, and into the lodge, then to continue burying sleds along the unbroken route. Action Dan and Dylan were too far up the trail to have any idea of their situation.

When we gathered everybody at the road that would hopefully take us in to Moose Valley, I asked Craig, “what we going to do about Dan & Dylan?” He responded, “knowing those 2, they will beat us in and being have a drink by the time we get there!”

About 20 miles down the road, we arrived at Moose Valley. But Dan and Dylan were not there as hoped. Serious concerns were expressed. It was now dark, and about 5 below zero, but fortunately no wind.

Dylan carries an InReach satellite tracking, emergency response unit. Connecticut Jim also carries one. A flurry of calls began to InReach to inquire for a GPS co-ordinate of their location. We were then told that he had hit the SOS button. The Royal Canadian Police were contacted, and we were putting a plan together to go back out with a small group of 4 to attempt to find them, with the location that InReach provided.

Craig, Kevin, an RN, Ron and Chip, a graduate of West Pointe and a retired Captain in the Army, headed back out the last known location of the missing 2, and would attempt to follow their tracks further in.

In the mean time, the RCP was in contact with the local snowmobile club, to request assistance from them on the trail. The President of the local club was sent an overhead GPS photo of where the InReach unit had recorded their distress call. He knew exactly where they were at, and he headed out on his big Ski Doo Skandic for the rescue as well.

The search party of 4, got past the log in the trail, got stuck a couple times foraging down the tracks, followed the missing 2’s trail, and found them at the bottom of a hill, in about 8 foot of snow, where the path they were on deadended. Dyaln was able to get his sled turned around, but Action Dan with his saddlebag loaded 2up machine was buried, and buried deep. The 2 of them couldn’t ever get it out by themselves.

The rest of us waited at the lodge, making idle small talk, and getting updates from Josie’, the manager at Moose Valley, as she took phone call updates from the RCP, the snowmobile club President via his satellite phone, and InReach

At around 9:30 pm, the phone call came from the club President, he had all the riders accounted for, and they would be in shortly. A sigh of relief was had by the small group waiting at the lodge, and knowing our friends were ok, a celebratory drink was ordered.

When our group was all back together the real story came out, Apparently our 4 guys had come accross the lost riders first, and found Action Dan and Dylan had already settled in for the night. They had cleared a spot to start a fire, cut some trees, and apparently had a roaring bon fire going, that would last thru the night. They were so cozy, they had their coats off, hanging from a branch of a nearby tree, and eating Cliff bars, and looking at the stars and moon, having a good time. Action Dan’s response to our group when they came up to them was “What are you guys doing here?” They got over their disappointment that they would not be staying in the woods tonight, and headed back with the group.

Apparently the trail Dylans GPS said to take was a prior years trail, and hasn’t been maintained for awhile, hence the debris, and non grooming.

Upon their return to the lodge, Josie’ had warm cheeseburgers for the late arrivals, and several more adult beverages were had, as Action Dan and Dylan regaled us with their story of their quality time in the bush of New Brunswick. They actually told their story with so much enthusiasm, we threatened to take them back out and drop them off for the night!

Tomorrow, we will be at Moose Valley for another night, riding local trails, and looking for moose.

Bye for now…
Stick

FrostBytes, Day 3, Monday January 21... It Was A Good Plan

We were up at 5:50 am, showered and ready to leave Motel Levis’ by 7am. Just one problem… The roads were not open yet.

So some sat in their rooms, some sat in their running vehicles… and waited. By 8am, we decided to quit listening to the news, and lets go see for ourselves. Our interpretation of the news was the highway was open to our exit for Montmagny, but closed after that. Let’s go find out.

Our interpretation was correct, and off we were, at the hotel by 9am. A quick unload of our sleds, park the trucks and lets get this ride started!

By 11am we were at the Ski Doo dealer less than a mile down the road, on the way out of town by trail. Joe Snowmobile and I each decided a new battery was in order, since our sleds were a little slow on their spark to life this morning, and a little preventive action right now can save a lot of grief later. Plus, everybody needed to fork our their 400$ Canadian for their annual trail permits.

By 11:15am, we were on the trail that cut thru the Ski Doo dealers parking lot and headed to Park Mont Citadelle. Or so we thought.

We got about 100 yards down the trail, and the winter storm that had moved thru the last 2 days have really had a negative impact for us on the trail. It was blown over, and in a low spot at the first turn, about 6 foot of snow had accumulated and 6 of our 11 riders were stuck! After an hour of digging themselves out, Craig our fearless leader and Hedgehog did a recon run a bit up the trail to see how conditions were further up. Not good. 4’-6’ drifts, and very lumpy. No way would 11 sleds make it 125 miles, starting at noon, breaking trail, and be in at any safe and reasonable time this evening.

We gathered everybody at the gas station accross the road from the Ski Doo dealer, to discuss our options. Connecticut Jim went back to the Ski Doo dealer to inquire if they knew the groomer schedule and Action Dan went to the Arctic Cat Dealer accross the road katty korner, to make the same inquiry there. The report was, it would be at least Tuesday, maybe Wednesday before the groomers got here. We looked at Craig, “ what’s plan B?”. The first topic presented was go back to the hotel, get rooms for tonight and ride out in the morning. This would throw off our first 2 nights of scheduled stops. The next suggestion, which nobody wants to do when your supposed to be “ski doo-ing”, was to contact Park Mont Citadelle, see if they can accomodate 3 of our trucks with trailers, and just stage from there, so we could maintain our schedule. A quick phone call, confirmation of truck parking, re-loaded sleds, and down the road we went for the 1.5 hour by road trip to Citadelle.

We got to Citadelle around 5pm, after we stopped for a sit down lunch on the road, unloaded our gear and checked into each of our respective cabins. Action Dan, Snowmobile Joe and Stick shared a cabin, got our wood burning fireplace stoked up, and set up the bar. Soon the rest of the group congretated in our cabin for happy hour, before our scheduled 7pm dinner. During our happy hour, a suprise visit was made to our cabin by our friends from New York that we met on the trail about 3-4 years ago. We didn’t think we would see Gaf, Ed and Dan on this trip, as their itenerary didn’t cross with ours this year, but the winter storm diverted their trail as well, so they wound up at Citadelle as well, knowing we would be there. We caught up, socialized, and the expanded group rode our sleds to the main lodge for dinner together.

Tomorrow, we are off to Moose Valley for 2 nights. The boys want to do some local trail riding at Moose Valley, and see if they can catch a view of the abundant moose population that inhabit the locale.

Bye for now…

Stick

FrostBytes Day 2, Sunday January 20, 2019... Trucks on the Trail

Everybody seems to have survived the first night fairly unscathed. We departed Kingston on schedule, and headed back to eastbound 401 to Quebec. The overnight snow accumulation wasn’t bad, but the high winds and blowing snow was going to make today an intersting ride, to say it politely.

The morning started off with a major surprise! Action Dan, our new bullet catcher up front since 2018, was not scheduled to be on this years trip due to health issues with his mother. However, after she convinced him to go on his favorite trip of each year, he departed Grand Rapids, MI at 6pm last night, drove thru the night in the winter storm, arriving in Kingston at 4 am!!! Nobody, except apparently he did inform our fearless leader Craig, knew that Action Dan was making this surprise appearance. I walked into the lobby this morning for my bowl of oatmeal, and there is Action sitting at our 8 person tall top table talking to Ron Nicks. At first I was like, good morning…. Then it hit me… ACTION DAN?!? What the eff are you doing here?!? We are all happy and excited to have Action back on the trail with us!

The Darkside Team employed a new gadget for truck travels this year. The lead truck and the tail truck utiilzed CB radios for communication instead of our cell phones. This is a new requirment for this travel, especially in the blizzard conditions we traveled in, communication was instant. The roads were windswept with lots of drifting and literally white out conditions. Vision was limited to about 50 yards in front of you, and the few other vehicles on the road popped out of the wall of white quite quickly. Defrost on high, keep your wipers and window from freezing, and crack the side window if your warm, we’re eastbound and down, as my friend Jerry Reed liked to say.

A few patches of black ice later, many cars piled up along the shoulders of the highway on each side, and about 6 hours in, we, naturally, had our first dilema for this fine January winter day, that nobody should have been out in to begin with. Phil from Indiana, here forward refered to by his CB handle “HedgeHog” was out front in his Ford 350 diesel, and black smoke came out the tailpipe, and the check engine light went red. An exit was needed to find out what was going on. I had an idea, as this happened about 7 years ago with my buddy RS’s diesel truck in similiar blizzard conditions… the air intake was probably packed with snow.

We pulled into a gas station/Tim Hortons at the next exit, let the guys that have some mechanical knowledge work on the truck, while I went in and shared half a ham & cheddar sandwich and a hot chicken soup with Action Dan and Joe Snowmobile Jamie.

They did their best to clean out the intake, got the truck to run without the black smoke from the tailpipe, but the check engine light was still on. The facility we were at didn’t have much for assistance, so we proceeded back to the highway, closed our eyes and hoped for the best.

After another 30 minutes or so on the road, the truck acting up again, we found an exit with a few more resources, poured hot water on the intake, to melt some of the accumulated snow inside. The light went off, so were we. On to Montmagny, QC and ovenight stay at the luxurious Hotel L’oisellere. Connecticut Jim, Dylan and Rob were already there, a day earlier, and awaiting our arrival and dinner.

But it just never works out that way does it? About 35 miles from our exit, in Levis’, the powers that be, shut down the highway and all roads into Montmagny. It is now about 6pm, we have run in these conditions all day, with only another 30-45 minutes to our destination, and now it looks like we will be sleeping in our trucks in a strip plaza parking lot. Fill the tanks boys, we are in for a long night.

At the gas station next to the strip plaza we had staked out for our overnight, a message on FaceBook messenger came from Chip of Pennsylvania. He, too, was stranded in Levis’ and had found a motel room. We inquired with him if they had accommodations for 6 more? He replied, “their filled”. A few minutes later he came back with word that the owner had 2 rooms, with 2 beds each, for 6 guys! PERFECT! send us the address, we will be there. He sent me the map pinpoint of the motel, and it was literally 900 yards down the road we were already on! PERFECT!

I love it when these things happen on the trail, this is where the memorable stories come from. Craig, Hedgehog, Stick and Joe Snowmobile all piled into one room, with Kevin, Ron Nicks and Action Dan in the other room. Naturally, the party room of the night was in our room, the bar was quickly set up on the round formica wood grain table next to the TV, and pizza delivery was ordered. Joe Snowmobile got the Patriots/Chiefs Game on the tube, and all 8 of us sat in the 2 chairs and around the edges of the beds to eat, drink and be merry.

We checked in with Connecticut Jim at the Hotel L’oiseliere. He was real sympathetic to our situation. He informed Craig that the 3 of them just enjoyed a nice steak dinner, with a bottle of wine, and that he and Dylan were now waiting for their scheduled 8pm massages!

The plan now was to wake early, get to our destination, unload the sleds, take our gear into a room to warm up while we eat breakfast, then hit the trail by 11am…. we shall see.

Bye for now…

Stick

2019 DarkSide Adventures is back like never before and on the Trail in Quebec...sort of.

The 2019 trip begins Saturday, January 19. 2 trucks from Michigan, 1 from Pennsylvania, and 1 from Connecicut. The destination is Montmangny, Quebec. Ten riders, in the Gaspe’ region, for 10 days of riding.

As is the standard operating procedure for the DarkSide Team, we leave in a winter storm warning for southern Ontario and our trail thru Quebec, for BOTH of our days of truck travel. This always turns out well, if you have ever followed our prior years, why change now?

We departed Flint, MI around 9am, and our travels upto, and past, the border in Port Huron/Sarnia was smooth. About 20km past the border, the snow flurries began, and the road crews were out, and passenger vehicles were wadded up all along the route, on both sides of the 401 eastbound. An interesting conversation topic amongst our group is the way the Ontario Providence plows their highways… They get 2-6 plow/salt trucks that run tandem accross all lanes of the highway, and clear the entire stretch in one sweep. This does cause all traffic behing the operation to bunch up and travel in a pack at 25 mph for 10-30 miles stretches at a time. I happen to be a fan of this procedure… then all lanes are open, not just one cleared lane, and traffic is back up to highway speeds. I’m a fan.

Kingston Ontario and the Courtyard by Marriot is our overnight stay, per protocol. We arrive after about 660 km around 5:30pm. The travel was slow with all the road clearing operations going on, but once we got east of Toronto, traffic diminished, and we started to cut a good clip. We made two stops for fuel, and had lunch in the trucks on the road, chicken shwarama sandwiches, if anybody was curious ( for the last 5-6 years I had been bringing these sandwiches for everybody in our travel group. However, the last 2 years, nobody said anything when I handed each truck driver thier respective cooler containing lunch. So last year, I didn’t pack the lunches for each truck as I thought that maybe the annual lunch at run it’s course. At the end of the first day of last year’s travel I heard from nearly everybody how they missed their annual lunch sandwich and told me i was “really slacking!” Well. I didn’t know they were all a bunch of ungrateful degenerates that had just come to expect their lunches provided! Mental note made). After unpacking our travel overnight bag, we were headed to the Boston’s Pizza accross the parking lot for our evening of adult beverages, catching up, adult beverages, dinner, and adult beverages.

Call time for Sunday morning is 7:30 am for breakfast in the hotel lobby cafe, and on the road by 8:30. The winter storm warning we are under continues until tomorrow night at 11pm. And our travel path is expected to receive the brunt of this storm. And if your familiar with our prior trips, their is defintely some excitement coming our way tomorrow for the reamaining approximate 560km we have yet to travel.

Bye for now,

Stick

FrostBytes Days 11, 12, & 13... This Ride Has Been Cursed From Day 1

Well, after 13 days we are back in Kingston ON at the Boston's Pizza we have watched the Super Bowl at for the last 5 years.  Fortunately, the smoke has cleared and they are open for business (if you don't get the reference, scroll down to Day 1 and start there).  The gang from Michigan is here, Craig, Stinky P, Boyle, Kevin, Ron, Joe Snowmobile Jamie, Truck Driver Vinnie and Stick.  Connecticut Jim and Dylan peeled out last night from Pont Rouge back to Connecticuts' place in Vermont.  Chip pulled  out early this morning for his entry back through northern New York and back to Pennsylvania.  

Friday February 2, 2018 continued...

Picking up where we left off on Day 10, We successfuly got Vinnie to the Enterprise Car Rental in Rivere du Loop.  We left him at the counter filling out paper work and we met back up with the rest of the team at the relaise we had lunch at. 

Apparently the rest of the afternoon went smooth.  I don;'t have any recollection of issues the rest of Friday afternoon's ride (I even confirmed with Craig, as there have been so many issues each day, I can't always recall in chronological order how they hit us!) We ran about 70 miles to Cap Martin, our Friday night over stay.  The staff was extremely accomodating to the riders, bending over backwards to insure our pleasure, which was much appreciated after the last few days we have had.  Maybe they were following our blog, and were aware of our plight?

That evening, dinner was at 7pm.  Vinnie was able to drive the rental back to Pont Rouge, get the Darkside Rig, and meet back up with us at Cap Martin and join us for dinner. We asked for dinner to be put off until 7:30, so we could all be together, and he came in under budget as we were all seated by 7:15!  

Saturday February 3, 2018

Call time was 9 bells. Vinnie peeled out at 6:30am to retrieve the broke down Ski-doo 500 klicks back up the road (about 300 miles).  The day started off pretty good for the 11 riders still on the trail.  But by the end of the day, there would only be 9 to finish on sleds.

The first issue, although minor, was at the 17 mile mark.  The group wound to a halt on the right side of the trail, a quick look in the woods for "nature" and a visit from the front to the back for Craig to ask Stick if he could contact Vinnie in the truck.  Craig had left his cell phone back at Cap Martin, still plugged into the wall, getting every bit of charge he could before departing.  A quick text was sent out, confirmation by Vinnie of "ok" and off we went again.

Around the 40 mile mark we stopped at a Relaise for a quick warm up and hot choclate.  The day was budgeted at around 180 miles total, and it was our last day on the trail, might as well enjoy it.

After our 20 minute warmup, hot choclate, bathroom break, we were back at it.  The trails were in good condition, even though there was plenty of Saturday weekend traffic. It was cold, sunny and lots of snow dust on the trail.  Caution was excerted due to the limited visibility from the full sun in certain directions and the cloud of snow dust hanging on the trail.

Somewhere in here, Chris Boyle was riding down the trail not a care in the world, when he lost his left saddle bag.  Fortunately, Chip was behind him to clean up the trail and grab his saddlebag.  A few bungee cords later, he was trail ready again.  Good thing Chip picked up his saddlebag... The biggest concern Boyle had, "is that the saddlebag that had the 5 leftover beers" from the night before1

At the 75 mile mark, we came accross another Relaise.  The group decided this would be a good place for lunch.  Lunch? It's been days since we have stopped for a real lunch on the trail. This was unfamiliar to me.   I didn't hesitiate to slam my kill button, and head for the door.  Cheeseburgers all dressed all around is what it looked like to me, sitting at the rows of long tables we had gathered as a group at.  

At lunch I was informed that we had about 30 miles to go, to get to a "restaurant" parking lot for a truck and trailer to get us accross a bridge, and back to Pont Rouge.

I'd like to refer back to how the day was budgeted for 180 miles +/-... I always ask each day before we start what the approximate number of miles are, as it gives me a goal in my head, and an inkling of an idea of how our day is going.  At this point, 75 miles, I am beginning to think they are messing with me.  We have already made 2 stops, 1 a long lunch break.  Connecticut Jim usually needs fuel at the 90 mile mark, and I don't see any signs of gas nearby.  Do we only really have a 90-100 mile day, that's why we are dragging this out?  Mind games on the trail?

So we mount our sleds, and off we go.  We get to the 100 mile mark, and there is a small sign for gas on the side of the trail.  Action Dan, Joe Snowmobile and Craig have motored down the trail unaware. Connecticut, not wanting to have to hit my gas buddy, affectionately refered to as "bar tab", stops at the intersection, the rest of the pack behind him.  Kevin shoots ahead, catchs Craig and Joe Snowmobile, but not Action, and comes back to the group waiting at the intersection.  Craig waits ahead on the trail for Action to come back, and the rest of the group at the intersection heads to the gas station.  Things seem like there going smooth don't they?

Everybody is fueled, and gathered in an adjoining parking lot to the gas station. Action Dan is looking at the map to plot our course, and Craigis  looking at the ground under his sled.  The heat exchanger leak that was fixed last Saturday, seems to have reared it's ugly head again.    D-U-N.  Craig parks his sled behind the gas station, pulls the key, and takes his saddlebag inside the station behind the counter for safe keeping.  

In the interest of fair reporting and integrety of this blog, I must inform you that back at the intersection before heading to the gas station, my trusty Ski-Doo had started acting up again.  It would run fine from 20mph to 60, but at idle it sounded like it was running on 2 cylinders.  Was the lingering fuel issue of few days prior still haunting me?

At the 140 mile mark, a quick "nature" break on the right side of the trail.  I pull from my last position of the train to the front and pull up next to Craig sitting on the back of Action's 2-Up and "politely" inquire "exactly where is this imaginary restaurant?"  A few good belly laughs were had, and we were back in action.

Finally, around the 160 mile mark, we found the "restaurant".  A quick call to the delivery service, and we moved accross the road to a hotel parking lot where there was more room for the truck/trailer and ease of loading. 

I changed the fuse for my handlebar warmers and was back in action in that regard.  However, the performance of my sled was deteriorating.  The truck was going to have to make a 3rd trip accross, another 45 minutes, to get me.  I felt it was better to call Vinnie at the Bon Aire motel, where he had already arrived back to, with the rig. We could have Vinnie pick me up, not risk a catastrophic failure on the trail, and go back up the road 30 miles to pick up Craig's sled as well.  It just made more sense than to risk holding the group up, and making this a verrrryyyy long night.

It took Vinnie about 40 minutes to get to Craig and I.  It was another 30 minutes up the road to Craig's sled.  The rest of the group was safely accross the bridge and on their way to the Bon Aire.  They got in around 7:20pm last night, they encountered some pretty beat up trails and while they tried blasting thru, it still took awhile.  Vinnie, Craig & I arrived around 7:45.  Vinnie put about 1100 klicks behind the windshield today (approximately 660 miles) by the time he retrieved his sled, then came and rescued Craig and I.

The evening shower was put off, as we tied our sleds down, packed our gear and needed to get to dinner.  We were all gathered by 8:30 in the bar for our dinners. It would be an early night for the remaining riders, as we were pretty tuckered out from the night before and the day we had today.  I saw alot of FRENCH Onion soups at the table, as Vinnie and I had been talking all week that we couldn't wait to get back to our 4 star rated FRENCH Onion soup.

A "thank you" to Etienne St Pierre at S.K. Export in Kedgwick NB.  He kept Vinnies sled safe for 2 days.  In appreciation, Vinnie did some shopping at his store while there retrieving his sled, and bought a couple bottles of fresh maple syrup! Wish he would of thought of me a bit, I like fresh maple syrup too.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, Julie, following along back home.  Hope you had a great day, and I thank you for allowing me to take off on these crazy adventures during your special day!

Sunday February 4, 2018

The Darkside rig had a call time of 7:30 am sharp.  We had to drive 2 and 1/4 hours back to Rivere du Loope to return the rental truck.  The remaining group left around 9am and got into Kingston around 3:30.  The Darkside rig arrived around 6:15, just in time to fuel up for tomorrow's run home, check in to the hotel, and scurry accross the parking lot to catch the Super Bowl at our reserved tables.

We are gathered watching the game in our reserved section of the bar that we have inhabited for the last 5 years. On a sidebar, I have a $50 wager and 4.5 points on the Eagles with Snowmobile Joe Jamie... go Eagles.   We are already busy plotting and discussing next years adventure.

I think I can speak for the entire Darkside Team when I say a GREAT time was had by all.  We rode as a team, had laughs at each other's expense, and solved problems as a team.  It was a pleasure gentlemen.  Over the last 13 days, old friendships were renewed, new friendships made, and memories created that will last a life time.  

As I close out this years edition of Frostbytes, any of you that have followed my prior years musings, may recall that I always reference my "7 followers and my Mom".  My mother and father would gather each night in the hearth room, and my mother would open her laptop to log in and see what kind of "tom foolery" her son and the gang were up to each day.  She would read aloud, to my father, and they would smile, shake their heads, and sometimes leave an inspirational note in the comments (my father's favorite reminder was "Son, don't let that string that is attached between your head and thumb snap, it'll get you in trouble). Well, they are not here this year to follow along digitally, but I know they were with me all they way.  Don't worry Dad, I didn't snap that string! I dedicate this years musings to Jack & Paula. xo

Remember, you can now find us on Facebook, so if you are on that medium, click like and follow along.  Should any of you 7 followers out there ever wish to inquire more about a trip on the Darkside contact Craig at 810-629-1299, we'd love to have some new victims.

Bye for now

Stick

PS. Fuck you Phil

FrostBytes New To The Team For 2018 Dylan Bond

New for 2018 is Dylan Bond, from East Longmeadow, Mass.  Dylan has been riding snowmobiles regularly since 2008, when he purchased his first sled, a 2006 Ski-Doo GSX.  He rode predominately around Northern Vermont, at his family vacation home.

Dylan’s first experience on a snowmobile, however, came at a young age when a neighbor would take him out riding, on the back of an Arctic Cat, in the fields around his home.  But snowmobiling isn’t his only motorsport interest.  Since the age of 10, he has been riding dirt bikes on the trail systems of Connecticut.

 He recently gave up the dirt bikes for 4 wheelers and side by side units, as they are more conducive to a family.  His wife, Sandy, and 3 kids, Grace, Lila, and James (yes…Bond…James Bond) spend a lot of time at their Vermont home doing outdoor activities.

Back to his snowmobile career, he has had a 2010 MXZX800, a 2013 1200TNT, and his current ride the 2017 1200Enduro that he has put over a 1000 miles on in the last 10 days.  At home there is 2017 Ski-doo 900 Blizzard MXZ back home that, as he puts it, the kids ride and crash.

Dylan has been a great addition to the Darkside Team.  He has entertained the group at many lunch time breaks with his guitar playing (sometimes the relaise and clubhouses will have an acoustic guitar hanging on the wall).  We look forward to his returning next year, he fits right in!

Thanks for joining us on the 2018 Darkside Adventure Dylan!

FrostBytes... New To The Team For 2018 Profiles Phil "Stinky P" Jacobs

Our next Rider Bio is Phil “Stinky P” Jacobs.  While this is Stinky P’s first ride during my tenure on the Darkside ride thru Quebec, he is not a rookie.  He was here back in 1999 and 2001 with Craig and Ole.

Phil, from Bremen Indiana, started riding as a kid on Snow Pony by Sears snowmobile.  He rode around the Bremen area in the neighboring fields and yard.  His brother in law, Roger Abigt,  kept Phil’s interest in the snowmobile sport as a youth.  Roger may have regretted keeping young Phil in the hobby as in 1978 when Roger purchased a new 1978 Yamaha SRX and young Phil took it for a spin down the road and rolled it over, ripping the windshield off, bending the handlebars and tearing the seat on the week old sled!

In 1997, Phil had a fateful meeting with Darkside Co-Leader, Jim “Ole” Olender thru their professional careers.  That meeting led to Stinky P purchasing a 1998 Ski-doo Mach Z thru a mutual friendship Ole had with a dealership in Mon Laurier, Quebec. 

Today, Stinky P is riding a 2017 Yamaha Sidewinder.  

That winter, Phil rode around the Upper Penninsula of Michigan with Craig and Ole.  It was there that he was ready for the trip to Quebec in 1999 with the two.

In the years to follow, Phil changed brands to a Yamaha, and began an annual Christmas trip with his wife, Kim, and 2 daughters Alyssa and Lauren.  They would load their motorhome, “Chillin The Most” and head to Kalkaska MI for a week long snowmobile trip, day riding the local trails and camping in the motorhome each night.

Phil participated with the Darkside Adventures on a few of their other excursions over the years, that they used partake in. Events such as motorcycle rides to Sturgis for Bike Week, and houseboat rentals on Lake Cumberland in Kentucky for a week at a time! Phil has a good time wherever he goes.

A few years back Phil & Kim purchased a cabin in the Mancelona region of Michigan, and he and his family have enjoyed year round activities of four wheelers in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter. 

While Phil may have missed a few years of our Darkside Ride thru Quebec, we are glad to have him back.  His outgoing personality fits right in with our current group.  Good to have you back Stinky P!