Early Riding, L'Etape (Dec 8-9, 2007)
The plan was to ride from Relais du Nord to Jonquire on Saturday, 12/8. Then a quick run back to the trucks Sunday and head home. I got to Lac Beauport around 8pm Friday, maybe a 6.5 hour drive. I tried to find a local trail to leave from, but didn’t see anything. The Lac wasn’t frozen enough. Marty got in at about 10pm. We left relais du Nord at about 8am [parking $5/day/truck] headed to the Saganuey.
The trail out of the relais was groomed but lacked snow for a couple miles. Things were excellent but with another rough patch near logging till the warm-up hut on 304. Once on 369 it was groomed with 6” of fresh powder for 40 miles. We were at L’Etape, after navigating the trail changes, at 9:30am…life was good. Then it was time to continue north.
23 north out of L’Etape wasn’t open for the first 5 miles or so, but then we met the groomer…
A few miles later, it was nicely groomed trails with 6” of powder again…
As we got closer to the Mont Apica relais, things started to thin out again. After gas and a burger we headed north. Only 70 miles or so if all went well. Once we got to 368, it was ungroomed, one sled wide, probably a guy riding to his camp, we couldn’t risk trying it for 40 miles. So we went back to 23 north. The further north we got, the thinner the snow and worse the trails. Although groomed, it was clearly not enough snow. It was probably 2pm and we had decided to head back to the trucks. There was a good chance of trail issues and I didn’t want to sleep in the woods. At this point we were at 200 miles with another 120 plus. It was a long day and some were tired…
Of course, Auberge le Relais was closed, so at ~4pm, we filled up and ate before the final 60 miles in the dark. The start back was good, though we were tired. The snow had stopped and visibility at night was better than all day. Then…after ~5 miles, Marty lost his headlight on his 08 XP. We screwed around for a while, verified it wasn’t a fuse, relay, or lose connection. When the light went out, the sled also stalled, but restarted fine. With two sleds, and 60 miles ahead after a late day, we decided it was best to head back to L’Etape. Too bad it was a new moon, that might have been enough light…but with potential electrical problems, and many potential other problems, it was decided a 60 mile flat-bed ride was the best choice…
What started as an awesome day, turned into hell. 237 miles in the book, and it was back to the hotel at about 8pm with heat and a 12-pack. Who knows if it was even worth riding on Sunday?
The alarm was set for 6am. It was -14 F and clear, so we decided to try a quick 40 mile run out and back since we already had ~10 miles on this tank and there wasn’t gas for 60 miles...then we’d head home.
304 was freshly groomed, packed, and cold…perfect.
Once we got to 369, it was a beat up trail, so Marty suggested a little off-trail expedition. If the Lord gives you a crappy trail, make your own…
We bounced around on old logging roads with 3’ of powder, none were very long. It was a good test for the new 1.5” track and clutch, here’s a good shot…
It’s amazing how well the short track XP did in this stuff, I’d like to see an Apex do this…
In the pursuit of more powder, we saw a “parting of the snow”, and a freshly groomed trail appeared. Since we were screwing around off trail, I had no idea what trail it was, I guessed TQ3, but the gps lcd was frozen [time for a new gps for xmas]. So we rode this…
…for several miles before the calculators came out to figure how far we could go on gas before turning around. A couple times it was, let’s go another 10 miles and turn around. The area looked familiar and I had a waypoint on my gps we couldn’t read. We had about 60 miles on this tank and knew we had to turn around soon. Of course the digital gauge on the XP said the tank was still full! As we were contemplating, we stopped a trail worker driving by, who was putting up signs and we asked him if gas was far off. He said yes 2km…perfect. Turns out, that the relais we always hit on TQ3 where the Riviere St-Anne never freezes early[not the one in St Raymond].
We gassed up, warmed up and headed back. Then we did a little more off-trail…
Then it was back to the trucks…1.5 days on the trail, 327 miles.
The trail out of the relais was groomed but lacked snow for a couple miles. Things were excellent but with another rough patch near logging till the warm-up hut on 304. Once on 369 it was groomed with 6” of fresh powder for 40 miles. We were at L’Etape, after navigating the trail changes, at 9:30am…life was good. Then it was time to continue north.
23 north out of L’Etape wasn’t open for the first 5 miles or so, but then we met the groomer…
A few miles later, it was nicely groomed trails with 6” of powder again…
As we got closer to the Mont Apica relais, things started to thin out again. After gas and a burger we headed north. Only 70 miles or so if all went well. Once we got to 368, it was ungroomed, one sled wide, probably a guy riding to his camp, we couldn’t risk trying it for 40 miles. So we went back to 23 north. The further north we got, the thinner the snow and worse the trails. Although groomed, it was clearly not enough snow. It was probably 2pm and we had decided to head back to the trucks. There was a good chance of trail issues and I didn’t want to sleep in the woods. At this point we were at 200 miles with another 120 plus. It was a long day and some were tired…
Of course, Auberge le Relais was closed, so at ~4pm, we filled up and ate before the final 60 miles in the dark. The start back was good, though we were tired. The snow had stopped and visibility at night was better than all day. Then…after ~5 miles, Marty lost his headlight on his 08 XP. We screwed around for a while, verified it wasn’t a fuse, relay, or lose connection. When the light went out, the sled also stalled, but restarted fine. With two sleds, and 60 miles ahead after a late day, we decided it was best to head back to L’Etape. Too bad it was a new moon, that might have been enough light…but with potential electrical problems, and many potential other problems, it was decided a 60 mile flat-bed ride was the best choice…
What started as an awesome day, turned into hell. 237 miles in the book, and it was back to the hotel at about 8pm with heat and a 12-pack. Who knows if it was even worth riding on Sunday?
The alarm was set for 6am. It was -14 F and clear, so we decided to try a quick 40 mile run out and back since we already had ~10 miles on this tank and there wasn’t gas for 60 miles...then we’d head home.
304 was freshly groomed, packed, and cold…perfect.
Once we got to 369, it was a beat up trail, so Marty suggested a little off-trail expedition. If the Lord gives you a crappy trail, make your own…
We bounced around on old logging roads with 3’ of powder, none were very long. It was a good test for the new 1.5” track and clutch, here’s a good shot…
It’s amazing how well the short track XP did in this stuff, I’d like to see an Apex do this…
In the pursuit of more powder, we saw a “parting of the snow”, and a freshly groomed trail appeared. Since we were screwing around off trail, I had no idea what trail it was, I guessed TQ3, but the gps lcd was frozen [time for a new gps for xmas]. So we rode this…
…for several miles before the calculators came out to figure how far we could go on gas before turning around. A couple times it was, let’s go another 10 miles and turn around. The area looked familiar and I had a waypoint on my gps we couldn’t read. We had about 60 miles on this tank and knew we had to turn around soon. Of course the digital gauge on the XP said the tank was still full! As we were contemplating, we stopped a trail worker driving by, who was putting up signs and we asked him if gas was far off. He said yes 2km…perfect. Turns out, that the relais we always hit on TQ3 where the Riviere St-Anne never freezes early[not the one in St Raymond].
We gassed up, warmed up and headed back. Then we did a little more off-trail…
Then it was back to the trucks…1.5 days on the trail, 327 miles.
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