2008 Mini-Ender (March 28-29, 2008)

This was an unscheduled trip, however, as I've always said, if Mother Nature gives you snow, you must ride. This was a last minute weekend ride with just John and I. We've never ridden this late in the season and questioned the grooming, but knew there was plenty of snow. It's been a while since we staid at Bernard's and we figured he'd have rooms available this late in the season. The forecast looked good and we drove up Thursday after work, getting in at 9:30pm.

The plan for the day was to head to St. Felicien. We rode 355 to 73 to Relais 22 for lunch. Trails were excellent with no traffic. Here's a pic of one of the 3 groomers we saw on the way...

We met some New Yorkers who came over the top through Chibougamau, looking to close the loop with 83, but after Relais 22 they stopped grooming on 83W, and the trail was basically unmaintained and had more than a foot of powder. After lunch, we continued on to St. Felicien with the same great conditions. We ended up at the Hotel du Jardin early, with 280 miles. We were looking forward to a god Friday night at the always popular du Jardin...

however, once again this year we were disappointed. The place was completely dead [on a Friday] and the food was marginal, not at all what we were used to. As a result, I've dropped the rating of the hotel by one star.

In the morning, we got an early start. With daylight savings time early now, we leave at sunrise...

and get a good 12-hours of daylight. We had no plan for this ride and took what the trails gave us. 93 over the Lac to 23 South were perfect all the way to L'Etape, with little traffic. We had lunch at Apica, but since we have boycotted the ridiculous gas prices, we headed to L'Etape. Since the trails were pristine...

[I didn't take many pics, since most were like that], we decided to take 369 out of L'Etape to Baie St Paul. Unfortunately, 369 was junk till the river. Not only rough, but fairly high traffic for so late in the season. Once at 3, it also looked poor. As a result, we decided to head back and stop at St. Raymond. As usual, 3 South through Quebec was horrible and the traffic was unprecedented. It seemed like a mid-season Saturday ride in Island Pond, VT.

Once at St Raymond, we decided to hit the Ice Hotel to see how it's changed since Christmas week...

At the Hotel, we met a crew from Bernard's who said 23 to Shawinigan was great, so we decided to bang it out. That ended the day at 6:30p, 425 miles. Conditions were sunny and warm, maybe 45F, with serious melting, but no signs of dirt. Overall, a great trip, with no problems.

Since this ride ends the normal season, I can name the best and worst trails of the year. I usually don't chose a best trail, since there are so many, but this year I have to pick M20/21 in the Mauricie region. As is often the case, the local [orange] trails, are some of the best. The past few years, this trail has had logging going on near the middle of the trail, but this year it was perfect. Unfortunately, worst trail of the year is much easier to select, and this year was no exception. I had the privilege of riding this trail at least 4 times this year, and it seems as though each time was worse than the next. This years worst trail goes to the section of TQ3 between TQ73 and secondary trail 320.