Each season the Mad River Ridge Runners spend a long weekend snowmobiling in Quebec. This year we traveled to St Zenon, two hours north of Montreal and stayed at Auberge Le Cabanan. The plan was to leave Waitsfield at 12 noon on Friday and trailer up in a caravan to Quebec.
Several club members including Doug Wilson, Tony Amenta, and Lenny arrived a day early and met up at Real Masse. On Friday they went for a 230 mile loop through St Come and St Donat, it was a beautiful bluebird day.
The two groups met up at Cabanon Friday evening for dinner and turned in early in anticipation of an epic day of snowmobiling. We woke early Saturday morning and warmed up our sleds.
The plan was to loop through the Reserve Mastigouche and Mauricie National Parks, we proceeded north on Trail 345. After crossing over a dam the group stopped by the large hydropower station for a quick pit stop.
We stopped for gas and then headed south on trail 347. Trail 347 runs some 30 miles over a frozen river and we were able to ride side for a time.
It was lunchtime so we stopped for burgers and club sandwiches at Auberge Mekinac. The Auberge is located north of Shawanigan and is the perfect jumping off point for trips to La Tuque, the Ice Hotel and saddlebag trips to Mt Valin and other points north and east.
It had rained hard the week before and the river was glare ice. The lack of snow caused several of the sleds to overheat and a couple of breaks were taken to allow the sleds to cool down.
The next stop was at Auberge du Trappeur which is the gateway back into the park and located on Trail 318. When passing by Trappeur's be sure to check out the live mount Moose in the back room as well as their meatloaf special.
We continued on our way back to Auberge Le Cabanon eventually riding 200 miles. It was dinner time so we quickly changed out of our riding clothes and met in the dining room. Most everyone agreed that the desserts were the highlight of the meal.
Sunday morning we woke up early again and found that it had snowed during the night.
We warmed up our sleds and were ready to ride.
We decided to head over to Real Masse's for breakfast and then onto Koubek's Club for coffee. The conditions on the trail to Koubek's were excellent.
At Koubek's we found that the owner and a friend had recently restored a vintage Bombardier Bus. One club member was heard to offer the owner of Koubek's $8000 for the bus only to be turned down.
Reggie couldn't leave Quebec without saying goodbye to his special friend who lives at the lodge.
Special thanks to all of the club members who were able to attend this years ride and especially to Art Dages and Doug Wilson for their hard work in organizing the trip and making it a success. We all had a blast!
