My 1st snowmobile trip of the 06/07 season.
I was at work Wed 12/27 bored shit, so I decided to leave work early and take a trip to Mt. Valins.
We left work at 2:30 went home and packed, we started North from RI at 4:30pm.

1st stop was at our camp in Ossippi NH to pick up the trailer and gear.
We were going to stay at camp and leave early Thursday morning but decided to drive part way Wed night.
Left camp at 9:00 PM Wed and made it to Newport Vt. at midnight.

We were ready to leave at 8AM, Newport had 2 to 3 inches of snow over night. (Fine Powder)
Hit the bank to exchange dollars, they gave us 12% on the dollar.
Crossed the border at 8:30am Thursday, arrived at Le Valinouet at 3:45 PM temp was 8F.

We did a quick ride to La Chapelle 50 miles, when we left Le Valinouet the temp was -5f we had to trailer to
the HI in Saugenay, its a 1 hour ride.

Friday 12/29 we arrived back at Le Valinouet at 7:30am on the trail at 7:45. Temp was -20F and the high for the day was 0F.
My wife had problems with her helmet freezing up so we had to stop quite often to thaw it out.
She rides a GSX 550 Fan, the fan comes in handy for thawing out your helmet or warming your hands.

Had breakfeast at La Chapelle, and fueled up the sleds.
With breakfeast, and fuel at 1.20L that was a $65.00 stop. that equals about 4.53/Gal

The trails were in good shape 8 out of 10 (Hey maybe a 10, at least there is snow) on the way back in the late afternoon trail 93 was pretty beat up. Another fuel stop at a $1.20L = 75.00 2 sleds.
After that day the wife was done riding so I did a solo trip Sat morning.

I got to Le Valinouet at 7:00 am on the trail at 7:15. temp was a balmby 13F, light snow flurries the whole time.
The trails were a ten in my book, I was the 1st one on freshly groomed trails for at least 75 miles or so.
I only seen about 3 sleds until 10AM.

Got back to the truck at 12:00 PM 120 miles
Left for home at 1:30PM. I decided to go 173 to the Jackman border crossing in ME, took RT 201 to RT 2 into NH.
Time wise, 1 hour longer (Due to road conditions) the milage was about the same as going through the VT crossing, but let me say this, I think taking RT 20 to 55 into VT is a much safer road to travel then through Jackman.


Totals,
1200 miles on the truck.
$565.00 in fuel
22 hours driving.

Fuel for sleds $150.00

Pics and a few short videos to follow.

Glad to hear you got to go for a ride. :div20:

Here are some pics and a link to a few short videos.
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=GTSE800

For some reason the pic's are taking forever to upload, I will post later.

Nice to see you got a nice ride in Darryl.


201 depends on weather and if your willing to pass people even when pulling a trailer which CKF can attest to the fact I have no issue doing so on a 2 lane road even when it's snowing. We had 2 trucks pull out of valin at the same time each going a different way and I talked to John when I was 20 miles outside of Portland and they were in Lyndonville VT so I'm guessing we were about an hour ahead of them at that point.

sounds like a good trip to me :div20:

Some pictures of the trip, most pic's were taken on Sat, I am having trouble with the battery when it gets cold.
Thanks fot the help loading the pic's CKF .
Click on the links below to check out the photos.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...linsTrail-1.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GTSE800/Glacia.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...totheGlacer.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...ailMtValins.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...tValinsview.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT.../MeatValins.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GTSE800/Lakeview.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT.../LaChapelle.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...apelleearly.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...ValinsTrail.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...175MtValins.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...5toMTValins.jpg
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q228/GT...ontCrossing.jpg

Way to go GTSE 800. Glad you got my miles on your sled. I'm heding up next Wed.

Bill

Thanks Bill, I am glad I did also.
I been going nuts the last few weeks thinking about it.
Had a great time up there, trails were in great shape, the sled is running real good thanks to Wayne at Garneau's Garage.
He tweeked the clutch for me the last time I had it there.
See you up there the next trip around.

GTSE800, glad you had a good trip we were there as well and conditions were awesome as well I will be going back in the end of January.....

Leaving first thing Monday AM for the H.I. Can't wait!

heading up this thursday in the am.....i hope its going to be ok....weather looks warm in chicoutimi.....hope the higher elevation is colder....think they will continue to groom?

Man, I can't find any of those towns on the map quest. Could someone give me a name of some major city to help my search. Better yet, how about a name of a hotel up that way. looking to ride jan 12-15 where ever there is snow to ride. Looking at those pictures, thats the place to be. Thanks in advance.

Look in Bill's signature, there's a link to the Holiday Inn. Check out Zenwaiter.com Also check out AAA.com and maps.google.com or http://www.fcmq.qc.ca/english/pages.asp?id=99.

We almost met but I didn't have my chrismas hat :frech32:

Next time, It should be ok...

I love the picture of your sled (like mine) from up a hill. Wow!