Stayed in Saint Donat week of 1/20 to 1/26. Trails in every direction were nicely covered with a hard packed base, Tues and Wed it snowed about 4" of light powder, making the trails even better. You can do all of the rides that involve roads because everything is covered. You would never even Know that it rained and went to 50F a couple of weeks before. Hasn't been this good for two years.
Stayed at La Cuillere a Pot, which is now under new ownership. Owners and staff all did a wonderful job, very helpful as usual. I would highly reccomend staying here to anyone who wants to stay in Saint Donat.

Articatmike,

I'm going up to the Pot next week with 5 other riders. Also heard they are under new ownership. This will be the 7th time we've stayed there and we've always had good luck. Any recommendations on good/bad trails? How was the Park?
Thanks for any insight.

Brian

The park was awesome. When I was there there were no "bad" trails, but 318 to St. Michelle was a little rough in spots due to heavy traffic, but I have seen it much worse. This is a great time to get up there because there are very few riders up there, especially american ones.

thinking of heading to canada in a few weeks for the first time. have heard lots of stuff about theft. what's the security like in this area?

Snoslinger,

I've been going up there for almost 10 years and we've been lucky enough to have no security issues. We've always stayed at La Cuillere a Pot in St. Donat. At night when you return to the motel, they lock up your sleds for you and have a security guard stand watch. Nice people and good food (breakfast and dinner included). When you need to be careful is stopping on the way up there at any rest areas after you leave the U.S. - a lot of the theft happens this way. Whenever you stop on the trail for lunch, take your keys and park 'em so they would be hard to take if someone really wants it.

By the way,the trails have always been awesome and you don't get a lot of traffic.

Brian

thanks smitdog28. fishkill eh? lived in that area (lagrangeville) up until a few years ago.

Yeah - Fishkill. Just off Route 9. It's changed a lot in the last few years. My wife grew up there, I'm originally from Albany, but went to college in Syracuse. I work in Somers, so I do the 84 to 684 commute each day.

My new favorite section of QC is 43 between Esterel and St Come. Awesome snow, grooming, wide long straights some easy hill crests on straights for controlled air and beautiful scenery. We did ride the supposedly closed section of 43 from St Adolphe de Howard to St Agathe. Several areas on plowed roads but never more than a klick and flat groomed stretches of trail between the road sections. Only locked 2 sleds together one night at the Comfort Inn in St Jovite doubt we would have had a problem anyway. We had 3 sleds in the car garage under our condo. I concur about 318 between Le Cabanon and SMDS - only place we saw where snow cover was a slight issue due to the couple of extended hill ascents and descents. Fridays 12" of snow also made conditions even better. Best riding ever for me from Esterel up to SMDS.

Super 8 hotel in st-agathe in St-Agathe is little closer and right off the highway 15 and right on the trails.
Looks like they are a snowmobile friendly place.
http://travela.priceline.com/hotel/overvie...ts-7609504.html

arcticcatmike, Did you ride Black Mountain? This was our favorite after dinner peeler to settle our dinner at "The Pot"!

Sorry to hear that we won't be seeing Gayton there anymore. This is the first I have heard of the place having new owners. How do they compare?