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lock your doors, Dub here we come


skidooboy

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Eric & Lynne, it was great catching up after all this time.  I had a funny feeling it was you guys I was catching up to on HWY 17, when I read the licence plate GON4SNO and I saw the prestine setup, I told my 15 year old son.  I bet you these people are drive up to our place.  Let's see if we can confirm this by showing off a Magpie Relay promotional Flyer in the window.  It was actually pretty funny, my son is shy (not like his Dad), he did not want to do this.  He did and I am glad he did.  It turned out to be one of those good stories that we will be able to tell for a long time.... remember when I pulled up beside you on HWY 17 and then I called your cell to see if you wanted to have lunch at the Wawa Motor Inn.  Good times, good friends and good stories.  That's what motivated me to do this one more time.  Most people may not remember that we owned the Motel Bienvenue and Pat's Resto from 1994 to 2000.  We sold and I moved away to Sudbury and my father Ray eventually retired in Sault Ste Marie. The re-investment to the tune of approximately half a million bucks in renovations and a crazy business plan later, here I am owner of the Magpie Relay Motel and resort. A destination for Power Sport destination for enthusiasts.  My plan is to make this the ultimate 4 season Power Sports destination.

 

I think that with the right partnerships; (Hearst, Hornepayne, Wawa, HalfWay Haven, Sault Ste-Marie Searchmont, Aubrey Falls, Chapleau and other communities that have links back to Dubreuilville are all instrumental in creating the region that I want to brand as the MooseBack.  The MooseBack is going to become the premier destination for Power Sports Enthusiasts on a 4 season basis.  The ManCave concept that we have implemented is the area where Friends and Stories of everyones adventures are shared and help everyone come together to share something we all love doing.... riding our power sports toys.  We want to provide the destination where rest, replenishment and rejuvination can take place so that you can keep riding on your Journey.  Riding power sports is all about the journey, the friendships along the way and the adventure.  That's why we ride and that's why we want to share this experience with others.  i hope that everyone in your network will help us achieve this goal.  We encourage everyone to stop at the Magpie Relay Motel and Resort as they Journey to their own adventure.  Share your stories with us, share your friendship....

 

it was really nice to see you this past weekend Eric and Lynne.... see you on the trail and maybe at the Magpie Relay once again. 

 

Someone asked what the Relais Magpie Relay name meant.  Here is the logic behind the name. 

 

Relais in French means: a stop over, a rest area, a place to replenish goods.

Relay in English definition: an area where there is an exchange for fresh goods.

Magpie is the area where Dubreuilville is located.  Magpie River is the body of water behind the Motel, Magpie Forest is the forest management area that is used as the playground for the Power Sports and the Magpie Bird is dear to the Dubreuil family heritage and goes back to my grand father and his brothers Napoleon, Augustin and Marcel Dubreuil who founded the town of Magpie in 1954 before relocating the entire town to what is now Dubreuilville as we know it.  This is part of my heritage.

 

yours in service

Pat Dubreuil

 

I used all of these words as I named the motel. 

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very well put Pat, and a very interesting story for the background of the resurgence in the powersports community. we REALLY enjoyed our stay at both the relais, and the community of dubreuilville. we will definitely be back, and we are definitely big promoters of the region. we will continue to do that for a very long time. 

 

next year, when the snow is soft and fluffy, we will have to take you out and help you link some of the loops you want to powder ride on. Ski

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Just got back.

Now I'm on my own 'putor...

 

I had had a short night sleep on Sunday night, and was up real early Monday as I had a crane coming in to move a machine first thing, and I had to dig it out before he got here. We were expecting to come up a few days later, but the weatherman kept moving things around like a chess board, and it looked like either we jumped in the truck that night, or call it a season. We only got one ride in Colorado so far (the only week of the season with good conditions FWIW as we were watching that weatherman too) so we wanted to get a little more riding in if possible. 

 

So I made contact with as many customers that I could and we pulled out by around midnight somewhere +/-.

It was a LONG trip north that night! My 5th gear blew out (2nd time) on the way up just short of Houghton Lake. Dropped down to 4th and drove on @ 90 klicks. The last hour up the 17 was tough...

 

I took a nap in the room for aboot an hour and we went out for a short afternoon ride that I posted previously...

We both slept like a rock that night.

 

 

Our second day we rode to Halfway.

Pretty tracked up to 1/2 way between the warm-up shacks. (We always refer to them as the "gas boxes" but that dates back a ways.)

The next few klicks to the Bauparlante were really good, then once we crossed the Bauparlante - the snow softened up a bit. Not too bad, but enough to expect higher fuel consumption on my (sons actually) old flatslide carbed 800 Doo. My chumm was sporting a brand new 600 Fuelly Doo, and used just under 1/2 as much fuel.  :console:

 

Tried to ride on the west side of the line as the snow was not as soft over there in the shadows.

Got back to the truck around 9:00 PM - no drama...

 

Checked out another possibly spot to ride that might not be all tracked up (for future ref) on the way home, but it was tracked up too.

 

I am still on the hunt for new "secret spots". One of which has eluded me for 15 yrs, and I have spent at least 4 days trying to get a hold on it so far.

Pretty sure if I figger it out - it will be mine for a while .... and I can have some untracked powder aggin. For several yrs we were the only ones to track up the hydro, but monkey see monkey doo I guess...  :icon_cankick:

Been heavily considering hauling camp gear and fuel deep in and setting up camp for a few days. We're getting desperate ... 

 

 

Pat - glad to hear that you're back. You may not remember me, but I know who you are. Have only been to town a few times since you left tho.

I brought up chumms to 4wheel your area 2 or 3 times one yr right after you left (Rode with Luc one afternoon) and I haven't even rode one in 10 yrs now. Hope to remedy that one day when I have more time. But when it comes to sledding, we stay in the bigger country now. We were touring back then and stayed there a number of times. Your Dad laughed at us when we turned around at the KB and rode back with our tail between our legs. No-one had crossed it yet that year, although it was groomed to on your side, and we could hear the groomer on the other side, but he stopped beyond our sight line. We waited and it just stayed quiet. 

I stuffed a boot through the ice near the side, although it seemed OK out in the middle. 

 

It was our first trip sledding in Canada ever, and we kept seeing signs all over aboot staying off the early ice, and here we were - facing our first such crossing with no experience at all @ 8:00 at night @ -30*. A ride back 80 klicks all wet didn't seem like a feature that we wanted on our bragging rights list, so we turned around and got a room. We had told your dad earlier that we were hoping to get to Moosonee that trip, and your dad laughed at us when we told him that we were scared to cross the KB. He said "You want to go to Moosonee and you're scared to cross THAT river!?" Our tails were between our legs for sure. 

 

We laid first tracks accrost it the next morning to be sure!

 

Dec 28 1996

SamKBRiverDec96.jpg

 

These days I have the northern ice thing under my belt pretty good, and have been the first one accrost remote lakes in Dec and not scared of the rivers anymore.

We never did get to Moosonee that trip as Tozer said that he had just flown it and there was still too much open water yet. .. and we haven't been clear over there on sleds since... so ...

 

Glad to hear that you are back, and I hope that your town thrives again soon.

Sounds like your dad is still dooing OK too. Glad to hear. I have occassionally wondered aboot him. 

Maybe catch you on a 4wheeling trip aggin one day...

 

If you would remember us at all - it would be if you had seen our sleds with the 10 gal tanks mounted on the back and plumbed in. I think that you may have as I remember someone in Dubre' oggling over them in front of the Resto.

We still sport tanks like those today, but they are under our seats now.

I bought an '02 Summit 8 from Dan there that I still ride.

 

Here's a pic of my kid a few yrs ago with a shed that we found back the Paint, his sled in the back doesn't have the tank. 

Souvenier.jpg

 

 

 

Sorry - no pics from this trip as our whirlwind loading did not include my camera, and I have a dumb phone.

 

.

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One thing that I thought odd on this trip was that I could not find any snow lice to show my chumm.

This late in the yr - it would seem they should be plentiful. 

 

???

 

 

.

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"Fly Lice" .....  That's "Fried Rice", you PLICK !!!!!

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