Staging - Ville Marie

[signfan]

Where is the best place to stay and stage from in the Ville Marie area for a 3 - 4 day sadllebag trip?  Looking to head north tomorrow night.  Was going to Sainte Anne du Lac and doing a loop, but TQ93 was recently closed south of Chibougamau which has us changing plans last minute.

[Steve F6]

I never have but Le Bannick is where i think most stage out of. I prefer to launch trom temis as it saves the hotel expense and its only 2 hours from muskoka. Temis to ville marie is an hour on the sleds depending on your throttle position. 

[signfan]

Yeah that's probably good advise.  We're trying to make Matagami the first night.  Didn't know if it would be too much to bite off coming from Temiscaming.  Would run through Royun Noranda.  My first trip in the area.  I've heard it is fast, but don't want to ride like an idiot either.    

[Steve F6]

Temis to matagami would be a long day. Too long. In that case i'd launch in Rouyn. 

[scottyr]

Agreed with Steve.    If you want to get to Matagami on Day 1 start in Rouyn.    Make sure you carry gas with you for the run to Matagami.    I ran out on Sat about 10kms south of town as it’s a fast ride and there is quite a bit of snow on the trail which burns a lot more fuel.  
 

I am sitting in Val Dor right now and we left our truck at La Bannik.     The east side of the Matagami run to Lebel is one of my favourite trails to ride anywhere.     Don’t just go to Matagami and turn around.   

[signfan]

Chibougamau was on our list which is why we figured we needed to make Matagami on day one.   

[signfan]

Motel Louise was the solution in Ville Marie.  Not fancy, but nothing wrong with it.  Found out the hard way that TQ83 is closed south of Notre Dame du Nord.  Not sure why I didn’t check the app, but we survived.  506 kms later we’re in Matagamy.  32 liters to get the 183 kms from the gas station on the reserve in Amos to the gas station in Matagamy.  You definitely burn through the fuel coming up the west side.  Onto Chibougamau tomorrow.  -28 tonight here.  Definitely still winter.  Snow banks in town are easily 6’ tall.  Trails have been good to absolutely f’in fantastic today.  If you are in anyway questioning it just get in the truck and head north.  You won’t regret it.

[Steve F6]

Good to hear you made it. Looking at the grooming map you are in for an epic day of riding! Enjoy!

[signfan]

Wednesday was a cold one.  -28 to start.   Had fresh grooming for 85% of the day and what was left was very good too.  Spent last night at Marina Chibougamau.  Back west on 93 today with a couple inches of fresh snow.  Ran it as far as Senneterre. Conditions were great.  Not enough snow to make things push so all good.  With the snow came warmer temps which were appreciated. Headed east from Senneterre on 83 to the local trail that cuts back to louvincourt.  Man is there ever a pile of clear cutting in that neck of the woods (former woods).  Thousands of acres of open area.  Don’t go there in a blizzard.  Trail into louvincourt was great.  386 south is closed, but that wasn’t our plan.  Caught back up to 83 and finished up in Val D’or.  Little choppy coming into town.  But still very manageable.  Back to the truck in the am.  Has been a fun trip.  Just shy of 1500 km so far.  Figure we will finish around 1750 kms in 4 days.  Getting my kms in to close the season out.

 

Gotta be 6’ of snow in Chibougamau and in Matagamy.  Spring hasn’t arrived yet up here.

[Steve F6]

12 hours ago, signfan said:

Back to the truck in the am.

Via 309? Curious on conditions between the dam and laforce if u dont mind updating later today. Temiscaming/ville marie club hasnt touched it in a while due to groomer breakdown. It was fine monday. 

[signfan]

Acceptable would probably be the best way to describe it.  There is stretches of access rd in there that we ran along at 80 - 100 km/h with no real problems.  That said it’s only beat down 6’ wide.  Hasn’t been touched since the last big storm meaning the snow is a foot deep if you get off the beaten path.  That in itself slows you down for every corner you can’t see around hoping you don’t meet someone.  Some moguls starting and some corners bermed up, but not brutal yet.  Was the worst we saw in 4 days of riding.  But that doesn’t say much when everything else was so good.  If you can avoid it do so.  But not sure I’d go 200 kms out of my way to skip it.