With the hyfax still warm on from our two days of riding in New Brunswick, our crew of fi ve yahoos hopped in the truck and headed to Quebec for two additional days of late-season snowmobiling.

Saint-Raymond was our destination city, with the hotel/brewpub Roquemont serving as our base of operations and the source of fantastic fare and refresh-ments. From this fun and comfortable launch pad, we spent two days riding up and down the northwestern fl ank of the St. Lawrence River, crossing the many streams and rivers that fl ow into the great waterway.

Quebec is renowned for its fantastic snowmobile trails, and this area checked all of the boxes to reinforce that reputa-tion; impeccable trails that are signed, marked and groomed to perfection; terrain that fi ts somewhere in-between “mountain” and “hills”, with the resulting elevation changes and valley-carving lay-out to the trails; and an enchanting quality to the villages that I hadn’t expected. Seriously, with their beautiful churches and steep-pitch houses that seem nestled in surrounding hills and trees, these towns seemed like they’re straight out of a Disney Christmas movie! And there are

snowmobile club houses/warming shacks all over the place, with an open door and fi re to warm weary riders.

This is a region where snowmobile touring is reality rather than marketing. In the two days the OSM crew rode here, we saw multiple groups of riders, whose sleds were packed with gear, and were seriously hauling-arse in terms of speed and distance. Lots of big iron rolling these trails, and these riders weren’t afraid to lean on it for looooong stretches. Fun stuff.

Being smack-dab in the middle of Que-bec, this is also a region where French is the spoken language. Though Pat doesn’t speak a word of French, his last name (Bourgeois, pronounced “booj-wah”) is decidedly French sounding, so we put him in charge of international relations and ordering at the few restaurants that didn’t have English-speaking wait staff. The good news is that French-Anglo rela-tions in this area have never been better. The bad news is that OSM crew con-sumed great food, but we have no idea what any of it was.

Fortunately, there was no translation needed to understand the many squig-gly, colored lines on the snowmobile trail

Q U E B E C I S R E N O W N E D F O R I T S F A N T A S T I C

S N O W M O B I L E T R A I L S , A N D

T H I S A R E A C H E C K E D A L L O F

T H E B O X E S T O R E I N F O R C E T H A T

R E P U T A T I O N

W H A T M A K E S T H E P E R F E C T S N O W M O B I L E

D E S T I N A T I O N F O R T R A I L R I D I N G ?

For me, it’s a landscape of hills, rivers and forests. There are no big cities, but

rather small towns that are just far enough apart to seem distant and cozy. The trails curve and twist in a path that refl ects the contours of the land itself, and feel as if

they’re meandering rather than effi cient. These trails are groomed and marked

to perfection. And of course, it’s all in a region with HUGE snow cover and an

extra-long long winter. That’s my perfect snowmobile destination. And the best part is that it’s not some make-believe

fantasyland; it’s Quebec!

T O U R I N G S A I N T R A Y M O N D , Q U E B E CRIVERS ARE A CENTRAL FEATURE TO THIS AREA OF QUEBEC.

onsnowosmmag.com

63ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 31 • ISSUE 4

onsnowosmmag.com

ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 31 • ISSUE 462

map. There were trails that blanketed the entire region, from the towns that dot the periphery of the St. Lawrence, to the far outposts north and west – what some might characterize as middle-of-nowhere, but where we once again heard ghost echoes of Plaisted; Cartier; Joseph Ar-mand; Wild Bill; Champlain and others.

Fueled by the spirit of these rugged adventurers, our path brought us on an out-and-back to L’Etape, a ride that I will never forget. The trip there gave us six inches of fresh, coupled with a stunning lack of other riders, which resulted in a fun, spirited pace that reminded us why 800-class sleds are so damn much fun. It

also reminded us of why large fuel tanks are desirable, as the Apex ran dry a few miles from L’Etape, a casualty of a small tank, fresh snow and a happy throttle. No matter, we towed it the fi nal stretch, and fueled up at the lone fuel stop/restaurant, and then headed back to Saint-Raymond with the intention of being a little more

PARKED AT THE HOTEL/BREW PUB ROQUEMONT.

THE TRAILSIDE CLUBHOUSE/WARMING SHELTER IS A WONDERFUL ELEMENT OF RIDING IN QUEBEC.

THE TRAIL RUNS PAST THE CATHEDRAL IN SAINT-CASIMIR…SIMPLY AMAZING!

W H E N W E M E T T H E G R O O M E R 4 5 M I N U T E S L A T E R , I T W A S A G R E E N L I G H T T O R E T U R N T O O U R P R E V I O U S L Y S C H E D U L E D R A L L Y I N G .

onsnowosmmag.com

ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 31 • ISSUE 4 65

onsnowosmmag.com

64 ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 31 • ISSUE 4

judicious with the throttle. When we met the groomer 45 minutes later, it was a green light to return to our previously scheduled rallying.

The second and fi nal day of riding was a decidedly less rural route, hitting the villages of Saint-Alban; Saint-Adelphe; Sainte-Thecle; Saint-Casimir (with its beautiful cathedral); Saint-Gilbert; Saint-Basile and other places less-saintly, but wonderful nonetheless.

We experienced fantastic snow, especially considering we were a week from April, a situation helped by an an-nual average snowfall exceeding 115 inches (with more snowfall another 100 miles north).

While we had some nice long stretches of spirited riding during the two days, most notably to L’Etape on day one, our group rode at a more leisurely pace on the Quebec leg of our trip. Maybe we’d had enough of the high-speed stuff, maybe it was the visual allure of the area or some other input. Regardless, the trails and scenery here were perfect for either style of riding.

Snowmobile journalists often get asked, “Where’s the best place you’ve ever ridden.” The easy answer is, “The places I’ve ridden with great people.”

It’s a defl ection of course, in part be-cause there are truly, so many outstand-

ing snowmobile destinations throughout North America. This area of Quebec is certainly among the fi nest snowmobile areas that this particular journalist has sampled. I’d recommend it to anyone that is considering it. If you were truly of an adventurous spirit, I’d suggest multi-day loops that include L’Etape, Saguenay and

La Tuque, and some spare cans of fuel. For the less remote experience, the vast network of trails and villages along the St Lawrence are superb.

Either way, it’s a perfect destination for a great snowmobile adventure.

T H A T ’ S M Y P E R F E C T S N O W M O B I L E D E S T I N A T I O N . A N D T H E B E S T P A R T I S T H A T I T ’ S N O T S O M E M A K E - B E L I E V E F A N T A S Y L A N D ; I T ’ S Q U E B E C !

DESPITE THE MONTH OF APRIL KNOCKING ON THE DOOR, THE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF SNOW ON THE WAY TO L’ETAPE BROUGHT OUT THE GROOMERS.

ROLLING HILLS, GORGES, FORESTS...IT’S A SNOWMOBILER’S DREAM TO RIDE HERE IN QUEBEC.

RUGGED, AUSTERE AND EASY ON THE EYES, THE VISUALS HERE WERE SPECTACULAR.

onsnowosmmag.com

onsnowosmmag.com

66 67ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 31 • ISSUE 4 ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 31 • ISSUE 4

AFTER WE FINISHED RIDING FOR THE DAY, IT WAS TIME TO CONQUER ADVENTUROUS LIBATIONS.

THE MANY RIVER AND CREEK CROSSINGS ARE JUST PART OF THE ALLURE.

onsnowosmmag.com

68 ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 31 • ISSUE 4