Update from The Sled Den
Saturday, Feb 1st 2014

Once again, we woke up in the morning to beautiful blue bird skies at The Sled Den. Decided to head to the same area as the last few days…… because that’s where we found the most snow ……Around The Sled Den, there is some good snow but it’s mostly wind blown into the corners of the cuts.

Our target area doesn’t seem to get as much wind so the snow seems to settle a little bit better.

At about halfway into our backcountry ride, the temp dropped about 5 degrees C because we were many miles into the interior of the Chic Chocs and our elevation was about 3200 ft.

The mountains in this area go up to over 4000 ft and we have climbs here close to 1500 ft.

There is no one here.

With a little bit of effort you too can ride virgin snow in areas where, I am sure, we are the first mountain sleds to ever ride these cuts.

We rode all day in powder - 1 ½ to 2 feet - with no tracks.

We all get lazy & by that I mean we find a spot to go, and we stop looking for something better, something else, another spot.

That’s fine if that’s the only kind of riding you want to do....

The Gaspésie is a huge area. Yes, we have a Reserve & we have a Park but there are still tons of other places that no one rides.

People get comfortable & just want to drive their sled out the back door. Yes, you can do that but then you miss out on exploring and truly seeing the backcountry. You can chose to ride with everyone else close to the towns or you can decide to make a little effort & see no one.

Well, the only tracks we see in this area are our own – oh, and those of the odd moose, lynx & any other animal that happens to live in the backcountry of Gaspésie.

The boys from Sled the East were surprised to see just how big the backcountry is here. They enjoyed the adventures just as much as I did – especially crossing a river and a stream.

We had a great time in the backcountry & as usual, where we ride, we saw no one.

At The Sled Den, we chase the powder……..

                                                               .............Jack

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