Northern New Brunswick Breaking in My New 850 Skidoo Backcountry

Well, we have been skunked so far this year with no snow in Nova Scotia. The first winter I have ever seen like this. Apparently, the last time this took place was in the 1950s. To make it even more noticeable of the lack of adventures in NS, I just purchased myself a new 2018 Skidoo Renegade 850 Backcountry snowmobile in January of this year. Sooooo for those of you who don’t know me, I have been a CAT girl my whole life, and jumping to Skidoo took a lot of reading, reviewing, analyzing and pushing from my friends who only wanted me riding Skidoo if I would be happy with my decision. So I brought this beautiful new sled home, patiently waiting to get ripping on it and Nudding (nothing)☹ NO snow in January or February, and here we are the second week of March.

I couldn’t look at it sitting in our garage anymore, so we booked a three day trip to Northern New Brunswick. This is the only place in the Maritimes (East Coast Canada except Newfoundland) that has snow and LOTS of it! The first day, I put 240 km on it, starting the break-in process. I was very pleased with how my sled handled on the trails, the comfort of the ride and the generous amount of power at the squeeze of the throttle. We explored around Northern New Brunswick, dropping in at friendly snowmobile clubs, enjoying lunch and often running into other sledders from the Nova Scotia area chasing after the same white powder we were on the hunt for.

On my first day sledding I got frost bitten on my nose wearing my goggles, so the next two days I used my shield on my DSG GMAX 11 helmet. The third day, the morning started out at -29 degrees Celsius, so we hung back for a bit before we hit the trails, but once we were out we enjoyed the beautiful groomed trails and the cold was not on our minds anymore. The giggle switch was hit and miles were getting racked on. I had gone away with my husband Adam, my mom and dad, as well as other friends we enjoy sledding with, eight of us in total. After 656 km of riding wide open, 70-80 mph on trails and twisty tight trails in the woods, along with playing in powder on the power line, we decided to head back to NS, already scheming the next trip to Northern New Brunswick. This area is known as one of the top five destinations to ride in Canada. If you haven’t enjoyed the Bathurst, New Brunswick area you really should add it to you list of riding destinations.

Here are a few pictures of our first trip this year.  Trying my new DSG Outerwear Arctic Appeal jacket and bib for 2018. 

Feeding a Grayjay on the trail in New Brunswick.

Island Lake, New Brunswick, Canada

Me and my mom!

We weren’t home a week before we headed back up for another three day trip to Northern New Brunswick with a few of our friends that love to sled as much as we do. I was also happy to have a few members from our local Nova Scotia Youth Snowmobilers, who traveled to NB as well for this weekend to ride with their families. We had an awesome time enjoying groomed trails everyday, beautiful scenery, great riding weather and lots of laughs with each other. We put on over 850 km in three days and stayed at a different hotel each night so we had to carry everything we needed in our bags on our sleds. The first night we sledded to Campbellton, NB. They had a great base of snow and the trails were awesome. We arrived around 5:30 p.m. at our hotel, but before we got there we did a little sight-seeing. We overlooked the Gaspe (Quebec) in the background of this picture.

Then we climbed Squaw Cap Mountain to enjoy a beautiful view before sunset. It was beautiful overlooking Campbellton, NB.

We headed for our hotel before it got dark.  

This picture is looking out our window of the hotel with our sleds parked below for the night.

The next morning, we headed for Jacquet River, NB. I really enjoyed these trails. They ran along the river through the Jacquet River Gorge, which is a protected area. The trails were winding and wide, perfect to enjoy the thrill of cornering and throttling out. We stopped at a little cabin that overlooks the river for a group shot. This day was bitterly cold, with a wind chill of -29. We were traveling on average 50-60 mph on most trails. We put on over 240 km this day, heading back to Bathurst. It was really cold when we stopped, I had to keep all skin from being exposed to the air for any length of time. My face was getting very cold this day, but my suit blocked the wind really well. I was wearing my Tek vest under my DSG Arctic Appeal jacket for extra wind protection and to keep warmer. I also had my DSG base layer and DSG mid layers on under my suit. We arrived in Bathurst at a decent time, and went for a nice dinner with friends, still smiling and telling stories about our wicked day on the trails, looking forward to Sunday.

On Sunday, our friends headed back to NS, so we sledded to where they were parked in Miramichi, NB. Adam and I were not ready to head for home yet, so we ventured off together and enjoyed the day sledding the coastal region of Northern NB. I was glad to have seen this part of their province. It had miles after miles of wild blueberry fields, a lot of water crossings and beautiful properties overlooking Tracadie Bay. We also got to see a lot of new forestry plantations of pine, birch, spruce and other mature forests. This is the industry I grew up in in Nova Scotia - with my family having woodlots and wild blueberry fields of their own, so I really enjoyed seeing this in another province. The trails were fabulous on Sunday, in some areas there are two trail systems that run parallel to each other, both groomed for many miles. One trail system is for snowmobilers, the other trail system is for ATVs and Side by Sides. I was surprised with how many Side by Sides were out enjoying winter as much as we were. When we got back to our hotel we had put on another 370 km for the day.

On Monday morning, we packed up our things, loaded our sleds in the trailer and headed out for the 3 ½ hour drive home. Once we passed the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia border, the ground turned to brown which made us think we should just leave our sleds in NB and we travel to them instead… Instead, I got home and started to unpack only to realize I left all our base and mid layer clothes along with my mitts and balaclava in the drawer at our last hotel we stayed at. I think my sub-conscious was trying to get me back to the snowbelt sooner than later.

We weren’t even home before we already started to plan our next big adventure chasing snow. During March break we are heading out for seven days of sledding in Central Canada- Quebec then crossing the Canadian and US border in Northern Maine to enjoy a weekend of sledding in Maine, USA and hoping to catch up with a DSG friend while we are out on the trails exploring. We are registered for the International Snowmobile Festival as well, which we participated in last year.

This will be challenging packing for seven days in my little BRP bag on the back of my sled. I already have 76 items listed on my checklist of things to take!

I will let you know how this adventure pans out and how many miles we were able to rack up.

Carole Fisher

DSG Ambassador- Nova Scotia