Last winter I had the opportunity to go on a trip with 509 to ride the Chic-Choc Mountains, located in the central region of the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec. We stayed in a little town called Sainte-Anne-des-Monts while we were there shooting a unique segment for 509 Volume 13.

The film crew was toured around the area by the guys at Aventure Chic-Choc Group. They were super pumped to have us, and I think more excited to see if some mountain riders from out west could handle the Chic-Choc terrain!

I imagined the riding in Quebec would be very different from what I’m used to back home in Western Canada. For one, the Chic-Chocs are much lower in elevation. I knew that there would be no lack of horsepower from my borrowed Ski-Doo Rotax 850 E-TEC in the 0-1300m elevation we would be riding. Also, based on what I could see from basecamp when we first arrived, I expected the tree riding to be tight. But it is even tighter than I guessed!

The trees themselves aren’t like any I’ve encountered before while riding. The wood is very hard; they aren’t soft and flexible like the alpine trees back home. “Don’t try to run over anything bigger than a can of Red Bull!” I was told. Well, it turns out that’s good advice! Let’s just say there were some fresh scuffs on the panels of my loaner Ski-Doo when I was done with it.

After the first afternoon of riding, I decided that I needed to adapt to the tight and technical terrain with some adjustments to the setup of my loaner sled from Lapointe Sports.