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This is a tale in 2 parts about a pair of bridges across the Riviere Matawin, and a request for info, stories, and status updates on these bridges from the community! --- Part 1: Discovering Bailey Bridge across the Riviere Matawine no longer exists Last year when going camping with some friends in Zec du Chapeau-de-Paille, I tried to take a shortcut through the Mastigouche reserve and cross the Riviere Matawine to meet them in the North (instead of going all the way to Mauricie or through St. Michel Des Saints). I aimed for this bridge and headed out from Montreal, planning to see my friends within ~3.5hr: https://www.google.com/maps/place/46°52'59.2"N+73°23'54.9"W/ (Google Maps routed me across this bridge as part of the route to our campsite). After a few hours of amazing off-roading on gravel and double-track through Mastigouche to get there, I discovered the road just leads up to the water, where it abruptly ends with no sign of a bridge! There is a house on the lake by the bridge, and when I drove into their driveway by accident, a man came out. I asked him confusedly about how to get to the bridge, and he laughed and said it hasn't existed for almost a decade! Luckily I had brought extra gas, so I backtracked and went all the way west to St. Michel Des Saints to get around the river, and eventually met up with my friends almost 5 hours late. When I got home I did some research, and found that the missing bridge was called Bailey Bridge and has an interesting history! Apparently some vandals set fire to part of it in the late 90's, and it was impassable up until 2011 when it was demolished completely. I updated both Google Maps and OpenStreetMaps to remove the bridge, so that other people don't make the same mistake as me! Part 2: Discovering there is an unmapped replacement bridge to the west of the old Bailey Bridge (on FCMQ Trail #345) It seemed extremely inconvenient to go almost 2-3 hours to the west or east to get across the Riviere Matawin, so I started doing some research to see if there are any other ways to cross the river from Mastigouche. After scrolling across the whole river, I found what looks like a bridge here on satellite imagery: https://www.google.com/maps/place/46°53'36.8"N+73°30'54.4"W/@46.8917317,-73.5068976,1316m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x4cc42d39f48bc7f5:0xca1e62c774d13da2!7e2!8m2!3d46.893541!4d-73.5151058 Some more research led me to a few Motoneige / Snowmobile forum threads about it: https://www.motoneigeauquebec.com/forum/showthread.php?123036-Nouveau-pont-sur-la-rivi%E8re-Mattawin-a-l-est-du-Barrage-Taureau https://www.motoneigeauquebec.com/forum/showthread.php?217712-Pont-de-la-rivi%E8re-Mattawin-ferm%E9-cette-saison-traverse-sur-barrage-Taureau https://www.motoneigeauquebec.com/forum/showthread.php?97279-St-Zenon-Riviere-Mattawin-photo-ride-report-20-f%E9vrier Apparently it's part of the FCMQ 345 / 360 snowmobile trail, and was built in 2011 and is maintained by the local snowmobile club. It even appears on some FCMQ quad trail maps as part of the Trans-Quebec 40 trail! I'm not sure if the quad clubs still have access however, as this is an old map. https://www.routequad.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/lanau_carte_quad_2018.pdf Some forum posts say it was closed for 2019-2020 snowmobiling season for maintenance, but I'm wondering if it's open now in 2021+. I've added it to OpenStreetMaps here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/940177964#map=19/46.89346/-73.51481 but none of the surrounding FCMQ and other trails are on OpenStreetMap, so it's just a floating bridge with no roads leading to it for now I will see if I can get the FCMQ trails as a GPX and add them to the map as well so that this bridge becomes routable for directions. I think it's important to get it added, as this bridge is a big distance shortcut for anyone who needs to cross the Matawine (even potentially life-saving if you're stranded on the wrong side + low on gas and need to reach a nearby destination before it gets cold and dark). So here are my questions for you all: does anyone know if this 345 bridge has a name? is the 2019-2020 maintenance finished, and is the bridge open as of 2021? is the bridge normally closed during summer or is it normally open year-round? what club owns / maintains this bridge? (Club Royaume de la Motoneige maybe?) does anyone know someone in those clubs who has more info? there are photos of a DRZ-400 crossing the bridge, but I'm not sure if motos are officially allowed. Can anyone confirm that FQMHR is allowed/not allowed on it? does anyone have more recent photos / GPX tracks around or across this bridge? I'm going to ride up there myself this weekend if I can, and I'll post back with whatever answers I get!

Notre petite randonnée du 27 mai...

Comme à chaque début d'année, les grandes questions existentielles se posent : 1-Où acheter sa vignette FQMHR ? 2-Sur quelle moto coller sa vignette FQMHR ? Pour le point #2, malheureusement, c'est le bike qui a le droit d'accès. Donc, il faut bien acheter deux vignettes, même si je n'utilise qu'un bike à la fois. Bon, disons que j'ai besoin d'aide pour le point #1 seulement. Je m'en vais faire de l'enduro demain matin à St-Alphonse-de-Rodriguez. Je cherche un endroit où je peux acheter les vignettes. Curieusement, les fois où je suis allé au Ultramar de St-Alphonse, il ne détenait que celle de VTT. Je suis donc allé voir sur le site FQMHR où l'on nous réfère gentillement aux clubs quad pour vérifier les points de ventes. Encore faut-il savoir de quel club Quad il s'agit ! Il semble que ce soit celui du Club Matawinie. Sur leur site, trois vendeurs officiels à St-Alphonse : Restaurant La P’tite Bouffe (aucune passe FQMHR et ne sait pas vraiment de quoi je parle) 772 Rte 343 St-Alphonse-Rodriguez J0K1W0 450-883-2047 Dépanneur Lafrenière (personne très gentille qui n'a quand même aucune passe FQMHR à vendre) re- 801 Rte 343 St-Alphonse-Rodriguez J0K1W0 450-883-2580 Dépanneur Le Rodriguais (dépanneur fermé) re-re- 1042 Rte 343 St-Alphonse-Rodriguez J0K1W0 450-883-2576 Je comprends un peu que la vente des vignettes n'atteigne pas des sommets. J'avais reçu une lettre de FQMHR m'informant qu'on pourrait bientôt se procurer les vignettes en-ligne mais bon, j'imagine qu'on n'est pas encore rendu là. Quelqu'un pourrait-il m'aider ? J'ai manqué une information ? David

Salut, Je suis allé chez Moto Expert de Laval aujourd'hui et Bryan m'a dit que les trails de Lachute seraient bientôt accessibles FQMHR ??? Il n'avait pas de détails, mais s'il a raison, C'est une super nouvelle ! Ça serait donc le club Quad des Basses-Laurentides qui s'ouvrirait à la moto double usage ! Est-ce que quelqu'un a de l'info là-dessus ? Ça m'intéresse ! Max.