Most people in the Pontiac are used to hopping on their snowmobiles in the winter months and either taking a quick tour to the local depanneur, or a longer ride through the extensive trail system in the region.
But on Feb. 11, Yves Leblanc will walk out his front door in Otter Lake, hop on his snowmobile and set out on a bit of a longer journey than usual – one that will eventually see him reach one of the northernmost points of the continent in Alaska.
Not your typical “rip” when it comes to hopping on a sled.
The trip is part of a fundraising effort organized by MichCanSka Adventures Snowmobile Club.
The name combines the regions of the club’s members – Michigan, Canada and Alaska.
The club staged a similar cross-country trip in 2010 and this one aims to follow a familiar route. Each time the club stages one of these extreme rides, the goal is ultimately to raise money for charity.
This year’s trip will serve as an opportunity to raise funds for diabetes research. To donate money, just go to the website www.michcanska.com and click on the “donate now” tab on the right side.

Several members of the club have either been directly affected by diabetes or know someone who has been impacted, so it was a no-brainer when it came to choosing a charity.
This extreme ride is actually the second leg of a trip that started on the East Coast and ended in Michigan.
The second leg will pick up in Sault Saint Marie, Michigan on Feb. 16 where the riders will set out and travel through four states and five provinces.
Leblanc has a bit of a tougher route as he will be leaving Otter Lake on Feb. 11 and traveling the nearly 800 km to Sault Saint Marie. He’ll be making the trip to Michigan with a friend of his from the Casselman area.
Leblanc will be accompanied by a total of eight other sled-heads on the trip from Michigan to Alaska.
The more-than 7,000-km trip will take about 35 days to complete.
Leblanc and the MichCanSka club have literally been around the world on their machines.
“Three years ago we did our first world tour,” Leblanc said. “We did six countries in three weeks.”
The trip included stops in Canada, the United States, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia.
In fact, Leblanc is such a sled fanatic that he attempted to set the Guinness World Record for the longest snowmobile ride.
In 2007, the former IT worker with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation went from Mount Laurier, Qc. to Newfoundland where he turned his machine around and went all the way to Nome, Alaska and back.
The 17,400-km ride should have blown the old world record of 11,400 km out of the water, but a data recording glitch threw a wrench into the whole attempt.
As he was haggling with the representatives at the Guinness Book, another rider had set the new record at 19,800 km.
“It was frustrating ‘cause it was a Guinness World Record,” Leblanc said.
Despite the fact that Leblanc is clearly a seasoned rider, he was a little bit late to the game when it came to going for his first rip.
“I only started snowmobiling when I was 40,” Leblanc said.
The now 60-year-old says that one of the major draws to taking up snowmobiling – and especially long trips like this one – is the ability to see the natural beauty that a country like Canada can offer.
“I like the outdoors a lot,” he said. “As much in summer time as in winter time.”
As for the upcoming trip, Leblanc is looking forward to getting out with his buddies and inevitably meeting some interesting people along the way.
“The side benefit – that I realized very quickly when I did my trip in ’07 and ever since then – is that when you do long expeditions and you get into very remote areas, it’s the people,” he said. “The people are amazingly nice, they’re open-armed, they help you out.”
Leblanc will be riding a 2018 SkiDoo Renegade Back Country X which he says is the perfect hybrid for both deep snow and trail riding.
Although you’d think a 7,000-km trip would require a healthy amount of food, the sledders are going to rely on local restaurants along the way to feed them.
The one thing Leblanc said the riders will need is an arctic sleeping bag.
“Typically we’ll get to a shack and we’ll have to warm it up,” he said. “If its minus 30 outside then it’ll be minus 30 in the shack.”
On the way up North, Leblanc said the group will be traveling on all kinds of terrain. In Michigan, the trail system means the first stretch will be a smooth ride. The Northern states along the Canadian border also have adequate trail systems.
Once the group gets back into Canada in Manitoba, another trail system will take them into Athabasca, Alta. From there, the trail system will be lacking.
“But then after that, there’s a lot of ditch riding and off-trail riding until we reach Fort Nelson,” he said.
Once they get into the Northern reaches of the country, the group will snowmobile the Yukon Quest Trail, which starts Southeast of Whitehorse and goes through the Rocky Mountains and ends in Dawson City.
From there, they’ll hop on what’s known as the Top of the World Highway, which crosses into Alaska and has an elevation of over 10,000 feet.
The trip will finish in Fairbanks, Alaska – more than 7,000 km from Leblanc’s starting point out his back door in Otter Lake.
Once they arrive in Alaska, some members will carry on for a couple more weeks while Leblanc will keep his machine in Alaska and fly home.
Next year, he’ll have the sled shipped to Fort Nelson, B.C. where he’ll pick it up in February and ride it back home.
Just another epic rip in a long line of them.