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Northern Ontario Loops & Conditions Feb 26 to Mar 11


Yellowknife

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Hey Folks - I'm not sure if this is the place for it but want to share some live trail reports with you as my 14 days of trips unfold between now and March 11. Special thanks to Piston Lake Cruiser who was instrumental in helping me plan 2 full weeks of riding. I think it's great that you guys share info to help one another. Another thanks to Soupkids for hooking me up with contact info for some of you who may be around the area's I'll be riding. For some context, I used to live in Elliot Lake and have returned for a couple weeks of riding due to the amazing snowfall the North has had. I drove with truck and trailer from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to Elliot Lake through challenging sections of highways covering 4252 km’s in 49 hours of actual driving time including fuel stops.

 

Feb 26 - Sister and I rode Elliot Lake to Spragge to Blind River back to Elliot. Top Trail D hadn't been groomed since the wind storm earlier in the week. Big tree down. Cut as much away as I could with a hand saw, enough to pass through the trail. Due to the rain that fell over the previous weekend the trails became harder and more icy the closer we got to Lake Huron via BR4. Needed ice scratchers to prevent overheating. Once back on Top Trail D (Pipeline) more of that rain had changed to snow and conditions improved. Saw groomer on EL2 trail. 112 km loop. When I left Elliot in 2001, there was a groomed trail to Spragge that provided Restaurant Access next to Algoma Chrysler. Trail is no longer groomed but I found it and we made it to the restaurant after some searching. Owner said they expect the trail to be put in again. Not sure what happened to the land use rights but there used to be more trails in the area. 

 

Feb 27 - Sister, Niece and Nephew in tow on 2 sleds. We rode Elliot Lake to Black Creek. Top Trail F was in good shape. Had lunch at Dunlop Lodge. Good stretch of plowed road from Aubrey Lake to Black Creek Outfitters. Not plowed down to ground so the carbides and sliders survived. 109 km's. Had a lot of confusion over whether Black Creek served meals. They told me they didn't but once we showed up they offered us Supper and Breakfast in the price of $90 per person. It was good! We had brought our own food to stay in the cabin but didn't need it in the end. Enjoyed the overnight stay there. Had a couple cm's of snow that day. Busy with lots of sledders.

 

Feb 28 - Still with the family, we rode Black Creek to Iron Bridge (almost) to Elliot Lake. D106 looked like it hadn't been groomed in weeks, if ever. Still was much smoother than the ungroomed riding I do in Yellowknife. Once we hit BM2 the trails were flat and fast. Connected to D134 east to IB3. Both trails were good. Jumped on EL3 home to Elliot. 198 km's. 6 year old Nephew had a blast. Kid is born to ride. 

 

Next up - and I'll post in this same thread to update - Mar 1 to 4 - going Elliot to Halfway Haven day 1, Halfway Haven to Timmins day 2, Timmins to Sudbury day 3, Sudbury to Elliot day 4.

 

After that - Mar 6 to 11 - going Sudbury to Tata Chika Pika day 1, Tata Chika Pika to Cochrane day 2, Cochrane to Abitibi Canyon to Kapuskasing day 3, Kap to Dubreville day 4, Dub to Black Creek day 5, Black Creek to Sudbury day 6. 

 

Cheers!

YK

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Not sure what they are called, but they were just coming out when we lived in the NWT - an optical device consisting of a lens system set in a light-proof construction inside which a light-sensitive film or plate can be positioned -

 

A few pictures would be good - look forward to your reports! :wavey:

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1 minute ago, slomo said:

Not sure what they are called, but they were just coming out when we lived in the NWT - an optical device consisting of a lens system set in a light-proof construction inside which a light-sensitive film or plate can be positioned -

 

A few pictures would be good - look forward to your reports! :wavey:

I'm swearing at my iphone and macbook trying to use airdrop to throw some pics up! lol

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8 minutes ago, Yellowknife said:

I'm swearing at my iphone and macbook trying to use airdrop to throw some pics up! lol

Here is a link to help load pics from your computer to your post - about the fifth post down -  a bit dated but the 'choose files' in the bottom left corner works the same

 

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Many photo tests failed. all directions followed. Giving up. lol - when I made video episodes next year I'll come back and post the content. You can see my current stuff from 18 years of adventures in Yellowknife at youtube.com/gofenkoa

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3 minutes ago, Yellowknife said:

See if this works - the drive down - closed highway 11 - transports blocking open highway 17 - nephew

IMG_1093.JPG

IMG_1094.HEIC

IMG_1097.HEIC

IMG_1102.HEIC

IMG_1105.HEIC

Your first one works - it is a .jpg. Not sure what a "HEIC" is. However, thanks to google, here is how you may be able to convert them on your iphone:

 

People Ask - How do I convert iPhone photos to JPEG?

Open the “Settings” app on the iPhone and go to “Camera” Choose “Formats” and select “High Efficiency” to capture iPhone photos in HEIF / HEVC format. Recommended, next to go “Photos” and under the 'Transfer to Mac or PC' section choose “Automatic” to automatically convert the HEIF images to JPEG upon file transfer.Sep 29, 2017

 

Good luck!

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8 hours ago, Yellowknife said:

 You can see my current stuff from 18 years of adventures in Yellowknife at youtube.com/gofenkoa

Neat videos YK - the collapsing river ice vid is reminiscent of how I lost a sled on a Frank Channel stream near Rae - you guys have it easy now with global warming and all, but back a couple of decades ago, temps in November would drop to minus 20 or minus 30 area and river ice would quickly form. Over the following weeks, the water level under the ice would drop leaving some pretty large air chambers. (you probably know all this)  Following my 'native guide' we crossed a channel, he got across all right, the rear end of my sled broke through, the nose went up, and down into a cavern it went. I was off and away from the thing faster than Ben Johnson on drugs -  there was a slight pause between stopping and cracking through. The machine is probably still there. As I found out later in a post mortem discussion, my 'native guide' was a guy from Hay River who knew dick about the area.

 

 

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Update: March 1 - Elliot Lake Top Trail F to Black Creek. Trails were excellent. Black Creek D201F - nasty ungroomed patch of a couple km’s that would make people turn around. Keep going. Groomer skips this part between Black Creek and Aubrey Falls lodge and takes the highway. Groomer was/is grooming all afternoon March 1 and overnight to March 2, all the way to Halfway Haven. 18 hour haul he says. D201F to Top Trail D - was pretty decent - will be excellent now from groomer. Lots of single lane in the first quarter of the D201F. Once on Top Trail D the trail was rough all the way to C101D junction. Afterwards the 20 km’s into Halfway Haven was good. Halfway plowed their road last night to make way for supplies. $85 to fill up. Supper was amazing. Prime Rib, mashed potatoes skins on with cheese and bacon, and salad. About to have breakfast. 1” of snow fell overnight and snowing now. Lodge has lots of character. Rooms in lodge remind me of mining camps. Total mileage for day was 296 km’s with a small amount of playing on one lake. (all mileage is GPS). Off to Timmins today. ALSO there’s a section of Top Trail D that has been re-routed that you can see on OFSC trip planner.  It’s the only set of tracks and there is a large sign. The maptracks GPS system does not reflect this change yet. 

 

Cheers

YK

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Update - March 2: From Halfway Haven via Top Trail D to Chapleau via C101D, bypassed Chapleau on the east trail on the map, didn’t seem to have a name for it. Some residential area on it/plowed road. Bypassed the 101 Gas Station since we carry fuel and booked it for Foleyet via C101D. The trackmaps on gps were off a lot today. I’m sure there are yearly trail adjustments depending on drilling and logging activities etc. Generally speaking we always ended up back on the track anyway and they didn’t go too far off the map. We hit the OPP after Chapleau checking trail passes. He mentioned the groomer in the area blew a tire overnight on C101D. Groomer was operating by morning and we saw it. Trails to Foleyet from Chapleau were twisty!! Also we had a brutal stretch of plowed to the ground diamond drilling road. Wish they would leave us some snow. Carbides took a beating on rocks/gravel. Once the sun hits it will turn to mud. Felt like forever on it. Maybe 5 to 10 km’s? Fueled up in Foleyet, 296 km’s to that point. Ate across the street from gas station. Best burger ever lol. Hit C101D again towards Timmins. Flat and fast! Our favourite part of the trip so far. We covered some tracks, all freshly groomed. Joined up with Top Trail C North to Cedar Meadows Resort. Did the saltwater heated pool and steam room. 396 km’s on the day in 6.5 hours of actual riding. Today we’re off to Sudbury. What a ride so far!!

 

Cheers

YK

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Update - March 3: The shoulders are feelin’ it lol. Rode from Cedar Meadows in Timmins on Top Trail C South towards Sudbury. Lots of stop signs for the first while, including along the hydroline that the trail follows. We played in the power lines. Incredible snow depth. Headed into Shining Tree for our only fuel stop of the day via a short trail and the trail number escapes me now. Trails were flat and in good shape. Not much traffic. Just before we connected onto C111D, we came up on the moose, cow and calf. Mom was not happy. I have incredible helmet cam video that i’ll post next fall. We kept a good distance. I’ve seen the videos of others getting the animals angry. Took C111D into Windy Lake Motel. The last 30 km’s were pretty choppy. 420 km’s on the day. Next we head to Elliot Lake. Trackmaps were off periodically again. Also no food past Gogama that we are aware of and it was too soon in the ride so we skipped lunch. 

 

Cheers

YK

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Update - March 4: Shorter day today from Sudbury to Elliot Lake. From Windy Lake took the C11D to Top Trail D. Groomer was at Windy Lake filling up in the morning. Rode freshly groomed/untracked trails for a few dozen km's. Played in some more power lines before Espanola. Snow much crustier due to the rain a week or so ago. Went into Espanola on ESP7 for lunch. We had some stretches of trail that were very choppy. Stayed on D all the way through Massey. Some trail rerouting through Massey. Also did a lot of lake travel - most out of the whole trip. Jumped onto the lake trail on the map between F and SP2/SP1 near Spanish. Joined up with Top Trail F to Elliot Lake. Spanish and Elliot trails were all freshly groomed - we were the first tracks again. Excellent conditions. I think after the F/EL1 junction we hit an Elliot Lake Snowbirds warm up shack. I think it was a groomer turnaround point but it also looked like another trail (groomed) went in another direction that isn't on the map. I may be mixing things up. Took F into town and that was it! Other than the lakes, most of the trails were twisty. No mechanical failures (knock on wood - still have a 6 day trip coming), no accidents, etc. Total on the day was 232 km's. Total on the 4 day trip (really it was 3.5 days) was 1342 km's. I have to say, for my riding style/comfort I think 300 km's a day is ideal and 400 is a bit much for me. It just lightens up the pressure to arrive before nightfall and allows more time to take it easy, make more stops etc, and gives a bit more leeway for unexpected issues. If I were to do it all again I'd try to spread it out a bit more if possible. The upcoming 6 day trip will be a bit more balanced though there is one 440 km day. It was great having both the GPS Maptracks or Trackmaps as I seem to use interchangeably. Combined with the OFSC app and having the fuel stops/accommodations and trails figured out ahead of time really made for a confident and smooth ride. We didn't take any wrong turns and arrived for supper time each day. Today is a rest day sort of - giving the sled a once over for the next trip and giving the trailer bearings a greasing before loading up again and heading back to Sudbury to pick up my fellow Yellowknife riding buddy at the airport. At the end of that 6 day trip I need to be ready to hit the road for the journey back to Yellowknife. The 4 day trip felt like a full week - in a good way!!

 

Cheers,

YK

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Update - March 6: started from Windy Lake in Sudbury and headed to Tata Chika Pika Lodge via C111D and Top Trail C.  Having just run this a couple days earlier conditions were still great. 337 km’s on the day. Fueled up in Shinning Tree again in between. The lodge - wow. What a great place. I wish every overnight was like this. The food was home cooked and amazing. Accommodations were top notch. Full disclosure, once the owner found out my last name he said he went to school with my brother. Turned out both owners are from Elliot Lake. They purchased in August. Service was amazing, drinks were cheap, can’t say enough good things. Highly recommend and will likely remain the accommodation highlight of my time in Ontario. 

 

Cheers

YK

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Great report YK.

 

I had to chuckle about your stay @ HH. Some comments on DooTalk about. You'd almost think the guys posting had never been out of the city.

 

Last year when we daytripped from Timmins & Foleyet we found that the Trakmaps didnt match the route either. This winter Sledjunk said nothing had changed east of Foleyet. He said that east of Chapleau had a lot of 'variation'.

 

About T-C-P, X2 on the great food & friendly hosts.

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Update - March 7: Rode from Tata Chika Pika to Timmins via Top Trail C. We hit some freshly plowed roads that were non existant on the same ride a few days ago. They scraped down to the ground which sucked. Thankfully not too lengthy. If i lived here i’d have skiwheelz for sure. Took C trail from Timmins up to Top Trail A to Smooth Rock Falls for lunch. Then took A i to Cochrane, stayed at West Way Motel. Wow it was the busiest and most full of sleds we’ve seen. Many people see our Yellowknife license plates on the sleds and strike up a conversation. Typical quotes are “not enough snow in Yellowknife?” And “did you ride all the way from Yellowknife?” Lol. Trails were excellent overall. We’ve had great weather too. Some -25 C mornings but we’re used to worse. 282 km’s on the day. We’ve been getting in early each afternoon compared to the 4 day trip. Trails North of Timmins are fast!

 

Cheers

YK

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Update - March 8: Rode from Cochrane on Top Trail A to A103 to Abitibi Canyon. Took the east trail up North and came back down on west side. Loved this run. Good mix of terrain. Fastest trails yet. Lots of sleds. Stopped in at basecamp for some chilli. We didn’t need to fuel up. Made it to Smooth Rock with 3L left in tank on my 600 etec. Loved the dam, very cool. Trees up here are like Yellowknife’s. Skinny. Would love to run the power lines up to Moosonee. After Smooth Rock we continued on Top Trail A to L123 into Moonbeam then onward to L137 and L139 into Kapuskasing. All 3 trails after leaving Smooth Rock need grooming. Some dangerous humps in some spots that seemed odd like man made snow jumps and not typical moguls. 314 km’s on the day. First half of this ride is complete. With such fast trails so far, 400+ km’s a day would have been easy! Funny how it compares to all the twisty stuff we did on the 4 day trip that was far more tiring. Things are about to get twistier on day 4 into Dub. 

 

Cheers

YK

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Update - March 9: 434 km’s today. We rode from Kapuskasing on L143 to L123. Was freshly groomed! Jumped back onto Top Trail A just before Opasatika. Rode A to Hearst for lunch. Picked up a belt at Napa/Doo dealer. Mine finally started to implode after 16,000 km’s on it. Incredible/hard miles on that belt. Never seen anything like it. Rode A to D108A. D108A was my favourite trail of the trip so far. Loved the variety. A little skinny in the whoops but a blast to ride! Took it all the way to Dubreuilville. We did fuel up in Hornepayne. Pretty fantastic trails all the way. Snowing today and headed to Halfway for lunch and fuel, then off to Black Creek. 

 

Cheers

YK

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4 hours ago, Yellowknife said:

Update - March 9: 434 km’s today. We rode from Kapuskasing on L143 to L123. Was freshly groomed! Jumped back onto Top Trail A just before Opasatika. Rode A to Hearst for lunch. Picked up a belt at Napa/Doo dealer. Mine finally started to implode after 16,000 km’s on it. Incredible/hard miles on that belt. Never seen anything like it. Rode A to D108A. D108A was my favourite trail of the trip so far. Loved the variety. A little skinny in the whoops but a blast to ride! Took it all the way to Dubreuilville. We did fuel up in Hornepayne. Pretty fantastic trails all the way. Snowing today and headed to Halfway for lunch and fuel, then off to Black Creek. 

 

Cheers

YK

Any wildlife? I saw 1 of the 2 martens I've seen north of Hornepayne. The lead guys saw a bull moose on TOP D south of D'ville on our trip of a couple of weeks ago.

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