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I just completed a 2 hour night run tonight north of Sault Ste. Marie and am reporting good snow depth. Snowmobiling season has started for the 2024/25 season in this region. Dan Kachur - SSM

Wasn’t planning on riding yesterday, but ended up getting a phone call from a buddy and his wife last second. We rode the rail line from Dundalk up to Owen sound for lunch. We rode that small loop that was open yesterday. There were a few water holes/slushy spots on that loop, but no big deal. I’ve ridden on way worse. Rail line was near mint, and for the most part there was quite a bit of snow all over. Very happy with the first ride of the season. I’ve never ridden this early before, ever. A little further and I could’ve burned up all the fuel from last year lol

Well Snow gage is buried. After digging out all day finally got out with grand kids.

Almost more kms already than all of last year. Lol

My wife won't be going shopping today. lol Dan - Sault Ste. Marie

Now that the long guns are out of the bush. It's time to do a clean up. Haven't snowmobiled on this trail in 3 years. Hopefully this isn't the only time I'm on this trail this sled season.

We were out too!!!..lol... We've got snow but not enough for our area.(Canadian Shield) Getting there tho! Some more cold nights would help.👍

Crashed my 06 crossfire on the first ride after purchasing it used. Broke my wrist the windshield and kill switch. Also crashed my 17 zr6000 on the first ride. Little tweak in the A arm. $hit happens, at least you aint hurt and buggered up the whole season. Personally i woulda kept it to myself for a bit lol!

Scenic caves Nordic, great shot from my ol bud.

Well we are now at 20" here in Exeter this morning.

4 am and Good Morning from Sault Ste Marie. Up early to start digging out before heading to work. Black Friday for some but a huge white Friday for us. Still have 48 hours more of snow on the way.

There was a story with that sled. I asked the guy if it had any previous damage and if he would send me the vin. Kept giving me bullsh-t excuses why he wouldnt/couldnt send me the vin.

Well.......that shakedown ended badly. The B trail loop shouldnt even be yellow in my opinion. I went at it from both ends and turned around on both. Stopped to take a pic and realized in my rush to get out I left paperwork, registration sticker and trail pass on the coffee table. Pissed off, I hit the rail bed to head home and as I came over a riser I grabbed the whole handful of the fun flipper. Fun ended abruptly as the ski's came up and peeled a hand off the grip. I went off the trail, down a 6' bank and into a pile of downed tree's. I was curled up in a ball thinking I was about to get messed up but I seem ok. Sled is a little bent up in the front end but I think the plastics are alright. A couple fella's came along with a strap and we were all shocked the sled came out. It was wedged in pretty tight. I couldnt move it at all. Rode it home. Big shout out to a couple fella's from Shallow Lake. It was while taking the pic I noticed my trail pass and took off with maybe just a tad to much aggression. New gloves dont have the grip I'm used to. 1/4 mile down the trail I came up on a cruiser at a road crossing with tree limbs and hay hanging off my sled and of course no stickers. I threw my arms in the air, he laughed and waved me by.

Okay, so when was the last time there were Yellow trails this early in Dec? Kudos to the clubs that were able to do that, even if it is a railbed.

I'm sneaking out before anyone makes plans for my day. I see they opened up a small loop outside of town. Beats the mind numbing railbed I suppose. Wonder if my carbides are still straight when I get back. lol

maybe we need to go back to the old ways and just let everyone ride where ever they want. Police can't catch us all. The mass chaos should wake up municipalities that riders will still ride whether there is a managed trail or not. A managed trail system will keep most (almost all) on the proper trails. I can't blame municipalities for all our issues, it more likely the lawyers and insurance companies. As for LUP getting signed, the municipalities are the most difficult. For example, one town will sign if they are added to the insurance policy. OFSC won't add them to the policy until they sign the LUP. I had another township sign with no issues at all. Don't get me started on the larger "numbered" companies ... Its not as simple as presenting a piece of paper and say just sign it. They want to know every road crossing, every ditch and road we ride on and how long it is. They want it presented in a nice document with a map. This all takes time. Once you have it it all needs to be entered into the database. It appears I may be ranting and I apologize, I just hope its worth it and we get enough snow. Jerry

Port Sydney in the village.

Things are getting ugly here in Sault Ste. Marie. I suspect some businesses will be shut down tomorrow (Friday). By Sunday, we will be measuring snow in feet not inches. UPDATE: Sault Ste. Marie - Shut-Downs https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/weather-related-closures-and-cancellations-9881832

From a Groomer Guy F/B post: "For the snowmobile friends that ride our area. The new Hornepayne Hotel will be open this winter. This awesome for those that like short days, stay in Dubreuilville at the Magpie Relay Motel then go to Hornepayne one night and then back the next day."

Mostly why we went up and did what we could when we could. got there at 1:00 am last night, rode all day, back home now.

I did. lol Yes, it could have been alot worse. I was doing about 30mph when I mashed the throttle so I estimate 50-60mph when I left the trail. I truely believe it was my proverbial "shot across the bow" . My whole body aches currently but considering I came to an abrupt stop in a log pile I feel pretty fortunate. I even booked service calls for tomorrow. I need parts. lol Figure if I stop moving I'll seize up.. I'll check the sled tomorrow to see what it needs. I seen one on facebook being parted. Other than that, it's all good. No need for insurance to be involved. My dumb ass is solely responsible. Stay safe folks.

Heading up/out today as well.

frig the EPA. Sleds do not register on the global pollution scale. A tiny incalculable blip. They killed OMC too back in the day. frig those guys literally they can eat a giant bag of dicks. Hope Trump fires em all

9" in Exeter, settling a little now.

lots of snow now in Muskoka

Sold!

Some may be dealing with mous going to town council after Dec 1st. Council meetings do get pushed back sometimes. Out of a clubs hands. This isn't anything new. My issue with it is just optics, I completely agree everything must be in order, to protect clubs, landowners and the Rider's. Will there be backlash, yup from those who don't care to understand. I want to thank all those who have supported the clubs and bought your permit early. We will have trails, the itg does not reflect a clubs due diligence.

Sault Ste. Marie - City Center - Monday Night 9 pm

The market is crap. That being said, I just sold my 23 Backcountry 850 XRS in 2 days of posting it. It was priced very aggressively IMO ($13995) but it was a 9/10 sled. Sleds are only dropping in value right now. My dealer has allotted $100K to unload used sleds in stock at a loss. Honestly, I dont even think if we got 2 feet of snow on the ground next week it would change a lot. Money is just really tight out there and a powersports vehicle is a discretionary purchase for 90% of the people out there. No one needs a sled or an atv.

Lol, time will tell for sure What we do know is he didn't cause it though!

I mowed yard yesterday afternoon. .

And here you were posting about ruining carbides on early season rides. If only you could have been so lucky to just ruin a set of carbides!

What brand are your axles? Are your grease fittings on a spring loaded cap? or solid mounted on the center of axle with space around between wheel hub and axle where you can see the hub lock nut? My Dexter axles have a grease fitting mounted on center of axle with a passage through the center of axle to behind the inner bearing. When you pump the grease it pushes through the inner bearing and then through the outer bearing. The idea is to regularly replace the grease by pumping the new grease through bearings. The spring loaded caps only push grease through the outer bearing and do not ensure grease gets through inner bearing. These caps can provide a false sense of good maintenance if you think your bearings are being greased and are not actually getting the grease.

Not trying to be difficult but in fact Cat did not cut their racing department. What they cut was contingency and support money to racers. The race department provides sleds and parts and it is still operating - on a shoestring budget no doubt. Cat's top XC racer posted on FB last night stating the above. He is still going to race Cat. I believe on Wed. Cat made a bunch more layoffs including sales reps. Nobody knows how long Textron will keep Cat alive but for today they are. Tomorrow may be a different story. There is going to be a lot more blood spilled before the industry comes out of this.

In conversation with my dealer last night, he is saying that the snow on the ground hasnt done much to pick up sales. We both agree that this mess will not be sorted out until MY27 at the earliest.

It's getting better.

My gas cans which fuel all the 2 & 4 stroke engines sit in an unheated garage with the caps always loose.

Pic of Highway 11 northbound north of Severn Bridge a few hours ago.

Was through the Wellesley area today, nice to see all the trail signs up, looking ready to go!

lots of snow up here now. But its light and fluffy.

Don't get too excited, Muskoka and Parry Sound don't need it covering all the loon crap filled swamps, they need to freeze.

November Snowmobiling in Algoma Podcast

The ones I designed and had printed up for our club back in the mid 00s were just a frame sticker around the permit. The reason I designed it that way was so it couldn't be misused, knowing some people would transfer them sled to sled and although likely small, it would still have the potential to take away funds from the trail system. We sold a ton of them for about 6 years. After that Doodette made up some for Kelly Shires and PET, they did well too (just noticed my profile pic is still of my 13 600 and rocking a PET permit wrap lol). They also were just a frame sticker that went around the permit. All could easily find was this prototype of the first one (note the permit size and shape, I think that was around 06-07 ? lol ) The final production ones had much more stout outer border. They were made so well that you could easily salvage the wrap when taking the permit off and putting the new one on, we had to change designs to make people want to buy the latest greatest lol

What is being missed here is that both Skidoo and Polaris did the same thing earlier this year without the fanfare. From what I have read on other sites is that this is very common every year as production shifts from one product line to another. The whole industry is slow, so everyone is in the same boat, not just Cat.

The Magpie is going to have more rooms available this winter also

Leave it to Luc - 'short day' , D'ville to Hornepayne (which it is). It's just that it's a great distance, but the old logging roads allow you to do it 'quickly'. We were once stuck in Hornepayne for 2 extra nights with a jack shaft bearing issue (Yamaha) and I can attest to how great those trails are. D'ville is awesome for it's own reasons.

Ah, yes, the great Canadian, make that North American game, and the reason that many families miss out on 10 t0 15 years of sledding in the prime of life. Great to have choices like that though. I hope both groups have a great season.