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Your comment on the difficulty for many of us, of balancing sledding time versus family time, particularly at this time of year, leads indirectly back to the topic of this thread. Permits. In the south, the permit(s) purchase is complicated by the lack of a local snowmobile season. In the past four years, I have snowmobiled locally (no out of town lodging) five days in D4, 5 and/or 9. For me that doesn't effect my decision to always purchase my pass early. I will go wherever the snow is, but that is not an option to hundreds of (former) southern sledders whose families aren't totally into sledding, and their departures to the north sledding would upset the family balance. For many friends, the new winter norm has them in various stages of snowmobile withdrawal. Some have cashed out completely; some who bought passes in the fall of 16 and 17, only to never use them, have kept a sled or two, just 'in case'. A few continue to buy passes in perpetual hope. Some have bought two day passes on occasion in the past couple of years. I can't blame them for that, when family commitments are such that, even when we get a week of open trails, they may be off with family to a hockey tournament or a family reunion. I can only assume that full season pass sales in District 4, 5 and 9 have been steadily falling. Amongst friends, the negative trend is somewhat offset by a couple of gentlemen of age being somewhat freed from the daily work/life grind, such that they can contemplate re-entering the sport as touring sledders. This however, is a tough decision when they know the cost is going to be higher than their previous sledding was, while their income has declined. I know there are smarter, more connected people than me studying the trends, and hopefully there will remain a viable market for our trail system. But I don't see how this can happen without more trail pass enforcement, and possible more pass options (I know that has been beat almost to death....)

Off to the camp today for re-fit and replenish for the next leg of my non-specific gender neutral happy seasonal sledding vacation.....a few pics from yesterday... Just had one more item to field check on this ride....making sure heated jacket did not blow the fuse on the BRP plug in accessory harness in the glove box...runs continuously on the head light circuit when the 2nd relay kicks in at 800 RPM...more or less continuous feed once sled starts....on my other sled it runs on an accessory circuit of 15 amp kicks in at 2000 RPM or so...tested sucessfully...no fuses blown at full heat. New trailer is working well and certainly more convenient than my previous single trailer set up.... Out on the trails .....pass by the local airport and notice landing lights are on.....wait a bit for a landing plane so I can pull a Top Gun Tom Cruise on a snowmobile running alongside with plane in background. ...must have been testing the lights as no plane came...just as well....likely would have suffered some misfortune holding camera in one hand and waving in air with the other. I do have the suspension set up to limit skiis in the air as well... Was handed a Boxing Day gift with the stunning light in the sky in the morning. A few random pics from various trail travels.... And 3 of the total 6 of sleds I saw on the trails all day.... It is now 5:43 am and hearing the siren calls of a waffle machine....happy sledding wherever you are! hash tag revrnd - yup sign post west of Amos. hmmmm...maybe change things up a bit...they also have bacon eggs....... hash browns....

The day you get a pickup is the day you find out how many friends you have that you didn't know you had

Yup, I have to say, Quebec has been quite a surprise as I get to know it better. If there are any motorcyclists needing a new tour to ride, go up hwy 155 from Shawinigan, through La Tuque, Chambord, Roberval and around Lac St. Jean, down to Tadousac and back. Did this in the truck this summer scoping future sled travels - a few pics from hwy 155.... Almost rivals Gaspe.

just arrived in Tampa Fla last night. Drove down in my 14 Ram 5.7 Hemi. Approx 2400 KM, I did approx 800 KM per day and averaged 11.3/100 km! for the whole trip. Kept the speed down to 120 kph or less for the entire trip. I wasn't towing anything, but the truck was loaded (we are here for 6 weeks and my wife didn't leave anything at home!) I have never got more than 15/100 towing anything with this truck. The combination of the 8speed tranny and the 3:21 rear is great

Belated Happy Birthday Denis

It's rideable, but I'm going to cut my visit short and head south in the morning. I will return when the weather cooperates a little more.

Awesome news..

Yup FEB was able to connect Bridgeport to Elmira. Really helped us out since they don't have any other trail in the area. The area has lost alot of trail.

Just drove down through there Andre - go further north if you can. There must have been a thousand trucks and trailers heading up hwy 11. Snow looked very poorly around New Liskeard from the highway, ever worse the closer you were to North Bay. Looks like a snowmelt bomb went off around Parry Sound as well.

that made me laugh... I can live with being one of those "old bastards".... Lack of snow in some areas, demands on your time are indeed large influences on how often people get to ride and their decision to stay in the sport. After riding once last winter and now that we have a puppy my wife has concluded she isn't inclined to snowmobile any longer.

I track all my mileage and fuel consumption in a spreadsheet every time I fill up. I'm more than happy with what I get in the truck. Especially when I compare it to what others are getting in their compact SUV's as an example.

My 7.5 x 16 will hold three sleds. It’s a bit of a pain to back one in, but usually I am only carrying two.

There's more farming there than one would think. The Abitibi Lowlands area to the East of the lake is beautiful rolling farmland. There's a very successful (but not well known) Apple orchard on an island on the East end of the lake. I saw a report on it on the Qc version of CBC once .... very interesting. I promised myself to visit during the fall, perhaps just as a day trip or a weekend thing. We've fished and hunted on Abitibi but didn't venture too far away from our launching point, for safetys' sake. Easy to get lost on there. Sorry for the hijack.

My mom's birthday was the 25th. Puts a new spin on the day now that she's gone. Happy birthday Denis.

I wouldn't suggest HE is a fool but lots of others out there.....

Turbo Doll.

Ditto.

Thank you Revrnd and everyone else who sent me birthday wishes. I hope you all had a good time with family and friends. We had a good time here.

It surely is.

Upping the fines will certainly prevent re-offenders but I cringe at the thought of the newb idiot who simply doesn't know open from closed and other assorted relatively innocent ignorant types as mentioned in post 2 there. The times I have seen things like this happen was usually late at night and usually by types who were going to ride free or die trying if you catch my drift. I worry about that a bit too. Makes me think of a few fellas I rode with years ago, one of em offed himself in the end he didnt care about nuthin and it wasn't just sleds he thrashed around. I suppose this is the main concern is the old saying about a few bad apples which makes me wonder how to improve PR in the face of these unfortunate events? Theres got to be some way of communicating a message to the landowners as well as somehow communicating to the wing nuts who are doing this. Heck its a dang tricky situation and so hard on the clubs man I feel for you guys who have to re route trails and sometimes close em. Sad and avoidable.

Perhaps "mistakenly" assume rather than "foolishly" assume? I say that because SteveF6 is no fool. LOLOLOLOL

Strong Farmer, it's always good to see your views, along with those of most most other folk. I've left one sled unpermitted so far this year, as it's up for sale....if it doesn't sell, I might stick a two day permit on it for a change of pace when the lakes are good in Muskoka. Good luck with your new expected child.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Birthday Denis

If you are not going to ride at least three times you are better off renting imho

Propane has been working quite well the last few yrs in the Ford product...3.5/5.0 work very well.

Under load it is hard to believe that anything beats the diesel engines

Some offenders are merely ignorant, and can be corrected, but a percentage of people will break the rules in every aspect of life, regardless of the consequences.