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What an amazing 13 year old son I have the pleasure to ride with today. landed in cochrane Chimo around 11:30, with kitchenette - had some soup and crackers and left over steak for lunch. unloaded sleds and headed to gas station to fill up (who knew the Canadian tire in cochrane doesn’t have premium ???) Left 12:30pm, back home 6:50 pm fully filled up. made a nice pasta , salad and bagels and cheese for dinner. 295km round trip.filled up 25l of fuel at abitibi base camp between the two sleds. son was amazed at size of the dam and water flowing, and the 70cm depth ice road. can’t complain about December riding.

I definitely feel for the landowners, my neighbor owns the 2300 acres which D trail passes through (which is the only trail north from Bracebridge) , without that trail being open would mean the end of snowmobiling in the area. Each year he is surprised and annoyed that the OFSC won't give him a season pass as a thank you gesture, one day he will just say F you and that will be it. I realize there is most likely a legal problem with a trail pass "gift" for landowners and where do you stop. I have talked to the local club and their hands are tied when it comes to gifting passes. That will be the year that I personally buy him a permit for his work snowmobile and hopefully he will change his mind. He gets pissed when he see's what people do to his land, leaving garbage, going off trail, noise and breaking down his gates. Back in 2016 he was one of many land owners that revoked rights due to the misunderstanding of the provincial trail's act changes so he will do it again regretfully, despite what the it means to snowmobiling and the economic impact to Bracebridge. We were lucky to get the trail back in 2017. Each year I buy him a big bottle of his favorite as a thank you for being a great neighbor and fellow snowmobiler.

someone coming into our area and bragging about F-kCOVID," posted Angus. "I will be speaking with health officials and police to ensure that party crews coming into our towns respect the COVID rules." Reading it again, it says nothing about actually stopping sledders. IMO, we have rooms booked, we will be respectful, like we always have been, and will, and really more so, support the businesses who support us. Book your rooms. Be respectful and safe. Follow protocols, and ride on....

So another beautiful day riding with my son - swapped back and forth again with the 900/850 - nice to switch up the position and warmth ever 10km or so. we had a great sleep and both slept in as no rush. Had a huge breakfast of yogurt, cereal and bagels. received about 5cm last night so drive out to moonbeam with truck was a little slower. we unloaded at moonbeam and onto the trail heading west as far as we could around 11:20am. trails were great to superb. Only wildlife (besides the Artic Cats!) was a nice little hare. Went through to Kap(south side) to just past opasatika (trials closed), filled up in Kap and came back to moonbeam on north side of hwy11. L125 was a frigging hwy!!!! back at truck 4:20pm. 235 km. heading back up to canyon I think tomorrow .

Too much COVID talk. Put 2 klicks on the sled today Conditions here are 'open' on my ITG, which is good considering the weather we've been having.

The Snowcrest Team has aquired a valuable person for the club all around. Also being volunteer of the year among other proud awards.... For those who don’t know, Blake was a very large part of the building of trail 204 for the ODSC. Myself and Ed have always been proud of Blake. Congratulations to all !!!

Tons of stuff on Facebook right now is nothing more than bullshit being posted to upset the Karens of the world. These people get off on the over reaction and tons of people fall for it. If people stopped reacting, it would go away but that won't happen so........

For those that don't know Blake S has rejoined the Snowcrest team as a director and it has been a pleasure to work with him since the fall, along with the other members of the club.

Some of you may know Rick (Nutter). Rick said when he checked they had laid 13 charges for Modified Exhaust, 3 No Insurance, 5 No permit.

I've used the comment, "I didn't get to this age by being stupid." LOL

Well said Blake. Lets all be smart about this season. I see absolutely no reason why we cannot travel and enjoy the sport. Be respectful, follow protocols and enjoy. Lets try and not have the big group of buddies hanging around, and i think most will be fine. Its not really hard to do. When calling and booking, ask about the places protocols and respect them. The places we talked too and have booked, are welcoming, and just want protocols to be followed. Not hard to do imo..

The law allows people to drive their trucks and trailers to sledding destinations, although the government and health units recommend against unnecessary travel. If you choose to drive to a distant location you will be acting contrary to recommendations, but you will not be breaking a law. I expect that Charlie Angus acknowledges peoples' right to travel to towns in his riding, but he objects to visitor behaviour that fails to abide by the actual Covid restrictions (no large get-togethers for example.) The OFSC's previously stated policy is that there will not be available trails to connect health districts that are at different levels on the covid map. Regardless of our sledding choices, we should consider and protect the safety of ourselves and others. I would also suggest we respect the concerns of others.

The best response to the concerns is for sledders to behave responsibly and respectfully. Most will, some won't.

Need more OPP presence

A few pics from that day....bob had a few of me on his camera....got lost when he submerged... sign said "Stay on Trail" ...so we did...except bob of course... Kind of miss the old days before the braying of jackasses on facebook...

Ask this mpp why people can travel to other friggin countries for vacations, including government officials, but we can't sled while following health guidelines.

Ha! That's the good part! the gates are not even open yet to get the B112 from the B 103. We have been riding from home the last few days and here is the deal. KLSA is open/ LIMITED from Lindsay to Kinmount. Has had several passes, including a groomer heading up this afternoon. Haven't ridden Lindsay to Fenelon, Fenelon to Kinmount is OK early season riding. They still have a lot of trees down from heavy wet snow and an ice storm over the last couple of days. Rode the Pinery today and again, OK early season riding. Kinmount to Hali had it's first full grooming pass last night and turned out well. We usually have more snow North of Kinmount so the B103 turned out good with just one pass. We do not have enough snow to open any rough, wet trails but the Rail Trail is as fun as it's gonna get right now. Livin'

really good today

You'll have that on the good days!

You and I need to hook up and go for a ride this year, I'm not far from you and used to live on Maple Lake.

I knew a bunch of guys that rode bulls... our joke was... how do you become a bull rider? Fill your mouth full of marbles. Each time you get on a bull spit out one of the marbles. When you've lost all of your marbles then you're a bull rider. Our best man was even more crazy. He was a rodeo clown. He figured at least he gets paid for every rodeo and his motto was "feet don't fail me now". Bull rider gets dumped and the clown runs up slaps the bull in the side of the head and then hopes he can outrun it. I went for the tame stuff. Bareback and saddle bronc were crazy too, not quite as crazy as the bull riders though.

..... and you think us guys who raced sleds are nuts??????

Permits, pipes, registration, insurance.

I think he still is but bought and fixed up a home/cottage near Coboconk a few years ago.......which I assume they still have and use for winter/summer activities.

Actually we were about 15 mins ahead of him, he was trying to catch up. A good brother would have turned around to warn him

Good. Now did they charge the no trail pass sleds?. And the no insurance?. Etc.

I heard the OPP were sitting on the trail in Kin Mount yesterday.

Divers went down & airbagged mine to surface!

I belong to the 50yr club.I have been stopped for papers twice in that time. All regions of Ontario and Kbec.But I haven't rode on weekends in years.The groomer can be an effective tool for enforcement on tight trails.LOL

I forgot about my sinking incident that I had years ago. Brother and I doing a late night run after arriving at the cottage, I hit a couple of moguls on the trail that happened to cause me to pin the throttle on one of them and I my sled ends up in a river beside the trail, front half is totally submerged, rear is partially in the water and on the shore. We tried to pull it out but just could not so went looking for some extra help/muscle at some cottages not too far away, by the time we returned my sled was out and there was a large group of guys that were there. They saw the tracks and then my sled but not the person...so they were looking for the rider and pulled sled out at the same time. Drained the water from the cylinders, replaced the spark plugs and she fired up....headed back to the cottage for the night. Changed the gear case oil as well and the next day we did a very big ride that day, sled was not running right for a little while, but by the end of the long day, she was running same as always. Changed the gear oil again when I got got home and I never had any issues with the sled afterwards.

yep, playing, skipping water, went tail down, nose up 12 oclock. when that happens instinct takes over, you let off. couldnt catch it in time, to keep momentum. threw helmet, gloves to the ice to keep dry, rode the sled "down", not knowing how deep it was. thankfully it was only 4.5-5feet deep, and i am 6 feet tall. when i got off the sled, it raised up. i got in, dragged it to a shallower area, pulled it out by myself, with the wife's help. I was in the water 30-40 minutes on and off. i was cold as hell. towed sled back to the hotel, got in the hot tub, sled loaded into the trailer. drove to a friends house an hour later, took off the hood, pulled plugs, rolled sled upside down, pulled it over until water stopped coming out. put the plugs back in, set the choke, started first pull. gotta love yamaha triples (01 SRX). I drained fuel, oil, chaincase, took seat off (no real way to dry that out, they just never doo). decided it was a high mileage unit anyway, sold it on TY being totally upfront, what happened, and priced accordingly. a member there from new hampshire called me, asked a bunch of questions, said, "if it is as clean as you say, i will take it, i will be there saturday morning." that next saturday, he was there, when i woke up, he drove all night friday, to get to me. he told me "i ride jet ski's, we sink them at least once a day, i do the same thing you did, and dry it out, and keep riding." he never even tried to talk me down on price, due to the condition of the sled, prior to the sinking. he emailed me about 18 months later saying, he dried out the headlamp, bought a new (used) seat, and was still riding it. LOL! the things we do when young and dumb. miracle i survived, as long as i have. but, to be old and wise, you must be young and foolish. Ski

We ended up having to fish one of our buddies sleds out of the narrows ourselves one year using a rope & hook we bought from Robinsons.....local diver was busy that day attending a family function so we took matters into our own hands, thankfully he sank near the bridge crossing making it possible.

Well said gents and thank you!! We have a couple of trips booked coming up and as mentioned above Respect is key during this time, very small groups and following protocols.

yes it wa shallow just jumped in and dragged it out . got it running and rode it

Been there. Done that. Good times for sure watching the divers pull up the sleds

Thanks for the great report. Good planning and good decision to not let all the 'noise' upset your trip. Very happy for you and your son.

Stay away from 705 Snowmobiles Jeff.... Unfortunately the sport seems to attract a lot of residents that seem to swim in the shallow end of the gene pool. Someone was moaning about the trails not being open. I passed a bullrush filled ditch east of Cardiff. It looked far from ready to be open just because there is snow up here. These clowns would be the 1st to go after the club or OFSC after they take out a stump.

He is a dipper, they are loons by default.

I see

the said part of this crap is, it is not kids doing the trespassing it's older adults that think they are privileged.

Considering the behaviour that we've witnessed this year, why would anyone expect the start of this winter to be any different? Everyone is in a (fill in the blank) hurry & doesn't care about how their actions affect others. And yes they'll be the 1st to complain when their favourite trail is closed.

"There are some rules and regulations that have been put in place by the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs that says that people have to respect the health unit that they live in," he says. "So if they are in a health unit that has been locked down they cannot travel to another area that is not locked down. It is not up to us to police that. It will be up to the OPP to police that." Opp cannot do a thing if I am riding outside the health that I reside in. There is no travel ban in our country or province.

There all trespassing if the trails closed.

Looking good. Enjoy...... What a difference 2 months make for taking pictures at the damn. This picture was taken on Thanksgiving weekend this year...

True but there are a thousand miles of snowmobile tracks all over Portage Lake this morning. Things are looking up around here a bit.

Heaven forbid it be all snow...

No chance of that. B112 is a rough trail and needs a deep freeze and lots of snow. Stick to the railbed and ride some of the pinery trails down in the Kawartha lakes club area..

So true, can't remember how many "close calls" I had when I was younger... Survival of the fittest, or in my case, the luckiest.

SNowbike?