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Last week Friday we drove up to Searchmont and parked at Driftwood Valley which was a first this season. We rode out at 1:00pm sharp and arrived at the gas pumps in Dubreuilville at 6:05pm with the GPS saying we had gone 180.3 miles. We stopped at the warming shack where all 3 groomers come together from different directions and a few more times for breaks and once to dump our 4 gallon cans of fuel. We did not go into Wawa and saved miles and time. We took the Magpie which was perfect. After a night in Hearst we were back for a 2nd night in Dub. Then we had breakfast in Wawa the following morning and gassed up for the trip to Chapleau. We stopped at Halfway just to look around and then continued towards the Chapleau turnoff which is no longer 8.6 miles south of Halfway but rather 21 miles south at the warming shack. This is where all three groomers drive to. When Halfway suddenly left hundreds of sledders hanging last season, the Chapleau and Soo clubs changed the Chapleau run to hookup with the Soo so at least some could sled through Chapleau from points south. from this point 21 miles south of Halfway the Chapleau trail distance is 71 miles into the gas station. Moose horn Lodge is quite a bit less. I am guessing maybe 20 miles? spent the night at Valentines and shot down to Searchmont to head home Tuesday morning. The run from the gas station to the Driftwood left the gas gauge reading over a quarter tank so no extra gas needed that day with beautiful trails. We did put 1 gallon of extra fuel in to go from Wawa to Chapleau although it might not have been needed. We were on Doo 900 Turbo R Renegades which can get 15 mpg when not hammering the throttle. All those trails were fantastic and in better shape than I can ever remember. We both carried the LINQ 4 gallon extra gas tank and 2 one gallon cans in our saddle bags so we each had 6 gallons of extra gas. Depending on conditions you may need the extra, but perfect trails meant that if you stop at Wawa only the 4 gallon would ever be needed. 900 plus miles of the BEST TRAILS ever.

Baysville was in good shape yesterday. Couple icy corners which will be worse by tonight. The road run was bearable and didnt over heat. Its thin through dickie lake but once past all that its good. Turned around at the tall pines limit as we didnt plan on a big ride and just did all the good stuff that Happy wanderers has. Very little traffic yesterday.

Took the princess for a ride today. Trails from 830am until about noon were really good with some expected bad spots and roads were partial snow / scrape. Than the snow started to turn very mushy, corners were pushing for sure, some were on wrong side, but traffic was real light and some more rocks poking through. Trails were flat and nicely set up. Fuel at MTH and lunch was boiler room. Lakes are in great shape though, good for some high mph runs.

Well that’s a wrap been a awesome season three provinces and lots of good friends . Thanks to everyone involved till next year !!

After driveway cleaning this morning I got to ride. 75 km’s for day 😀

Thanks for the suggestions. Unloaded at Tilden Lake Road parking north of North Bay. Down to Sturgeon Falls trail was 8.5/10, small road sections were rough, A104D back up to Finlayson Creek was awesome 9.5/10!

Ontario F7 and I launched from Birds Creek today, just north of Bancroft. Rode up trail 175 to Madawaska and stopped for fuel, and we ran into SKSMAN from the forum. Rode across the freshly groomed B trail into Barry’s Bay and had lunch at Balmoral Hotel. After lunch we rode down trail 157 to the lookout point. Rode over to Whitney for more gas and then back down towards Bancroft. Finished the day off with some fun on Baptiste Lake before heading back to the parking lot. It was a beautiful day for my first time riding in 2 years. Thank you OF7 for letting me ride your spare sled. 👍

Go ride a demo. New ones are 95 hp. You might be surprised. NA and the 130 hp turbo are both good options.

That’s the cliff near Perce rock

Ski, I am a trail rider only and know almost no short cuts in the area, but have ridden south from Dub on Dub5(Magpie),to the D trail jogged 3 or 4 km east on D(North), then south on Wawa5 around Wawa, back onto D south to Searchmont. That totalled just over 300 km. I am fairly certain that I have used the same route northbound, avoiding Wawa, using Wawa5, D and Dub5 to get to the Magpie. (Paper District 13 maps only) I think I have that correct as I am old haven't been there since 2019.

make sure you post the mileage and routes taken for your mileage. you have 1 year old best practices (newest tech) sleds... many people do not have that, and may give them the sense, they can do this as well. not a bash, just an observation. not many know the area like you do, and can cut, many, many miles off the routes, and get out of trouble, when needed. for instance, how did you come from the halfway side, and get to the magpie, without going into wawa? what was the mileage from dub to wawa your way, wawa to the groomer Y south of halfway, and from there to searchmont? glad you found what your sleds can accomplish, and glad you had a great run. looks like great fun, and conditions. we are supposed to be up this week but, I came down sick on weds and as of this typing, I am not doing to well. hoping to be over this by mid week, and get up for the weekend. call or text, if you want to chat. Ski

This is why they’re selling out fast, hardly any sleds to offer. Pretty easy to do…

My dealer was a big Cat dealer years ago and now has no Cats on the floor and only sold 2 sleds this season. They told me that Cat shut down all sled dealers in the state of Indiana and some wanted to continue. it seems like Cats are very high priced and I have a hard time ordering what I have only read about and can’t sit on.

900 ok it lacks fun top end though that other motors have. 130 hp ace turbo looks like way to go if you stay with a four stroke snowmobile.

A 900 Ace is a great motor. Its relatively cheap, quiet, smooth, stingy on fuel and has a top speed of 150kph. Its all anyone needs. Its just not what everyone wants....lol I'm not ready to drop down that far in performance just yet.

X2. I have been riding 900 ACE sleds for 7 seasons, now on my second one. I have been passed by less than 20 sleds in that time, and passed hundreds. You can't suck and blow at the same time, so I don't have much sympathy those complaining about ridiculously high prices as they seek out the latest, trickest 850 or turbo 4s. If you are riding deep snow, or lake racing, I get it, but for the bulk of Ontario trail riders 125-130 HP is more than what's required. Sledders, as a lot, have shown the manufacturers how to pick our pockets, and they have gotten good it. Can't complain.

they have went to this model for michigan's sled trails. but, they also get a small portion of the fuel tax for funding on top of trail permits. and for the most part the off raod motorcycle/orv/sled, communities are joined and each have their own seasonal permits, that fund updates for all seasons, and all users. Ski

Agree 100%. Personally I think that secure land access is the single biggest risk to the sustainability of our sport. Without land access nothing else matters. Funding is part of the solution and it may not be as expensive as one could think given, as you said, when you could be offsetting the costs with reduced costs of continuous reroutes. Legislatively there needs to be work done to reduce or severely limit liability/ exposure to landowners and trail operators when user have “willing assumed” the risks.

I want all the info I can get. I do agree with big Pete a trail with no traffic groomed a week ago is often as good or better than a fresh groom from the day before. I still want all the info I can get my hands on. Let the rider decide from there where they want to go.

I like the idea of identifying road running which is becoming more prevalent with continued loss of private land owner trails. Especially this winter many of want to avoid the road rash……

True. My bud rode the wife's 900 Ace yesterday and he said "You know, this thing does everything you need it to. Its plenty fast for trail riding."

You are correct!

After a couples days around the area I will be looking for new carbides. Trails were great But any road section is pretty bare. Parking lots in town are bare.

Pre-Textron this dealer would sell 50 units per year.

I talked to an unnamed Arctic Cat dealer today and he is pissed. He was given 12 units for MY24. Thats it. He said he is ready to throw in the towel with Cat as he cant get enough units to justify the fixed costs of being a dealer.

I am surprised at the number of folks buying 90hp sleds. Even though for trail duty the power is more than suffice, sledders are men and men like power even if they do not need it.

dealers most likely faking orders to get full allocations, who knows, the way they are selling these things is crazy imo.

I hear that the trails are 💩 there !

We just went by there on Monday going from Dubreuilville to Chapleau

Man, lots of complaining about pricing of sleds ( myself included ) - yet we are expecting these ridiculous annual advancements on machines used 2-3 months out of the year. We are our own worst enemies as usual.

I ordered my new sled for next year didn't think it was going to happen the website went down at 9:00 am could not get through. It was back and running and we got 2 new sleds ordered. I am getting too old to be handling those heavy Turbos so should be happy and also went with a 146" track .

they tried, warned the sledders to stay on "the trail" and off the road. when we were there 2 weeks ago, trail had zero tracks on it, until we rode on it... road was covered in sled tracks. we are our own worse enemy. as stated in the other thread, this club needs to get all their trails off of roads, and on to permanent trails to avoid this crap. so frustrating. Ski

Well I built my new Arctic cat online and they send it too the dealer for a quote,he replies with a quote. Pre-order does not start till March 7th my dealer calls me this morning tells me Arctic cat allocated him so many sleds and the one I ordered is not available. Snowmobile ordering has surely changed since my last new one in 2017. Greg

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/snowmobilers-damage-restoration-work-at-pine-river-nature-reserve/ar-AA18pHjj?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=2488bcf9529c451199b4eabe36b9c467&ei=11

They are starving their dealers that's why there has been a lot of dealers in my area are no longer with Arctic cat.closest dealer to me is over a hour away.