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Up to 5293 kms available now ..... 🍻 Hali Rail Trail about a half hour ago here at Howland Junction

Sled Orillia (Orillia District Snowmobile Club) · Subject: A Milestone for Regional Snowmobiling: ODSC Expansion Proposal Approved We are proud to announce a significant milestone for organized snowmobiling in our region: the Orillia District Snowmobile Club’s (ODSC) proposal to extend ODSC operations into the area previously known as Carden has been formally approved by the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC). This decision marks the re-energization for riders, communities, and businesses that depend on a strong, connected trail network. The loss of trail management in this area had left a noticeable gap across multiple districts, disrupting long-standing routes and impacting both local and transient riders, and businesses alike. With this approval, ODSC is extending East to restore those essential links and ensure their long-term sustainability. The reopening of Trail B104 and Trail 100 will re-establish the only direct connection between Orillia and the Kawartha Lakes region and provide reliable access to the communities of Norland and Coboconk for fuel, food, and services. Beyond the trails themselves, this approval represents renewed collaboration, repaired relationships, and a shared commitment to responsible, volunteer-driven trail stewardship. This achievement would not have been possible without the dedication of volunteers, the cooperation of landowners, the support of local communities, and constructive engagement with the OFSC. It reflects a collective belief that these trails matter — not just as corridors on a map, but as links that connect riders, regions, and economies. Next Steps With approval in place, ODSC will immediately move forward with the following priorities: 1. Land Use Agreements Finalizing and securing land use agreements with landowners along the B104 and Trail 100 corridors remains our highest priority. Strong, respectful relationships with landowners are fundamental to the success and long-term sustainability of this expansion. 2. Trail Clearing and Signage Upon securing access, volunteer crews will begin trail clearing, brushing, and the installation of proper trail signage to ensure safe, clearly marked, and sustainable routes for riders. 3. Packing, Grooming, and Trail Opening Once trail preparation is complete and conditions permit, ODSC will begin packing and grooming operations, leading to the official opening of Trail B104 and Trail 100. This final step will mark the full restoration of these critical corridors and the return of groomed connectivity between Orillia, Norland, and Coboconk. As work progresses, we will continue to share updates and provide opportunities for members and volunteers to participate in this exciting effort. This approval is not an endpoint — it is the starting line for rebuilding connectivity, strengthening partnerships, and delivering lasting benefits to the snowmobiling community. As always, refer to the OFSC Interactive Trial Guide (ITG) for updates as we onboard this area. Please understand, that these next steps take time, and we would appreciate your patience as we continue to navigate this process. Significant work prior to the approval has been ongoing, to reduce - as best we could, this onboarding timeline. On behalf of the ODSC Executive, thank you to everyone who contributed time, effort, and trust to make this vision a reality. We look forward to welcoming riders back. Sincerely, Jeff Earl Vice President Orillia District Snowmobile Club

Orillia was out packing the trail base this evening.

My money is on 8000-10,000 km reopened by Friday, more then double that by the following Friday. We've been here before. Always amazes me how fast things can bounce back with a few days of cold and some snow. Like the last rain event, more will open after it then we had open before it.

That's a crazy amount!! We are nowhere near that. I'm in the hate part of this relationship!😂 We are doing removals now as well. Fortunately, I haven't had to do any yet. Loading dump trucks is fun for the first 30 mins. Not so much 8-10 hours later.😉 We did trail work today. 7 guys showed up so we split into 2 groups. 3 guys went west on a trail we share with ATVs and 4 of us went the other way to work on the snowmobile only part of the trail. The threesome had a few downed trees and some leaners and banged through 2.5 kms in 4 hours. The foursome, which I was a part of, spent 4.5 hours and cleared the 0.8 km snowmobile only section. It was a nightmare again! Trees down everywhere and now buried/frozen in 3 feet of snow. Fun day!! The good news is that access trail, from one of our lakes, is now cleared!

Crazy up here too. We have more snow on the ground now, than we normally have in March. Arrived to dig out buildings yesterday about 4pm, we had another 3 feet to shovel from around doors, decks, walkways, we can't access with a plow or blower. This was the second 3 feet dig we had this season, and it is only the first week of Jan. Supposed to get some rain today, I need to finish our dig before the snow gets too wet and heavy to deal with. Not sure what we are going to do, or where we will put the snow, the rest of the season. It's deep up here. Ski

I was in New Liskeard at the Waterfront Inn in 2003 and woke up to -30 temps. I was riding a '97 ZRT 800. The thing was a pig to pull over in warm temps and rope was locked solid on this day. Well, 3 of us pulled on the rope, ended up pulling the plugs and hitting them with a lighter, gas down the plug hole. Finally fired after 20 minutes. I thought I'd teach her a lesson and I ripped wide open across the lake to the trail. It ran ok the rest of the day but the next time I rode it she just wasn't right. Tear down showed she'd had a crank bearing in the bottom blow apart, went through the cylinder destroying the piston and cylinder.....lol Sold it for parts. I was a bit more gracious with warm ups after that.

I feel for you brother. Its been a tough winter and its only the first week of Jan. I sledded Sunday with my buddy who plowed for me for 5 years. He said "fawk, I'm glad we quit when we did. This winter would have killed me." I miss plowing but this year its been enough just taking care for my own property and my mother's. Oh, and I love driving by my old lots and seeing how terribly they are been cared for.

Doug Ford making an appearance in Port Sydney. Must be at beach and skating rink. Would be pretty cool to have a radar run like the good ol days of the winter carnival. Fond memories of Arnie's Tcats lighting it up and cleaning house in the 1000ft out on Mary lake.

As of this morning the whole Gaspe loop is open except for a spot in the southwest corner near Pointe le Croix and it is susppose to open Jan. 17. Great to have the Chic Choc trail open again

Went up on the 7th, dug out from our snows since the last trip. Was deep again. We have over 3 feet of settled snow in the backyard. Snow, rain, freezing rain, thursday night. Went to Hawk Junction friday for our first ride, and some awesome Big Bear food. Trees hanging everywhere, on the D south. Had to cut our way through in several places. Took trail 6 and the magpie home, the magpie is drifted pretty good, and slushy, making for an interesting 30kms. Our club president gathered a group to brush open the F trail to Dog lake, the pics and videos showed just how bad it was. It took them 3 days to go from the D trail to the lake. Lynne and I brushed the town trail, and D west toward white river, magpie but, only made it 5 miles in 7 hours. The club was going to finish it yesterday. Trails are good, just a lot of face slappers. Should be better with the brushing. We just need some sun, wind, and a lot will spring upright, and not be an issue. Ski

Still a good base to start. Need more to fill the bigger holes. Groomed from clearwater to freds yesterday. -12c last night, if i have time today i'll drill holes in angels marsh and see what we got for ice. Hopefully enough to inspire some movement of the pisten bully.

Groomer is out in Elmvale on the rail bed.

Us sledders are the most optimistic people on the planet I think. Winter will return. Snowing in fergus and penetang now!

I don’t think it’ll be closed for a few weeks. storms come outta nowhere and by looking at the forecast, the cold temps and snow should open things back up fairly soon. Just my opinion though. Some areas are definitely starting over though, other areas just need the base to refreeze which it will, and then a top up of snow. We’ll all be out riding again before we know it.

Yes there is a salt shortage so we have to plow more so we use less salt. I suggest using limestone screenings to provide grip for the trucks. Works well for our laneway and driveway. May be cheaper than salt as you don't have to melt all the ice. Your grass may also be happier in the spring so you can use that Zero Turn to its full potential!!😂😂

With the impending crappy 3 days coming I decided to rub out a quick 172km local boot for breaky, and ride some of the other stuff that just opened. We'll miss this weekend, but likely be back in the groove by Wed/Thu next week by the looks of it. Here's some random shots, all in all a decent early morning rip. Rolled at 7:15 -4 and back just before noon -1 ...... hit a high of 3 today back down to 1 now 🍻

There’s a reason folks buy 4 strokes. That right there is it. 5000 km. That’s ridiculous. Never again will I look at a 2 stroke.

Already back up to 3726, over a 1000 km from yesterday. GFS/NAM models are showing decent snow this week, along with persistent lake effect squalls kicking in hard again Wed.

I left Hamilton, zero snow and pouring rain. Fergus area, lots of snow and was puking snow from there to Arthur. looks like a completely different place.

I think you and I are different. i really just love to ride, and I don’t care where or what. We have a field that it takes hours to put 25 miles on in, I have been riding in that field since the winter of 1988, and still spend hours over there to this day. i don’t get bored, I like being out in the natural air, feeling the sled, if it’s going around in circles or up and down the lake, that’s what it is, still puts a smile on my face and is better than doing a lot of other things.

Built back better and stronger! The mild spell is quite broad, but short lived with snow and cold following.

This weather sucks ass

Without proper warm up you can still do damage to today’s engines

We are on a mini ride this weekend up there. Driving to Ville Marie on friday am, staying in Rouyn on Friday night and then heading over to Val Dor on Sat and then back to the truck on Sunday.

Hopefully the past couple years are a wake up to call to everyone to see that the More On Snow funding model isn't working, neither is the amount of decision making clout that was given to the board by the membership. There's something not right about a club busting their ass volunteering to have awesome trails and top notch equip, and save a ton of money doing it. When a neighboring club does the bare minimum and calls in a heavy equip service company to swap out a broken mirror but still gets funded the same.

This all reminds me of some of the things I heard about that happened back in the day before a lot of red tape. I don't member the club but it was one of the gap filling clubs between Thunder Bay and Geraldton, and Marathon to Nipigon. One of those clubs started to implode for what ever reason, and the following season a few guys got together and decided to take over things. They made it to somewhere just north of Dorion and slid a year old BR 180 off an abandon rail trail into swamp and walked away from it all, apparently that unit is still sitting in the bush.

Everything's mashed potatoes here right now, some cold and fresh snow will bring it right back. Maybe ok tomorrow, but I'm thinking it will defiantly be good again by Friday.

Raining here right now and we've lost another couple of inches. We need the cold and the snow that's predict to come true. Might have some decent riding back by later part of next week.

Whatever! Blame the volunteers?

I bet much faster then that, the cold front coming will spur big squalls again. With the warm weather and high winds the ice cover on the great lakes decreased a lot.

6248 km available and snowing hard here now. This wet sticky snow is exactly what's needed, more coming tonight and tomorrow, with temp dropping tomorrow afternoon. 🍻

There are some very dedicated volunteers who have already put a huge effort in to the area. The OFSC delays in allowing the reinstatement just made it tougher on already taxed volunteers!

amazing how the prep work allows a fairly quick re-set when things go south and then good again.

Agree with you. Everything is still white here, albeit thinner. We do need the base and the wet areas to freeze up. When the cold air comes again on Thurs, I'm sure the lake effect machine will start churning again. It doesn't usually go from plus single digit highs to minus double digit highs the next day without some wind.

Try it, ripping up and down lake is similar to riding in my farm fields. Fun first hour or so then it gets boring. More fun going some where and seeing different scenery. The second I have to ride like this I am out. Only January I am 400 kms ahead of last year.

Anyone notice the gentle breeze out there? Let's hope the trees didn't! May cause a set back if they did. Having said that, I believe, in my area, all the weaker trees are already down from the March Ice Storm and the freezing rain a couple of weeks ago. Fingers crossed.

Just switching to wet flurries now in port sydney. Lost quite a bit but still a foot+ on the lawn. Need cold and a big whack of snow asap!

Riding around Ville- Marie right now .trails are pretty good right now could use more snow but supposed + 7 and rain 10 to 15 mm tomorrow 10 cm of snow Saturday

Yup. Bottom end of d9, and we were at 231 cm so far this year. Last year was about 310 cm total, and that was a big year. Thankful for a bit of a thaw to take snow banks down, and clean barn roofs off.

I don't use salt. I use limestone for grit. Keeps the ice pack on the driveway, and stones off the lawn. I also have a blade for my front end loader with serated teeth on it that I use as well.

Looks awesome!!👍👍 I need to get out of this snow plowing bullshit! I have no life this year!!..lol.. Calling @Blackstar @Yukon 😉 Another 14+ hours in a front end loader. Plowing was only supposed to cover the cost of my toys and provide a little beer money but not be a full time job!!😂😂 Been out almost daily/nightly for I don't remember how long. Pulled the sled out of the trailer for the first time this season. Going to do trail work tmo so had to make sure it started and moved 😂 I haven't been able to help due to plowing. Working on a trail that we haven't been on yet since the March Ice Storm. Should be fun! Hopefully we get snow and cold again soon so I can actually get out and ride our trails that we have cleaning up since May! (March Ice Storm) Our club has over 1300 man hours in so far. We were almost there to open some of them! Pic is from a previous outing in Dec.

Any 2-stroke should be properly warmed up before you ride, really any small engine should be - you want all parts to be same temp and at operating temps before riding regardless if sled will limit the power by way of the ECU....at least if you plan on keeping the sled for any duration. Same as shut down, always let the engine idle down a bit before killing it if you can. Just good habits to follow. I actually just recalled a trail side check and the cop asked me to shut off engine after pulling over to the side, I told him no, once the sled idles down for a bit I will though - he did not like it, but too bad.

Comfort Inn? Are you just staying for one night?

That loop never disappoints

They all have problems, they all have pluses and minuses. Easier, and more cost effective to rebuild a 2 stroke, better longevity with a 4 stroke. I have had both, and honestly dont care anymore. I buy the best chassis for my riding style. I prefer a 2 stroke. This was in Dub Sunday... Newer 4 stroke Doo. Ran good the day before, put in heated garage overnight, didn't want to start, or run well after it started in the morning. Back fired a few times, then flames started coming out from under the hood. Ski

Yellow back on the map around penetang/midland areas. That didn’t take long

I had about 6 inches of hard packed ice on my driveway. It's almost all gone. Many fields are still white, but just barely. Will take a few snowfalls to bring this back to what we had.

Watching the trail reports and weather closely as I hope to get up there next weekend.