skidooboy

Looks like the only place to eat in Hornepayne now is Eat's N Treat's https://www.facebook.com/p/Eats-Treats-61551470725490/. It is owned by the Lady who ran the grill portion of Cindy's this and that. Hour's and menu are limited so, understand what you are getting into. No early breakfasts, they open at 10am. Dont arrive after 7pm and expect a huge gourmet dinner. Please dont take it out on the owners or staff. Not sure if the motel 6 will offer a continental breakfast or not, no mention of it on the web page. Dubreuilville has a new owner at the pub/resto, now called 519 Refuge, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567072463821 More offerings and hours but, be prepared for it to be busy at times with the miner's and contractors. Ski

Land use permit signing issues. Plus the further east you go from the Soo, the less snow there is, right now. Ski

It is for all of Ontario roads, move the popup screen on the upper left corner to get a full screen view, choose the camera, road construction, and accident icons, and then you need to move the map to where you want to look. Click on the camera icons to see the cam view. There are cams at Heyden, 2 different ones at Goulais River, Batchawana, Pancake, Montreal hill, Red Rock, Wawa corner at 101 by the airport and goose, Hawk junction & 101, Missanabbi & 101, 2 at Chapleau, 519-17 at Dub turn, White River, Hornepayne, and even a few on 129, and Searchmont etc... Come on Grandpaw, get with the technology. There are cams to see how bad the border wait is on both sides: https://www.saultbridge.com/bridge-traffic-camera-north/ https://www.saultbridge.com/bridge-traffic-camera-south/ Plus the Mackinaw cams: https://www.mackinacbridge.org/fares-traffic/bridge-cam/ Mdot has cams for all highways too, you can look at pics all the way up 75 to see how traffic, or road conditions are. https://mdotjboss.state.mi.us/MiDrive/map?reset=true# just select the camera icon to see cams. Heck they have snow plow tracker too. I can look at almost every inch of pavement between home and Dub, to make a good travel plan. Especially the border cams, we will just go to dinner, shop, or whatever, and let the line die down, if it is really bad. Ski

Ask and ye shall receive. https://511on.ca/ you can find multiple cams all around Ontario. The Soo to Thunder Bay has multiple cams on 17, including all the popular spots. Most work at night too. Ski

Highway 17 from Soo to Wawa was closed over 24 hours all day Sunday, into today. Unsure if it has opened or not. We are getting a little at a time. It's starting to add up. Ski

As stated above, and last I knew the Companion and the Super8 (next door to one another), are owned by the same family. Either would work, and I would guess but, dont hold me to it, you could probably pay the fee in either, to utilize the heated barn for night time storage. Ski

Wife has had a pair for a few years, she loves them. She has raynaud's In her hands so, she needs some extra help to stay warm to ride, fish, etc... This has helped her extend her cold weather activities significantly. Ski

More of the same, no snow since the week before Christmas. Only change is, the sled tracks in the back yard, from moving sleds from barn, to garage. Ski

Came home to Michigan today. Snow is spotty at best. Dub/Hawk/Wawa are very light on snow depth, no real grooming, only packing, and no real new snows since the 2 warm ups. I went up to shovel December 14th, came home the 17th. We returned on the 31st, came home today, we never had to shovel at all, from arrival, to departure. That should give you an idea of how little snow we received. Snow depth fluctuated greatly between Red Rock Lake, and Montreal river hills, from very little, almost non existent, to "rideable". More snow around Frater but, not sure I would bet my lower control arms on it. From slightly North of Batchawana Bay, to Just South of Soo Michigan city limits, snow was pretty good. St Ignace, Mackinaw city have zero snow, and even less ice. Guessing no treeline to Mackinac Island this year. We need one good storm, or 2 smaller ones to start grooming. With the new powerline from Hawk to the Dub mine sites, that trail may be iffy for opening very long, or at all so, we may be running the Magpie all winter. With last years no grooming, no trimming, the club will have it's hands full trying to open all 3 trails, north, south and west. Everything we saw up there, was grown in pretty heavily. Ski

Its cold now, dry too. Making ice but, not much snow. Without a full west wind or northwest wind leading more west, we dont get the lake effect like the Soo. Pretty bluebird days, just deceptively cold. Ski

Ask and ye shall receive. Cold coming but, no snow in the immediate forecast for us. Michigan, lower and upper have a system, lake effect event coming for mid to end week. You know what lake effect event means... Hit or miss. PS, you can always text me asking for an update, I can send it to you via phone. Ski

For sure, now we just need more snow in the forecast. Ski

The good, the bad, and the ugly. We lost another good chunk of snow. We still need to get through tomorrow. The good is, many of the bigger lakes, have 10" of ice, and single digit (F) high temps are in the long range forecast. Ski

Thanks for all that bought, or tried to buy. Yep, all sold out... Didnt help some yank bought 30 tickets in one shot. Our community is awesome, when we ask for help, people step up. Ski

craig just messaged me back, he was out with his kid sledding all day. I bet he has a bunch of messages to reply to. Thank you all, for trying to help. Ski

The book of feces has a post that the Marathon Sno Kickers, are having trouble filling their 50-50 raffle, including a new Ski-doo expedition as the grand prize. Contact Bonnie Fortin, or Colbourne Craig on FB, for tickets. They are 10 each. All proceeds go to the club, let's help them sell the rest of the tickets. The drawing is tomorrow! Ski https://www.facebook.com/MarathonSnoKickers

I haven't saw an update here but, it has been all over FB. Glad it worked out. Ski

Way ta go Grandpa!! Making memories. Ski

Just an update before the weekend. Another warm up is forecast starting boxing day. I will try to post a Christmas update. Ski

Another big warm up on the horizon. Just a repeat of last year. Where's my boat? Ski

Bought my 99 mxz 600 in the then new zx chassis, for out the door price of 6700 usd. Bought an 01 srx in Canada, with a 1.58 exchange rate for 5800, with Ohlin's shocks (not available on U.S market sleds). Fast forward to 2007 new Yamaha nytro mountain was close to 10k out the door. In 2009 Arctic Cat M8 was about the same. We kept those cats, and still have them but, upgraded to 800 XF High Country's in 2018, and was still shy of 10k out the door. Now 6 years later, the price is 50% more. I believe these are our last sleds. I see why we cant get younger people more interested in committing to the sport, and our future/clubs. It is too cost prohibitive to get started, let alone continue, while trying to buy houses, have children etc... I'm ready to give up, priority's change. Ski

19" of settled snow on the decks. Drove 450 miles, shovled half, called it a day. Watched the Township parade. Woke up, washed car, shoveled other half, and cleaned out barn doors. Fixed the barn cameras. I'm done for the day. LoL! Ski

I just keeps getting better, snow is adding up. 17 from the Soo to Wawa, has been closed more than open, the last 14 days. River is fully frozen, people are fishing some smaller local lakes, via ice. Luc has been out packing town trails. Way better start to the year. Heading up in 2 weeks, for an extended stay. We really need to get there, to get the walks, decks, doors all shoveled and cleaned out. Ski

From Steephill dam in the badlands, to that cabin (Leo Raymond's cabin) it is 19 miles or so. You can go a bit further but, not much, then you run into open water, and rapids. Lots of rocks and stumps to hit, before getting to the "green bridge" on the D trail (west) running between White River, and Dub, but it can be done. There are several rapids between there and the back of the house in Dubreuilville so, no real riding to Wawa via the whole system. And because of all the hydro dams, and open water from Steephill on, there is no riding all the way to superior via the river. At one time when all of the trails and portages were open, you could ride from Wawa to Dub 9 different ways. I could take people up there, and do those loops endlessly, put hundreds of miles on, and they thought it was a new area daily, and was rarely more than 50 miles from our starting point. Now if we ride more than 50-60 total, it is a miracle. Ski