Ox

Your dad is the good lookin' one eh?

Well, hooking up to Hornepayne would be much more value than the second leg to Dunc Lake.

Gordy hasn't come out and said that Wawa lake has popped yet, but from his werding - I take it that it has. ???

Those look like a wind break to me.

I remember staying in town one week and got the last room between both motels (both owned by same people at that time) and then the next time - had the whole place to ourselves. Gotta love the traveling hockey teams! LOL!

Must have been highly localized. Gord had clear skis in Wawa this morning and said that they weren't calling for anything noteworthy. The Montreal get's all the good stuff!

It's always good to have a mule in the group.

The "Lead Dog" light actually has a brake light - if you bother to hook it up. (I don't) These are VERY usefull for breaking trail, but in the theme of this thread - they are very nice to follow too (as I've been told - wink) If you have much powder in the air behind you, your tail light can git covered up, or even just hidden from the mini blizzard following you, and the light on your head makes knowing where you chum is much better. The Lead Dog light glows red with just the headlight on. https://helmetlight.com/product/rdb-20-lead-dog-helmet-light/

I keep road flares in the sled, and in a baggie, but that does no-one much good at the bottom of a beaver pond. Hopefully your chum carries flares too! They beat matches in real world conditions by so much it's hardly fair to compare. You don't have emergencies too often in warm/dry weather. Your matches may be waterproof, but your wood is still wet and froze. I think that I may have some waterproof matches squirelled away in a pack somewhere yet? .

Well, those time stamps are going to need edited per temp. -40 aint +2 Sure hope your chum has some extra dry clothes!

It's the part that he didn't cover that concerns me the most. How to git warm and dry in -20* when all your clothes are wet.... Call of the Wild always comes to mind. ----------------------- Think Snow Eh! Ox

Would help if we could read the legend.

I've rode Timmins, Cochrane, Hornepayne, and about everywhere between Dub and Searchmont. I'm sure that I've never heard of anyone requiring permits in any of these places, at least not back when .... .

Hadn't heard of permits for ATV's. Y'all must not be riding Crown Land over there? Black flies are amazing! One day we left Halfway with 1/4" of snow on our machines - yet the flies were out in search of sun rays! In the dead of summer - the trick is just to not stop, and if you doo, make sure it's in the open, and preferably on top of a hill where there is some air movement. But even then - not more than 3 minutes and you need to be moving aggin. Also - WAY too many times - I've had to take my helmet back off once moving - to let a fly out that inevitably seems to end up in my ear (or ear pocket of helmet?) and is rolling around buzzing - apparently stone drunk with all the Deep Bush Off sprayed around. .

The lakes look like they should tighten up pretty good with the next cold snap. Solo aint a bad day in the bush! I spent a week all over Algoma by myself once in the fall. Rained almost the whole time. .

I've done the Wakamatta trip on ATV's many years ago. That's some big country back in there. Not been through in the winter yet. The pics tho remind me of a day that we took the hydro line along 101 through The Shoals park. Stumps all must be cut to 3' tall! It was a mine field! At one point my chum with his Pol was running point, and I was following, picking our way through one of the mine fields.... My chum made a hard turn, and I pulled mine over hard to make the 90* turn, to only have pulled it over too hard, and actually fell off / stopped on the dime. Trouble was that it wasn't a dime, but rather an old rotten stump hiding flush with the snow that my ribs landed on. It was a small stump, and it broke away, so it likely could have been worse. Must'a cracked a couple as they made sure that I remembered that stump daily for the next few months. We haven't been back through there since. Kind'a holding that off 'till one of those REALLY epic snow years - maybe.... Or maybe we can try it when we are really old(er) and maybe the stumps will be mostly rotted away by then? I was told that they cleared that area in the winter is why the stumps are so tall through there. This pic taken from that day, right next to the hwy. I think my chum bent that trailing arm right there, so can't really blame it on the mine fields out on the hydro, but .... Pic shows him ready to call Gordy in Wawa to see if he's open and has any trailing arms on the say phone. He did have an arm, but no rad rods for the RMK, and we ended up having to head home. .

Well, to be fair, how many trail riders have a saw or axe on their sled? They may have brought one if they knew it was like this, but if they knew it was like that - they likely would have stayed home. So that cuts both ways... There is a writ on this very subject in the front of the current issue of (I think) SnowTech. Me and my boy took a pass through - what I believe is known as "Trail 7" north of Wawa a few years ago and there was deadfall everywhere! We cut our way through quite a bit, but started running out of daylight, and Shirley someone with a chainsaw could make 5x the progress that we were. I don't know if we were almost through the worst of it, or just getting to the bad spot, but we did clear many fells. I later seen it posted that they had gotten that trail open - maybe a year later (?) for the first time in many years - because it was all fell in! LOL! There was this day in 12/99 that we did ride on through tho. I'm kind'a of the mind that much of it really wouldn't need cut down tho? With the guards on the groomers, I would think that it would knock the snow off of them and they could start to retract, usually after the sun comes out tho... ??? This was between the Cow and Montreal Rivers I believe. It was the only spot like this that I can recall. Actually - this pic may have been taken when we stopped for an oncoming groomer up from Searchmont. They were however cutting the sapplings too. Prolly better in the long run?

That classic Doo looks to be the "vintage" part of the post eh? Rick (?) @ Stop 129 (Johnny's) prolly didn't like you puting tracks on his lakes! I've never lost one in the slush before. All indications (story's) that I have heard always point to under powered to be the main theme. I'm sure that short track is also a main player here too.... However - I did leave a machine prolly 50 klicks or so from there for 2 or 3 weeks with a broken chain. Came back with the kids to fetch. It was far enough in the bush that only a cpl of fishermen had tracks around it. I was really surprised that anyone else was that deep in the bush that time of year.

Paradise, Mich (hop/skip from The Soo) 1995 Chum with the XLT taking pic Me on the Deere and 1970's Rupp coat/toque Chum on the end now known as "Lefty" and runs a burger joint in Naubinway. Feb (?) 1998 @ north end of Whitefish Lake, Wawa.

The ? is, did they have a compass the next time? Or did Chris Kuvey have to come fetch them?

What's the time stamp on that Yamahaha pic? Some of those faces may seem familiar.

When I was looking through the pics of the buildings in that area, I was kind of wondering if it had possibly been torn down as there seems to be a lot of empty lots on that side of the street. I considered buying a 97 xlt sks, but I bought a used Doo Grand Touring 580 in stead. I was shopping for a 600 long track for riding in Canada. I wanted a 600 so's not to drink as much gas, and a long track for breaking trails. Turns out that the 800's doo better on gas when breaking trail than the 600's doo! Over the next several years I learned that the small trippples were not so good at digging out as a twin. My twin would trq out of a hole, while my chums xlt would try to spin out assoon as the clutch engaged. So, kinda glad I ended up with the Doo in the end.

When me and my buddy came up over The First/Fourth weekend in '96 to scout out riding in The Great White North, we stopped downtown Soo for the first night. Talked to a gurl werking there. She was prolly mid 20's? She told us of crossing over to a US island that would give 1/1 exchange for Loonies, and said that they would ride over with a 100 Loonie bill, and get drinks for the night and go home with nearly 100 Loonies worth of Yankee change. Also told us that it was on the other side of the shipping lanes, and that they couldn't cross if a freighter went through recently, and it was common that an official on the US side would come to the bar(s) and let all Canucks know that it was time to head home. But at least one time they waited too long, and the boat was already through, and they had to ride way out to cross ahead of the freighter, and then double back to home. It sounds like you know this chick, and that maybe you rode with her. She was werking in a motel on the north side of the main street right down town. We was within walking distance to that big tent, and we got supper at a Subway shoppe on the south side. The parking was under the building, but I am having troubles finding that building now. ??? I haven't frequented the downtown in many years, and I don't see the building that I am visioning. I almost wonder if it wasn't this building before some renovations? https://www.google.com/maps/@46.5113685,-84.3353204,3a,75y,87.34h,92.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sw6DgPkYl4ysa54LyOKj8LA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Again - I'd guess she's about your age... ??? .

Snowfall Warning for Wawa - Pukaskwa Park, Ontario From 5:17am EST, Thu Nov 21 until 9:17pm EST, Thu Nov 21 Action Recommended: Attend to information sources as described in the instructions Issued by: Meteorological Service of Canada - CWTO, CA, Environment Canada, SNOW HEAVY AT TIMES IS EXPECTED TODAY. SNOW WILL CONTINUE NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR AND SPREAD EASTWARD TOWARDS THE QUEBEC BORDER LATER THIS MORNING. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS IN THE 15 TO 20 CM RANGE ARE EXPECTED. THE SNOW WILL TAPER OFF FROM WEST TO EAST LATER THIS AFTERNOON OVER NORTH OF SUPERIOR, AND THROUGH TONIGHT OVER NORTHEASTERN ONTARIO. THIS SNOWFALL IS DUE TO A DEVELOPING LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM THAT WILL TRACK SOUTH OF THE REGION. ### VISIBILITY MAY BE SUDDENLY REDUCED AT TIMES IN HEAVY SNOW. SURFACES SUCH AS HIGHWAYS, ROADS, WALKWAYS AND PARKING LOTS MAY BECOME DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE DUE TO ACCUMULATING SNOW. PLEASE CONTINUE TO MONITOR ALERTS AND FORECASTS ISSUED BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA. TO REPORT SEVERE WEATHER, SEND AN EMAIL TO ONSTORM@CANADA.CA OR TWEET REPORTS USING #ONSTORM. Other Alerts in the Vicinity There are currently no other weather alerts in the vicinity. Other affected areas: Meteorological Service of Canada, CWTO

It's not hard to believe that membership and tag sales are nill in TB as that town has all but outlawed snowmachines anywhere near town for ... well, at least 20+ years that I know of. Anyone that rides up there likely has a long track and prefers the trails not open anyhow. It boggles my mind to think that the North Shore doesn't have hardly any skidoo's anywhere, but even back in the heyday (before 2008) they didn't lay down tracks hardly at all. D along the lake gets little to no attention, and I understand that the little towns along there can't handle all that themselves as there is a lot of klicks between Terrace Bay and Nippigon - in some wonderfull (read rugged) terrain, but with some help from TB they could doo it. So then run up on A from Nippigon east, with a skiff of fresh on Friday night - and not even one track coming from the west by Sat night. If they want sledding up there, they need to start with the local policy makers and get them a way to git in and out of town via snowmachine. If they were a sled freindly town, I would think that they would get the same US traffic that The Soo and/or Wawa gits. .