PISTON LAKE CRUISER

Timmins will have their section of the C101D open very shortly. They made a deal with the Mallett Lumber Company to use one of their roads for a temporary trail this year and are just clearing it of downed trees and getting it ready to open.

Haven't been out on it.

Today is the first day that any grooming has been done since Saturday's packing. I know the groomer has been up the north side from Elmira and around and down into Wellesley trail at noon. Hasn't been past our place yet.

Hopefully their plan was to take a couple of windshield washer jugs of gas each with them from Chibougamau. Maybe they had easier trigger fingers than you young guys. LOL

Looks like you are good to go from Matheson through Val Gagne now. Seems like about 800 km. per day is opening up now according to the ITG.

Trail ESP7 runs right behind the Pinewood Motor Inn which is on the main drag at 2nd Ave. Its quite a big motel that looks good from the road but I've never stayed there. There's fuel on the D on the south side of town. The motel did have a Bar and restaurant but I don't think the restaurant is open for breakfast. You would need to check.

Make sure you have all your reservations made. There are a lot of people riding Gaspe and not as many hotel/Motels open in the winter as before Covid. This is what I have read on Quebec Rider. Hotel Motel Grand Vallee is a great place. Copper Hotel in Murdockville is the only place I believe and they book up fast. Hope this helps.

I just checked the map on my laptop and its all showing open now. The section that was red is now yellow. Most of it shows as being groomed in the last 12 hours.

You guys sure do get out there. Thanks for letting us see your travels.

Not enough snow. We did a trail audit today and fixed a lot of downed stakes and signs from the heavy winds a while back. On trail that had 2 passes with the groomer yesterday, our carbides were down in the dirt many places.

He has been past our place since my last post so has covered a lot of ground today even though it is one pass in many areas. The lips at the edge of the packed trail are 4-5" high. We are supposed to have winds from almost every direction along with the snow over the next 20 hours. Hopefully the packed trail will fill in again with fresh snow. That will sure help the base.

The ad says to send him a personal message if interested Rich.

He is out today packing. He was doing the railbed to Millbank I believe about 2:30. Hopefully he'll keep at it until its all got one pass at least.

We got an inch last night at Heidelberg. There is between 7 and 8 inches on the levelled trail at our place. Time for the groomer to get moving.

Yah, ST made me aware of that. my bad.

Based on where the most trails are open, I would go out Trout Lake Road (Hwy 63). You could likely park at the Portage Restaurant but You would need to check to see if there was a charge. Someone on OC last year mentioned a parking lot on or just off Trout Lake Road but I don't remember the exact location. Maybe someone from the area can chime in on that location.

Has anyone else noticed that OC has lost 2 more long time contributors that added a lot of good information and humor to the forum? Blake has been absent from the forum this season. Turbo Turbo Doo has been absent with the exception of a couple of posts about 2 weeks ago. One of those was his request to have his profile deleted. Too bad we are continuing to loose great guys and worthy contributors. Not a good thing.

I think you should get your facts straight before using your index finger to print untrue information. The 2 men involved at Six Mile Lake were 58 and 59 years old and the OPP had this to say: Police in Georgian Bay are still investigating after a snowmobile trip turned fatal over the weekend, with the riders falling through a frozen lake. OPP say two men were snowmobiling over Six Mile Lake in the Muskoka area on Sunday when the ice started to break away beneath them.

My bad for not looking at the date on the post.

When you can see stones coming up through the snow as in the picture, there is not enough snow to be riding on at that location. It really doesn't matter because any way you look at it, he was riding closed trails. Not sure where you are checking but when I measured this morning it was on the "pre flattened" ploughed field behind my barn and it measured 6" of snow.

Maybe the stones on the trail in your pic is why the trails aren't open yet.

The gates will hopefully need to be opened today as the groomer should be out panning to get the damp bottom snow packed down. If that happens it will freeze up and be the start of a real good base. Waiting means we may loose some of the dryer snow that came last evening and could possibly blow away given some strong winds.

Kleen Flo has a spray bomb product called Honey Goo. As the name suggests it sticks and stays. After 2-3 applications over a couple of seasons and given time for it to firm up before use, you won't have to do yearly coatings. It is a penetrating type product that goes on much thicker than Fluid Film . $11.99 at Canadian Tire and one can should do all the axle and steel mounts on a single axle trailer.

Six inches on the middle of the trail at my place.

Look up the Bruce Mines Sno Glyders Snowmobile Club page on Facebook. It is explained on it what the problem is with that trail.