signfan

Textron was never a good fit for arctic cat imo.

Any word on the haliburton area since the rain? Did the haliburton forest survive or not?

Wireless charging won't heat it enough. Get the one with the heater and the ability to plug the phone in. I've tried the wireless charging and its a fail. Phone freezes and dies.

Someone needs to be fired at OFSC head office. Do they not realise this is their primary marketing tool? What message is being sent with this release today? After last years weather conditions this is suicide. My initial gut reaction (and so many others) is I guess I will look at other options (Quebec, New Brunswick, etc) for my holidays this winter. Tourism operators that rely on sled trails should be pissed. Having a glitchy app and software issues is bad. Advertising that half your trails are gone. Suicide. What this really is is a map showing the strength and weaknesses of the clubs. The ones that have good management and have their stuff together are showing up (some with the odd landowner issue shown). The weaker ones that do well to get their trails open without a pile of additional admin headaches are not. Congrats to the clubs that got this done. Hopefully there is help in place to bring the others along. What is still not clear and the OFSC hasn't communicated is whether this whole process has been driven internally to fix a liability concern. Or whether it's driven by the ofsc insurer. Was this the only option to work through this issue? The mandate of the ofsc is to provide leadership and support to the clubs. Downloading more and more admin on volunteers is not doing that.

As long as it gets cold and stays there we should be happy. The snow will come. Bring on dome Alberta clippers. None of those southern storms that turn to rain.

Amazing the difference elevation makes.

Big White ski resort is getting slammed. They clean this guage off daily. Over 35 cm since the last clean. Maybe the snow drought for the west is over. Rumor is that the resort will open a week early. They run on natural snow only and need 65 - 75 cm to open.

Yep it's a business. Aligning costs with revenue.

That's ugly for a few towns in there.

Getting the same weather in Quebec right now. Mont Valin has been getting rain.

It does. Delays it by weeks. I looked today On the web portal. My permit shipped Nov 6th. So I should see it next week.

Bummer. You have the delay and they keep most of the refund as a processing fee. Best way to do this is pay for it outright. Then you submit a seperate form (found on the fcmq website) for a refund direct to the insurer. Your permit arrives on time and you get a cheque is about 3 - 4 weeks time for the full insurance value.

Anyone order Quebec permits at the deadline? Have you seen them yet? Only thing I'm missing.

Expropriation for recreational trails would be a tough sell. Would be nice to have a system where easements could be bought over time though through willing parties with a fund and process setup to allow it to occur. In the long run that could make a big difference. Work away at it piece by piece. MTO and local governments could be a lot more co-operative too. Some fundamental changes to their legal exposure of hosting a trail would be very beneficial and some direction from gov't that co-operating to put trails on secure land is not optional would also go along way.

Your numbers are way off. Under $1 million per year.

How does the OFSC do this? From what I can see it's Quebec following Ontarios lead on a lot of organizational changes (the good parts anyways). Quebec has a population that the majority lives within an hour of the snowbelt or closer. In Ontario that's 4 hours. That snow belt is at higher latitude and elevation to boot making it more reliable weather wise. Totally different political will to invest from politicians and the majority of the population. Insurance environments are completely different as well. I do think OFSC made a cpl errors with permit prices through covid. But all in all they are doing a good job with what they have. Arguably too good on some fronts. Dragging the volunteers through the lup issue this year instead of just accepting a higher insurance bill and passing the costs onto the membership is case in point. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's the impression I get from the outside with no internal knowledge. I can see someone who didn't ride last year not seeing value in a permit. But in the same boat you got no value from the insurance bill, sled maintenance costs and the depreciation on the sled. Permit is still the cheapest part of that. Unless you plan to sell it all no point in not buying the permit. I considered last season a donation to a non profit to ensure it exists next year when I take full advantage of it (like I have many years in the past). The weather trends are definitely troubling for the OFSC's long term outlook. I still think a technological breakthrough in snow management or snow making is the only long term solution (maybe on a smaller footprint). Not sure saving all of the southern districts trails is essential to keep the system viable. Have a look at how many ski resorts exist south of Kitchener. Almost non-existent. But downhill skiing still exists in the province. Can you draw the line at North Bay and survive. No. But at Barrie yes that might work. Always an interesting debate. Permits are bought and I plan to find snow this winter near or far. I hope everyone else does to.

No you'll spend over $200 on snow shoes. Lol. Can't afford that. https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5055-464/msr-lightning-explore-snowshoes-mens?colour=International+Orange&size=25in&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpvK4BhDUARIsADHt9sRKexW2fywlN3vqnRTAHYszKfVOgWVS6DKR72yWg6BuUy065V2hrHsaAo9ZEALw_wcB

Hopefully you never do. Been through the claim process with TD once. Will never deal with them again. I agree house insurance is awfully important when you need it.

Congrats!!! Welcome to the forum.

Landslide was on RT597 south of Murdochville. They re-routed that trail to another access road the same year. The closure in question has to do with a cpl bridges. My vote would be 595 for nicest trail in the Gaspe. Really a debatable topic though. The north shore for scenery. 597 and 595 really open up with fast running. The closed connector trail had some awesome scenery. From what I hear they did re-route 595 up over Mount Lionel though last year. So you still see that part of it scenery wise.

Last year was definitely frustrating. But I look at other years where I have got way more than my money's worth. It evens out. Have to support the system to ensure it is there for years to come. Hopefully this lup issue resolves itself. Certainly not making life easy for the volunteers.

Fxr family here as well. Wife, kids, grandparents on both sides. It's good quality. That and if you have an issue they back their stuff up. Had the odd tear (abuse, not a defect) and just e-mailed them and they shipped out free iron on patch kits (regardless of the age of the garment and didn'task for proof of purchase). Same with zippers pulls. Overall we've had very few issues. Warmth is decent. It was really the flotation in every suit along with decent warmth that sold us. Especially for the kids. Have bought a lot used on kijiji and more recently have bought a few new suits. I'd believe their warmth rating system. It's pretty accurate. If I was being critical I'd say the suit doesn't always breath as well as I'd like. More find that when you go do something strenuous like cutting a hole in the ice in lake. But then again that's the adrenaline suit which is their highest warmth rating. I could shed a layer of the coat and a lot of that would go away. Base layers count regardless of what you're wearing. I could see myself trying the high end Klim suit down the road, but only the version with flotation. Can't see me changing the whole family over. FXR has that right balance being good quality, but not fall over ridiculous pricing. Have had cheaper floater suits in the past and these are night and day better for warmth.

Just curious if there is any news coming out of northern ontario about this upcoming season. Any chance halfway is re-opening? If not will the D trail remain open like other years? Has the new hotel opened in Hornepayne? Any other interesting changes occurring?

Not first hand knowledge, but there was a Polaris parked at the landing at our cottage a few years ago with a jackshaft sitting on the seat of it. So there's definitely some validity to it. They all can go though. I had a pto side driveshaft bearing go on a rev xs. Not common on that model, but it can happen.

Pulled the sleds out for a bath today. This is what an ice ripper with 23,000 kms looks like. Not perfect, but not terrible either.