Great 1st ride followed up with Rogers Hometown Hockey Events

[shawnj]

We decided to take advantage of New Years day and go for the first ride of the season for us.  We left Petawawa traveling towards Pembroke via rail bed ( A-Trail), met up with the B-Trail and followed it to where the 124 intersection.   I had looked at the ITG prior leaving and it  showed the 124 / 127 loop was open.  SO we decided to take it around and back out to the B- Trail Rail bed.   The first part of the 124 had been freshly snow blown, there are some camps back there that they must keep access open to.  There is one huge camp back there that looks really nice!!!   On our way around the loop we met another tractor snow blowing another section of the trail.  It was a bit rough, had it been like this for long I probably would of turned around, but getting ahead of the tractor made it worth while.  We met a few sleds coming opposite  direction.   There was a washout along the way but it was mostly froze over, but the biggest Beaver I think Ive ever encountered, on the trail, was making his/her way across it and disappeared into the hole on the other side.  Once we hit the Rail bed again we continued until we met the B102 near Round Lake Rd.  There were not many tracks therefore it was a very pleasant ride.  Part way around there were a few small sections where there were the odd rock barely covered, but just took our time and it was fine.  We met lot's of sleds down where it met the 101A.   Hooked back up on the B trail back to Pembroke then back to Petawawa.    By this time the A trail had started showing a fair amount of wear but was still pretty good despite the amount of snow actually on it.  I see this morning there is even more trails showing open for either limited riding or better.    Not sure if anyone on here knows the status of the A/B Trail near Pembroke?????  Is this a new trail???   174 km start to our season.      

Later that afternoon/evening we went over to the Civic Centre here in Petawawa  and joined in the Rogers Hometown Hockey Festivities.  Was pretty cool to be a part of that.  Seeing Don Cherry live for my first time and Ron Mclean, also Tara Slone and Ray Sheppard and seeing Jason Blaine preforming once again.  We've met Jason a few times over the last year and he's a really great guy and has done a lot for his hometown with charities and such.   Was hoping to get to meet Don Cherry last night but he was kept pretty busy.  We ended up leaving after the 2nd period as we were getting cold and tired from already being outside all day.  Was a cool experience to part of though.  

 

 

me trying to photo bomb Ron Maclean LOL