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Aubrey Falls - Black Creek


Dan-Senior

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I was at Aubrey Falls / Black Creek today and took a few photos.  Winter is starting to take shape.

 

 

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Thx Dan. Lookin good.

 

Any word on trail repairs north of there...to keep the connection to Halfway Haven navigable? (that trail status/progress might be a separate thread. Don't mean to hijack what you're conveying here - the white stuff is falling and we may be in for an early season).

 

Thanks again for pics.The lake/sled photo is awesome.

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Thanks Canuck.  

 

I did hear some information a few months back about that washed out area, however, am not sure how accurate it is.

 

Based on what I heard, the costs to repair the washout were inhibited by Government Policies, such as having to haul gravel from authorized gravel pits which were many-many miles away,  instead of digging up gravel 200' away.  Again, that's what I heard.  I suspect an application to work on such washouts would go through red tape as well and possibly an environmental interrogation.  

 

Maybe someone else on this Forum might have additional information.

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8 hours ago, Dan-Senior said:

Thanks Canuck.  

 

I did hear some information a few months back about that washed out area, however, am not sure how accurate it is.

 

Based on what I heard, the costs to repair the washout were inhibited by Government Policies, such as having to haul gravel from authorized gravel pits which were many-many miles away,  instead of digging up gravel 200' away.  Again, that's what I heard.  I suspect an application to work on such washouts would go through red tape as well and possibly an environmental interrogation.  

 

Maybe someone else on this Forum might have additional information.

Great to follow your adventures as always Dan. 

I think you and Doug can go about anywhere between SSM & Elliot Lake when the ice is good!

Paige & I still talk about the lake - portage - lake -  ect. You took us on. Your trails optional style of exploration is amazing and fun as heck!

 

The washout on my favorite connector D201F showed up in pictures of a SxS & ATV outing from Searchmont to Black Creek a few weeks back.  I hope a temp. snow bridge can be made and stay if the weather is better this season. 

Last years picture shows the washout. 

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water will be higher there this year for sure. was a wet summer, and fall. we will have to wait for ice to be able to skirt that. Ski

 

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A Short Video of Rocky Island I took on Sunday.

 

 

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At the last district meeting it was said that the trail would stay the same, no repairs to the washout due to what Dan said.   They will do the same re-route on the pond.    I've told them again that people can not ride in that water as some sleds belts slip and also you get wet and there is still a ways to go to get dry.  oh and let's not forget the rock in the creek.    Not everyone can or will run in that open water and they have to understand that.

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1 hour ago, The Groomer Guy said:

At the last district meeting it was said that the trail would stay the same, no repairs to the washout due to what Dan said.   They will do the same re-route on the pond.    I've told them again that people can not ride in that water as some sleds belts slip and also you get wet and there is still a ways to go to get dry.  oh and let's not forget the rock in the creek.    Not everyone can or will run in that open water and they have to understand that.

 

The area in the pictures never seems to freeze because it flows and even if it would, the groomers travel through the water here and would destroy any ice.  There is a more shallow bottom just off to the left in the pictures, but it does not connect directly to the trail entrance and exit at the banks.  It is good that the groomer can get through so that the trail actually gets groomed all the way.  Two seasons back, the temporary bridge the club made of trees and brush kept sleds dry, but stopped the groomer from getting through. 

 

The trail was not groomed from this point to the Mississagi River and the only groomed maybe twice that season from the logging road all the way back to Aubrey Falls Trading Post.  It is too much to float a groomer all the way around to Black Creek and then just groom back from the end of the Elliot Lake Trails to this point.  The groomer from Echo Bay also merges at Black Creek / Aubrey Falls, but again without either one of those clubs going hours farther, this end of the D201F is left NOT groomed if the washout is blocked by a temporary bridge which the groomer cannot cross without destroying.

 

I never saw the pond bypass actually be made last season myself.  It was a bad year to promote any ice crossing of that pond by sleds and I am not sure if a trail to the east side of that pond actually exists.  That is more of a river with flowing water and without extreme cold, that pond ice may not be thick enough.

 

It is a shame to have this block most family touring groups.

 

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If a groomer was based at Halfway Haven, couldn't it come south then loop back? Then, a snowmobile bridge across.

 

Similarly, I recall seeing a groomer based at Aubrey Falls. It could go north and then loop back.

 

Easy to say, from a keyboard in Toronto (sorry!), but many enjoy that area and it's a shame to cut it off. You can see the stones in the river...not 'deep' but not pleasant, as Luc mentions.

 

Thx for the video Dan.

 

Sault Ste Marie (and Elliot Lake) - favourite staging area in the north. Keep the clips comin'

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Dan always has nice videos to share along with the beautiful pictures.  When the Trailblazers opened the Domtar Road to make a loop during the Halfway Haven "closed years", Dan passed along lots of information and showed me routes along power lines which could be used to bypass sanded logging roads.  Always great to see what he is exploring!

 

Halfway Haven may have a groomer based there this season, but it will likely not travel that far south.  In the past the groomer out of Searchmont would have to branch off on the D201F and groom over to Aubrey Falls and Black Creek.  They are the fuel stop and only a couple miles from each other along Hwy 129.  Without a fuel & food stop, this trail is DEAD.  You can always count on Black Creek being there for gas and they have lunch or something available.  Aubrey is open only on weekend when trails are groomed, but they have a bar and food when open. 

 

Washouts cause so much trouble to the trail system, it is amazing that the OFSC doesn't have a special team to help clubs patch up the network.  This will hurt traffic through Halfway and Black Creek / Aubrey Falls because this is the "Sled Freeway" connecting Elliot to Wawa. 

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Additional Video footage I took on Sunday while riding in the Aubrey Falls area and at Rocky Island Lake.

 

 

 

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As our group of four approached this washout area in the second week of March, we met and talked with 3 riders on two sleds heading to Aubrey Falls. One of their sleds, front end demolished, was left in the bush a few hundred meters east of the washout. They had crossed the water and the throttle cable on one sled froze holding the throttle wide open. The sled hit a significant sized tree on the south side of the trail about four feet in the air. The rider was lucky to escape serious injury. The threesome were heading to Aubrey/Black Creek hoping to find a toboggan that they could use to retrieve the damaged sled.

Two of us in our group had crossed thru the washout a month earlier, and were prepared to do it again, but the other two had concerns for their sleds and health.

 

That is when we started investigating the pond/stream on the north side of the trail bed. It was difficult, with only an 8 inch folding saw, to create a trail from the east side that would swing wide enough to the north to avoid the area of moving water/thin ice close to the culverts, but we did it. With a log, we tried to break the ice out on the pond until we found an area where we couldn't. We decided that was good enough launching spot to run westerly across the ice to a gently sloped natural clearing where we could get off the pond and back onto the groomed trail. We created a bypass that was safe for sleds at that time, and after we all crossed, I headed back to start marking our "Trail". Before I placed a second marker I realized that I should not mark our bypass, because the ice conditions might deteriorate in days or even hours. When we returned to Elliot Lake a couple of days later, it was obvious that more sledders had used our bypass, but I have no idea how long it remained viable.

 

It is a shame that some solution can't be found to keep that section of D201F open and groomed. Again, that is easily said sitting here in the snowless south.

I will still use the trail and assume that a go around or thru can be managed. There is too much good sledding to the west and north to give up.

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14 hours ago, tricky said:

As our group of four approached this washout area in the second week of March, we met and talked with 3 riders on two sleds heading to Aubrey Falls. One of their sleds, front end demolished, was left in the bush a few hundred meters east of the washout. They had crossed the water and the throttle cable on one sled froze holding the throttle wide open. The sled hit a significant sized tree on the south side of the trail about four feet in the air. The rider was lucky to escape serious injury. The threesome were heading to Aubrey/Black Creek hoping to find a toboggan that they could use to retrieve the damaged sled.

Two of us in our group had crossed thru the washout a month earlier, and were prepared to do it again, but the other two had concerns for their sleds and health.

 

That is when we started investigating the pond/stream on the north side of the trail bed. It was difficult, with only an 8 inch folding saw, to create a trail from the east side that would swing wide enough to the north to avoid the area of moving water/thin ice close to the culverts, but we did it. With a log, we tried to break the ice out on the pond until we found an area where we couldn't. We decided that was good enough launching spot to run westerly across the ice to a gently sloped natural clearing where we could get off the pond and back onto the groomed trail. We created a bypass that was safe for sleds at that time, and after we all crossed, I headed back to start marking our "Trail". Before I placed a second marker I realized that I should not mark our bypass, because the ice conditions might deteriorate in days or even hours. When we returned to Elliot Lake a couple of days later, it was obvious that more sledders had used our bypass, but I have no idea how long it remained viable.

 

It is a shame that some solution can't be found to keep that section of D201F open and groomed. Again, that is easily said sitting here in the snowless south.

I will still use the trail and assume that a go around or thru can be managed. There is too much good sledding to the west and north to give up.

Thanks for making that detour.   Please let them know about your concerns, I told them last year and they laughed when I said people where having a hard time crossing in the water.   I would do it and many others would but there is people that can not do things like that.   I don't want to have water splash on me when it's -20C and having to ride to the next place to get warmed up,

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3 hours ago, The Groomer Guy said:

Thanks for making that detour.   Please let them know about your concerns, I told them last year and they laughed when I said people where having a hard time crossing in the water.   I would do it and many others would but there is people that can not do things like that.   I don't want to have water splash on me when it's -20C and having to ride to the next place to get warmed up,

On our return trip back from your place, Bud panicked and got bucked off his sled. Luckily no injuries or damage to the machine.

 

Personally I was ok with it, but they have to think about all the different skill levels of the ridership passing through. I know plenty of retirees who love going up your way, that I am sure will have challenges now with age and confidence..

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9 minutes ago, Yukon Cornelious said:

On our return trip back from your place, Bud panicked and got bucked off his sled. Luckily no injuries or damage to the machine.

 

Personally I was ok with it, but they have to think about all the different skill levels of the ridership passing through. I know plenty of retirees who love going up your way, that I am sure will have challenges now with age and confidence..

Yes that's it, we have to think about everyone riding.

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These 2 videos may be of interest, because they both show different perspectives of the washout.  Thanks to those who posted them as they are very helpful.  These, along with Scott's photos posted above provide a good visual of the problem.

 

Go to the 1:32 minute mark to show the water pond crossing. 

 

This video below at the :55 second mark was the old fix, which unfortunately washed away.

 

 

 

 

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Our group crossed the washout 4 times last year and luckily didn’t have problems doing so, it’s still a problem area especially crossing going north towards halfway due to the angle of the bank...

 

What’s it going to take for the ofsc to fix that washout?

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So far what I see..... I would fill that in with snow and some trees.   I filled in way bigger then that, some of you guys saw the big hole on the 100miles loop lol   They have 2 culvert in the hole... bonus.     Maybe it's worst then it looks,   They are a good club I'm sure they tried everything possible.

 

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On 11/24/2017 at 7:16 PM, The Groomer Guy said:

So far what I see..... I would fill that in with snow and some trees.   I filled in way bigger then that, some of you guys saw the big hole on the 100miles loop lol   They have 2 culvert in the hole... bonus.     Maybe it's worst then it looks,   They are a good club I'm sure they tried everything possible.

 

I saw skids and trees in the original fix seen on Dan’s video. 

 

With a good snow year it would be filled using the original road and culverts if it was up north. 

Every year these fixes are remade in many places.  Many sledders have no idea all the trail fixes they actually ride over.  Groomers run over those fixes all season, but last year there were too many temperature fluctuations maybe?

 

Knowing this link D201F enables so much touring and that the F Trail was abandoned with this link in mind it shocks me to see how quickly the OFSC lets truely important trails go to heck!

If Searchmont had fuel, there would possibly be another way although it would still add hours. 

 

Really too bad. 

 

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The club tried to fill it in with skids and snow last year, but water was moving to fast and fix didn't work. Two years ago it held for about 4 weeks or so. I remember reading that on the soo site last year. 

The regulations today to get any approvals in place, when it involves water ways is insane. So don't know what solution is, besides taking long way around. 

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On 11/19/2017 at 7:57 PM, Dan-Senior said:

I was at Aubrey Falls / Black Creek today and took a few photos.  Winter is starting to take shape.

 

 

IMG-20171119-06274.jpg

IMG-20171119-06280.jpg

IMG-20171119-06288.jpg

IMG-20171119-06291.jpg

That sled is cool, love the suspension upgrade. The wedge was always my favorite chassis.

 

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looking at doing the 2 day 'north shore loop' in February staging from Elliot Lake. Any must see stops? suggestions for place to stay after 1st day?

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On 11/24/2017 at 7:16 PM, The Groomer Guy said:

So far what I see..... I would fill that in with snow and some trees.   I filled in way bigger then that, some of you guys saw the big hole on the 100miles loop lol   They have 2 culvert in the hole... bonus.     Maybe it's worst then it looks,   They are a good club I'm sure they tried everything possible.

 

 

Saw the Soo Club has had some volunteers working on a D201F washout.   Hoping this was the bad spot of the past 2 seasons.   I don’t remember any other 2 culvert washout on the Domtar Road (D201F).  Hoping this is the fix for the season. 

Lots of work involved here.  A great job to help keep the Elliot Lake to Wawa connection open for all sledders.  Thank you!

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Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Soo folks! Looks well done - hope it holds up.

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8 hours ago, AC+YA said:

 

Saw the Soo Club has had some volunteers working on a D201F washout.   Hoping this was the bad spot of the past 2 seasons.   I don’t remember any other 2 culvert washout on the Domtar Road (D201F).  Hoping this is the fix for the season. 

Lots of work involved here.  A great job to help keep the Elliot Lake to Wawa connection open for all sledders.  Thank you!

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2DD16D85-E1B0-44F4-84E1-66E35196F3BD.png

Looks like a new one to me.

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