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District 6, 2, 1 Ride


tricky

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Three of us were looking to sled this past week, somewhere as close as possible to home that guaranteed good snow. We made the decision Tuesday that we had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday available. D6 to the rescue, with a little help from the southern neighbours. Booked the Sands on Golden Lake (no trouble getting whatever type room we wanted) for Wed/Thur nights.

Drove Wednesday AM to the Sands (highway 60 at Deacon), knowing that we were driving into a forecasted snowstorm. At roughly 10 AM, just north of Bancroft the snow started and didn't quit until we were in bed.

Powder on the ground and in the air dominated our Wednesday PM local ride. We headed north on B101A and B102 to the B trail. West on B, south on local 155/157 to B102, east thru Barrys Bay back to the Sands for a great supper. 155 km trip that featured no fresh grooming but lots of fresh snow cushion - sweet ride, more so if you like pow! For the feature day, our navigator (not me) had something aggressive planned, even if we weren't going to be pushing deep snow, but we did, for the first 3+ hours. We went east thru Eganville for a nostalgic visit to the oval track, over to Renfrew and south to Calabogie for a trailside granola bar and a drink. Carried on southwest to Plevna, before heading northwest toward McArthurs Mills, where we had another granola break. Then west and north to Bancroft, Maynooth, Combermere and Barrys Bay for supper at the very busy Ashgrove Inn restaurant - good service, good meals. With full bellies and full tanks we carried on the last 45 km to the Sands. 460 km day, starting at 8:30 AM, morning drifted powder, some mid day evidence of grooming and back to our rooms before 9:30 PM.

On another thread, regarding Covid and in defence of the 70+ crowd, I mentioned that I can still handle a 600km day (north of 17). I only had a bout 50 km left in me when we finished up Thursday. Friday, or trail boss had a "short" local ride planned. We went up the B101A to the B, east a short way to north on local 126 with the idea of visiting the Barron River Canyon Prov Park. Our leader pushed 10 inches of powder up tp the Barron River area, but got off the official trail which used up much time and fuel. At a spot where someone had previously turned around, the two of us on shorter trail sleds parked, while or leader with the 144 Assault pushed on another 5 km to the river canyon, took his pictures and came back to us. Having now had enough adventure for 3 days, we returned to the Sands the same way we went out, loaded up and had a great lunch at the motel restaurant. Total trip was 760 km, about 250 of which was fairly recently groomed. Lots of powder snow all three days because of the route we chose. The Sands is a great place to stay in all seasons, and I recommend it now for a 2 or 3 day ride, with one caveat. Despite the fact that the area had a good 6-10" of fresh snow Wednesday, the south facing roadside trails were melting down to gravel as we left Friday. The sun was punishing the snow and the temp was 3C.

 

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Edited by tricky
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7 minutes ago, tricky said:

Three of us were looking to sled this past week, somewhere as close as possible to home that guaranteed good snow. We made the decision Tuesday that we had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday available. D6 to the rescue, with a little help from the southern neighbours. Booked the Sands on Golden Lake (no trouble getting whatever type room we wanted) for Wed/Thur nights.

Drove Wednesday AM to the Sands (highway 60 at Deacon), knowing that we were driving into a forecasted snowstorm. At roughly 10 AM, just north of Bancroft the snow started and didn't quit until we were in bed.

Powder on the ground and in the air dominated our Wednesday PM local ride. We headed north on B101A and B102 to the B trail. West on B, south on local 155/157 to B102, east thru Barrys Bay back to the Sands for a great supper. 155 km trip that featured no fresh grooming but lots of fresh snow cushion - sweet ride, more so if you like pow! For the feature day, our navigator (not me) had something aggressive planned, even if we weren't going to be pushing deep snow, but we did, for the first 3+ hours. We went east thru Eganville for a nostalgic visit to the oval track, over to Renfrew and south to Calabogie for a trailside granola bar and a drink. Carried on southwest to Plevna, before heading northwest toward McArthurs Mills, where we had another granola break. Then west and north to Bancroft, Maynooth, Combermere and Barrys Bay for supper at the very busy Ashgrove Inn restaurant - good service, good meals. With full bellies and full tanks we carried on the last 45 km to the Sands. 460 km day, starting at 8:30 AM, morning drifted powder, some mid day evidence of grooming and back to our rooms before 9:30 PM.

On another thread, regarding Covid and in defence of the 70+ crowd, I mentioned that I can still handle a 600km day (north of 17). I only had a bout 50 km left in me when we finished up Thursday. Friday, or trail boss had a "short" local ride planned. We went up the B101A to the B, east a short way to north on local 126 with the idea of visiting the Barron River Canyon Prov Park. Our leader pushed 10 inches of powder up tp the Barron River area, but got off the official trail which used up much time and fuel. At a spot where someone had previously turned around, the two of us on shorter trail sleds parked, while or leader with the 144 Assault pushed on another 5 km to the river canyon, took his pictures and came back to us. Having now had enough adventure for 3 days, we returned to the Sands the same way we went out, loaded up and had a great lunch at the motel restaurant. Total trip was 760 km, about 250 of which was fairly recently groomed. Lots of powder snow all three days because of the route we chose. The Sands is a great place to stay in all seasons, and I recommend it now for a 2 or 3 day ride, with one caveat. Despite the fact that the area had a good 6-10" of fresh snow Wednesday, the south facing roadside trails were melting down to gravel as we left Friday. The sun was punishing the snow and the temp was 3C.

(pics won't load).

Nice spot. Was there a few years ago when passing thru area. The trails around round lake are nice and scenic. as you know, compared to B trail. Nice ride to Barry’s bay for lunch and take all club trails. Be a good spot to stop on a rap tourer as well. Food was good too. Very similar to speckle lake lodge I find. Haven’t been there since new owners took over. 

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I was surprised at the difference in snowfall during that storm.  Starting Tuesday, I was just south and west of those areas touring around Whitney, Lake St Peter, Bancroft, McAurthors Mills and Mazinaw Lake areas and only pushed 5" of pow in some trails and lots of fresh groom.  

 

When I made the returned trip home on Friday past Barry's Bay and on to Pembroke there was substantially more snow depth. I had a hard time on the last 10kms of unmaintained road to get to my house. The end of that road, which is 100' from my house, was plowed up with a 10' bank from the snowplow.  What an end to a 4 day, 1250km tour.  Much more snow to deal with east of Barry's Bay.

 

Look forward to the pics as I didn't stop to take any.  Trails were too good is my excuse.

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I've stayed @ The Sands & done a loop north around '09. Quite the hills up by yhe old CN line.

 

Buddies stay there when they go to the races in Eganville (a no go this winter :( )

 

SJ @irREVerent & I had lunch there in '19 on a warm up ride before the Great Big Loop.

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6 hours ago, stoney said:

Look forward to the pictures, maybe soon.

I wonder if you need to delete some old pictures and you are maxed out for size.

Could be. How do I delete old picture files???

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More likely the file size is too big. Resize them 50% & you should be able to post them

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12 minutes ago, revrnd said:

More likely the file size is too big. Resize them 50% & you should be able to post them

Thanks revrnd. I thought I had reduced the pics from full size, but I hadn't. Old people and modern electronics don't always mix well!

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