Wildman Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 any word on what's going on here??? Quick update.... we rode to Marathon last Sunday, it was mt first time through there. Marathon west was not open yet. If you send an email to NOSSA they will give you a current update. When I called they said that nothing had been groomed from Gravel River to Nipigon. The trails in the region are more technical than I expected, we rode from Wawa to Marathon in a day then to Klotz Lake the next day. Good Luck, How was the snow condition? did you not travel west because you didn't feel comfortable riding the trail without it being groomed, or just because you weren't sure of where the trail goes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucking Pig Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 I rode from Nipigon to Gravel river and back today. The trail is groomed and in reasonable shape, even good conditions, in places. There are a few sections of low snow, but very rideable. I have heard from Neys to Terrace Bay is in poor shape, as I think their groomer has been having issues, but i cannot say for sure. The Terrace Bay trail from Gravel River east looked ok, where I saw it,but I haven't riden it. Nipigon to Beardmore has been groomed, but I haven't ridden it yet either, so I can't give a report on the conditions. There is lots of snow up through there, so it should be OK. BP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AkronOrange Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 any word on what's going on here??? Quick update.... we rode to Marathon last Sunday, it was mt first time through there. Marathon west was not open yet. If you send an email to NOSSA they will give you a current update. When I called they said that nothing had been groomed from Gravel River to Nipigon. The trails in the region are more technical than I expected, we rode from Wawa to Marathon in a day then to Klotz Lake the next day. Good Luck, How was the snow condition? did you not travel west because you didn't feel comfortable riding the trail without it being groomed, or just because you weren't sure of where the trail goes? There was plenty of snow, we just didn't want to risk the ride having never been that way before. We needed to be in Lonlac the next day and needed to be sure that we could make our destinations. We rode D110A to Manitaowadge then A to Hillsport and took the Industrial Road to Caramat and into Lonlac from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ox Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 and took the Industrial Road to Caramat and into Lonlac from there. Boy - we spent a lifetime on a hill in there one day! [Caution - Enter new story at your own risk - just like the trails eh?] Pulled outta Man on a cold morning and headed off towards Caramat. The trail outta Man was fresh, but HARD and full'a potholes. Groomer musta just opened it up for the first time that season and looked as the snow didn't wunna co-operate too well. It was a wonder we didn't stick the sliders that day! Got however far outta town to the end of the Man trails and it dumps you out onto a swamp. (At least at that time. I would venture to guess they doo it diff now?) But we were the first ones through by the looks of it for the season. No tracks down on the swamp and took a bit of looking to find the trail off the swamp. Through the cat tails, into the bush, and up and up and up. Not really that steep of a hill - but it was relentlessly long! We had 136's - but they were no match for the hill and the snow in the trees was very soft yet as the sun and wind don't git in there. Run one sled up as far as she'd go, then run the other up in it's track and slip around it at the last second quick and git another 20'. Turn them both downhill and git another run on. Aboot a yr later we were up the hill. My chumm made the top first. Even once you were "at the top" your still not home free yet as the hill still had some round to the top, and in the soft snow - if you stopped before at least full on level - you would be stuck aggin. So he rode clear to the top, which was quite a ways yet. Then he walked back to fetch me and help me turn downhill for one last run on for me. But me - being the swell chum that I am - documented his long journey back to his sled. Now we were "all aboot" breaking trail! YOU BET! But it would'a been nice to not have had to spend half a lifetime on that hill and been able to break trail instead. So - just to add insult to injury, as we buggered around the bend just a tad and up to the intersection of Industrial Rd - there set the transport that had floated a groomer in and from there N was groomed. We hadn't went enywhere before we met this guy driving the Mal-Fuction on his way back. I am sure that another 20 minutes and he'd'a been to that hill. Unless possibly they wouldn't groom that small section? There wouldn't be eny way for him to turn that rig around in there IMO, and he Shirley wouldn't go out onto the swamp to turn I wouldn't think? So maybe that hill never got groomed unless someone was in the area with a Bombi? Maybe he would'a dropped the drag and packed it ina dn leveled as best he could with just that blade? ... prolly .... However - we still put on a LOT of miles that day as we still rode onto Hearst from there yet. It was cold too! By the looks of placement of the pics - these would'a been taken early '99. However - the coolest part was the klicks and klicks of gas line laid out ahead of the trenchers as they were laying new line. All pre-bent to conform to the ever rolling hills through there. And I don't find a pick of them a'tall! :curse: I remember this was a Sunday as the hydra-hoes on the gas line were all lined up and left idling for the day to stay warm. There were only a few welders werking here and there between Longlac and Mooseland. So - since this was a Sunday - I hafta wonder if it was over Christmas/New Yrs 98/99? That would also explain why we were breaking trail. ??? I think Christmas is the only time we are not headed back to the truck by Sunday - unless things went wrong, and being that far from the truck - I would hafta say it was over the holidays... Boy - those 136's turned around in a trench a whole lot easier than the 151 and 156's doo! [/Caution - Enter new story at your own risk - just like the trails eh?] Sorry Wannago - I gues no stuck pics this time. Can someone else verify that it was the winter of 98/99 that they laid in the third pipeline in this section east of Longlac? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uphillbilly Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Well OX at least we got memories of ridin', one of those next year kind of years. Don't remember if it was the holidays or not, just long cold ride on the pipe line to Hearst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildman Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Hey Bucking Pig.........hehehehe, funny name, anyway, has it been snowing up there this past week?? I see east of you has gotten the snow, just wondering about your area. I emailed the noss or what ever it is, and they have not responded yet, I just really wanted to know if the D was passable between Marathon and Terrace Bay, all reports I find say that it is groomed halfway, and those reports are not recent either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucking Pig Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Wildman; Thanks... long story about a hockey team and a prevoius name that wasn't deemed appropriate. What's wrong with Nipigon Nipples? Anyway, we haven't had much fresh snow lately, but the trail is, by most accounts, open. There is a section between Marathon and Terrace Bay (Neys to Deadhorse Road) that has not been groomed, but has been "machine packed." There was also a post on another site that it was rough from Deadhorse to Terrace Bay, but I've heard that they have groomed since then. Several groups have reportedly been thruogh. Terrace Bay to Gravel is reportedly quite good, and I ran from Gravel to Nipigon on the weekend, and it was very acceptable. One area of low snow, but only for a few miles. Nipigon to Beardmore and beyond to Geraldton is supposed to be excellent, but I haven't ridden it yet. BP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildman Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 Great, thanks for the info. I was worried about trying to get through there if there was a foot or more of fresh snow, I can only go 94m on a tank of gas on a good hard trail. I'd be screwed if we broke trail the whole way. Should be leaving the Soo either this Sat or Sun. haven't figured it all out yet.....looking forward to the tour, we have spoken of doing it for a few years now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revrnd Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 The Manitouwadge section of the A trail north has been groomed but is still marked closed due to signage issues. There is a few KM's of trail that might be a bit rough due to a gravel pit bypass that has just been cut 2 weeks ago, but the gromer has gone through this week, so it should be passable. We ran from Longlac to M'wadge on the 17th & it was still closed. Yes there is a rough stretch around the middle of the west leg. When we got to the TOP A split, there appeared to be more sledding tracks heading up the east leg towards Hillsport & Hornepayne. On the 18th we awoke to about 6" of fresh snow for the ride to Wawa, so conditions may be better now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revrnd Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 There was plenty of snow, we just didn't want to risk the ride having never been that way before. We needed to be in Lonlac the next day and needed to be sure that we could make our destinations. We rode D110A to Manitaowadge then A to Hillsport and took the Industrial Road to Caramat and into Lonlac from there. Was there a reason you road ran from Hillsport to Longlac? TOP A was fine when we rode thru on the 17th as far as grooming & signage was concerned. Were you running late? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AkronOrange Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 There was plenty of snow, we just didn't want to risk the ride having never been that way before. We needed to be in Lonlac the next day and needed to be sure that we could make our destinations. We rode D110A to Manitaowadge then A to Hillsport and took the Industrial Road to Caramat and into Lonlac from there. Was there a reason you road ran from Hillsport to Longlac? TOP A was fine when we rode thru on the 17th as far as grooming & signage was concerned. Were you running late? We ran the road to Caramat. It's not that we were that late, we wanted to get to Klotz Lake for the roast beef and we didn't know what to expect with the 30 miles of A107A that was ahead of us. It ended up being a nice ride and we arrived early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucking Pig Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Don't know if anyone's still interested, but I was riding with a bunch of buddies this weekend North of Nipigon to Beardmore, and the trail was awesome (not that we were on it much ). We're looking to get 10-15 cm more snow over the next couple of days. Could be some great riding yet to come. Hopefully the club can find the keys to the groomer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ox Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Any chance you could run it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildman Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 In all fairness to the Marathon club and the nossa, the D trail was in great shape considering the amount of snow and the terrain. The whole trail has been groomed at one time or another this season. There isn't much sense in sending the groomer out between Marathon and Terrace Bay,unless they received allot of snow, they really don't have much to work with. I really enjoyed the ride, with multiple stops, we where 3.5h from Marathon to Terrace Bay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildman Posted March 14, 2009 Share Posted March 14, 2009 Don't know if anyone's still interested, but I was riding with a bunch of buddies this weekend North of Nipigon to Beardmore, and the trail was awesome (not that we were on it much ). We're looking to get 10-15 cm more snow over the next couple of days. Could be some great riding yet to come. Hopefully the club can find the keys to the groomer. Ya, we busted it open on Wednesday morning, after the storm on Tuesday night.........about 10-14" on the flat outside of Nipigon. We met up with a couple of good guys from Windsor out at the pipeline.......they were saddle bagging also. Glad we met up with them, they were both running crossfire 8's. We took turns busting it open, allot of huge drifts and the lack of markings made the pipeline very tough to navigate. took us 6hrs to get to Beardmore. We attempted the trail from Beardmore to Geraldton, but we quickly realized that it wasn't accomplish able in a reasonable time. We oppted for trail 11 which was smooth, clear and fast. We were told a couple of guys opened it that morning so we followed their tracks, they went to the top of the hill on the pipeline and doubled back to trail 11. I had the zr on plane so I kept going untill I had it buried in about a 12' drift. Took 4 of us a long time to remove it from that mess. I was watching for that switchback......thinking a guided tour through all that powder would'a been nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucking Pig Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 Well, I was watching the storm go by out at camp, just north of Beardmore. We ran into Beardmore on the sleds on Thursday for something to do. Great riding, busting drifts and digging each other out. Did you take the trail from Nipigon or just stay on the pipeline? Either way is good, but the pipeline's a little faster (and more hilly). Looks like the groomer has been out today or yesterday here around town. Hopefully, we'll have a couple more weeks to ride! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildman Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 no, we took the trail, it's a little tough on a 121 loaded with saddle bags to tour around on that pipeline. I was all right as long as I was on the trail, but if I ventured to off trail, it got too deep to efficiently travel. Plus I can't just stop, or I was stuck. Maybe a crossfire 1 for me next year. With the state of the ofsc system, we all better get used to off trail riding........and I really do enjoy it and would more so with the proper sled. Yes, I agree, you will have a few more weeks of good riding in your area.......you are very lucky this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucking Pig Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 If anyone is still interested. I was flying over sections of the trails around Nipigon today, (north and east) and they look like they're in great shape. Probably a little crusty, but should be plenty of snow just off the trail to keep stuff lubed and cool. Lakes & Rivers are starting to break up in the current areas and lots of slush around, so take care on the waterways. Most plowed roads are showing lots of bare patches, if not completely bare. Will be flying more over the week, so I'll keep my eyes peeled when near the trails. BP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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