Who is up for a ride in the Parry Sound area tomorrow? 

Apparently there is a bit of permit fraud happening in Southern Ontario with people whipping up counterfeit permits on their fancy printers.    The local OPP have been scrutinizing permits around here pretty hard to make sure they are legit.   

Group of 6 sleds. Some 24 years, most 20+ years saddle bag experience. Age spread: 50-76 years Conditions: -20c (ok temps) Snow dust - Pretty Bad. Route: Hearst to Hornpayne and back. Terrain - lots of hills and valleys - A trail along highway 11. Issue: Sled 6 misses a 105 deg turn, visor\glasses frost issue. Snow pack is very deep, over the waist up there. Owners of cluck up, Sled 4 (me) and sled 1 (lead) primarily. Historically, we keep trailing sled in mirrors, or within 2-5 min spacing - always. This trip, not only did we blow this rule on the Tuesday, we also blew this rule on the Sunday up at the Canyon, when 1 Sidewinder overheated from lack of coolant, and had to be towed to SMR (down West side), where a SMR towny went home to get some antifreeze for us, as Esso didn't have any (Sunday - everything else closed). So, spread from SLD 1 (1 may have been closer to HP turn South than I indicate) to SLD 6  was in the 30-40KM area.  Primary contributing factors: 1. Sled spacing complacency; 2. Snow Dust, 3. Vision - frosting in helmet\glasses

Last winter three of us were heading up to Midland from Waubaushene. Probably going 80ish when we caught up to a couple sleds going closer to the speed limit. I was last in line so couldn't see exactly what was what. Followed them for about a kilometer when they suddenly pulled over, one to the left and one to the right. Red and blues came on and I thought "oh crap, we in trouble". They didn't stop us, we rolled past at a crawl and they had a look at our passes on the way by. Off we went with a wave.

Yup, fair observation, and I own 50% of that cluck up. I'm going list this lesson learned in a new thread, and describe how even 20+ year trail baggers have a cluck up when we get complacent!