Winter 2008 Logbook

Recollections of Large's Winter

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Fall 

Not out a lot this fall prepping trails.  Replaced one stolen gate in October, and started Nov. 10th, and did Simpson's farm on a real nice sunny day. The land was bone dry.  Got a good hit of snow Nov. 22 and then 23rd. Sled tracks all over the place. 6 inches on the ground when I came back from deer hunting up north.  Got out to the race track on the 25th.  Also had it down to -15C, warming up and then cool again is the outlook currently.  2 inches each of the next few days, and rain in-between.  Very wintery overall. Plan to work BEAST 201  Dec. 1st weekend and get that rolling.  
 
December

Out on Dec. 1 and 2nd on the 201, it was cold.. -16 overnight with highs of -12 or so.. Then got nailed with 20 cm of  heavy ice crystals and snow Monday, as did most of Ontario.  Put a couple of miles on the Fusion Dec. 3rd. Forecast is looking good.  A few rail beds are groomed in central Ont. now. Murph ran the 8160 Tuesday night, the 4th for a test run.  Now have 42cm on the ground according to the airport.  Again on the 201  again Sunday Dec. 9th.  Can get sled through now very easy. Staked Hazeldean Rd. as well and all gates are open.  

Black Lake froze up completly on the 12th my mom said. 2-4cm turned into 15 cm on Tuesday the 11th. Murph groomed from the first official time. Drove 20 miles through it.. was snowing too hard to put any signs up as I would get soaked with wet flakes.. Few cms on Thursday again, and yet another storm warning for Sunday.. 25cm being called for ... this is unreal!  Finished the BEAST 201 Sat in a -21C morning and followed with lunch at Broadways, then out on the sled to meet Mike and Janet signing. Now upped to 30-40 as of Sat. pm. We shall see.  Snowing real good Sunday am and all indicators are that is will be a crippling storm. 37cm was the offical value. Got another 7cm on Wed, but calling for rain to settle things on the weekend. Groomer is rolling again on the 20th.  Hit with 28 mm of rain and +5 on the 23rd, then near 0 all week and more snow on the 27/28th. Yet another wet 5cm Sat. and 7cm on the 31st. Groomed the 201 on the 31st with Murph. Calling for 10cm New Years day. Ottawa has 50cm on the ground.. the most in Ontario to end December. Only about 160 miles thus far on the sled.

January

Jan started with a 15 cm blast new years day. Trained Al Hurren on the 8160, then -20 for two days.  Rode to the sled meeting, -19 when I left, -12 when I returned at midnight. Was very warm riding.. hard to believe.  Then +4, +7, +9,  Sundary forward, the 6th to 9th with lots of rain. Completly cleared all the ice from the driveway and pretty well brought the 150 cm of snow from December down to next to nothing and flooded all the ditches with two solid rainy days. All trails on Ont. and much of Quebec had to close. Very depressing after all the work and 1400 liters worth of grooming under the belt already. Got about 8 cm of snow  the 15th, and another 8cm on  the 22nd to put us back in business, barely, with a few -22 nights inbetween.   Got in 146 miles witth Special on the 19th out of Quyon, QC. Not all that great up there either. Cannal opened on the 25th limited, same as last year I think. 50 miles each Sat. and Sunday locally on the 26/27th. Just enough snow.. trails pretty good and -5 and calm each day.  Jim groomed the Ashton swamp Sat. night, but had to go around the one large swamp that only had 3" of  ice.   Kind of missed another warm spell  late Jan.. only got up to +5 for a few hours, then a bit of snow to make up for it. 

February

Got nailed with 32 cm Friday Feb. 1st. I groomed for my first time... put in 6 hours during the storm up the 202 and 201... was a pretty wild night and I needed 4x4 just to get out of Simpson's farm yard.  Out locally on Sat. afternoon, and  Murph groomed all day Sunday to Almonte and back on the A, in +3 weather. . Mike and I put on 139 miles Monday Feb. 4th from Snow Road Club House/Plevna/Cloyne/Kaladar/Sharbot Lake and back. Some trails were excellant, others were closed and nothing but moguls.  Called for +11 Tuesday but it turned into 3 cm of snow and +2.. Got another 10cm on Thursday, and I groomed the afternoon around Munster in prep for the BEAST meeting. Trails are coming out real nice now, with fresh snow and -8 temps. Our snow levels are now pretty well back to pre-meltdown levels in early Jan.   Trained David in the groomer Friday afternoon, and he put in a 12 hour shift on the A trail and TCT.  136 miles on Feb. 9th with Special and Mike through Lanark and into Arnprior.... possibly the best local ride I have even had.. .all trails were groomed and smooth.   36 miles on Sunday down the 304.  Weather finally turned cold on the 11th... -20 for the first time in a long time to lock things up and get the Richmond club out grooming. Got 10 cm twice bt. the 12th and 15th. Hard to keep the trails groomed as it keeps snowing... kind of a double edged sword. The 8160 had a catostrophic failure on the 14th at 1:30 am, resulting in a drive out to rescue Chris at 2 am.

155 miles on Saturday with Special and Mike through to Osgoode, Kemptville, Merrickville, Smith Falls. . Trails were really nice except a section near Jasper... very sketchy there in the LGSA area. -22 overnight to start and sunny skies

Trucked to Barry's Bay(Specticle Lake Lodge) on Friday the 23 or so. 100 miles Friday on the B, 109, 173, 175 and B. Back a bit early to fish, drink and make 5 pm dinner.  167 miles on Saturday down towards Bancroft. Lots of sled, but the trails held up. .. -20 to start the day... real nice and sunny!    

March

Richmond Poker run Saturday under snowy skies and a fresh 12 cm. Had my track 1/2 studded which caused some vibration issues. Played with that and then met the rest of the club crew on the A trail near the Marlebourgh Forest. Home by 4 for an 85 mile day. Studded the rest of the track Sunday am, and that fixed all vibrations. Was sunny and just below 0... real nice. A trail was groomed by Dave overnight ... still waiting on the 8160... going on 3 weeks down.   Was then +9 on Monday, and 25+cm of  snow Wed... and then -15C, what a week!

Another 10cm Friday the 7th  night, and headed to Arnprior ( 43 miles via the A for my records )  for noon Sat. to meet folks on the CP Hospital poker run. Snow had stopped for the morning, and then started up again in the afternoon. One stop at the Ashton Pub, and headed home to shovel around 5:30... another 10 cm down by now. Trails were good other than the 202 to Stittsville. It was rather eery as there was next to no vehicle traffic with the pending storm. Woke up Sunday to a total of  52 cm for the weekend, with 40cm on Sat. alone!   Shovelled in about 6 shifts Sunday to fill the day. The street is a one way cow path now. Up around 1700 miles for the year I think.  Finally got the 8160 back on Monday the 10th... drove on the A trail a bit and then handed off to Chris.  Groomed the whole system through the week without any major incidents of gettng stuck as the snow slowly settled under the warm sun.

150 miles on the 16th with Mike. E104A to Lanark, and onto Robertson Lake, K&P #7, 6, 3 and 1 to Silver Lake... lunch, and onto the E to Perth and onto(10 km of rough stuff here on the edge of BEAST trails) Smith Falls and E103 towards home. Sunny and -2... perfect weather, with a good north wind.  

First sign of warm weather on the 19th with rain but cold and sunny predicted for Easter weekend.  Trained/sent out  Drew on the groomer on the 17th for his first run until 4:30 am. Sunny and cool Easter weekend . Penage was perfect for the truck. The thick snow seemed to stop at the Mattawa hill. East of there is very spring like, although Black Lake had enough snow to easily tour the newest(to me)  reserve roads on the south shore of Black Lake.

-15C on the 24th and the groomer is still rolling, even through the Ashton swamps.... hard to believe. Made my last run on March  29th with Darrell under sunny skies and about +2.  Snow coverage is perfect... just the roads are ugly. No action on Mississippi... lake was a ghost town with fishing all closed up and a bit of a wind in the air.  Finished off with darn near 2000 miles on the nose and another solid year for the 600 Poo.

April

Folks were still fishing on Penage April  13th, and we are still melting snowbanks here in Stittsville on April 17th... with +20 temps.  Closed 7 gates on the 4 wheeler at Old Almonte Rd and Golden Line on the 17 in +23 temps... still 12 to 18 inches of snow on that trail in many spots,  along with 45 deer, 40 turkeys and 300 geese that I ran into that night.... it was like a wildlife park out there!   Yard is finally clear on April 20th, and as of that same day the trail system is 90% cleaned up and closed for the summer.... just a few wet spots remain. 

- Large

Winter, 2008