Winter 2009 Logbook

Recollections of Large's Winter

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Fall 

The prep season  started in September, as Dave Northrup and I took the 4 wheelers into the old E013 and cleaned up all the OFSC signs from Old Almonte Rd through to March Rd.  Nice sunny... +20 something day.   Trail has to be closed due to 4 laning of  Hwy 7.  Had folks lined up on weekend in late Oct... but it rained hard and messed things up. Did get some donated culverts picked up out of the day, and spent a few hours on the 201 on the Sunday, repairing gate/fences, and trimming the stubs left from cutting this trial with lots of snow last fall. got a good crew out Nov. 8th at Simpson s for a Sunday am and did everything around there. Next two weekends got rained out and messed up planned work crews. Got snow and cold the end of deer week again. 15cm over a few days and around 0 all week. Crews got out again on Nov. 29th.  Most trail prep is done now, just lots of loose ends to clean up.  I have not been out much at all due to Tamara's AF all fall.   
 
December

Big snow up north (Sudbury area) again Dec. 1st. They have well over a foot on the ground now after the snow from late deer season.  Read Dec. 5th that Haliburton Forest is groomed and real good, and North Bay is grooming/packing as well. We have -10 a few times, and sit with about 3 hard inches of snow/ice. Forecast looks promising with both cold and snow. Got hit with 30 cm on the 10th, and a few nights of -20+C . That gots lots of sleds out packing the trails and causing landowner issues.  Val des Bois trails in Quebec are open and excellent shape Dec. 13th... much earlier than normal. Too bad I can't make the trip up there this year.. family life is undergoing some health issues.  Up to +8 on Monday, Dec. 15th, did some good melting, closed all Ont. trails,   then 8cm on the 17th and looking cool.   Packed nearly all Stittsville trails with the BR 180 from 21-23rd. The operators got in 20 hours of learning on the new unit. Good snowy weather until the 23 or so, then warmed up and melted nearly everything. Rain on the 26th, and up to +12 for a while on the 28th.  Cool again into the new year to lock up the wet spots which are everywhere now.

January

Few nights of -20 and no snow helped the flood water freeze the first few days of the year. Trails are starting to open up across Ontario. Only Elliot Lake seems to be fully open Jan. 3rd  Lots of limited elsewhere. Andrew and Roger put culverts in on the A trail to Almonte Jan.3rd.. looks good.. had up to a foot of  ice to cut through. I sent email out for all the other projects but got no takers. Looking like good snow on Wed. Jan. 7th to get things rolling again. Ended up with 20 cm of light snow. Enough to groom from the 8th forward, and get out Sat/Sun. on the sled.  Jock River crossing got blown in with snow on the 11th,  as the A trail south to Marlboro got groomed as well. Ashton swamp was groomed on the 13th. All trails are packed now that I look after. Have had many nights of -28C or so.  Called for 10 cm on the 13th, but it turned into a few cms. Too bad.. we need more snow and things would be near perfect. Cold weekend 17/18.. highs in the -20 range.. may head to Ron's camp in QC.. can't decide based on the -35 lows and -25 highs.... that is a warm up from -41 they called for this am  in Maniwaki!  Ended up much warmer than expecetd in the end. -10 or so on Sat. in QC.  80 miles of back and forth and lost riding.  The 308 east of Gracefiled got us lost, as did the 322 back towards Lac Blue Sea.  We found the 322 after running a logging Rd. for 5 miles.... but man, signs are lacking.  Nice lunch at Black Rollway and a fair bit of sledder traffic there. Turns out it is only a hour 45 truck ride to Ron's camp...and that was in partially snowy roads.

Came home to about 10 cm snowfall throughout the 17/18th weekend. A few parts of Ont. got up to 40 cm out of this clipper... unexpected. We really needed this and it will pretty well put the BEAST into mid season shape... or at least very close. We are fully open/limited now.


February

Things in Ottawa pretty well shutdown around Feb. 8th.. warm and rain killed the little snow we had... and sadly that was it for here.. for the year!

Ran up from Lively to Elliot Lake for this year's trip. Lakes were glare ice!  Tony's sled acted up near Massey.. and Hammell had to come and rescue him in EL Friday night.  Stayed on Dunlop Lake Lodge. Sat... trail to Aubery Falls was awesome. Not as good after that towards the Soo. but OK. Gas in Wharncliffe at around 6pm and back in EL around 8:30.. long day with a later start.  Back to Stump's on Sunday for Daytona 500 I think and then back up to EL by truck on Monday. Fished Whiskey Lake on Wed ina snow storm with Dany. Then off to Budgell's wedding on the following weekend down south with a stop at Trina and Randy's along the way.

March

Nothing but grass in Ottawa... up to +14 on March 6th.  Ran up wtih Darrell by truck early March for an awesome day out of Deep River. Guys are still basing out of Deep River on March 14th.. ice even at Tim's parking lot there in pics. 157 sleds in for the Bow Tie Classic @ Stonecliffe on 14th. Missing Link and Mattawa still listed at Open March 17th, although +8 and sun has to be doing damage daily.   Nutter was in EL March 14th weekend... conditions were the same as when I was there Feb. 14th.. amazing! All roads were still snow covered going to Aubery Falls

118 mile day to end the year March 21 with Mike and Special. Snow was bad the first 4 miles out of Rolphton but otherwise great. Only met two sleds.. guys from Kingston on Yammi's that day.. kind of overcast but the trails were really nice.  Special overheated in the AM until the snow got soft enough for his short snow flap. 

- Large

Winter, 2009