Winter 2010 Logbook

Recollections of Large's Winter

The links will pop-up a window with a picture to help explain the events described.

Click "Large's" in the line above to see how this works. Close the window once done.

Fall 

The prep season  started in October... John, Andrew, Dave, Dave and Chris were out most weekends for a few hours. October was rather cool, even some white stuff for 36 hours at the end of the month, and then November was the opposte... warm, sunny and peaceful most of the month. Deer season was +5, sunny and calm every day... awesome! Had the 4 wheelers out a few times, on the E104A in Ashton and towards the 10th Line.. very wet and muddy in this direction..  Finally installed the gate on the Ashton swamp trail in October and brushed the E104A a fair bit.
 
December

All trails are ready early Dec. except corn at Simpson's and the Jock River culverts... stayed away from there due to the tragic passing/car accident of a teenage Simpson boy. Nothing colder than -8 up to Dec. 9th... got our first hit of snow then on the 9th ( sadly this was the only snow storm of the whole year!) ... too bad as the cold was just starting to lock up the ground. 20 cm on the 9th, the 5 cm twice over the next few days and down to -15 and -20 for a good week through to Christmas. Sleds packed much of the trails, but the ground is still soft where the snow is untouched.  A few Ont. districts in the soutth opened with one limited trail for the Dec. 19th weekend, but snow is minimal. Even QC pics show that snow pretty bare in most spotes. St. Zenon area looked better the 19th weekend in pics, but is still hit and miss.  Could do a first pass in some areas to help the frost in, but the BR is still looking for an oil change.

January

Had the usuall melt on Boxing Day, and then got about 4 days of steady light snow around New Years that added up to a good 15 cm. Got out Jan. 3rd for the first time locally. Met Dave and John and brushed in the Ashton swamp... warm and snowy day. Would have been grooming if we had the BR ready to go.  Grooming started on the 5th.. a few days late due to BR delivary... lots of snow and huge drifts to deal with.  Groomer got stuck on the TCT and then again on Mansfield Rd in snow drifts. The Jock River bridge got blown in on Sat. the 9th and the A south got groomed by Rideau later that week.

Trucked up to Ron's camp on the 15th. Warm, like +1 all week and weekend and maybe -1 at night. Was -2 at Devils' Mountian.  Not much more snow up there than in Ottawa other than on the Mountain (2200 feet up)  Rode from 10:24 am Sat. until 11:45 that night.  About a 190 mile day north of Manawaki, on the big lake, Devil's Mountain,  and back via Mount Laurier.  Lots of snirt in Laurier.  Lost a few times, Ron's sled died on the pavement a few times, but all in all success and lots of laughs.

Penage had a hard time freezing I am told.. some big spots still open mid-month. Limited grooming only in north Sudbury... single pass elsewhere .. but general lack of snow in most of Ontario.

Groomed through the Ashton swamp on the 23rd... after we cut holes with 14" of ice and no water in 4 spots on the 23rd. Nice sunny Saturday, -8 or so.. but Avery and Tamara were sick so I only managed a 45 mile run.

Rain and +8 then on Monday the 25th.. too bad as things were pretty good up until then. Closed the trails in nearly all of Ontario,  and now -21 on the 29th.. but a lack of snow. Only place in Ont. open is around Algonquin Park ( they got 6" after the rain )  and EL... a few spots around Kap.. but they are all low on snow as well.  Eastern Ont. has had as much snow as anyone in ON so far.. which is not very good.

Groomed with Dave on the 30th to see how the trails really were and to test out the alternator swap on the BR180. Nice sunny afternoon, trails were as good as could be expected and alternator is fixed. ( so it seemed )  No sleds out as everyone things the trail are shot.. but they are actually not that bad.. hard and smooth.

February

Rode to the club meeting on Feb. 4th.. trails there and back were near perfect (in spots) despite the low snow. Base we do have is hard and smooth. Trucked to Pembroke Feb. 6th and got in 140 miles. Cool start, but sunny to finish. Stopped at the Prior on the drive home as we(Special, Mike and Steve) were ahead of schedule.   More of the same every week in Feb.  No snow, highs of  -5 or so and -15 at night.  Got in 30 miles locally on the 13th with 1 cm of snow to make it look like winter.  Turned out to be my last local ride.. who knew? The only area in good shape is around the Algonquin Park.  EL is open and a few areas around Timmins, but even they are lacking good snow.  In Mexico Feb. 20 - 25th and then home to 10" of wet snow followed by rain and steady +2 to +5 for about 4 days straight.. too warm to even groom at night. Tried on the Friday night to groom.. OK.. but lows of +1 just don't work too well.

March

Got in a 3 day trip March 6-8th out of Morning Mist to North Bay. Dave drove the groomer to Jones' March 6th as well.  Lots of sunshine and +5 temps. Closer to +8 on Sunday in the sun.   310 miles. Was +10 when we left Stonecliffe on Monday afternoon in the sun. They did manage to host the Bow Tie Classic the next weekend though.. read that there were 78 sleds in it.  Record warmth into March. +15 March 15th through 20th after being +10 the week before.  Year end at 907 miles and a total of just 7100 miles on the 600 HO.  So far Jan and Feb. were both +3 over normal and March has started off at +5 over normal!  Ended up with no recorded snow in Ottawa the whole month of March.. a new record. Snow in our yard was completly gone by March 20th.. snow bank and all.  Up to 25 and 27 Easter Weekend ( April 2nd ) as we ATV'd up on Lively. 

- Large

Winter, 2010