Weekly Update

Hello Everybody

The next general meeting has been moved from the 14th to the 7th.

Nearly all of the trails are now open.  The A-Trail is good all the way through with the exception of a small stretch north of Latchford where there is a small pond that doesn't want to freeze.

I spent some time on the interactive map yesterday and noticed that there are many mistakes right around New Liskeard.  The Moose Lake reroute has been removed, the old trail over by ESSM is showing up again and the reroute along Hwy 11 behind Gilli's shows the old trail.  I'll work with the OFSC over the next few weeks to fix this.

We are doing regular grooming on the trails that are now open.

I anticipate that everything will be open by the weekend.

The trail we call Ray's Ridge that ends at Lake Temiskaming just south of Haileybury is still a concern.  We will be putting up large signs warning of the dangers.  So far, there is no other way through Haileybury.  Use this trail carefully if you are going that way - the rest of the trail is fine.

Marcel and Richard wasted several hours on Monday re-staking the Thornloe trail where someone mowed down all of the stakes along a 1 mile section of trail.

Unfortunately the real world is intruding on my Tuesday rides but I should be available from the 14th on to go out.

Should we do a Valentine's ride and go out for supper?  Maybe leave around 5:00 - do a 1 1/2 hour loop and end up at one of the sponsor restaurants for supper.  Then another hour ride on the way home.

Have a good week and get out and ride.

Bill Ramsay

President, Tri-Town Sno Travellers
705-647-4010

Trail Work

Hello all

Hopefully the rain doesn't beat us up too badly this afternoon.

We had about 10 volunteers out on Saturday to stake the Thornloe and Belle Vallee trails. We also finished up some staking behind the groomer shelter.

The A trail south of Cobalt is being a problem this year.  There is water on the trail on a spot that the groomer cannot bypass easily.  The groomer keeps breaking through the ice and leaves the trail nearly impassable.  Richard also says it isn't much fun either.  We are still hoping to open the A trail south to Temagami on Wednesday, the Quebec trail the day after and mark the lakes.

Regular grooming will start as well.

We are still looking for a groomer operator in Latchford in case you know someone.  They must have a vaild G class licence to drive the groomer.

The reroute around Radley's Hill road extension through John Wilson's property is very nice.

Some of the trails are a little brushy but we intend to start brushing next week once the trails are nice and smooth.

On Saturday I stopped 4 people without trail passes.  We sent them back from where they were coming to get off the trails at the nearest intersection.  In case someone asks, going fishing is not a reasonable excuse to be on the trails.  Fishing is only an excuse if it is the only way to get to the lake you are fishing at - if you can trailer closer then you cannot ride the trails.  Since John's Tackle Box is right at Lake Temiskaming the trails are not to be used to access the lake.

Bill Ramsay

President, Tri-Town Sno Travellers

705-647-4010

Trails are opening

Haven't pdated for a while becase there hasn't been any snow to write about

The A trail will be fuly open by tomorrow.  A bunch of us are going out to sign the L186.  The rest of the trails will be open next week and regular grooming will start.

The fields are still way short of snow.  We were staking on Tuesday and there was less than 5 cm on most of the fields.  This new snow will make it a little better but still use caution - there really isn't much out there.

Got some snow now

We got about a foot of snow with yesterday's storm.  We're trying to get the Argo so the guys can go pack the swamps between Haileybury and Latchford.  There is frost in the ground but the swamps still wont' support a groomer.  With luck they will be out his week.  We should then be able to do a little grooming by next week. 

Most of the major signs are now up.  Some vandals attacked the big one down by Latchford.  It's always discouraging to see the club's stuff being wrecked.  We also have problems with the signs being run over by ATV's.

I was out for a little ride at the cottage today and dropped the back end of my machine through the ice on a beaver pond - it was good on Sunday.  Be careful on any ice since a lot of it isn't very thick yet.

Hopefully Lake Temiskaming will freeze soon.  We really don't like to have the trails marked on the Wabi River without ice on the big lake.  Somebody could get out there in a snow storm and we'd have a swimmer.  Nice to avoid that with safe ice if possible.

Some light flurries

We've been having light flurries the last few days in the area.  No accumulation yet but the temps are staying low for now.  Hopefully some fo the water from September will drain away.

The permits are out at the vendors.  Prices are the same as last year - $200 before December 2.

October's here

The leaves are turning colour and the geese have headed south.  It's time to start getting ready for the upcoming snowmobile season. 

The Moose Lake Trail - L186 - reroute is finished except for signage.  I can't wait to get out and give it a try, but alas we need winter and snow first.

Our first meeting is Tuesday October 5 at the groomer shelter at 7:30 - come on out and see what we are doing this year.

4 of us attended the OFSC AGM in Collingwood.  Elvis was there and did a little singing for us.  He looked younger than I expected.  Everything is basically status quo for this year.  There won't be any infrastructure money.  Permits will be the same as last year - $200 on or before December 1 and $250 thereafter.

Ramsay Law Office will now be an outlet for Classic permits.  This year they will be $125 all year long.  Next year they will be $130 up until Dec 1 and then $180 thereafter.

According to the OFSC audit of trails with GPS we only have about 340 km of local trails.  We are going to do our audit this winter to figure out how we lost nearly 60 km of trails.

GPS map software of OFSC trails will be available this winter.  A real help in many cases.  Because we had 3 reroutes last winter they won't be correct on the maps of our trails.  The change on the A trail in Coleman, the new Moose Lake Trail, and the rerout on the Quebec trail all won't show up.

There is going to be a new online trail conditions map that will use the same data.  Going to be really cool.  Should be really up to date and we can customize it for parts of trails.

February's nearly over

We went out for a ride today to the east and the north. The trails were excellent. The snow is still a little low but it is not really a problem except in the roughest areas.

While we were stopped at an intersection (wearing our trail patrol vests) two kids coming along the trail took off across a field. We wondered if it was us that caused this and then we saw the cruiser. I guess they blew the previous stop sign and didn't appear to have permits. He got the registration numbers of one of the sleds so there will be a trespassing charge and a no permit charge - I hope his granny that owns the sled gives him a good talking to.

On the river we came across a lonely muskrat. It seemed to be sleeping in the middle of the river so we shooed it off into the bush so it wouldn't get run over.

We also worked on upgrading signage because of some problems found in a trail audit. The goal is to keep the trails consistent across the province so that when people crash into stuff they have a hard time suing us.