Well the town loop has been getting groomed and there are lots of sleds packing the trails. There is a 2ft. plus of soft snow in the fields with most ditches filled up. Found one ditch today that swallowed the sleds in 5ft of powder before shooting up the other side. Found some nice soft drifts around town. The 1.75" paddle is working well. Went across a friends lake to his camp and there was a lot of slush with a few small open holes on it.
We followed the out-side of the loop and most trails heading off from it looked good to go.
Note the trails are still listed as closed. I think the the OFSC web site should be updated from the 24th. My son took our digital camera out west so I'm using an old 35mm that we have. Pics will have to wait this trip. Sorry.
Going exploring the back trails, pits and pipe lines tomorrow. Will check the river crossings then.

Glad to hear you're getting some riding in. And you are right, the OFSC needs to update.

Snowed off and on all day. Still snowing. About 2-3inches of fresh powder on the trails when we came home at 8pm. We went on a local loop today called Zeverly's trail. It connects the "A" with the "A106C". Nice kodak momment at a small bridge crossing some rapids. Then we off trailed it to buddies camp. On the way back we hooked up to the "A" trail west of town just before crossing the Fredrick House River. The river crossing was good. Lots of tracks crossing it. The "A" trail towards Smooth Rock looked like it had been groomed but I was only 1 concesion from the river and we just followed the road to the river. We past the groomer coming from the direction of Gardner. They have probably gone all the way to the ferry crossing. All the trails I've seen have been groomed at least once. The town loop looks like it's being groomed daily. Lots of snow. The snow is real soft off the hard pack. Got to watch out for stumps and ant hills in the powder. Going to hook up with a few interneter's tomorrrow for a ride.

I took the "A103" to the Gardner ferry crossing and crossed the ice bridge. Followed the road to were the trail cuts back into the bush. There was groomed trail heading towards Fraserdale. I didn't go up to Fraserdale as I was by myself and didn't know if I'd be able to get gas when I got there. Turned back and headed west at the "A" and "A103" junction.
The "A" trail has an ungroomed part between the west side of the Fredrick House River and an old broken down bridge that crosses a creek about 10km from the river. My guess is that when the ice is thick enough on the "A" trail the groomer will cross and finish grooming to the old creek bridge. The trail was groomed from west of the old bridge to Smooth Rock.
The "C" trail heading south from Smooth Rock was groomed for about 5km. I then passed the groomer and the trail hadn't been groomed yet this year to Hwy #655. 60km. of ungroomed trail.
From Hwy #655 to the "A106" junction to Cochrane the "C" trail was groomed. The "C" trail is groomed to Timmins from there. The "A106C" had been groomed but the trail needs more snow and has been beat up from the traffic. It was rough from the "C" junction back to Cochrane.

Hooked up with an inernet sled head (Renegade7) and company for a ride up the "A103" to Fraserdale/ Abitibi canyon today.
Trail was groomed on one side yesterday about 20km. north of the ice bridge at Gardner. The groomer had dropped the drag and continued to F.dale breaking the trail. They say it's too hard for the groomer to break 2.5ft. of snow and pull the drag at the same time this year. Met the groomer about 60km. from the canyon on his way back.
He was using a large log to level the trail on his way back to the drag. It worked pretty good except it leveled both sides of the trail that too this point had some nice long streches of 2.5' of fresh virgin snow. My 136/16/1.75 track got a good work out.
The trail needs some sleds to pack it and the groomer will need to make a full drag run before the trail is flat and smooth.
We were the first group of the season to sled the "A103" start to finish, Finish to start.
All in all the trail was a blast with lots of untouched powder and a few bumps to keep things interresting.
The canyon looked awsome without sled tracks and hard pack all over the place. The short tracks were having a little trouble so we didn't play long.
The town loop has been getting groomed almost daily but it's trashed by supper time every evening due to lots of trafice.
The snow up here needs this warm up to give it some density. Weather is -10 with snow tonight, +3 till mid. day tomorow with snow or rain then dropping to -11 with flurries by tomorow night. Looks like New Years day is going to the best day to ride this week.
I hope the warm up doesn't doo too much damage to the trails down south but it sounds like it's just what is needed here to set the snow and trails.
A special thanks Bill from Extreme Tours Cochrane (http://www.extremetourscochrane.com/) for his time, suport and trail info.

Rainning here today and +2. Too wet to ride. We got budies drag out and groomed his trail to the concesion road behind his place. It's supposed to go down to -26 tonight with the rain changing to snow. If that happens tomorrow is going to e great day to go for a ride.

Everything is flash freezing here. the rain changed to snow at supper time and it's -15 now. Going down to -26 by morning. The 2.5-3ft. looks like 1.5-2 ft. now. There is going to be a heck of a crust tomorrow. Hope it snowed enough to keep the trails from becoming the Ottawa cannal. It's going to give the north one heck of a base.
Happy New years all.

Hey Fraz, Glad to see you are having a good time. I have been reading and looking forward to your daily posts. They would make a good BLOG.(top left corner of this screen)

When u made your post earlier today I thought of rock hard trails with no lube immediately. Might be a backwoods day off the main trails to get some slider lube. Have a great day tommorw and happy new years. We are gonna try and get out for our traditional new years day ride tommorow.

Perm

Ya got that right Perm. If the trails are rock hard. Guess I'll just have ride off trail all day. Sucks to be me but, I'll manage. :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

My buddies son in-law and me hooked up with Bill from Extreme Tours (http://www.extremetourscochrane.com/), some of his family and friends Today. Took the A106C to his place just past the Fredrick House River. The trail was hard with a couple of inches of fresh snow to keep the sliders lubed. The "A106C" was moogled on the way home but the base is set good and there was still enough loose snow on the trail for lube.
We rode non OFSC trails to Conaught (between Iroquois Falls and Timmins) and back. There was still 1.5-2ft of snow off the trail. There is enough crust and base now that you don't sink to the ground. A lot of the rain seemed to sink right to the ground layer of snow and with -20 to -28 temps we got last night and today there is a good base. It's supposed to snow tomorrow and the forecast is for more snow 5 of next 7 days. Cochrane is ready to rock for the rest of the season.

If your coming to Cochrane and want to ride something other than the groomed trails. I suggest you look up Bill on his web site and take one of his tours. He's a straight shooting sled head with a real wealth of local knowledge on places to ride powder and hard pack. You won't be disappointed.

Heading home tomorrow. It's been a good week, as usual.

This link isn't sledding related, but will give you an idea what it's like around Cochrane.

ONR Gallery Pic o' the day (http://www.onrgallery.com/picoftheday.html)

Those are some fine pics.

hey all

went on the fraserdale trail on monday and the trail is good. took a back trail to island falls then to smooth rock. gassed up then on to cochrane. all ofsc trails are good around this area. back country trails are nice also. just a little update. i heard that the trail to quebec is now open also.

dahmer