Post your reports for OFSC District 2 here. Check this map:

Is all the tree clearing done and ready for the snow???

Too bad E107 is closed :( according to the Paudash website. Mind you it looks like the creek will be ridable before Christmas & ready for when the trail IS open.

The parents checked the ice on the creek south of the Pheasant w/ a spud today & they think it's OK. It was down to -17*C @ 7 PM tonight & there was no snow on the ice, so that will help. I'll look things over on Saturday & will let you know then.

11" on the ground tonight in Apsley, probably more to the north.

Last Saturday we sledded (broke trail) on the "West Road" past the Laforna Hunt Club almost to the E108. Didn't want to run thru some open water (plus there's a lot of rock under the snow on that trail) so we turned around. I couldn't tell if anyone had ridden from the Pencil Lake area.

Finally, has anyone ridden TOP E (the railbed) out of Coe Hill? If there's no water holes, I may unload @ the township yard in Coe Hill rather than drive over to the MTO yard on Hwy. 62.

I think Chrissy and I are going to venture up that way this weekend Kris...... let me know how it is when you go.

Paudash Reports:

We checked the ice & it was good, so we rode from Apsley. Didn't bother to head to the railbed. E107, TOP E & 618 (Silent L. Trl) have been groomed. 622 is open but not groomed yet. No sign of sleds on 617 (Saunders Trl). I saw that E108 has been groomed west of TOP E.

The 1st mile of 618 south of Hwy 28 is plowed, but snow-covered due to logging.

I rode 619 (Chandos L. Trl) as far as Clydesdale Rd. It's not groomed & only the gate on the north side of the road is open.

Trails 609 & 610 are not open yet.

Today after riding the trails on our woodlot w/ the nephew, I rode E107 up from Jack's Lake. It is passable, but not groomed. Be aware of a couple of detours due to trees across the trail.

Thanks for the updates.
Keep up the great work!

I unloaded @ Coe Hill & ran the tracks up to LSP. Trail in great shape south of Bancroft.

People have tried to run the bush trail below Jan's Woodlands to get to the Shell & ESSO stations. Trail stops about halfway. Someone had walked further west to check the trail.

I caught up to the southbound groomer below the L'Amable turnoff. Trail really didn't need grooming. Also the railbed west of Ormsby Jct has been groomed as well. Not sure how far west he went.

The gate to OHSR-950 (trail to Limerick L.) is closed. OHSR-931 is open & sleds are running it east of Glen Alda.

A Paudash note, sleds have crossed Hwy. 620 on PTB-619.

Stoney Lake Sno Riders report:

I rode from Apsley down to Reid's Store & back today. E107 has been groomed (before the storm) and all the obstacles north of Jack's Lake removed.

It didn't look like anyone has ridden 704 (the Viamede Trail) west of E107. 702 is open from E107 to Reids. There is a shallow water crossing, but nothing terrible.

Trail 707 to Kasshabog Lake has been groomed, but there were no fresh tracks & since I'm not familiar w/ it I didn't ride it.

On the way back I went up 708 as far as the bottom of the McCoy Bay Rd. Groomed as well.

Top half of Twin Mountain's trails were nice and groomed this weekend...

Anything new to report?
I hope to head up to Burleigh this afternoon.

Paudash Report:

We did a 70 mile loop out of Apsley today. E107 (north of McQuigge (609) trail) & TOP E (south of clubhouse) had been groomed. The 619 to Chandos had been groomed. The Silent Lake & Cardiff trail south of E110 were groomed & in good shape.

Now for the bad news IMO, I'd avoid E110 west of Cardiff. Freymond Lumber of Bancroft is logging in the Thunderbird Rd area & the trail was a mess. Rather than cut on either side of the trail & minimize crossing the trail (like the logger did along TOP E north of Hwy. 28 a few years back, they're using the trail as a skid road. You could see 2' deep ruts from the skidder. After the mild weather that's forecast this week this stretch will be brutal. There were a lot of marked trees west of where they are currently logging so I think they'll be there for a while.

It should've been groomed Friday night after the logging was done for the week. E110 didn't improve until we got to the Saunders Trail (#617).

Last weekend the parking lot @ the Pheasant was jammed & the access for sleds was partially blocked. If are looking for a place to park, there is space for about 4 trucks (trailer parking not advised) @ the end of Tucker Road. It's about 5 mins north of Apsley. I've also seen trucks & trailers parked by the fire hall on 28 @ the top of the Silent Lake Trail.

Has anyone ridden the railbed from Eldorado up to LSP?

On Saturday we rode the railbed (B106E) from Ormsby Jct. to a couple of miles north of the Hwy 127 crossing past Lake St. Peter. The trail was in decent shape, even thru Bancroft. There were a couple of wind swept place north of Maynooth & south of Detlor where the snow was sort of thin & you could hear the gravel.

Just wondering if anyone was on Chandos last weekend? We were on West Bay before the thaw & the ice looked OK. If I hear about good conditions I might do a loop out of Apsley running from West to Gilmour Bay on the weekend.

Any first hand reports on the conditions in and around Bancroft that you can update us on.

Planning on going up on the First of February.

Thanks

Paudash Report:

Why is it that some snowmobilers have no clue whatsoever? Friday night after I unloaded the sled I went for a short run up the E107 north of Apsley. Trail was in good shape.

Saturday around noon we head out. Parking lot is full @ the Pheasant. We get on the E107 & haven't gone a hundred feet & I see where some "top goon" has spun his track down to the leaves & grass :cussing: :bash: . There's only about 4" of base folks. All along the E107 to the Burleigh Trail the corners were worn down & the knolls skinned off.

The E trail from the Chandos turn to Harcourt was like a MX track as the outside of the corners were "bermed up" & about 2 feet higher than the inside. Lots of loose snow to slide in on top of the berm if you want to stay on your side of the trail :sarcasm:

About the best riding was the 1st couple of miles of the McQuigge Trail & the South Eels Lake Trail. The rest of the day sucked.

If the weather stays the same this week & w/ the BBQ @ the Clubhouse on Saturday, I can't see the trails being any better. I'll be heading in another direction.

How have the trails of District 2 and 6 held up with the warm up then cold snap. Looking for this weekend, what do you think?

Tuesday night it was raining in Apsley.

Tuesday night it was raining in Apsley.[/b]

I know, then it froze and not much new snow. Have you ridden up and around Bancroft and north towards Whitney since then. The club reports are kinda vague. Are they dragging rock is my main concern and lube for the sliders.

I won't be up there until Saturday. Hopefully this storm brings a decent amount of the white stuff.

On Monday I rode from Kaladar up to McArthurs Millsf, across to Bancroft, down to Marmora, and back across to Kaladar. Overall it was a great ride... and in most spots the trails had been freshly groomed... with the exception of E101 from Kaladar to Flinton Rd....BRUTAL... and yes, I know it says it's closed on the OFSC website.

With this storm coming in tomorrow morning... I would think it's going to be a busy weekend out there......unless the groomers get out late Friday night though, the trails are going to get rough in a hurry.

On Monday I rode from Kaladar up to McArthurs Millsf, across to Bancroft, down to Marmora, and back across to Kaladar. Overall it was a great ride... and in most spots the trails had been freshly groomed... with the exception of E101 from Kaladar to Flinton Rd....BRUTAL... and yes, I know it says it's closed on the OFSC website.

With this storm coming in tomorrow morning... I would think it's going to be a busy weekend out there......unless the groomers get out late Friday night though, the trails are going to get rough in a hurry.[/b]
Those groomer operators are like sledders, they cant wait to get out on the trails either.

Hopefully the warm temps are short lived. I did most of my riding south of Apsley this weekend on the Stoney Lake & Havelock trails. Pretty good condition for the most part.

Same runs we've being doing lately. Two weeks ago, went from Stoney to E107, Lasswade, Apsely, then back home. Took the Havelock run last Friday only to get pulled over in an OPP spotcheck on Stoney Lake before we even got to the trails. All could have been better if one of the threesome actually took his ownership and insurance with him.
Anyway, the trail seemed to end after about an hour, just as you exit the "unassumed road".

Anyway, the trail seemed to end after about an hour, just as you exit the "unassumed road".

Which trail do you mean? I ran E107 up from Havelock last weekend (no problems) besides a lot of the other trails around Kasshabog.

We crossed Gilchrist bay, at the 4/69 split, we took the 69 south, which eventually took us through a beautifull forested "unassumed" road and when we came out it seemed to just end. We never even made to to the railroad crossing (South Dummer?) which should be just outside of Norwood according to the Rice Lake Snowdrifters web site.
Unless I got totally screwed up and lost . . .:blush:

I was on 69 after leaving the Havelock trail NW of town. I made it around to the west side of Norwood where 69 crosses Hwy 7. Yes the trail markings are a bit sketchy IMO.

BTW, 4, 7 & 69, does anyone know how they came up w/ their trail numbers?

I tried to run HDSC 805 east from E107 last Saturday. However when I got to Cordova Lake there was no stake line & no distinct "trail" on the lake (plus it was getting later in the day). I'll try to run it west from E106 (the railbed). W/ my GPS I shouldn't get too lost. Is anyone familiar w/ this trail?

BTW, Cordova Lake Store has gas if you're in the area & need it.

I did a loop south to Marmora today. There's a couple of spots to watch for.

On TOP E west of Hwy. 62 there is a water hole that you have to deke around.

On E106 between HDSC-805 & Hwy. 7 there's another was hole.

Both spots are marked w/ yellow caution tape.

Did 159 miles on the Old Hastings & Mazinaw trails today. TOP E from the airstrip was good until I hit the plowed section about a mile west of MP-1004. The road is plowed all the way to Hwy 41. Lots of frozen dirt. W/ the way the weather is getting it'll be mud soon.

E101 south of TOP E to Mazinaw L. was good as was MP-1002 & TOP E east of Hwy 41. MP-1007, MP-1003 & MP-1008 were in good shape too.

E101 north of TOP E has 2 plowed sections. 1 from TOP E north to MP-1004 (Effingham Lake Rd.) There is also logging south of Ashby Lake Rd. North of Scott's Store the trail was good.

MP-1006 hasn't been groomed since the most recent snowfall (Thursday). Plowed road & muddy between Spring L. & McArthur Mills. This stretch was probably the worst of the plowed sections.

OHSR-930 between 920 & 938 is signed as temporarily closed. There were fresh tracks, so I ran it. There's a diamond drilling outfit doing some drilling near Bessemer & they've got the trail/road down to dirt for a short distance. The road is plowed but @ least snow covered to the road crossing west of there.

Gas was $1.26 @ Moosehorn (didn't buy any). Pump had 2 nozzles labelled unleaded & premium. Both had the same price.

Gas was $1.10 @ the McEwen in Denbigh.

On Denbigh Lake there's a stake line that heads over to the NW corner of the lake. Does this trail head north to Griffith? In the past I remember using this trail when we came from McArthur Mills. Today I saw some bush trails that headed north from MP-1006 & MP-1008, but nothing that looked heavily travelled.

Ran up to the Paudash clubhouse today & it was a mixed bag. E107 was OK from Apsley to the 610. The 610 was good. We ran TOP E up to the south Eel's Lake trail. E was choppy. The trail over to the lake was fine. E north to E108 was choppy. E108 over to 609 (The McQuigge or Rathburn trail) was rough.

The north half of 609 was choppy, but the south half was OK.

I would have to say the trails weren't as good today as what I was riding yesterday late in the day over on the Old Hastings trails. It'll be interesting to see if they can get trails fixed up for the Easter weekend.

Saturday & Sunday, we ran Young's Point to Reid's, up the 107, to the Viamede split, down to Viamede and back to Young's Point.
Saturday was defintiely better than Sunday but the trails were still suprisinlgy really good! Except for right behind Viamede where you're into several hundred feet of muddy road (not a flake of snow or ice). We did try some off trail adventures through the tower lines and man did we get buried! Short tracks suck.

We did a 65 mile loop south out of Apsley today. Down towards Nephton, east to the Havelock turnoff, then up to & across Chandos.

E107, Stoney Lake #706 & Paudash #619 were all in good shape.

I hate to say it but Paudash has been the roughest trails in this area this year .Don't get it they were always the best Do we have new management?

Frank, the last 2 weekends were OK, but earlier they were rough halfway thru Saturday. Apparently 1 stretch there they had 2 groomers down & were stretched kind of thin. Last Sunday the trails were in great shape.

We ride mostly through the week and from mon -thur the trails have been brutal over there, weekends not bad the couple of times we rode on weekends.

I was thinking of trying Stoney Lake to Apsley or perhaps the twin lakes lodge this weekend.