Yesterday, we had 13 sleds out on Friday for what I think I will make an annual event.  Considering the awesome riding conditions here we did not have a big weekend booked.  This is due to the constant battle of convincing the rest of the island (including people from Central) that the riding conditions are as good as they are even though there is practically no snow in the valley.   I am sure when people from central read this post they will be surprised these pictures were taken yesterday. We decided to invite some regular customers out at a discounted rate and offer free guiding for the day.  It was not a tour, just a ride with friends.  This allowed me to have some extra fun as I relieved myself of the responsibilities of a paid tour.  I spent a good part of the day looking for jumps, climbs and water skipping opportunities, of which I found plenty!  We all had a ball!  We had a family call last minute looking for a place to sleep while on the way to the West coast to ride.  I mentioned on the phone that we had plenty snow here so they should come with us on Friday.  It took some convincing as they thought I was out to lunch when they arrived to see the lack of snow around the chalets.  Boy were they glad they stayed!  They had a fantastic day and were blown away by the amount of snow, the country.  Once again we converted another group that they do not have to drive an extra 3 hours to ride mountains and experience late season riding.  They will be back.  Nothing against the West Coast…its stunning over there and I ride there myself a couple times a year, but it is not the only place on the island with such landscape and winter conditions.  Riders need to explore other options.   One thing I love about the North East coast is the lack of people.  Its easy to find untouched climbs and unbeaten trails.  On out trips we don’t see many other riders. 

We traveled 150km yesterday covering back country roads, trails, open country and hills.  It snowed for a good part of the trip, sometimes heavily and not a flake fell at the chalets.  It was a warm comfortable day…I expect today we will be riding in only our shirts.   Although we had barrels of fun I was, and still am, a bit sad knowing the winter is coming to an end.  The forecast for this week is warm but I think  we will pull through it.  Its going to be an early spring though as I am used to riding until very late April into Hodges and early May on the Gaff.  Those of you who know me are aware of how much I love riding.  Although the there is still lots of snow I already can’t wait until next season.  So far I have racked up over 7000km since early January and that’s considering we lost over a week when we lost good riding conditions early this winter.  This is a lot considering so much of our our riding here in central is backcountry trails.  Still I look forward to meeting the group of the day and visiting the same places day after day.  I never get sick of it and it is always a pleasure.   We don’t have a large number of kids coming to the chalet, especially riding their own sleds but this year there has been the exception.  They have no trouble keeping up either!  These two, Andrew and Mark did very well indeed.  There was another young fellow, Tyler who fit right in as well and they all had a great time! 

I would like to use this post to thank all of you who came out to ride with me this season.  I know you will all be back next year…many of you multiple times.  I would also like to express my appreciation for all of you who voted for us in the recent Sleddy Awards.  We won both “Guide of the Year”  and “Accommodation of the Year”.  This is a  a great honor for us and very much appreciated.  Well as many of you have heard me say, I have to go “burn some gas”.  My barrel for this week is not empty yet!

I have to add another piece to this post.  Many of you know my little buddy Jack who is 6 years old.   He has an Arctic Cat 120 and has been riding for two seasons now.  Last year he hardly rode at all though as he found the machine too slow….and it was.  It had a top speed of about 10 km per hour.  I can’t blame him for being bored!  As soon as the warranty ran out I removed the speed controller and now 25km per hour is no problem!  He is having a ball now.  He loves to “ditch bang”  all the way in to our backcountry cabin which is over 25km from here.  He rarely sits and always wears his snow-cross helmet, goggles and chest protector.   He learned a lesson of limitation the other day when he tried to climb a hill from the ditch which was about 8 feet high.  It was too steep to climb straight on so he attempted it on a 45 degree angle.  Of course he rolled his machine right over himself and back down into the ditch.  He damaged his ego and broke his marker flag off the machine.  I wasn’t there but caught up on the scene and everyone was cracking laughing.  It was a proud moment for me as a father of a boy who is going to be an awesome rider.  He is constantly looking for jumps too…where did he pick that up I wonder LOL?  We were out yesterday (Sunday) building jumps for Jack which worked out well.  The more confident he got the higher I built the ramp and before long he was clearing two feet high and 6 feet in distance.  He is already begging this morning to get back at it.  That’s my boy!

My brother came in for his annual late winter snowmobile trip and I took advantage of the time to explore some routes in my own backyard and boy did I find some gems this past few days.  What I set out to do is map another quick access to Kippen’s Ridge, an area I have been riding frequently this winter.  I did find a route via Mary Ann Lake -South Twin Lake-Gull Lake and on to Seal Bay Bog.  What I found on the way was even more exiting.  Hills and lots of them all fairly open with spaced trees, bowl-like gulches and lots of snow.  I spent the last two days in there and intend on returning soon…this weekend at the latest.  We have a good forecast this week with 10-15 cm of snow on the way.   We were having so much fun in the hills I neglected my camera duties but I did get a couple shots attached to this post.  Its still winter wonderland back there!

Another awesome day into Hodges.  We had a group from Gander today who have been to Mount Peyton many times.  They were very impressed with Hodges and the conditions.  We had a ball at the landing drift and a few of us got some pretty good air.  The conditions here on the roads and trails are perfect.  There is some icy road for the first km or so into Cornfield but after that they are flat and lots of snow.  We have openings all this week so whether you stay at the chalets or not you should take advantage of the great riding around here.

Not over yet!  Just had a great weekend on the sleds with an awesome group.  Although the roads and trails were hard dues to the temperature we had about an inch of snow fall on Saturday which kept the machines cool.  Lots of snow in Hodges.   The open country through Peace Valley is still nearly void of snow in places but there is enough to pick your way though.  We could have avoided it and kept to the trails but the view, as always, is too much to pass up.  A few stucks in around Hodges Pass but a great time had by all!  We decided to truck to Dawes Pond Road on Saturdays Gaff tour as we had some people two up.  I also knew that conditions in the Mary March Brook area were excellent and wanted to spend the bulk of our day there.  We had 4 new guys join our group today and two of them had overheating issue so it was a good thing we started at Dawes Pond or it would have been a very long day.  Interestingly, they were both on Yamahas with 4 cylinders.  There were two other Yamahas there with 3 cylinders and didn’t have a hitch.  They were all very similar machines.   The temperature stayed very cold all day which kept the trails hard until we got to the Mary March Brook area where there was loads of soft snow to play in.  With 15 machines we ripped up the brook from one end to the other…a great time and certainly no overheating!  For those of you booked in next week we are supposed to get snow on Monday and Tuesday….30 to 40 cm!  We are in for an awesome week of snowmobiling!  For those of you thinking about coming out you should tell the boss you are sick and come out to ride Sheila’s Brush"!