By: Bruce Robinson

Winter started for me when my dealer called to say that my new sled was ready for pickup. I love the smell of new sleds, new trucks, new accessories… you know, that fresh-off-the-assembly-line aroma full of carcinogenic compounds!

I brought my sled home and set it on the ‘lift’. I set the light just right so that it looked like a work of art poised ready for action. Then every time one of my friends dropped in, we visited the garage with a beverage and planned our winter’s escapades.

Although the ladies pretend to be above all of this ‘boys toys’ talk, don’t think for a minute they weren’t just as excited about winter as we are!

Liz and I live in the heart of snowmobiling country, Eastern Ontario style. Our club promotes family riding and, as a result, many couples are avid snowmobilers and we enjoy each other’s company.

We know about all those wonderful snowmobile excursions to distant locations that advertise ‘snowmobile heaven’ with the world’s best trails. Believe me, those trips are lots of fun and it’s great seeing new scenery, new trails, and make new friends.

But I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about the average ride for the average rider… what I call the meat and potatoes of snowmobiling!

For instance, Friday nights this winter I will rush home from work. One of our friends will likely have called to get together for a short run. We may sled to our favorite restaurant, then return the long way home just to take in a few more kilometers of our familiar trail system.

Hopefully, we will have crisp night air and a star filled sky, and we can possibly catch a glimpse of a rabbit darting across our path as we glide along effortlessly, knowing exactly every twist and turn in the trail like the back of our hand. But it never gets stale, does it?

What about those Sunday excursions where we gather six or eight of us and head for a neighboring club’s trails? We explore off the beaten track, leaving the TOP trails far behind to ride local trails through the back fields and bushes, maybe even to catch a glimpse of a deer or wild turkey.

We will stop now and again to compare notes: “I believe they’ve rerouted this trail since the last time I was here!” or “That old sugar shack is almost fallen down now!” Observations only folks who are very familiar with the trail can make.

Of course, any Sunday excursion is not complete without stopping by the clubhouse to see who’s there and getting a bowl of their famous chili. We arrive back just before dark and gather at one of our homes to order in a pizza, or maybe the slow cooker has worked its magic all day while we were gone.

For thousands of Ontario sledders, this is recreational riding, and it’s what snowmobiling’s all about. Many have never been out of their own county, let alone to the other end of the province.

Long overnight trips are certainly the mainstay of snowmobile tourism, but the miles of smiles that local riding provides makes up the bulk of kilometers ridden each year in Ontario. Local clubs depend on local riders to buy the permits, attend the events, and to lend a hand.

Without those local riders, a club is just an empty legal shell. It takes we locals to generate the passion, foresight, determination, and manpower to continue to keep our club trails top notch.

Now don’t get me wrong, the OFSC TOP Trail system is the backbone of organized snowmobiling in Ontario, and I love those connected trails that take us from one region to the next as much as the next guy. I also believe that the TOP system needs to have grooming and maintenance priority.

But in the grand scheme of things, let’s not forget where the bulk of the local riding happens… on those less traveled, backcountry routes that are the hidden treasures of OFSC trails.

This winter, I will probably meet many of you as Liz and I tour across the province on the TOP trail system. But we also look forward to our local rides with friends and family, because riding at h ome is a whole lot of fun too! Until next time, keep your skis on the snow.

By: Mark Lester

I have to confess something. Anytime after the 15th of November I get obsessive-compulsive about the weather.

I’m constantly checking my sources for impending storms, cold fronts, moisture laden low pressure areas sweeping north from the southern US, all in an effort to glean potential snowfall information on my fave riding areas.

I’m not alone in this quest. I’ve had heart-to-heart conversations with other snowmobilers who also admit to similar tendencies. In more than 30 years of snowmobiling, my obsession with winter weather has not ebbed; actually, it has increased. Thankfully, therapy has become easier to access.

Complicating my condition is this: I actually experience weird head rushes (not chemically induced) every fall. Without warning, my mind goes to a place I love to ride. This is weird, yet enjoyable.

It’s not quite like I’m hallucinating, actually, it’s more like I’m snow-lucinating. As the calendar moves deeper into the year, this crazy passion for getting out and snowmobiling floods my synapses.

After all these years I still get excited about winter and that first snowfall. My best friend, wife Barb, capsules it this way: “You’re like a kid waiting for Christmas”.

Is there a cure? Not likely. However, as I said, treatment is available. The internet offers effective relief delivering updated weather information on a minute-by-minute scale.

Is there anything better than logging onto real-time weather radar at weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca? I think not! This site not only delivers great hourly forecasts, you can actually watch a storm or squall dumping snow on your trails.

This is superb therapy in my books! Note: If the POP number (probability of precipitation) goes above 60 percent, load your sled; above 70 percent, put your helmet on. Conversely, if POP drops below 50 percent, don’t bother topping up your injector oil.

There are other great sources for trail and weather info you should try this winter. How about the OFSC’s own site: ofsc.on.org – and then click through to Trail Reports?

This site gets ji-normous traffic and is particularly useful when planning a tour or multi-day trip. Generally, the OFSC site delivers current and accurate trail conditions, dead honest, if not slightly conservative in its ratings.

The OFSC’s Trail Conditions listings generate impressive web traffic, proving an increasing number of you are in need of trail condition rehab.

An interesting twist on the weather/trail conditions reporting concept comes from OFSC media sponsor, Skywords. Skywords is a syndicated radio broadcast producing accurate daily trail condition reports using its own network of OFSC reporters.

It’s a slick program aimed at delivering concise trail information to snowmobilers right up to and including when they arrive at the trailhead. Getting trail updates from the radio lets you continue annoying others with your weather/trail condition obsession while traveling.

Obviously, you can’t use your Blackberry driving so Skywords keeps trail data flowing while you’re driving, reducing the possibility of any sensible dialogue in the truck en route to your riding destination. Stations carrying Skywords Trail reports are listed in this issue of Go Snowmobiling Magazine. Try it, you’ll feel better.

Another great source for weather and trail conditions is weathernetwork.com. I personally enjoy this site’s 14-day outlook, using it to effectively calm anxiety during a mid-winter mild spell. There’s nothing more soothing than following the weather graph two weeks out as it predicts increasing cold and more snow. Think of it as long-range therapy.

While you’re hitting the web for weather info, you should bookmark accuweather.com too. There’s lots of forecast info here and a nice, easy-to-read long range forecast going out 15 days ahead. This site also offers some editorializing on current conditions, making for interesting reading when you’re suffering from low POP anxiety.

Face it, snowmobilers are weather addicts. This winter, learn how to manage the urge.

By: Craig Nicholson, OFSC Communications

As soon as snow falls, calls and emails asking about open trails inundate the OFSC.

No one is more eager to start trail riding than OFSC clubs and volunteers; if only opening trails was as easy as just having snow… or contacting the OFSC!

In reality, our clubs operate with finite budgets, targeted to ensure that most grooming occurs during peak riding weeks from early January to mid-March. Sometimes, like last winter, the season is longer than normal and clubs juggle dollars to get started around Christmas and also groom longer.

Often, doing so means robbing Peter to pay Paul — for example, reallocating dollars tagged for purchasing a much-needed replacement groomer or for trail preparation the next fall.

Next, remember that the permit fee remains the same throughout each season, regardless of how long, so once set for an expected number of grooming weeks, the size of the pie each club has for the winter at hand does not vary much.

Meanwhile, as non-profit entities, clubs have already invested left over revenues from previous seasons into paying down debts, down payments on new groomers, paying for equipment repairs, or to cover additional costs, such as grooming longer last winter.

So if dollars are diverted to unexpectedly early grooming, it’s easy to see why another area of planned trail operations may suffer.

Now, remember that trail operations show a $5 million shortfall each season… that’s the difference between permit revenues and the actual cost of running the OFSC provincial system.

So there are no extra dollars in any pot. And until clubs receive 2009 permit revenues to replenish their accounts (which typically start flowing in meaningful amounts after December 1st), every available dollar is being spent on preparations.

As a result of all the preceding, clubs are very careful not to waste precious grooming dollars, which brings us to premature snow and trails opening early…

Forty years of weather/snowfall patterns and club experience clearly indicate that snow prior to Christmas will not last in much of Ontario. This is due to early season temperature fluctuations and ground/water not being frozen.

So with melt a likelihood, clubs are understandably reluctant to spend precious resources on grooming that will be wasted. They would rather wait until everything freezes up to pack a base that will last all season. Besides, when nothing is frozen, clubs can’t even get their groomers into many trails due to impassable swamps, bogs, creeks and washouts.

What’s more, taking groomers out prematurely frequently results in costly repairs that also diverts dollars from grooming. So what would your choice be… expending scarce cash on an early snow crapshoot or saving it for prime time?

When snow arrives as early as mid-November, as it did recently in much of central and southwestern Ontario, clubs face other challenges, too. Usually, land use permission for opening trails on private property is not effective until closer to Christmas.

Keeping trails closed on private land until then is especially important in farm country, where riding too early may cause crop damage or interfere with fall farm operations. Unfortunately, almost all mid-November snow fell on these agricultural areas. These unavailable trails effectively orphaned many other trails and links, by making them inaccessible.

Another consideration is that clubs simply often do not have time to get trails properly prepped, signed and staked before such an early snow. Also, after such a stormy and wet summer and fall, clubs have been working overtime to clear away fallen debris, repair washouts and restore trail surfaces.

In many locations, soft or muddy ground and open or unsafe wet areas have delayed their work, as has the early snow. From a safety and risk management perspective, the clubs would be remiss in their duty of care to permit holders to open trails that are not ready.

So there’s the story, folks. You may not like it any more than we do, but that’s the consequence of dealing with Mother Nature while closing trails each spring and opening them again each winter.

It’s like owning a cottage… even if summer arrives early, you can’t open it until the hydro is on, the water hooked up, the storms are removed, and the access road is passable.

So please be patient and understanding… you can bet that OFSC clubs are hard at work and that our volunteers will have trails open as soon as humanly possible… and as Mother Nature allows.