Shawn Flindall asked and Mother Nature delivered.
The North Bay Snowmobile Club President was concerned of a lack of snow and cold in late December.
He was concerned but realized the weather can turn on a dime in Northern Ontario.
“It’s a bonus, we needed two things, we needed snow and we needed some real cold weather to freeze some things up and we got both so groomers are working all over the place right now and are getting things in shape,” said Flindall.
Traditionally the middle of January is when the trails in the North Bay region are fully operational.
Flindall believes they will be close to that mark.
“There are trails that are opening up on a daily basis but it’s going to take I would suspect we are probably still 9 days away from having everything across the North open,” he admitted.
“This first 2-week trail opening is a tonne of work. There are holes that have to be filled, there are culverts that have to be put in there’s trees that have to be moved so the guys in the groomers do a great job but it’s a real slow progress to get from one end to the other of a trail.”
Flindall also warns that any trails that do open before that are in early season condition.
“There are still lots of stumps, rocks and wet swamp still so caution is really important this time of year,” he said.
However Flindall believes the biggest concern right now may be the pressure cracks on area lakes.
“The lakes are just wild with pressure cracks,” said Flindall.
“The cold weather is great for trail setup but it also causes a lot of shifting and a lot of ice building and that causes pressure cracks. Even Trout Lake which gets pressure cracks maybe once every 4 or 5 years, there are 2 doozies across the middle of Trout Lake this year and Nipissing has got them all over the place as well so you really have to be cautious out there especially at night because these things pop up out of nowhere.”
To keep an eye on the trail conditions go to: http://www.nbsc.ca/trails/
