Good morning my Groomer guy Blog friends,
It's a cold morning in Dubreuilville and in Northern Ontario this Morning, currently its -41C without the Windchill factor, when the wind picks up it goes to around -50C with windchill. Brrrrr Bare skin will freeze in the Mather of minutes, One needs to be well protected in theses temperature. Working outside is very hard, especially when you have to work on the groomer changing a part, just checking it over. Sometimes you have to take the gloves off to manipulate small things, your hands get wet from the snow then you touch a piece of metal then.....Ouch your fingers stick to it, it's like somebody poked you with a knife, or like you burn yourself. At this temperature the metal is very brittle, metal will snap, crack, welding will break. At this weather you have to take things easy and not over do things, sometimes its even better to just park the groomer and wait for the cold snap to end.
The groomer headed out on the D108A trail yesterday, he was able to get to the Kaby river (Groomer Turn Around) and back, I just got off the phone with him, he made it back at around 3am, he said the groomer was all frozen, Hydraulics where getting very cold, some function where freezing and where working very slow, Our groomer come with Drag that have an adjustable packer in the back, during the night while he was going down the trail it started to freeze on him, he had trouble adjusting it at the right position, even the hydraulics for the wheels froze on him, he had a hard time making them work, the packer pan was not working right, he had to stop and try to make it work, he was only able to make it work abit, going up and down a few inches up or down. He told me the more North he was heading the less snow there was, There is a washout at around 60km north, he made a detour around it and put up signs, if you are heading south take it slower the first few kms leaving the warm up shack as the washout is south of the shack. I have sent the A01 Form to our district office and have posted the trail as limited, the trail should be posted as Limited on the OFSC Interactive Map any time now.
The D trail was groomed on Sunday and its in good shape, I've reopened it and it is now posted as OPEN (Green) or by the new Guidelines as AVAILABLE. The wawa Club was heading out to stake Wawa lake and Hawk Lake, At the same time the Groomer was on its way On the D trail to Dubreuilville to meet up with our trail. I expect to see the D from Wawa to Dubreuilville to be posted as Open or Limited today. Now you will be able to go from Wawa to Hearst and beyond..... to Timmins now. As for the F trail, I will try to head on the F and pack up to Dog lake, the power line will bet tricky do, I expect the power line section will be hard to do as you need more snow in some sections as there are a few rough spots, one small drop off that I usually need fill in with snow before I go down with the groomer, there is alot of stuff you guys don't see on the trail, the snow covers alot of bad spots, many hours of trail prep needed in some area.
The F trail from Missanabie to Dalton needs a good amount of snow as this trail passes in some bad areas, steep hills small rock cuts, boulders in low areas near swamps. There is areas the hills are so steep I need to make snow ramps. We will check and see if we can open up, we should know more by next week.
Keep on grooming.
The Groomer Guy.
It's a cold morning in Dubreuilville and in Northern Ontario this Morning, currently its -41C without the Windchill factor, when the wind picks up it goes to around -50C with windchill. Brrrrr Bare skin will freeze in the Mather of minutes, One needs to be well protected in theses temperature. Working outside is very hard, especially when you have to work on the groomer changing a part, just checking it over. Sometimes you have to take the gloves off to manipulate small things, your hands get wet from the snow then you touch a piece of metal then.....Ouch your fingers stick to it, it's like somebody poked you with a knife, or like you burn yourself. At this temperature the metal is very brittle, metal will snap, crack, welding will break. At this weather you have to take things easy and not over do things, sometimes its even better to just park the groomer and wait for the cold snap to end.
The groomer headed out on the D108A trail yesterday, he was able to get to the Kaby river (Groomer Turn Around) and back, I just got off the phone with him, he made it back at around 3am, he said the groomer was all frozen, Hydraulics where getting very cold, some function where freezing and where working very slow, Our groomer come with Drag that have an adjustable packer in the back, during the night while he was going down the trail it started to freeze on him, he had trouble adjusting it at the right position, even the hydraulics for the wheels froze on him, he had a hard time making them work, the packer pan was not working right, he had to stop and try to make it work, he was only able to make it work abit, going up and down a few inches up or down. He told me the more North he was heading the less snow there was, There is a washout at around 60km north, he made a detour around it and put up signs, if you are heading south take it slower the first few kms leaving the warm up shack as the washout is south of the shack. I have sent the A01 Form to our district office and have posted the trail as limited, the trail should be posted as Limited on the OFSC Interactive Map any time now.
The D trail was groomed on Sunday and its in good shape, I've reopened it and it is now posted as OPEN (Green) or by the new Guidelines as AVAILABLE. The wawa Club was heading out to stake Wawa lake and Hawk Lake, At the same time the Groomer was on its way On the D trail to Dubreuilville to meet up with our trail. I expect to see the D from Wawa to Dubreuilville to be posted as Open or Limited today. Now you will be able to go from Wawa to Hearst and beyond..... to Timmins now. As for the F trail, I will try to head on the F and pack up to Dog lake, the power line will bet tricky do, I expect the power line section will be hard to do as you need more snow in some sections as there are a few rough spots, one small drop off that I usually need fill in with snow before I go down with the groomer, there is alot of stuff you guys don't see on the trail, the snow covers alot of bad spots, many hours of trail prep needed in some area.
The F trail from Missanabie to Dalton needs a good amount of snow as this trail passes in some bad areas, steep hills small rock cuts, boulders in low areas near swamps. There is areas the hills are so steep I need to make snow ramps. We will check and see if we can open up, we should know more by next week.
Keep on grooming.
The Groomer Guy.
Here's a Picture from this morning -41C without the windchill.
I thank you for the trail information, and I greatly appreciate the work you guys do to get the trails in the condition you do.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU: CHUCK
Thank you for the comment Chuck!!!
ReplyDelete