Thunder Bay Area

[bigreis]

Since I haven't had my sled out this year due to no snow in MN, I am thinking about making a trip to the Thunder Bay / Lake Nipigon area in two weeks. Is anyone riding in that area? According to the Intellicast Snow Coverage Map, it looks like that area has a decent amount of snow, but when I checked the Ontario Interactive Trail map, it looks like there are lots of trails closed around there. Can anyone give me an honest trail condition report?

 

[moab11]

The trails were closed here years ago through town due to some stupid politics. That has in turn severely hurt the surrounding trail systems, and they have thus been closing one-by-one over the past few years. I could go on, but that gives you a good idea for the trail closures.

I am not sure where exactly the Ontario snowmobile trail system starts to the east or west anymore. But there really isn't a whole lot of snow to ride on up here anyway. Temps above freezing and sunny weather for the past week has really hurt the snow that we did have. Also most of the lakes around here are very slushy because of the mild fall, so running lakes is sketchy at times.


I REALLY wish I could recommend coming up here to ride, but unless you know the area really well and are wanting to explore to find snow and places to ride, I can't recommend here.

Let me know if you have any more questions about the area, I've been here all my life and know it quite well. Used to be a great are to go snowmobiling!

 

[bigreis]

Wow... that is really disappointing! So is the trail system pretty much done in all of Ontario, or is it just in your area?

 

[moab11]

Just in my area, but I don't know how far from me the trail closures are. I do know that they are east and west of here, maybe in the Atikokan area to the west and Geraldton to the east.

 

[macpat]

There was tons of snow from Beardmore to Hearst. The trails in Beardmore never got opened this year but the trails around Geraldton/Nakina/Longlac are. They were in good shape with tons of snow two weeks ago.