Mid Week Quad Riders: 2013

Friday, September 13, 2013

August 19th Madawaska 5 Day Camping Ride

This Madawaska ride was something I was wanting to do for more then a year.

Four of my regular mid week riders were also eager to go and camp at the All Star Resort on the Madawaska River. Drew and I shared a tent on a large open camp sight which also allowed Steve a location to set up his tent. Ron camped using his new toy hauler trailer he constructed for himself and Peter had his truck camper.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

August 14th Nephton Ride with the Havelock Guys

We were fortunate to be able to get 2 Havelock ATV riders to accompany us on another ride from the County Road # 6 area parking lot near Nephton.

John was our leader for this great ride and took us over some great trails and some serious rock climbing. Although it was a short ride in length, (65 Kilometers) It was slow going where we had some extremely rough areas to traverse.

We had many stops for breaks and some of these were at some intriguing locations, Especially the sinking river, Where the river was running along the surface of the ground and then disappearing under a rock face and running underground and resurfacing some 500 meters farther on.

At another location we stopped for lunch at a water falls which was beautiful to see.

August 7th Stirling - Madoc Loop

Drew & I started off from my home in Campbellford and rode to Stirling where we met with John Frandsen of the North Frontenac ATV Club.

We rode east on the 108 trail to Madoc Junction and continued north past Crookston Junction to Madoc. Coming into Madoc we rode west on the Old Marmora Road to Atkinson Road & travelled north over Highway 7 and continued on O’Hare Road till we met up with the 106 Trail just west of Eldorado. We turned west and rode the 106 back down to the crossroads of the 106 & 108 at Anson where we took these pictures. A good ride was had by all of us on a beautiful day to be outside.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Mid Week Quad Riders: July 17th Lingham Lake

:July 17 th Mid Week Ride was to Lingham Lake from Marmora Ontario on the 106 Trail. on the hottest day so far this summer. From the ...

July 17th Lingham Lake

July 17^th Mid Week Ride was to Lingham Lake from Marmora Ontario on the 106 Trail. on the hottest day so far this summer.

From the Station Road parking lot we had 5 Northumberland and 1 Havelock riders and met with 3 others at Eldorado, The trail was dusty and all riders spread out about a ½ kilometer apart and changed leaders every 5 kilometers with the leader moving to the last allowing the next in line a ride of 5 kilometers of fresh air.

Considering how dry it had been the ride into Lingham Lake was extremely muddy with lots of water with mud holes everywhere.

At the river crossing a new bridge had been put in and most riders opted to ford the river if for any other reason then to cool off..

By the time everyone reached Lingham Lake, it was a mad scramble to jump into the lake to cool off, clothes and all.

Everyone enjoyed the swim and lunch was then a welcome treat. We did have one quad that needed some trail service, but was drained and back in service only after a short time.

July 3rd Sharbot Lake

July 3rd 2013, Our ride started from Tweed Ontario going to Sharbot Lake Ontario.
        On this ride I had invited 2 other ATV'ers from the Havelock Club, Namely John and Trevor along with Peter from our club and myself.
       We met at the park in Tweed Ontario and rode the 108 Trail east over the Iron bridge into the hinterland on this great trail. It was a bit dusty, so we spread out and did our 5 & 5.
       We stopped several times along the way and to get a drink and do some socializing. At one of these stops John suggested we try a cut off trail he knew. As we had already passed the area where the cut off was, we decided to do that on our way back. At one of the stops Peter mentioned that his quad was heating up and apon inspection found that his Radiator was plugged with mud.
       We tried washing it by driving fast though puddles on the trail, but to no avail. This then required to stop more often to allow his machine to cool down.

We finally got to Sharbot lake and found a nice restaurant right beside the trail where we sat and had our lunch.

       Peter decided to see if he could get his rad washed out and we proceeded to a Marina where they allowed him the use of their water hose and he was able to wash out his radiator. But while he was doing this Trevor and I proceeded up the K & P trail that runs north from Sharbot Lake for about 5 kilometers.
      The Kingston & Pembroke Railway line that runs north from Kingston, through Sharbot lake, Calabogie and beyond is a ride we will be doing some time in future and will have a report on it at that time.
       Once Peters machine was washed and ready to ride again we then retraced our ride back down to the cut off that John had suggested we try.
   This was definitely a good idea as it took us away from the rail trail, into some back roads and bush trails and it was a refreshing ride through some new area trails and water hazards for approximately 10 kilometers.

Once reaching the rail trail it was a uneventfull ride back to Tweed.
I do have to thank John for this great diversion and hope he will be able to come ride with us again in future.

June 24th Mattawa Ride

Our Mid Week ride on June 24th was to the VMUTS trail system at Mattawa Ontario. Ron & I were the only ones that decided to do this ride.

We had arranged to stay with Wim & Claire at the Mattawa Adventure Camp on the Ottawa River and we had a very comfortable 2 bedroom cabin with kitchen and washroom .

We also opted for the meal plan and Wim our waiter, cook, owner was a fantastic host. The meals were simply fantastic, served in a gorgeous ding room.

The VMUTS trail system was a little bit hard to get to from Wim's camp, but was mastered using back roads and travelling directly through the middle of the town of Mattawa. The trail system was huge with many trails that were marked well in some places and non existent in others. We spent 3 days there and covered different sections of the park on each day. One of the sights was a silica mine with a huge cool mine shaft into the side of a rock face. Lots of high look outs in many places and some very rough rock filled trails in other locations

June 20th Kaladar Again

June 13th Poker Run

June 6th Nephton Resue Ride

June 5th Nephton Ride

Our first ride on the Havelock ATV trails was from Nephton Ontario.
We had 1 side by side and 3 quads,
the trail leading in had many water hazards,
but were negotable.

May 16th, 2013 Ganaraska Forest

May 16th 2013 was our 2nd ride of the season and we traveled to the Ganaraska Forest in Durham County. Ron knew of a small parking area on the North East area of the park.

We had 5 quads on this ride with 2 new riders namely Kim & Bud, with Ron, Garney and myself. During the ride I got separated from the group and never did hook back up till the end.
The Ganaraska Forest is a very large area that affords not only ATV, dirt bike riding, but also Horse back riding as well.

There is also many walking trails along with cross country bicycle trails and a days outing can be had with lots of hills and forest everywhere. There is one area that the ice age of 10,000 years ago dumped a huge hill of gravel that has overgrown with small shrubbery. This has many trails leading to the top where the scenic view to Lake Ontario is simply fantastic.

At the east end of the park there is the old Midland Railway that a portion of the road bed has been turned into another trail that runs for about 12 kilometers. There is roads that cross this trail and many old bridges that are still intact, for when they made bridge foundations back in the 1880's they were made with a different concrete that stands up better then what is supplied on bridges today.