What a fabulous ride!

As March finally draws to a close, so do the various snowmobile trails systems across Northeastern Ontario. It has been a great season. I was privileged this week to ride for a few days with the winners of the Snowmobile Paradise Ontario dream ride contest. Although there was mild weather, the trails were still in great shape thanks to the excellent efforts of the staff and volunteers of the Temiskaming Abitibi Trail Association. The scenery was fantastic. Along for the ride were the best known names of the snowmobile magazines and TV Shows. They will be telling the story much better than I ever could. So be sure to look for Supertrax International magazine, SnowTrax TV, SnowTech Magazine, Snow Trails TV and the work of adventure journalist Tim Shuff. It was a hoot to be with these people and to get a new appreciation for snowmobiling adventure. The final thanks goes to Claude Aumont of the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation whose passion for snowmobiling rubs off on so many others in the industry.

Snowmobile Dream Ride!!

The job has its perks. All week I have been preparing the Snowmobile Paradise Ontario dream ride. It's the big prize for the annual contest. This year, they're bringing the ride to our neck of the woods. And we get to act as host for the contests winners: two couples from southern Ontario. Cool. And we get to hang out with all the guys from the snowmobile magazines and snowmobile TV shows. Cool. And we get to ride and ride and ride... stop for lunch, and ride, and ride and ride some more. And we get to ride the hottest and newest sleds on the market. Cool.

Ice Fishing Is Cool

It's one of those Northern Ontario things. Take a lawn-chair. Head down to the lake. Set up and do some fishing. Especially in the middle of March. The winds were howling out on Porcupine Lake this weekend and more than 200 anglers signed up for the ice fishing derby. Most were as cool as this lady who propped herself up and jiggled her line with her left foot despite a windchill of about minus 45. The cooler thing was that one local fellow walked away with $15,000, yep... fifteen thousand dollars! ... for catching a 27 inch Northern Pike. Now that’s a nice day of fishing.

blogger maintenance

The eBlogger company is updating its servers. We will have more pictures soon.

That's not a hill... just a snowbank.

Been getting plenty of calls from sledders living "down south" wondering if we still have snow. It seems the warm weather down there has torn up most of the trails. So, YES, we do have snow. This is where I park the truck each morning. That is not a hill beside the truck... it's just the snowbank. And this is after the big "thaw" and warm spell we had last week. Stay tuned for some interesting news about Ontario's Snowmobile Paradise contest.

Ice Fishing is too cool.

Ice fishing has to be one of Northeastern Ontario's favorite pastimes. Everywhere you drive across the north, glance over at a lake and you will see anglers enjoying themselves. Lots of people think it's just absolutely strange to sit out the ice and dangle a line through the hole. But don't knock it until you've tried it. It's really a hoot. Especially when the sun is shining. Which reminds me, there is another big ice fishing derby happening this coming weekend on Porcupine Lake in the east end of Timmins. There is still time to register, so check out the CTV.ca website and get the details. See ya there eh!

Dogsledding Rocks!

Yes, it's a cliche ... but Canadians do love dogsledding. I had the chance to experience it recently. First of all, the dogs are smaller than you think... and they seem to love running. I have never seen dogs get so excited before. They're incredibly strong and fast too. You can slouch down on the sled and even though you're not really going fast by highway standards, you get the feeling that you're on an ice rocket! If you're more adventurous... you can run alongside the sled! But hey, why would you wanna do that?

Morning North at Mac Coffee Shop

It was an interesting start to the day. CBC Radio One brought the Morning North program to Timmins where it was broadcast live from the McIntyre Coffee Shop. The radio program was interesting of course, but the coffee shop is a unique attraction in its own right. It’s one of Northern Ontario’s hidden treasures. The café was built as an addition to the McIntyre building in 1939, and aside from modern upgrades, the fabulous décor has hardly changed. Morning North’s Markus Schwabe(left) hosted the program thanks to café owners Marc and Judy Duciaume.

On The Road

No we haven't been slouching lately. Sorry about the lack of BLOG entries, but we have been on the road visiting bigger cities to show off James Bay Frontier. We spent some time at the Ottawa Sportsman Show and just when we were ready to come home, we were sent off to Suffern, NY for the big World Fishing & Outdoors Expo there. Met lots of nice people who were suitably impressed with the all that Northeastern Ontario has to offer in the way of tourism. I was impressed with how many Americans know about the great fishing and outdoor adventures in Northern Ontario. Of course, I had to do the tourist thing in New York too. Got my picture taken with a couple of NYPD officers on the beat. They're not Mounties, but hey, they were nice guys. New York is a great place to visit ...
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Ottawa was nice to visit since we got a bit of time to do the tourist thing there too. Visited the aviation museum ( See my OTHER blog) and even stopped traffic for a few minutes so I could get my photo taken in front of parliament hill. ~click on the pic~