When I was with Paul snowmobiling last week, I had a fabulous time and said we should do it again, but next time do the trails in Bancroft and maybe do Weslemkoon and Limerick Lakes.
After a few emails, he confirmed that it was a go.
He contacted Jennifer Hagerman, Secretary of the Old Hastings Snowmobile Club. She was kind enough to volunteer herself and her son to take us on a guided tour of the sights we wanted to see.
We made reservations at the Sword Best Western in Bancroft and the plan quickly came together.
I drove up to Paul and Andrea's late Friday night and we rose at 5:00 am to head up to L'Amabe, home of the Old Hastings Club. We met Chris one of Paul's employees along the way and then met Jenn, her husband Glen and son Dan and were on our way. Glen Hagerman is the co-ordinator for the club's 4 trail grooming machines, so knows the trails like the back of his hand. He said that there was 22 inches of ice on Weslemkoon and that the trail had been marked across the lake as well as Limerick, so all systems were go!
He also knew our good friend Merritt Wood (its a small world in the north, more about that later).
The trails were awesome, winding their way through the scenic backwoods of this beautiful section of our country.
We worked our way past areas where tornadoes had wiped out sections of the forest back in 2002. It was still a tangled mess and a very humbling sight. We arrived at our first lake. A little strange to be running on hard water.
We stopped for a group shot.
We traveled more trails and a couple of other lakes and finally arrived at Weslemkoon. It took a few minutes to get our bearings, but then headed to the North end of the lake where we stopped for a mid lake lunch.
Here's Paul & Evan in front of Tanglewood Marina!
We then headed down the Lake to the South end with Evan leading the way!!
Once down at the bottom we started to come across lots of old familiar sights. My boat has taken the same path as we did in the video below, in warmer weather :)
The spot we ended up at in the previous video was my old trailer spot at Pinewood Campground (Merritt and June Wood's Camp).
From there we picked up the trail again and headed for Limerick Lake. We got there through Mephisto and Dark Lakes and then arrived at my next memorable stop.
The Loon's Nest, my old cottage, still owned by Cal and Marcelle. I met their new neighbour who had plowed a road the 5 miles across the lake right to the cottage. Everything looked in order.
From there we headed back to L'Amabe and the Club House. Inside the clubhouse we had the honour of meeting Ron Hadley, 76, the founder of the club who was busy working on one of the groomers. Further discussion revealed that he was a good friend of Merritt Wood (boy that name keeps popping up) and had played hockey with him when they were 14 years old!
We loaded the sleds back on the trailers and headed into Bancroft to check into our hotel. It seemed weird to see snowmobiles parked in front of every unit. The place was sold out!
We met Glen, Jennifer and Dan later at our hotel and took them out for dinner at the Granite Restaurant where we had great food and conversation. What wonderful people to hook up with strangers and treat this old guy to one of his most memorable experiences of his lifetime!
Thank You Glen, Jenn and Dan for such an amazing experience. Thank you also for keeping us safe.
I'm sure we would not have ever managed to find all the trails without you.
137 km of wonderful memories today!
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