Red-Rider
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Thats great, sounds like conditions are perfect.
2021/2022 Invermere Area Conditions
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Looking for recommendations on where to go this weekend. A friend and I are staying in Canal Flats. We are both pretty new to sledding, but have experience touring and what not. Does anybody have some nearby areas we could find some simple terrain to practice on the machines? From researching the web, looks like Forster is the easiest zone but also a bit of a drive. Some of the other areas sound less beginner friendly. I would really appreciate some input on where to go. We'd be happy with a big flat open area with snow to get the sleds turning. Thanks in advance!
Whiteswan is right there at Canal Flats, you should be able to find something to your liking up in there, its a big area. Caveat is that I don't know what the snowpack is like over there at the moment.
Right on, I've been there in the summer. Do you know how far in staging would be? I can't find much online about sledding that zone, only for ice fishing the lake.
Haggis
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Hows the snow in the Windermere valley at the moment for sledding? Hoping to get out soon....it's been about 10 years since I have sledded and would like to plan a trip in the next week.
pano-dude
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Road is plowed to whiteswan. You can ride all the way to elkford with some navigation skills.
Hot springs there too.
pano-dude
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Snow pack is above average this year.
Hasn't been much for precipitation in a week, possible storm coming Sunday.
LUCKY 7
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on the bullriver road?
pano-dude
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I haven't done the trip so not exactly sure, know guys that do it every year.
It's on my list of trips for sure.
moyiesledhead
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Over Crossing Creek from the White above Monro lake.
Thank you! We'll go check it out!
What he said! LOL Did it years ago on the bikes, be interesting to see what the country looks like now, probably 20 years since I was up there. We did a lot of exploring in the big burned out valley near Maiyuk Rec site back when, its probably all grown over by now.
ferniesnow
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There are a lot of logging roads in the area to the east of Canal Flats. The road to White Swan Lake is usually plowed in the winter. The Lucifer Hot Springs are before the lake. There is no staging area nor trail grooming in the area. You drive on logging roads until you come to a section that is not plowed. The Moscow FSR is somewhere to the east of the old mill in Canal Flats and that will take you to the northeast end of White Swan Lake. From there you get on the White FSR and there is a prominent junction; the Munroe FSR goes south and joins with the Bull River FSR, York FSR, Crossing Creek FSR (it is actually an old industrial exploration road coming out of the Elk Valley and groomed by the Elkford Snowmobile Club), Haines FSR, Harrison FSR and a few other that I have forgotten. Back at that prominent junction, the White FSR swings to the north and east. Many more roads lead off of that series of roads (this is where Modman was talking about Maiyuk). There is the North Fork FSR, Middle Fork FSA, and some more that I have forgot about. Lots of exploring to do and great views. Not a lot of high elevation areas generally speaking as most of the roads are in the valley bottom. The big exception is the Crossing Creek trail that leads over to the Elk Valley.
Long road rides and cut blocks. Back in the olden days the snow was excellent and cut blocks were fun but with the last couple of decades the snow fall has been lighter and I didn't enjoy the cut blocks near as much. Here is a link for some reading with some maps and pictures of the area.
MiddleForkFinalReport-March2001_1098309184979_d24b4d46adcc41c49bade3eab04e9b8c.pdf
Long road rides and cut blocks. Back in the olden days the snow was excellent and cut blocks were fun but with the last couple of decades the snow fall has been lighter and I didn't enjoy the cut blocks near as much. Here is a link for some reading with some maps and pictures of the area.
MiddleForkFinalReport-March2001_1098309184979_d24b4d46adcc41c49bade3eab04e9b8c.pdf
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Thanks for all the info on the Canal Flats area. We ended up staging east of White Swan lake closer to Munroe Lake, we had a great trip with some decent snow on the FSR's. Good enough for us NOOBS to get our confidence up with turning and throttle control. Maybe about 2-3' of snow on the unplowed roads, but no where near enough to venture far from the roads either. Pretty thin in most spots with lots of exposure. Here's a couple pics of our ride, a tree we cleared and a couple drone shots.
what he said. There's no trees up top for reference. Go when there is a high pressure system (sunny) and expect to ride about 4-5 kms of singletrack with 3 foot bumps.
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