North of Edson

[dirtygirl]

Hello All,

Dirtygirl has finally returned! :d

Yeah okay no one missed me. Anyway!

I am looking for help and info on the trails North of Edson. We purchased property at Long Lake and have discovered a few semi marked trails but we know there are more. Our backroads book shows snowmobile trails that run near there and there is endless (well Whitecourt) acres of crown land that should have trails etc.

Is anyone experienced in this area? Can we use the snowmobile trails as quad trails (Robb trail, Silver Summit trail)? Is the Edson rally run on any of these trails???

Help!

 

[leonard]

you can use the snowmobile trails. only problems i find is when they intersect with beaver dam areas or flooded land. honestly your gona have to just head out and see.Near edson is Cadomin and Rob those both have tons of trail systems aswell.

 

[Garryese]

Edson Snowseekers do not mind if ATVs use their trail during the summer months, IF you do not tear up the soft areas. Once the groomers are out (around xmas) no ATVs are aloud on their trails. I'll let someone else speak as to the trails that are registared out of Whitecourt.

Some trails around Long Lake. More trails at Tom Hill and Shining Bank and between the two.

Not sure which rally you were referring to, but I'll to answer for both: The Snowseeker rally moves around a bit, but generally they part of Silver Summit Trail or the Robb Trail. The ATV poker Rally is west of Edson and changes the course most years, but the very west portion of the Silver Summit trail has been used in the past (near the Sundance Creek Snowmobile Staging Area). The first (2001) ATV rally staged from the Sundance snowmobile staging area, but has since been moved north of that location. In other words, you can go from Long Lake to the ATV rally staging, by ATV but it would take quite a long day.

The Edson ATV Club has their year-end wind up ride the Thanksgiving weekend at Tom Hill every year.... complete with deep fried turkey and pumpkin pie.

If you have maps, areas to check out are: Tom Hill, Shinning Bank, Silver Summit, Nose Hill. All these areas are near Long Lake, are inter-connected and have many more trails than you will find on any map.

PM me if you need any other info.

 

[leonard]

from what i gather the wct trails they just dont want you on them with atvs around the Slead Poker Rally time. cuz they groom them before it and dont want you ripping it up.

summer is fine
and winter i never had a problem when ive used them

 

[dirtygirl]

Thank you so much! We want to be able to just ride out from Long Lake so we aren't hauling trailers etc.
This has been VERY helpful! You're the best!

 

[rubirose]

Garry where is the best place to camp/quad from on Tom Hill Tower road? I remember Mike M talking about it but we never got a chance to go there with him and Betty. How exactly do you get to Tom Hill road from highway 16? And important for Dean, is there a lot of muskeg or is the area more solid, like the ATV rally area at Sundance.You can PM me exact directions. Thanks Miranda

 

[dirtygirl]

Hi Rubirose,

I see we are both posting on Outlaws and S&M. I left you this on Outlaws...


Okay! If you have the Central Alberta book I can help you!
Page 41 find Edson and you will see 748 going east from Edson just past Yates you'll see RR 165 follow that north. It goes on to map 53 (page 53). Bottom right corner you'll see it continue to Tom Hill Look Out. The snowmobile trails I was taking about that run along the RR that's the Robb trail. At Tom Hill it meets up with the silver summit trail. It's crown land around there according to the yellowhead county web maps and that means random. We haven't actually been that far up the road yet but might this weekend. There is a provincial Camp ground at Long Lake with 12 sites. You can see the tip of it in the top right corner of map 41 and over on the next page map 42 top left corner.

Hope this helps!

 

[Garryese]

Garry where is the best place to camp/quad from on Tom Hill Tower road? I remember Mike M talking about it but we never got a chance to go there with him and Betty. How exactly do you get to Tom Hill road from highway 16? And important for Dean, is there a lot of muskeg or is the area more solid, like the ATV rally area at Sundance.You can PM me exact directions. Thanks Miranda

For Dean's sake, there is quite abit of muskeg but most trails are on high ground. This is the place I recommend take their kids when they are looking for a place where the kids can drive 50 and 90 cc quads.

If you have a GPS try this: N53 53.162 W116 19.889

Miranda, directions by words: As you come into Edson, turn right just after you slow to 80km/h. Maker another right on hwy 748 (towards Whitecourt). Turn left on Tom Hill Tower Road (it is signed). Keep following this past the end of the gravel, past to two bridges that are very close together, past the Long Lake Rd (Signed). About two miles past the Long Lake Rd the road turns a slow left, then a slow right, followed by a 90 degree left. Turn right onto a road in the middle of that 90 degree turn. There is some camping just over the bridge on the right (1/2km from 90 turn) and a another (better, IMO) camping area on the left just past the pipline (1km from the 90 turn). OR another option, you can go past Peers and turn left at hwy 748 and a right at the Long Lake Road (signed and the speed limit goes from 100 to 90) and follow that to the Tom Hill Road and turn right and follow the the last part of the directions above.

BTW, there is no ATV use out of the Long Lake Camp Ground.

Dirtygirl, how far are you from the Long Lake camp ground? Are you off the north/south part of the Long Lake road or off the east/west part, or are you between the Long Lake rd and Shiningbank. If I know where you are at, I can probably tell you how to access trail from your land.

A very long story, but if you ladies can agree on a weekend over the next three weekends, Kim and I will camp at Tom Hill and tour you guys around. Maybe, we can get Betty out there as well.

 

[rubirose]

Thanks a lot Garry. The only weekend we have free before Robb Rally is next weekend, May 29-31. I will mention it to Dean and see if he wants to go. A guided tour would be great. I don't think Betty will want to come out, apparently she hurt her back quite bad taking care of Mike and now uses a walker and scooter. That is what she told me a few weeks ago.
Those GPS co-ordinates which camping spot are they for?. I found it on the map(kinda) but I don't see a 90 degree left. I did find the pipeline which runs NW-SE across road. This is before the Tom Hill lookout I gather.?

 

[dirtygirl]

Hi Garry & Rubirose;

We are on the east west part of the road just about 1 km west of the long lake campground. Do you remember the "Gone Too Long" campground? Well that has been subdivided and we bought a lake front lot there last summer. One of the big selling features was the access to trails and crown land for riding!

Directly across the road from the entrance is an access point and we can get to quite a few trails but we are looking for some longer rides. Like you said there is muskeg and creeks. When they upgraded the road last year they also improved the approach and put up a sign to block large vehicles but off centered it to allow quads. Nice huh?

This coming weekend works for us. We are taking the trailer out for the season on Thursday night. Our son has Friday of school (9 on a 90).My husband would love that he's been a little frustrated by my GPS skills (lousy top map).

Can we attach pictures to private messages? If so I can send a jpeg of the map. It will help Rubirose also.

 

[rubirose]

If we do go and Garry or you are out before us than you can just have a sign on the Tom Hill road with arrow for which way to go. Probably won't get out there until close to 8:00 pm. I imagine it is about 45 minutes or so north of highway 16 from Edson.?

 

[dirtygirl]

We can sort that out for sure. We're going Thursday night anyway. we have some relatives coming out too.

It's about 30 mins tops to Long lake and yeah I guess about 10 to 15 more to Tom Hill. Dirt roads but they just upgraded the last year and they are scheduled for paving in a couple more.

 

[Garryese]

Ok, well we are now booked for tom hill for next weekend.

Rubirose, we can hook up in Edson and go out together. I'll pm you my cell number.

Ditygirl;

Are you going to camp with us, or set up at your place and then join us?

From your place, head north to the pipline (not far). Turn left on the pipeline and follow it to the tower road where we will be camping (you will cross several roads inbetween). This pipeline is what you will use to access most trails in the area, so you might as well get use to it. I expect from your place to Tom Hill camping area via the pipeline on ATV to be aboout 1 hour.

Bring your GPS so you can mark some waypoints. Bring some maps that I can mark up for you. If you have a Garmin GPS, I'll bring our laptop and download some trails I have saved.

Also, I was going to invite the owner of this site (Ron) and and a couple of moderators out to this area at some point, so I'll do that by pms to them.

 

[dirtygirl]

We'll camp at our place because we are setting up for the season. An hours is nothing to get there we're usually looking for more at that point. Our longest day was 9 hours in Nordegg.

Do you have some gps coordinates for the pipe line. We ran in to creeks tryi g to go that way through the trails. Should we go down to the range road and then north? I see a gas pipeline in my back roads maps book and it runs NW and connets with the RR to Tom Hill and south of grizzly and trapper lakes.

Yes I have a Garmin GPS and that would be awesome! What can we do for pay back????

Hey the more the merrier! We met Catmando and a few others a Brazaeu a couple of years ago but haven't had a chance to hook up again. So it would be great! We like riding in groups.

Our son is riding his Polaris 90 for the first year. He had a Asia knock off 110 like Catmando has for his boy before and we didn't let him take it on trails as it just wasn't good enough. Now he has the better ride but still trail green so should he ride the 2 up with my husband? Or is is cool?

We also have some friends coming out that weekend. So that's 3 more! Hilarious!

Can't wait!

 

[Garryese]

You are looking at the correct pipeline. I have not been on it for quit sometime; there were bridges on all creeks, but you are probably better going by road if there is any question.

Unless I stash some fuel, I am limited to about 110 kms/trip, which is going to be way too far the kids. The kids driving is no problem; there are lots of escape routes/options if they get tired. BTW, you can get into fuel problems out there.

We'll camp at our place because we are setting up for the season. An hours is nothing to get there we're usually looking for more at that point. Our longest day was 9 hours in Nordegg.

Do you have some gps coordinates for the pipe line. We ran in to creeks tryi g to go that way through the trails. Should we go down to the range road and then north? I see a gas pipeline in my back roads maps book and it runs NW and connets with the RR to Tom Hill and south of grizzly and trapper lakes.

Yes I have a Garmin GPS and that would be awesome! What can we do for pay back????

Hey the more the merrier! We met Catmando and a few others a Brazaeu a couple of years ago but haven't had a chance to hook up again. So it would be great! We like riding in groups.

Our son is riding his Polaris 90 for the first year. He had a Asia knock off 110 like Catmando has for his boy before and we didn't let him take it on trails as it just wasn't good enough. Now he has the better ride but still trail green so should he ride the 2 up with my husband? Or is is cool?

We also have some friends coming out that weekend. So that's 3 more! Hilarious!

Can't wait!

 

[catmando]

Hey dirtygirl
How are you guys,that was a great weekend we had at Brazueu,Would really like to tag along next weekend but I unfortunatly have to work,Gary pmed me but he had June instead of May and was thinking that weekend might be do-able but may isnt.Hopefully we will get in on the next one!
catmando!

 

[Garryese]

I am pretty much open to go anywhere the group wants, however I'll start with this suggestion.

Friday night:
Set up trailers and meet everyone.

Saturday:
Leave Tom Hill and go the Shiningbank Slide via a middle loop, take some pics and have a snack. Return to Tom Hill Tower Rd (near the tower), via a north loop, where we can let anyone whom may have had enough for day escape back to camp. From there head to Grizzly Lake stopping at a trappers cabin for lunch. From Grizzly Lake to Knight Compressor Station and then back to Tom Hill camping area for wobbly pops.

Sunday:

Option 1; Loop from Tom Hill to Silver Summit (lunch on the hill with a view), to Pepper Hill, to Deer Hill, to either tom Hill camp area, or Long Lake Rd/Tom Hill Intersection. This would be a longer day.

Option 2; Loop to Knight Compreesor Station, to Windfall Gas Plant and then follow the Tom Hill Tower Rd back to camp. An easier day.

 

[rubirose]

Sounds good, we can decide final when we are there. We are bringing one friend a long, 30foot pull trailer and we have the truck camper and trailer. Will there be enough room? How many hours are we talking here, for each day, if all goes well.?

 

[Garryese]

Lots of room, rubirose.

Ooops. Catmando is right, pm should have been May not June. Sheesh, I don't believe he is right and I am wrong!

 

[dirtygirl]

Thanks Garry your a great tour leader/planner!

We'll come over there in the truck Friday night to meet everyone and scope things out. I'd like to go cross country on the ATVs on Sat. PM'd you my cell.

We always carry spare gas now. Ask Canmando! I towed the husband home the first day! Tee Hee

Catmando; No worries we have a lake lot at long lake now and we'll be there most of the summer and fall!

Rubirose; will email you the map shortly.

Can't wait!