After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, it appears winter has finally arrived to the East Coast of our fair province! This storm forecasted to douse us with over 20cm snow coupled with high winds prompting a Blizzard Warning.

The long awaited first blizzard of the season arrived around 3pm on Thursday and continued though the night with the highest snowfall rates to occur around midnight.

I snapped these mid-storm pics on my way out to the garage to finish installing the convertible top on my Argo so it would be all ready for a potential post storm adventure.

By Friday morning the worst of the storm passed although strong winds continued throughout the day.

Here in Torbay we received just over 30cm of snow as measured at YYT!

Once again, my trusty Honda 9/28 Snowblower was put to work getting the driveway cleared with minimal effort and no fuss!

With the driveway cleared and being already suited up I decided to take advantage of fantastic snow conditions and head out for a quick shakedown run in Project 6x6 as I recently reinstalled the winter tracks, windshield and convertible top.

Trail conditions were awesome. Getting out early meant I got to break many of the trails all around the airport fence. Snow was deep especially where it drifted and was quite soft. This meant using low range and running the throttle right on the governor to push the machine through the fresh powder.

My 32 year old beast performed awesome and ran well all day. A recent maintenance including fresh engine oil, greased bearings and lubricated drive chains are all key to keeping these machines reliable.

My newly installed windshield wiper really came in handy for these mild very snowy conditions. I will probably be making a couple modifications so shorten the wiper arm & install a longer wiper blade to get better coverage at the top of the window.

Meanwhile out in Bay Roberts, Dad and his buddy Kevin had the same idea and hit the trails immediately after the storm to log some long awaited miles on their Snowmobiles. Dad was riding his 2011 Yamaha Multipurpose.

Leaving from the fish plant in Cupids they followed the trails towards Nine Island Pond. Earlier this year Kevin picked up a new (to him) Yamaha Venture Multipurpose and completed a major overhaul. This was their first shakedown run with the new sled and it ran very well! For some pics of the rebuild check out Randy's shed Projects 2021 as they spent the Fall working on Kevin's machine.

By the end of the day they logged 45kms on the machines, not bad for the first little run of the season!

Hopefully this is finally the start to our winter, it hasn't been cold so ponds and even trail puddles are not frozen very well. Fingers crossed that conditions continue to improve before Ice Fishing season opens in February!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith