Living in Hudson Bay—which is home to 670 kilometres of trails that are rated some of the best groomed trails in Western Canada—makes picking a best day ever a daunting task. But for Richard Dolezsar, who is the trail committee chair for the Hudson Bay Trail Riders, a beautiful, crisp February day last year spent with friends riding the trails he knows so well definitely tops the list. The fact that he also got to test ride a brand new machine that day only sweetened the pot.
Joining Dolezsar that day was his good friend Brent Dyck—also a local Polaris dealer—who brought along a new Polaris 800 Switchback.
Leaving town at 10 a.m. in bright and beautiful conditions, the pair headed east from Hudson Bay out on the old rail line trail at a brisk pace, when a close encounter with a whitetail deer reminded them to watch out for wildlife throughout the rest of the day.
Continuing south, the duo passed a logging operation on their way to the Ice Road Shelter 22 miles out. After a quick rest stop, Dyck gave Dolezsar the chance to jump on and get the feel of the Switchback, an offer that Dolezsar was quick to accept.
“We carried on, climbing continuously into the Porcupine Hills on a trail freshly groomed a few days before with a dusting of a couple of inches of new snow,” said Dolezsar. “The trail got tighter and more winding the higher we got, and the four feet of off-trail snow in the open meadows was just too enticing to resist, so I put the Switchback through the paces on and off the trail and loved every minute of it.”
Twenty miles later, the pair pulled up to the next shelter, which overlooked the starting sections of the Swan River Valley. After the obligatory hot chocolate and signing of the guest book, they headed down the south side of the hills through tight hilly sections, which had the added bonus of offering them views of majestic spruce trees and large aspens.
Exiting the forest, Dyck and Dolezsar then made their way onto the logging road that serves the Little Swan Cabin subdivision and Par Hill Lake recreation site; next, they took an off-trail shortcut across the lake as they headed for the Boiler Junction shelter, where the Hudson Bay trails meet up with the trails of the Prairie and Pine SnoRiders club out of Norquay. There, they fired up the wood stove and enjoyed a smokie or two before being joined by two local riders, Landon Thack and Jeremy Virog, who had caught up with them and were only too happy to warm up at the ready-made fire.
Thack and Virog joined them for the second half of their adventure; from Boiler Junction, the foursome headed southwest along the Wapsum Lake logging road trail with Dolezsar in the lead—a position that gave him the perfect viewpoint.
“I saw a cow and calf moose muscle through the deep snow to take cover in a black spruce bluff,” said Dolezsar.
Shortly afterwards, they came upon the wide open spaces of Mcbride and Eldridge lakes. There is a section of trail that follows the two lakes lengthwise that allows for seven or eight miles of wide open running on the hard-pack trail or lets you play in the powder along the shoreline. Dolezsar said this is one area that will definitely get your heart pumping faster.
Continuing on, the group made their way from the west end of Eldridge Lake to the Mcbride Lake Road and drove across the forestry trail to the hamlet of Reserve and Highway 9 some 35 miles south of Hudson Bay.
“The trail follows the highway north up to another Hudson Bay Trail Riders shelter,” said Dolezsar. “And while Brent and I rode one side of the highway where there was groomed trail, Landon and Jeremy put their RMK and Crossfire to the test in about four feet of powder on the other side.”
With the sun waning, the four sledders congregated at the Bertwell shelter, where more hot chocolate was consumed and gerry cans were emptied, before they headed home just after 5 p.m. by way of Hudson Bay’s Trans Canada Trail.
Moonlight lit their way home, as they headed for Dolezsar’s garage to reminisce over the highlights of the day and enjoy a few end-of-the-day refreshments. With a 188-kilometre round trip safely under their belts, the group all agreed how lucky they were to live in Saskatchewan’s platinum-groomed trail destination—Hudson Bay.
