Great First Impressions of Sledding in Haliburton

It's always fun and exciting to travel to new places, especially when you get to really experience what these places have to offer. Prior to my first snowmobile trip to Haliburton, I had actually only been there once or twice, driving through in the summer time. I've always heard that snowmobiling in Haliburton and in Ontario's Highlands in general is amazing, and had always wanted to go! Recently, a friend of

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mine invited me up to ride the Haliburton trails for the day!

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Being the pre-planner that I am, I loaded my snowmobile into my truck the day before and got all packed and ready to leave at 6 am the next morning. Let me tell you, 6 am always comes way too fast, especially when you know that you can’t just press snooze, as the diesel truck takes half an hour to warm up. Still half asleep, I went outside and started my truck in my PJs, went back in, got ready and made myself a quick breakfast.

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Leaving home, I headed towards Highway 11 to meet my friend at the 118/11 exit. Unfortunately, not everything always goes smoothly when traveling and my truck's heater core became plugged due to an air block in the system from a previous coolant flush and… I had no heat in -19 C! However, with some Tim Hortons and a little impromptu dancing to keep warm inside the truck, I continued on my 2.5-hour drive, excited to go snowmobiling!

Finally arriving in Haliburton, we unloaded the trucks and headed out on the trails. My first impression of the Haliburton trail system was that it's awesome—the trails were perfectly groomed, easily wide enough for three snowmobiles, and the views through the hydro lines were amazing! It also helped that it was a beautiful sunny day with minimal wind, which made it the perfect day for snowmobiling!

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We stopped numerous times off the trail to climb up some hills and get pictures of the amazing views; but the pictures do not do it justice. It was really cool sitting virtually on top of the trees on the snowmobile. There are so many areas to snowmobile up along the big hills past the hydro lines to take in the gorgeous views. We took the B trail from Haliburton Lake, through parts of Algonquin Park up to Whitney, and then came back down again. It was so cool snowmobiling into Algonquin Park, as I never knew that there were snowmobile trails through parts of it! Snowmobiling on Haliburton Lake was also pretty cool in my opinion, as I am a lover of beautiful views. Surrounding the lake were bigger hills (I wouldn’t call them mountains or anything) but it was beautiful snowmobiling across the lake at the end of the day, basking in the orange hue of the sunset.

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I definitely enjoyed my time riding in Haliburton on the OFSC trails, as going somewhere new and exploring new trails is always fun! The Haliburton snowmobile trails left a wonderful first impression and I cannot wait to go back and ride there again! My family and I are already planning to go sometime before this season ends, or next season.

About Chelsey Hennig

I am a lifelong gearhead who grew up in northern Ontario, with a passion for virtually anything with a motor. I am the Public Relations and Communications director for the International Women’s Diesel Association and have my Honours Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

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