Greetings Bobsledders,
Looking back on the 18 years that I’ve been doing this I can say that we almost always encounter some ice on the trails after a typical January thaw. Some being the operative word in that sentence. I have never seen mile after mile of ice like this. Generally speaking there will be ice in the inside radius of the corners and some in the low spots on the straights after a typical thaw, but this is crazy.
One of the grooming objectives last weekend was to fill in the ruts that are the result of someone running the trails in a pick-up when in a state of mush. Go ahead and ask the obvious question, Were the trails in a state of mush or did the mushy state exist somewhere above the shoulders of the driver of the truck? In this case it’s both.
Unfortunately driving a licensed vehicle on the trails is perfectly or imperfectly legal, depending on your viewpoint and it never fails there will be some trail segment that’s going to get tagged during a thaw.
There’s been a fair amount of talk in various circles about ATV/ORV traffic on the snowmobile trails during the Winter months. I’m not entirely sure of the concerns although I’m sure they are legitimate ones, but in all my years I’ve never encountered an ATV, but have encountered many a pick-up. In fact I saw 3 on the Lovells trail on Saturday alone.
Can I ride you ask? Yes but I wouldn’t rate the overall experience much better than fair at best. There is a thin layer of snow on most of the system, some areas have more, some less, depends on where you’re at. As a general rule there’s more snow to the west.
Last year on Jan 7th we parked the groomers due to lack of snow and they stayed parked for 5 weeks. This year it’s Jan 12th. Could this be a repeat? Let’s hope not..
Ride if you can and Please Be Safe if you do.
Keith, Sandy and The Girls.
Word of the day is carbide!!