Rage Against the Machines

We actually got to ski on Saturday. Really nice. We’re home and cooking up some supper making plans for a Montreal Trail renovation op for Sunday (after we see that there might actually be some snow on Saturday night) when our texts and Facebook comments lit up with reports that snowmobiles had gotten on Uller from Smith’s Ck to Hoyt Rd.

Change of plans...

I can totally understand; but it’s completely unacceptable. Our ski trails don’t look anything like the impeccably groomed snowmobile trails in our county. 95% of the machines on the trails these days have reverse. A 12 year old can turn a snowmobile around in the snow-pack we have at this time... Yet a groomed trail (even if it has those curious tracks set in the middle of it) can be just too enticing for someone who’s incognito, 200 miles away from home in the Great White North.

Oh well. It only took us 2 hours to re-set the damage after we spent 2 1/2 hours renovating Montreal.

I’m retired. I have all the time in the world. I can fix 4K of trail any old time; especially when I have a strong 30-something guy who wants to help out; but I detest spending grant money or funds donated by people interested in skiing/snowshoeing re-setting perfectly good ski trail.

We all got out and skied today again anyway. Until we get a good 2 feet of snow in the woods, we’ll see intrepid snowmobilers go ‘boon-docking’ on our trails, and we’ll go back out and fix them. But for the ‘belt-men’ out there - be aware - your quick joyride usually costs our volunteers an afternoon or more when they could be out working on something new or enjoying the fruits of their labor.

Give us another foot of snow and even all be forgotten and forgiven. In the meantime, the trails are gorgeous again if we may say so ourselves.

Ski on. Ski Freely, eh? CZ