Dan Falloon
The volunteers at the Borderland Snowmobile Club have done their part.
Now they’re just waiting for Mother Nature to do her’s.
Club president Dave Goodman said his volunteer crew has been out doing what they can with the trails, which connect Fort Frances, Emo, Mine Centre, Rainy River, and Nestor Falls.
“They have pretty much all been cleared, brushed,” he noted.
“We have numerous creeks we still have to get across with the groomer,” he added. “We have basically been also waiting for ice to get thick enough on some creeks to get across with the groomer.
“We’re at that point where everything is ready to go. We just need the snow, and we need another six, eight inches.
“Sounds like Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, we may get a present,” Goodman remarked.
Environment Canada is calling for snow on Christmas Eve. A good chance of flurries also is in the forecast for Sunday and Wednesday.
Goodman said the trails generally are ready to go around mid-December, but are running about a week late this year.
“This would be about average, I would say,” he noted. “I would normally expect that if the trails are open for kids when they get out for Christmas holidays, that would be about average.
“If we get the snow on Christmas, we’ll be about a week behind.”
Last year, parts of the trail system were very good very early, but other parts were a bit more troublesome.
“We had heavy snow very early,” recalled Goodman. “But as you got further north towards Nestor Falls, the heavy snow made ice conditions very bad, so we were late getting open there.
“This year, it’s the other way around, where we’re going to get good ice,” he added.
“And so once we get enough snow, we’ll be able to get opened up there a lot quicker.”
Snowmobilers are able to check trail conditions online at www.ofsc.on.ca
But Goodman also stressed volunteers still are needed to help take the workload off those who have put several hours into the trails.
“We have about 600 kilometres of trails,” he noted. “And we have about 10 or 12 people, and we could use double that.
“When we revived the club under the amalgamated club two years ago, a lot of the work has been done by six-eight people, and some of them are starting to get burnt out, so we need to spread it out over a larger base of people,” he reasoned.
Goodman added the work actually can be more fun than it appears.
“Going out and clearing trails, brushing and signing, and all that, I’ve done a lot of it myself and it can actually be a lot of fun,” he remarked.
“People just don’t think to volunteer or don’t think they need to, and so then it all gets put on a few.”
Those looking to lend a hand can call Goodman at 482-2580 ext. 204.
