For snowmobile enthusiasts in the southeast this wasn’t the winter they’d hoped for. President of the South East Sno-Riders Club says, "it wasn’t a ‘normal’ winter."
Mitch Gobeil says in most years they groom over 10,000 kilometers of trails, this year it was under 2,000 kms. “We groomed as best as we could, but the situation was with the lack of snow and everything else.”
He adds in many areas of the southeast, there wasn’t even enough snow to create a good trail base.
“So, the trails were fairly rough. Ideally, we like to get a foot of snow to create like about a two-to-three-inch base being the hard pack snow, and then when you don't have much of a base because there's always, you know, little rocks that are taken out. And when I say little rocks, I actually mean, little boulders that are taken out here and there on the trail. And most winters that three-inch base keeps it (the rocks) covered and kind of makes your trails almost as smooth as a highway once they're groomed. But with the little bit of snow we got, and then the warm weather and the rain and everything else just, made it (the trails) even worse.”
Gobeil says they temporarily closed their trails on February 5th, in hopes of getting snow and be able to reopen them again. But as of March 1, all trails in the southeast are officially closed.
“We haven't got snow, and we haven't been able to get back out there. And the weather isn't looking favorable at all. There was talk of a Colorado Low, but it didn’t have much of an impact and then you get into the situations where the ice (on bodies of water) has been thinning with all the warm weather, and the rain on top of the ice, it's not very conducive to good trails at all.”
He says for snowmobilers still hoping to ride the trails this season, "they should be careful."
“All clubs have parts of their trails on private property, and we have land user agreements with the private property owners which gives us permission to have our trails there. And when we close our trails, of course that agreement for that time period is not existing anymore. There's still snowmobiles that are out there on the trails. They're taking a chance. They're at their own risk.”
The winter was so mild right across the province, Gobeil says, “I know at one point, just before we closed our trail, there was only Thompson and our club that had open trails.”
Thankfully, there was enough snow for the Adult and Teen Challenge snowmobile ride January 2024He adds it also be difficult on their bank account, as their club funding per kilometer of trail groomed.
“And so, we didn't bring in very much money, but there's still expenses. Like, paying for fuel costs setting up signs in fall. The club pays for that because we don't want the volunteers having to pay for the fuel besides donating his time. Those expenses don't change for running around and putting up the signs, and there'll be some more later on this spring when we go back out and pick up the signs.”
Gobeil says they won’t be able retrieve their signs, because they are still frozen into the ground. He says, he has only been working on trails that wouldn’t be enjoyed, he’s not even started his own machine.
Then there’s the wear and tear on the groomers. "Even though they didn't get used very much this year. We've put a lot of expense into them, getting them all ready and stuff, and we have little mishaps that can get expensive. But you know that's just the nature of the beast.”
As the sun continues to melt the snow on trails across the province, Gobeil says, “I wouldn't recommend anybody being out there on the trails. If you really have to ride, you know, take a look at the Ashern or Thompson area. I know there's expenses to travel out there, but if you have to ride that badly, it might be cheaper than getting out here and getting, you know, hitting a rock or something.”
On the upside, Gobeil says, they’ve been able to renovate all their shelters. “We have 5 shelters and we have put in over 1,700 volunteer hours, repairing our shelters, renovating them, making them look better. I believe we spent approximately, it's going to be close to $17,000 on repairs and renovations. Some needed more work than others, but we've made some major renovations to upgrade our shelters.”
“So, it was a good winter to do that type of thing because we weren't as busy grooming, those groomer operators put a lot of hours renovating shelters. And that's just the way it works out. But our shelters are all ready for next winter, we just gotta get the snow again.”
Gobeil thanks all the volunteers, “We do it because we enjoy the sport.”
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