With the snowpack melting in Manitoba, snowmobile trails across the province are now officially closed for the season.

Mitch Gobeil is President of South East Sno-Riders. He notes they groomed their trails for the last time last week. But, with the warm weather and some rain, trails were in pretty rough shape this week. Though, it was only a matter of days before the trails would close anyway, Gobeil says Snoman mandated that all trails in the province close on Thursday, March 26th at midnight.

Photo of monitor inside the groomer (Photo credit: Stan Letkeman)According to Gobeil, the March 26th closure is close to normal for South East Sno-Riders, though it is much later than their earliest closure which happened in mid-February a few years ago. This year, the trail system in the southeast was open for about 82 days, which he says is also about average or slightly more.

The President says the condition of their trails this year was very good. He notes they received many compliments this year.

"We didn't get lots of snow but with the efforts of the eighteen or so dedicated volunteer groomer operators we had, we kept them in good shape," he says.

He adds trails were groomed weekly, aside from one week when they had mechanical problems and were not able to spruce up the whole system.

And, Gobeil says he thinks there were more sledders on their trails this year than in years past. He credits this to the amount of snow that fell in the southeast, compared to other parts of the province, including the Interlake.

"So I think we did get a lot more riders out this way this year," notes Gobeil.

Gobeil says the March 26th province-wide closure will probably impact trails up north, more than in the south. He suggests the trails in the northern half of the province are probably typically open an extra week or two.

Meanwhile, as the result of the coronavirus pandemic, Gobeil says they have been forced to reschedule their annual general meeting. It was scheduled for early May, but Gobeil says they will now find a new date.