Despite what the North Bay Snowmobile Club felt was a perfect start to the winter season, the region was hit with the abnormally warm weather last Thursday—entirely unraveling hours of hard work put in by volunteers preparing the trails for locals and tourists alike.
“We had trails in absolutely perfect condition across the region last Wednesday and we held off pending the rain due on Thursday,” Shawn Flindall, North Bay Snowmobile Club’s director of marketing and public relations said. “The rain and temperatures were higher than anticipated last week and it really took a beating on the trails. They are now closed indefinitely.”
And while the trails have yet to be opened this year, Flindall had said at the start of January that the extreme freezing over December had set them up for opening the trails pending a good snowfall. Now, with much of the work undone, he said it would take more time to make sure the trails were safe and ready for snowmobilers to use.
“We need two more snowfalls before we can get going,” Flindall said. “It will be at least next week before any of that happens, based on weather forecasts in town. We have to cover things up and then smooth overtop what we fill in.”
However, this wouldn’t be the first year the local snowmobile trails would have to be opened late January. In 2013, the Club had to wait until January 22 before opening the trails and unfortunately for the last four to five years we’ve faced later consistent snowfalls needed to fill in the trails.
“January thaws have been causing a lot of water to start flowing around and filling swamps again as well as overflowing creeks,” he said. “It’s caused a lot of damage to the trails from the volume of rain and the high temperatures, but it’s frozen quite well over the past few days.”
So the silver lining, Flindall has felt, has been the trails freezing over again, which hasn’t totally undone the trails, meaning all they are waiting for is the snow to fall.
However, he’d like to remind snowmobilers, who might not be able to wait any longer, to keep off the trails as they are still dangerous with rocks, mud, and stumps protruding.
And while trails aren’t yet open, the Club is running the risk of losing some trails due to inappropriate behaviours from some sledders.
“Some people have been riding on private property and using loud exhaust pipes,” Flindall said. “Lots of our trails go through private property and some riders go off the trails and if property owners take away the privilege to these small sections of trails, we lose access to that whole stretch of the trail because we can’t get through there.”
