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"It's an almost thankless job," said Stephen Lewis, director of snowmobiling for the state Parks Department. "They do it for the love of snowmobiling."
Snowmobiling is a big deal in this state, with nearly 100,000 registered snowmobilers this year so far, and more expected as the snow finally arrives for good. The state offers more than 11,000 miles of groomed trails, with most being maintained year-round by volunteers from snowmobile clubs, using their own equipment. About 80 percent of those trails are on private property. Landowners participating in the state snowmobile trail system have free liability coverage under the blanket New York State Snowmobile Association insurance policy. Landowners allowing access to snowmobile clubs are also protected by the provisions of the state General Obligations Law.
Money to keep up the trails comes from a state fund fed by snowmobilers' registration fees. The clubs use that money, along with their own club fees and fund raising and borrowing, to keep their equipment updated, running and repaired, and for trail renovations, such as construction of bridges and culverts in the off season. Recently upon talking with the Colden Trail Riders assistant grooming and trails coordinator Scott Christ he explains... "This summer we took it all apart. I finally have my shop back," Christ explains how he donated his shop space to renovate the Ski-Dozer 252. “We put almost 400 hours into it, a full restoration” Christ said. "We wanted to make sure it was all ready. We've been going through it. We've repainted it. That's where we are now."
This year the club purchased a 2nd class B groomer, a Thiokol Super Imp to work in conjunction with the clubs first class B groomer a Thiokol IMP , Bombardier Skandiac Wide Track snowmobile and the Ski Dozer 252 Class A groomer. It takes a lot of 50/50 raffles, membership dues, gun raffle ticket sales, and other fund raisers to make this all happen.
The club keeps the trails groomed with a crew of less then a dozen volunteers. He said it probably would take some 16 hours of solid grooming to do an entire run of the club's assigned trails. "It takes a lot of special people to do this," Christ said. "You just can't take off from your job to do this. You have to work around your job, doing it on nights or weekends. "And just when you get it perfectly smooth . . . depending on the weather and the traffic they just rut it up again."
Club president Dave Waples said the club has about a 8 or 9 volunteers who drive the groomers on the 30 miles of trails the club is assigned. "When I go out, I'm out 6-8 hours." Waples said a lot of people out on snowmobiles think they're owed groomed trails because they paid their registration fee. The best time to groom snowmobile trails is late at night, when the traffic is off the system." That gives the trail a chance to rest and set up. The snow needs to sit some two to 10 hours to get compacted and harden up," he said. "Many guys are out there from 10 p.m. to 3 to 4 a.m. It's a lot of work."
Waples noted how the trails are posted and opened each year after the hunting season closes. Putting the signs up any earlier would only encourage ATV users and snowmobilers to use them prematurely. Every year we have to repair or rebuild bridges that are damaged by illegal ATV riders.
This year, the time in between the end of deer season and opening of snowmobile season was about 2 or 3 days. Not too long for volunteers to get out and post their trails with numerous fluorescent signs attached to wooden poles that all have to be pounded into the ground. Signs that have to be taken down at the season's end. "It a miserable, hard job . . . and you have to put them up every couple of hundred yards," he said. "And then they get stolen, broken. It amazes me what it takes for the snowmobilers to have their sport."
Ron Transki, grooming and trails coordinator , said that throughout the winter season the club often has to deal with "trigger-happy jerks," who keep gunning and spinning their snowmobile tracks every 100 feet. "Every time they do that, it leaves a little mound on the trail and a ditch, also known as a mogul”,we work all season to get those cut down but the snow and the trail has a memory it just keeps coming back. he said. "The work never ends."
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