The Estevan Snowmobile Club has made the difficult decision of not having trails this year, citing the lack of snow in the southeast region.
The club made the announcement on its Facebook page Jan. 20. President Dave Heier said it would be great to have trails this year, since snowmobiling is one of the activities that people can enjoy while following social distancing guidelines.
“It would have been great to have some trails,” said Heier.
Club members looked at the weather forecast, saw there wouldn’t be much snow in the forecast before the end of the month, and decided not to groom trails.
“It will probably take us two weekends after that (the snow), so we’re into February, and we usually have to take our trails down by the middle of March, because if we don’t, we lose too many of the stakes. They fall down, and we can’t find them in the … stubble.”
It would be a lot of work to groom 258 kilometres of trails for a month of use.
If the Estevan area were to a large dump of snow – Heier said a foot of the white stuff, and not whipped around by wind – within the next few days, the club might reconsider the decision.
A good base would be eight inches of snow. They haven’t had that the past two winters.
Some local snowmobilers have been going to Kenosee Lake this winter. Grooming of trails in that area just started.
Others have been going to Esterhazy, Yorkton, Hudson Bay, Tisdale, Melfort and Candle Lake.
“There’s good snow around Saskatoon, I’ve heard, and usually there’s no good snow around Kindersley, but that whole area from Kindersley to Rosetown to … Kenaston, there’s lots of good snow there.”
Estevan was supposed to host the Saskatchewan Snowmobile Association’s festival the weekend of March 6 and 7, with 300 riders in attendance, but the lack of snow and the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the club from hosting the event.
The club remains in good shape financially, despite the lack of snow in recent years, but they find it disappointing they can’t provide the service they want to the community.
The club is selling Sled-4 tickets as a fundraiser, and they retain 75 per cent of the revenues from the tickets sold. Usually they sell $3,000 or $4,000 a year. Tickets can be purchased at Thunder City Power and Leisure.
