By Thomas Smith

“It was a comeback year for us,” says Neil Vanderstoop, Haliburton County Snowmobile Association (HCSA) president.

On Sunday, March 16, the HCSA officially closed all snowmobiling trails for the season. Vanderstoop says that this year’s sledding season went three weeks longer than what they have seen in recent years. In total, over 1,600 trail passes and 150 multi-day passes were sold by the HCSA.

Vanderstoop estimates that even on their slowest weekends, over 1,000 sleds went across the rail trail to Haliburton alone.

This winter’s weather started rather dicey, says Vanderstoop. Despite the low temperatures and plentiful snow, the snow covering the forests in Haliburton had a large amount of depth hoar, more commonly referred to as ’sugar snow’. This snow is characterized by large ice crystals that form cup-shaped layers. The snow bonds poorly together when compacted by the snowmobiles, making it unfavourable for sledding conditions. Vanderstoop says that after a brief rain and temperature change, the snow became highly suitable.

Even with their team of groomers grooming throughout the night the trails would need to be re-groomed by lunch the next day. With this year’s extensive snowfall, it was truly a challenge to keep up. In July, the Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers, a snowmobile association based out of Bancroft, donated a large culvert in order to fix the TOP B112 trail after rain washed out one of their bridges near Sedgewick Road. This winter, the HCSA lent one of their groomers to the Maple Leaf Snow Skimmers while their groomer was in the shop for repairs, allowing them to keep their trails open.

“It’s what neighbours do,” said Vanderstoop.

Through a collaboration with the Haliburton ATV Association, the Ritchie Falls Bridge along the TOP B103 Rail Trail north of Gelert was able to be redecked, using lumber donated from the County of Haliburton.

This year, the HCSA committed one dollar to the YWCA’s Haliburton Emergency Rural Safespace for every hour that they spent grooming the B103 trail in Haliburton County. Vanderstoop says the HCSA donated around $1,500 to the organization.

The YWCA Haliburton Emergency Rural Safespace provides a space for women and their children to leave abusive situations. It provides the opportunity for women to continue to work in their community, maintain relationships with friends, and allow the kids to go to the same school. The YWCA offers two two-bedroom units available on an as-needed basis. They also provide supportive counselling, information about housing and income support, assistance navigating family and criminal courts, and more.

Vanderstoop says that the HCSA had a large turnout for new volunteers this season. Through public information pop-ups, the HCSA hopes to attract more people to snowmobiling and volunteering with the HCSA, as well as educate the public on information about snowmobiling in general.

This coming year, the HCSA plans to continue their land work, installing some culverts, and developing a landowner tool. Vanderstoop hopes to continue the HCSA’s presence and ease of access to information in the community, and hand out stickers.

Vanderstoop says that many snowmobilers have formed groups near that service their local areas such as Hawk Lake. These groups are committed to trim tree branches, ensure proper signage, and stake their local lakes. With the Hawk Lake group in particular, they maintain the floating bridge and make sure it does not run aground in the spring’s thaw.

The HCSA has plans to incorporate an adopt-a-trail program to better assist the HCSA with maintaining their trails. This would assist with keeping a record of what trails are being maintained and ensure clear trails for sledders.

Minden in particular, is in need of a focus group, says Vanderstoop. There are several challenges with sledding through Minden. This year, the HCSA dedicated a groomer solely to work on trail access in Minden. With the trail going up to South Lake, and down South Lake road, many sledders opt to ride to Haliburton, avoiding Minden entirely.

With issues with landowner relations, Vanderstoop hopes a focus group of volunteers would allow for clear and concise communications with landowners and foster better relationships with them.

Facebook has been an instrumental tool for attracting new volunteers, says Vanderstoop. A lot of new people have moved to the area and are looking to utilize their skills in things like tree cutting for the HCSA in their downtime.

The trail towards Mountain Lake is often referred to as the ‘goat path’ due to the rocky terrain and has a reputation of being quite bumpy. Beavers have also become a nuisance along the B112 trail, with the topic being a point of contention for the upcoming general meeting.

“You always see them in the water, you’d never guess how big they were until they are standing on the trail,” said Neil, with a laugh.

Halls Lake was not able to be staked for riders this year, due to varying ice thickness. The HCSA needs a uniform eight inches of ice for the HCSA to consider it rideable and while some parts of the lake was thick enough, it was deemed unsafe for sledding passage.

Vanderstoop says that he noticed a lot more couples and family groups riding together, compared to other years.

“We saw quite a few sleds over the winter and more than last year because the season was much longer,” said Shawn Chamberlin, owner of the Dominion Hotel.

This year was also the inaugural event dubbed the ‘Rat Race’. The Rat Race went from Fenelon Falls through the Pinery and along the millennium trail to Haliburton, where over 20 riders had lunch at McKeck’s.

The event is in honour of the late Terry “Ratty” Murdoch. Murdoch was heavily involved with his home snowmobiling club based in Ganaraska and loved trail clearing, grooming, maintenance on machines, and maintaining the trails. As an avid snowmobiler, many riders from the HCSA club went out to support the Rat Race and donated money towards Pancreatic Cancer Canada. $1,400 was raised during the event in “Ratty’s” honour, says organizer Ben McKelvie.

The success of this year’s sledding season would not have been possible without the volunteers, generous landowners, executives, and businesses that love snowmobiling.