By Thomas Smith

The Haliburton County Snowmobile Association’s (HCSA) 53rd annual Area General Meeting was held on Saturday, May 24 at the Haliburton Legion.

“The end of our season is just the start of our next,” said Neil Vanderstoop, HCSA president.

The HCSA says that they are in good shape looking ahead to their 2026 winter season. Grooming over 1,700 hours across 213 shifts, the HCSA donated $2,000 to the Haliburton Emergency Rural Safespace, run by the YWCA. It provides a space for women in troubled relationships to remove themselves from dangerous situations and receive support.

Despite the setbacks including winter storms, weather conditions, manpower limitations, and minor mechanical issues, the HCSA says that they groomed for double the number of hours than last year and are planning on having four rigs running next season.

At the AGM, the HCSA team thanked their 178 landowners that donated access to their land, letting snowmobiles adventure over the trails all winter. Notably, a majority of the landowners do not snowmobile themselves.

The HCSA says that their biggest fundraising effort is through their advertisers in their HCSA Trail Guide.

Around 6,000 copies of the HCSA Trail Guide were reprinted for the HCSA’s 2025 season. The HCSA is proud to support Parker Pad and Printing, a 100 per cent local Haliburton business. In addition to having advertisers listed in the book, the HCSA posted a list of sponsors online at hcsa.ca/business–directory-2025/. Businesses that are interested in advertising in their 2026 Trail Guide are asked to email the association at info@hcsa.

Away from the trails, the HCSA had a crew of dedicated volunteers fixing what the HCSA calls their “administrative nightmare.” Their issues included ensuring all landowners sign an updated Land Use Permission Memo of Understanding to allow insurance coverage. This step was crucial for the trails to open and required many late nights. Their other main task was updating their bylaws to comply with the recently updated Provincial Not For Profit Corporations Act.

“Our bylaws are even better now,” said Vanderstoop. Vanderstopp also notes that some neighbouring snowmobile associations plan on using the HCSA’s bylaw documentation to assist with establishing their own bylaws.

The changes were enforced by the Ontario Federation of Snowmobiling Clubs, enforcing their memoriam of understandings (MOUs), requiring all permissions to be filled by property owners. This change in administration became quite the headache for snowmobiling clubs across Ontario.

“It was a big, team effort,” said Vanderstoop. “We are the biggest club and need the most signatures.”

With the freshly signed MOUs, the HCSA has included rolling closing dates. When the MOUs are close to expiring, the HCSA will only have to get signatures from a select number of landowners at a time. Some of the agreements that Vanderstroop had to track down in their files dated back to the 70s.

This winter season, a washout along TOP B112 wiped out the new bridge on Sedgewick Road and part of the TOP B103/The Rail Trail. A new culvert has been installed there too. New culverts were also placed around the Horseshoe Lake Road area and the Voicey Road area. Two bridges received new decks, with one at Ritchie Falls and the other along TOP B112 north of Minden.

This year has the highest number of vehicles getting stranded on the trails. Regular vehicles like cars and trucks think that the cleared trails are roads and become trapped.

“It was the worst year for vehicles on the trails,” said Vanderstoop. “That’s a great testament to our grooming, but come on.”

One vehicle was stranded on a snowmobile trail for four days before they decided to phone the emergency rescue line.

“It was a weird year, but it was fun,” said Vanderstroop with a laugh.

This spring and summer, the HCSA plans to re-top the bridge along B103 with new wood and install a few small culverts. For the most part, they plan on taking it easy.

The HCSA would like to thank their team of volunteers for their support, action towards maintaining the trails and allowing this past winter to be such a success. They are also currently looking for additional interested volunteers. For those interested, please apply on their website at hcsa.ca/volunteer.

The HCSA will be hosting their Open House on June 14 from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., located at 171 Mallard Road. Their next general meeting will be held on June 18 at the same location at 6:30 p.m.

“It was a great winter,” said Vanderstoop. “Our volunteers did an amazing job. I am very proud of our group this year.”