MANITOULIN—While not all details are in place as of yet, it appears the Manitoulin Snowdusters Snowmobile Club will have even better trails in place this year than it did for last year’s snowmobile season.
“It looks like overall, our trails on the Island are going to be better than they were last year and all trails except one is in place thus far,” said Doran McVey, president of the Manitoulin Snowdusters, late last week. “What we need is lots of snow.”
“We had a meeting this week and we have groomer operators in place for the Mindemoya area,” said Mr. McVey. “It looks as if the trail from Little Current to Mindemoya is a go.”
“In fact, all our trails should be in place except for one we are still working on, from Manitowaning to Sheguiandah (First Nation),” said Mr. McVey. “We are working on it.”
“We will be working on the Mindemoya trail this weekend and putting up more signage,” said Mr. McVey. “In fact, we have to do a whole bunch of signage on trails around the Island.”
The Snowdusters have permission to use a Billings township property for trails that allow the club to get around the Fraser Road property. “We have verbal permission from a local landowner that would make this all work out,” he said. “Everything is positive.”
“Our trails from Gore Bay to M’Chigeeng will be open again this year and everything looks good as far as trails are concerned for the West End of Manitoulin and from Little Current to Sheguiandah,” said Mr. McVey.
Mr. McVey pointed out it is imperative that, once trails on the Island are opened, snowmachine operators “make sure they stay on the trails. If operators start to run off the trails it can cause problems.”
Along with the work on trails, getting the trails in place and putting up signage, the most important thing for the Snowdusters to open trails is for the Island to receive a lot of snow. “We don’t think about having our groomers out on trails until we have a foot of snow,” added Mr. McVey.
