So, I'll try and keep this short but bear with me at times as I rant. There have been some complainers on certain sites, whining about the condition of the groomed trails up to Owlshead and Blue Lake. For those not in the loop, they're looked after by the Eagle Valley Snowmobile Club in Sicamous. Quick history lesson, when I started sledding in this area in 2008 the Club was hooped, but was brought back to life by Bruce Moores who took over the grooming aspect and now Gord Bushell who has kept up with the excellent program.
I went up the trail this AM for a test, and a ride, to see WTF the problem is. Looking at the Club website, it was just groomed last night (3rd). The Club has a policy of trying to groom at night so the trail will "set up" for the following day. Me, being the first one on the trail, it was like a paved hwy. Now with that said, the first 1.5 km was rougher, but for those who know anything about the snow cat that does the work, it has metal cleats on its rubber tracks, these cleats are also known as grousers. I don't know if anyone but me noticed (being the retired groomer I am) but the track cleats were digging up dirt in that first km and change, because there is not enough snow, hello! Again, for anyone who pays attention, you'd notice that as you get higher up, you get more snow, duh, and the trail is groomed right flat because of this. I took the trail all the way to Blue Lk, flat as a pancake and in fact I went "off trail" a few times to grab a little extra snow! Which brings up another point, there isn't always a 4 lane hwy up the trails, there are spots that the groomer will only do a single lane, leaving some of this "off trail" snow so you can go and grab a little extra snow sometimes, how's that for courteous!
Now comes my point, finally, I did my quicky trip up around Blue and down to Cummings Lake and back down the trail, I passed only 8 sleds between Blue and the Owl's turnoff. The trail was in "like new" shape the entire way to this turnoff, pretty simple to tell no one was dicking around and ripping the new fricking snow up. Oh ya, did you know that snow is in fact soft and can be ripped up by morons that pin their throttle open, on and off, ya, that happens. Anyways, at the Owls's turnoff there had to be 20 machines, including quite a few snow bikes. As I went past them the first thing I noticed is that the trail was already getting rougher than when I came up, corners blown out in some areas and other areas skinned right flat and shiny. With that said, 3 snow bikes went by me, one with a rooster tail that looked like something out of a jet boat! Further down the trail were another 15 or so machines, and the trail got rougher yet, to the point where unless you had a SkiDoo XM you would have had to stand up! Near the bottom but especially that last 2 km it was brutal, duh!
Unc Gord and the trail pass gal just happened to be at the bottom of the hill when I got down, and I asked how many sleds had gone up. The number was 58. And you whiners wonder why after a 100 sleds the trail is rough??? Really? What the hell do you expect, especially when you get morons tearing the crap out of a newly groomed trail! Sure, we all want to have fun but don't go blasting the Club with your BS about wanting a refund or that they're expected to groom just when you decide to get your sorry *** outta bed at noon, give it a break! You say you "won't come back there" well, as far as I'm concerned that's great, at least our trails will stay in better shape! For you that say "well if it weren't for us Albertan's your town wouldn't exist", you can go find another hill too, because those Albertan's that truly support the town and Club don't have anything that even resembles that moronic attitude. Unc Gord is going to be posting a "for real" Grooming 101 that explains just what's going on with the groomer and the drag when they do the trails, maybe the whiners should give it a read in-between their complaining and paying for our town! Hats off to the EVS Club, the grooming guys (Glenn, Ken and Gord), Unc Gord and all those others that work/volunteer with the Club for running a class act, keep up the great work....... Sherm
I went up the trail this AM for a test, and a ride, to see WTF the problem is. Looking at the Club website, it was just groomed last night (3rd). The Club has a policy of trying to groom at night so the trail will "set up" for the following day. Me, being the first one on the trail, it was like a paved hwy. Now with that said, the first 1.5 km was rougher, but for those who know anything about the snow cat that does the work, it has metal cleats on its rubber tracks, these cleats are also known as grousers. I don't know if anyone but me noticed (being the retired groomer I am) but the track cleats were digging up dirt in that first km and change, because there is not enough snow, hello! Again, for anyone who pays attention, you'd notice that as you get higher up, you get more snow, duh, and the trail is groomed right flat because of this. I took the trail all the way to Blue Lk, flat as a pancake and in fact I went "off trail" a few times to grab a little extra snow! Which brings up another point, there isn't always a 4 lane hwy up the trails, there are spots that the groomer will only do a single lane, leaving some of this "off trail" snow so you can go and grab a little extra snow sometimes, how's that for courteous!
Now comes my point, finally, I did my quicky trip up around Blue and down to Cummings Lake and back down the trail, I passed only 8 sleds between Blue and the Owl's turnoff. The trail was in "like new" shape the entire way to this turnoff, pretty simple to tell no one was dicking around and ripping the new fricking snow up. Oh ya, did you know that snow is in fact soft and can be ripped up by morons that pin their throttle open, on and off, ya, that happens. Anyways, at the Owls's turnoff there had to be 20 machines, including quite a few snow bikes. As I went past them the first thing I noticed is that the trail was already getting rougher than when I came up, corners blown out in some areas and other areas skinned right flat and shiny. With that said, 3 snow bikes went by me, one with a rooster tail that looked like something out of a jet boat! Further down the trail were another 15 or so machines, and the trail got rougher yet, to the point where unless you had a SkiDoo XM you would have had to stand up! Near the bottom but especially that last 2 km it was brutal, duh!
Unc Gord and the trail pass gal just happened to be at the bottom of the hill when I got down, and I asked how many sleds had gone up. The number was 58. And you whiners wonder why after a 100 sleds the trail is rough??? Really? What the hell do you expect, especially when you get morons tearing the crap out of a newly groomed trail! Sure, we all want to have fun but don't go blasting the Club with your BS about wanting a refund or that they're expected to groom just when you decide to get your sorry *** outta bed at noon, give it a break! You say you "won't come back there" well, as far as I'm concerned that's great, at least our trails will stay in better shape! For you that say "well if it weren't for us Albertan's your town wouldn't exist", you can go find another hill too, because those Albertan's that truly support the town and Club don't have anything that even resembles that moronic attitude. Unc Gord is going to be posting a "for real" Grooming 101 that explains just what's going on with the groomer and the drag when they do the trails, maybe the whiners should give it a read in-between their complaining and paying for our town! Hats off to the EVS Club, the grooming guys (Glenn, Ken and Gord), Unc Gord and all those others that work/volunteer with the Club for running a class act, keep up the great work....... Sherm
