Volunteers Prepare for Snowmobile Trail Work

I am joining in on 3 photography and word challenges this morning – Six Word Saturday, Stream of Consciousness Saturday and Weekly Prompts Weekend!

As the volunteers bundle up, they prepare for their usual annual outing of preparing the snowmobile trails for a winter of riding. As they load the trailer they are preparing with stakes, signs and the tools necessary to mark the trails.

Its not usual to be doing this by sled, typically they are not on trails this early, its been well over 5 years since this has happened and its a welcome change. To prepare for winter, to prepare for a successful and enjoyable snowmobile season. Usually the marking happens with 4 wheel ATV + UTV’s however we have been blessed with an abundance of snow.

As they leave in the morning sunshine, its cool, cold without gloves on. My hands were feeling the cold bite of the snow as I grasped a handful to throw for our dog.

Our children my be getting older, but this mama is always prepared to capture the magic in their everyday lives.

Volunteers put in hours of work before the trails are able to be open, before they are even safe for others to be on the trail. Their knowledge and understanding of the land they work, sometimes along with the land owners, to ensure the safety of all – the people riding and the owners, including any crops that might be on the fields.

It felt good getting out in the sunshine as they prepared for their day. Soaking up the beautiful early morning sunshine and running our dog around.

I had mentioned to my husband before they left this morning, if they reached a part of the trail that I could see them from the road, let me know and I will go meet them and get pics. Reminder… when you grab only your camera – be sure there is a card in it! These are from my cell phone. I was initially upset with myself that I did that, my camera and longer lens could have gotten MUCH better photos. However, in that moment, I had my phone. Rather than be ticked off at myself, capture with your phone as they are keeping on the move – and on my way down there, I passed 2 cars in the ditch, ironically at the exact same point but opposite sides of the road. Where we live, where Ive lived my entire life except the years I went to school, we can get a lot of snow and if you aren’t used to driving in it, you could have issues. I personally LOVE driving in the snow we get here and LOVE when we have snow – a true winter season!

4 on sleds marking fields and 2 riding the roads to meet up with them in the SxS. This is where it gets tricky, everyone chomping at the bit to get out on their sleds, we have snow why aren’t the trails open, and now that we have snow and a lot of the volunteers are out marking on sleds, people see the sled marks on the trail and assume – what do we know about assuming… and ride on closed trails – which is both illegal (trespassing) and unsafe as some areas aren’t completely frozen.

If you are a snowmobiler, please tap into your own stream of consciousness and be sure to check the ITG to see what trails ARE open before you ride!