Three volunteers were out working on both trail systems Monday morning, afternoon, and into the evening. Track setting on the xc ski trails is nearly done, the shared fat bike & snowshoe trails are hopefully hardening up for the fat bikers.
Ski trails: A few cross country ski trail sections still need track setting: the driving range, expert loop, and Lynn's Frozen Thunder new workarounds. (no, we don't have a labelled map yet!) Skate lane grooming may be done Tuesday daytime, along with finishing the track setting, depending on volunteer capacity. Ski trails have good snow coverage, however it will disappear fast with sun exposure and wind. We only have a small handful of ski trail grooming volunteers doing ~95% of the work.
FB/SS: The shared pink & brown pin-flagged fat bike & snowshoe trail systems (FB/SS) are shaping up after this recent snow. Snowshoeing parallel or beside the packed trail will be soft and awesome. Our one main FB/SS trail maintenance volunteer was out on a snowmobile Monday afternoon drag-grooming both pin-flagged trail systems using a vehicle spare tire with a 50 pound weight on it!!! Things have hopefully hardened up overnight throughout both trail systems for the fat bikers.
Maintaining trails costs money! If you recreate and enjoy spending time at Shaganappi, pleeeease, consider financially supporting winter operations at Shaganappi. This is 100% volunteer.
It costs approximately $5K to $7K a year just to keep things going for winter trail maintenance at Shaganappi.
Think gasoline, machine and equipment maintenance, liability insurance, minor signage costs (we print and laminate/plastic sleeve most signs within SNO...then mount them with duct tape onto salvaged coroplast!).
We have a wish list for needed better drag-grooming equipment ($15K++) and drag-grooming machinery (think electric snowmobiles!) for both better volunteer experience, and also retention. (Lessening time spent on the snow; quieter, and no exhaust to inhale, respectively!)
How do I support winter operations at Shaganappi??? Read on for options....
Memberships and Donations: if you haven't already, please consider becoming a SNO paid member to help this non profit become more financially self sustaining by reaching our goal of 200 paid memberships. As mentioned above, It costs approximately $5K to $7K to run winter operations at Shaganappi each year, and we need better drag grooming equipment, big ticket costs. Thank you to the 57 households who have become paid members in 2023, and the two households who have joined in the past two days!
Alternatively, one can choose a one time donation if that works better, and corporate donations will be very happily accepted too, of course!
More pictures from Monday...
Spare tire drag-grooming the shared fat bike/snowshoe trail system:
Track setting late Monday afternoon
Turns off piste by members of the public
...More turns off piste....
