With almost 7,000 miles of snowmobile trails and connectors in Michigan
keeping them maintained can be a daunting task. The job is taken on
by many different clubs throughout the state who are responsible for the trails in
their area. The club members are busy many months out of the year not just grooming in
the winter but maintaining the trails and equipment most of the year.
In the fall a lot of the clubs will have one day when they ask for volunteer help
to brush and sign the trails for the DNR inspection.
Seney was having their trail day on Saturday September 25th but I came up a day early
to help Don Reed, Seney's Snowmobile Club Vice President, check out the sign damage
on trail 43 north west of town. As Don fixed up an assortment of signs his son
Eric and I headed north on trail 43 off Fox river road. Don would start from town
and we would circle back and meet somewhere in the middle. Along the way we picked
up the broken signs and got an idea where we needed the troops the next day.
As we were picking up the broken poles I would notice a few body parts
from a snowmobile by some of them. Others were knocked down by trucks,
logging equipment or just shot a few times. The poles are thin and made from
light cedar so they snap off fairly easy went hit. You would be surprised how
many signs there are on the 80 miles of trail Seney maintains.
You can see why it's nice to have enough help to do them all in a
short time. Smaller towns like Seney do not have a lot of the local recourses
that some of the larger towns have but still maintain a large area.
They rely on donations and volunteers from all over to help
keep the high standard of snowmobiling I known first hand
they maintain.
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