The Black Creek Railrider Snowmobile Club spent the first few days of 2016 trying to work with Mother Nature's offerings so far this year. 4 hours and a couple of sleds running down cattails, canary grass and deep snow to open up several swamps so that they'll hopefully freeze solid at some point soon. 20 minutes with a pressure washer got rid of most of the evidence on the sled. About 90% of our trail system is panned now. The afternoon and evening of 1/3/2016 panning trails showed a little bit of everything: good, bad and ugly but we managed to lay down a few miles of really nice ribbon! Nothing new here. We need cold weather and more snow....
Outagamie County
- Thread starter DooYellow
- Start date
X2...
r/l groomer
Member
Land owners and the renters are the reason your able to get permission to be on their land. Don't want to loose it. We are in communication with the renters on the land. That's why we haven't groomed as of yet. they are happy we keep them in the loop. Now the winter wheat and hay land is froze now we can groom when we have enough snow. A lot easier to get permission every year and are informative on what fields they want us to use.
Here is my take on it being a frustrated club member in two Outagamie clubs.
Every year we are the last ones to open. Every year there is some excuse why we can't open instead of finding solutions how to open. Every year there is going to be corn up, winter wheat planted, water issues, low snow, or some other issue.
We have some clubs who went out and panned and prepared when we got the December snow storm. We have other clubs in this thread who were out pounding down wet spots to get them to freeze. They are now opening because they prepped the trails. We have other clubs that didn't do anything but wait for more snow and those are the areas who did not open.
I pay my membership dues, buy raffle tickets, go to sponsored club events and just paid extra trail pass. It is time to maybe make some positions like a trail prep position a paid position so we can have the trails ready to go.
I get it that most of these guys are farmers or have jobs and need to get things taken care of before they can go out and take care of the trails. I get they don't want to wreck crops and fields. How come other counties can run with no issues and every year we are the ones who don't open?
It has been 24 hours and I don't see a groomer track or snowmobile track to check the trails around town. I guess they were checked really good.
We have insurance for crop damage, we have waited until January 27 and we have bought tracked groomers to help with less damage.
Go out and run the trail with just the groomer and no drag to pack down the trail and clear the road ways. Maybe have some snowmobiles run the trail and then come back and pan it. It is frustrating when we have the same issues every year.
Every year we are the last ones to open. Every year there is some excuse why we can't open instead of finding solutions how to open. Every year there is going to be corn up, winter wheat planted, water issues, low snow, or some other issue.
We have some clubs who went out and panned and prepared when we got the December snow storm. We have other clubs in this thread who were out pounding down wet spots to get them to freeze. They are now opening because they prepped the trails. We have other clubs that didn't do anything but wait for more snow and those are the areas who did not open.
I pay my membership dues, buy raffle tickets, go to sponsored club events and just paid extra trail pass. It is time to maybe make some positions like a trail prep position a paid position so we can have the trails ready to go.
I get it that most of these guys are farmers or have jobs and need to get things taken care of before they can go out and take care of the trails. I get they don't want to wreck crops and fields. How come other counties can run with no issues and every year we are the ones who don't open?
It has been 24 hours and I don't see a groomer track or snowmobile track to check the trails around town. I guess they were checked really good.
We have insurance for crop damage, we have waited until January 27 and we have bought tracked groomers to help with less damage.
Go out and run the trail with just the groomer and no drag to pack down the trail and clear the road ways. Maybe have some snowmobiles run the trail and then come back and pan it. It is frustrating when we have the same issues every year.
revx6002003
New member
I think the fields would be ok to go on the majority of them, but there will be some very thin spots from the snow we lost after they panned the trails last time. As far as crop damage, yes their is insurance but do you want to spend the time in spring replanting when you are trying to get all your other crops in. It makes more work for landowners which in turn could piss them off and tell you no for next years access even though they got paid for it. The way the weather looks by the weekend they should be shut down anyways. RIDE THE DITCHES!
revx6002003
New member
That's the smell of money on the fields. Anyways after driving around the county today I see Black Creek through Nichols over to Seymour were groomed, Freedom was not, and did not get by Apple Creek trails to see if they did. I think Greenville grooms the trail by where I work and that has not been done yet, but sleds have been down it.
If you or someone you know plans to ride the Black Creek area, please note that the section of trail in Zone 7 that connects from the intersection in Binghamton (103) to the Newton Blackmore trail intersection (111) in Black Creek was closed this morning. There are two areas of open water in this swamp (one is 6' wide and the other is 15' wide) and expanding quickly. Plan on looping west through Shiocton or east through Center Valley until we can span this water or establish an alternate route.
Attachments
is this trail still closed or did it freeze up?
Thanks