Snowmobilers Join Forces
for Betterment of Trails in French River!
In June of 2010, the Snow Devils held their Annual General Meeting, the result was a new Executive Committee. Shortly after the new executive took office, the plan for the merger of the Snow Devils and Snow Voyageurs began to take shape.
For many years around these parts the question has been asked many times over - 'Why do we have two snowmobile clubs in such a small area?' Back in the early days when these clubs were first formed it made some sense logistically and there were many more members for each club to draw on than there are now. But times have changed dramatically since the early hay days of the sport and become more complex and challenging. So to meet the needs of the two existing clubs and their members, the newly elected officers of each club formulated a plan to amalgamate the volunteers and resources into one organization. Now instead of two small organizations competing for members the new club has a much larger base of potential volunteers and trail grooming equipment. They can get down to the more important business at hand, namely improving the snowmobile trails around the French River.
It can only be seen as a win-win situation for everyone from the clubs to the businesses in the area to our local snowmobilers and most certainly for bringing much needed winter tourism into our area.
What we now have is one club known as the French River Snowmobile Association.
The obvious benefit is the opportunity to improve the fleet of trail grooming equipment. From two large industrial groomers and two medium duty groomers the fleet will now expand to three larger groomers as well as the light duty groomers. This allows for back up grooming equipment that can be moved from area to area as needed. The most recently acquired, 2007 BR 180 will be kept at the French River shed and will maintain the trails in the area, This will allow the 1998 BR 180 that was used in that area to be kept in Monetville at the tavern and maintain the trails in that area as well as the Dokis area.
We feel this will take the pressure off of the Noelville groomer and keep the south end of the trail system better groomed.
The goals of the new French River Snowmobile Association are to improve existing trails, re-route trails to favour dry routes, improve signage and provide a more uniform trail system throughout the area.
The Executive Committee for the new club is made up of a balance of members from each of the two original clubs.
French River Snowmobile Association