May 1, 2015 at 2:27 p.m.
Northern Trails Unlimited receives maintenance award
Northern Trails Unlimited receives maintenance award
Northern Trails Unlimited manages 38.7 funded miles of trail and more than 40 miles of club trails in Oneida County. Northern Trails Unlimited has won the award four of the last 11 years according to club president Steve "Fuzzy" Moran. Moran also served as the president of the Oneida County Snowmobile Council for 21 years, passing the torch to Jim Wendt from St. Germain.
Moran said one of the biggest challenges this year was navigating heavy grooming equipment over wet, boggy areas to groom the early November snowfall.
The 2014-15 winter started off with heavy snowfall in northern Wisconsin followed by a relatively dry winter. The result was that much of the state did not have enough snow to groom for snowmobiling or silent sport trails. Northern trail groomers were able to groom and re-groom that early snow base for the duration of the winter.
The insulation of snowfall also delayed ground and bog freezing, though, making grooming difficult in the first month of the season. Moran said the Northern Trails Unlimited club buried its tractor - a brand new John Deere with Soucy tracks - "up to the hood in a swamp" because the snow kept the swamp from freezing through early in the season.
Thanks to the staying power of that early base, local clubs were ultimately able to keep trails in good shape all the way through the season closure in mid-March.
"We were very fortunate for the cold weather that we had," Moran said. "With the little amount of snow we had, the cold weather kept it there."
Northern Trails Unlimited has been grooming snowmobile trails in Oneida County since 1969. In addition to the John Deere, the club grooms with a New Holland tractor with chains on the front tires. The club is supported by 10 local businesses and about 100 club members.
The club's enrollment has grown about 30 percent in the last year.
The Dick Rust Memorial Award recognizes clubs for dedication to snowmobile trail grooming efforts. The award takes into account timely paperwork submission, opening trails in a timely fashion, the quality of a club's brushing and grooming, trail maintenance, safety and proper signage.
Ryan Matthews may be reached at [email protected].
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