Sledders are reluctant to admit it, but the snowmobiling season is over for another year.
Gilbert Fortin is the OFSC District 14 president, encompassing the Timmins Snowmobile Club and seven others.
He says the trails are unsafe. “Especially the trails that are beside the roads are not very safe, especially the few waterways we have to cross, we shouldn’t go on them.”
Fortin calls the season “awesome”, lasting 15 weeks instead of the average of about 12 with copious amounts of snow. However, all that “white gold” presented challenges of its own.
“Especially in open areas around Val Gagné and those areas with the farms and even in Earlton,” he says. “If you had snow and you had a little bit of wind, yeah, we had to be back out there to clear those snowdrifts.”
Fortin acknowledges landowners who allow trails on their properties. Without them, he notes, there wouldn’t be a trail system.