MINISTIK ASA TRAIL SYSTEM - OPENS December 1, 2012

[Ministik Man]

HI All

I have spoken to the Alberta Sustainable Resources Department today and they have given Tri-County Snowmobile Club the go ahead to unlock and open the gates at Ministik

(Need 5 snowmobile riders for Saturday and 5 riders for Sunday (No quads now) – call Brian 780-990-9339)

TCSC will be opening the gates around 10:00am Saturday December 1.

This is an Alberta Snowmobile Association Trail and therefore requires an ASA Trail Pass (See attached form for TCSC membership and ASA Trail Passes)
Also for memberships/ASA Trail Passes go to our website for locations -

Need on ASAP look for the Tri-County Sled Trailer in Parking lot #2 at Ministik on Saturday or Sunday

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ:

TRAILS:
We have ridden and cleared all the fallen trees on the trails this past November
- Thanks to all the hard working TCSC Trail Maintaince VOLUNTEERS - great job.

• Be careful as a new tree may have fallen overnight.

• Please stay on the treed trails and out of the meadows
• It is illegal to cut or create new trails and ASRD has requested that TCSC as trail stewards, close all illegal trails inside of Ministik
• Lake/ice surfaces all belong to Canadian Oceans & Fisheries and Department of Transport – and are deemed transportation hi-ways and you are allowed to public ice surfaces on rivers/lakes.
• Please stage at the proper locations on Parking Lot #2 (West), Parking Lot #33 (north) and Access #22 (East) all other access is considered illegal by ASRD and will request TCSC to close the Illegal Trail.
• We have asked ASRD to assist TCSC to have the Counties clear the Parking Lots to prevent everyone from being stuck.

LAKES/ICE/ROCKS/ICE HEAVES:
The land trails are open but please stay off the LAKES/ICE until we have had time to drill the ice depth and put up Trail Lake markers across the lakes
If the ice is a minimum of 4” deep this weekend – then we will keep drilling the ice for depth and placing trail lake markers across the lakes
If there are no lake markers then do not cross the lakes, until the lake markers go up.
ICE:

• If crossing the Lakes/ice please stay to the shoreline
• Watch for dark colored snow and do not go near it – usually means the water under the snow has melted the snow changing its color darker.
• If you smell rotten eggs do not go on the ice – the smell is from springs and spring cause the ice to melt thin or even to no ice. Stay off that lake.
• If you see a very dark or blue circle in the snow or ice – stay away – this is a methane bubbler – which is constant bubble coming from the lake bottom that carry warmer water upwards and melts a hole in the ice – due to constant bubbles it may never freeze over or will have very thin ice cover.

ROCKS:

• Most all shorelines in Ministik have large rocks on the shoreline
• When leaving the treed trail onto the lakes or from the lakes onto treed trails - drive slow and watch for rocks
• There are many islands on the lakes and they also have rocky shorelines so be careful

ICE HEAVES:

• Most lakes have ice heaves somewhere the ice solidifies and as it gets colder the ice expands pushing up shorelines or the ice will crack and one section will push up onto the other section – as high as 3’ in the air.
• Do not race across a lake until you have safely drive from one end to the other – then turn around and ride back down your own track – that’s the only way to know what is under the snow. If you hit an ice ridge you will damage your machine and yourself.
• Ice heaves change and grow and it is impossible to mark them all – so it is up to you to drive safely.

TCSC has spent over $100,000.00 to purchase a snowmobile trail groomer and over $5,000.00/yr maintaining these trails, for your trail benefit.
The groomer costs about $1,000.00 per day grooming and takes 2 days to do all 102km or about $2,000 per complete grooming.
A groomed trail can take 300 to 400 sleds before grooming again – it takes 2 quads or UTVS to destroy the trail surface to the point it needs grooming again.
When grooming starts (Around Dec 15) there is to be NO QUADS/UTVs on the snowmobile trail. They can park in the parking lots and access the lakes but not on the snowmobile trails – stop any quads you see on the trail and advise then they are on a Snowmobile only trail.

Alberta Off Hi-way dropped out of the Board of Directors for Ministik and therefore there is NO Representation for quads/utvs in Ministik.

If we already have snow by December 1 we might just get 3 full months and sledding until the end of February. SO let it snow.

 

[RXN]

I'm in for Sunday Brian.