Maybe a few of you can answer this question. I ride in BC and all the land is suppose to be crown land. I know that trail fees and club fees go to other things than trail grooming, such as search and rescue, but why is this becoming more popular and why does it even exist? Do the clubs actually have a tenure on the land allowing them to turn a profit? I don't even care if trails are groomed and the areas I go I am only on the trail temporarily. The reason I started snowmobiling was to get away from paying people to have a day of fun in the mountains.
Paying for groomed trails?
- Thread starter Tenderfoot
- Start date
..Ever ran an ungroomed trail that's been beat to Fug ??..
. I mean one that never gets groomed? Having a groomed trail to the jump off point is sweet.. I don't care who you are.
we avoid trails as much as possible, but could not imagine riding them if they were never groomed.
M
MenzToys
Member
fees
Our club ,Castlegar B.C. has been collecting trail passes for 3 years now from non-members, this is to help us pay for the costs of maintenence and fuel for the grooming. Money does not go to search and rescue,although in every case where help was needed by search and rescue in our area members from the club have helped out and at times the snocat has been used to bring injured people off the mountain,to date not one of the ones that needed assistance has been a paying club member. Thank-you to the good people we have in our club.We have a management agreement with the Ministry of Forests that allows us to charge fees,we have to maintain the trails,and cabins to keep this agreement. PROFIT what is that,every penny we make goes to the club,right now we have quite a bit in the bank but as soon as we buy a newer groomer there will be no money left,which we are trying to do right now. Anyone know of a Br180 for sale,it is the machine we would like to purchase. Like the other forum members said have you rode on a trail after 50+sleds have been on it a day and it has never been groomed,15kms.of 3foot whoops,nice. Another reason to support your local club is to keep areas open for snomobiling. In our area the Heli-skiing and Cat-skiing companies are trying to take over a lot of the backcountry areas,also huge areas are being restricted for wildlife habitat. Hope this helps some see why we collect fees. thx wayne
Our club ,Castlegar B.C. has been collecting trail passes for 3 years now from non-members, this is to help us pay for the costs of maintenence and fuel for the grooming. Money does not go to search and rescue,although in every case where help was needed by search and rescue in our area members from the club have helped out and at times the snocat has been used to bring injured people off the mountain,to date not one of the ones that needed assistance has been a paying club member. Thank-you to the good people we have in our club.We have a management agreement with the Ministry of Forests that allows us to charge fees,we have to maintain the trails,and cabins to keep this agreement. PROFIT what is that,every penny we make goes to the club,right now we have quite a bit in the bank but as soon as we buy a newer groomer there will be no money left,which we are trying to do right now. Anyone know of a Br180 for sale,it is the machine we would like to purchase. Like the other forum members said have you rode on a trail after 50+sleds have been on it a day and it has never been groomed,15kms.of 3foot whoops,nice. Another reason to support your local club is to keep areas open for snomobiling. In our area the Heli-skiing and Cat-skiing companies are trying to take over a lot of the backcountry areas,also huge areas are being restricted for wildlife habitat. Hope this helps some see why we collect fees. thx wayne
groomed trails = tons of sleds & people
ungroomed trails = mountains to yourself
I am glad there are groomed trails in BC to suck up the vast crowds of people which leave the other good riding areas uncrowded.
imo
ungroomed trails = mountains to yourself
I am glad there are groomed trails in BC to suck up the vast crowds of people which leave the other good riding areas uncrowded.
imo
C
cableguy
Member
Join a club somewhere in bc, power in numbers. but there alot of areas ungroomed and unkown, probably 20x more than than the populated areas.
Uh who do think put in the trails and paid for the cost of doing so. If you don't want to pay make your own trail
I think the best part about being a member and paying money to have the trail groomed is all the f'in cross country skiers that use it....then get you kicked out of that area. The following year those f'in cross country skiers aren't in the THEIR new area OH NO there on the f'in groomed trail again.
I like the idea of trail passes, make those non snowmobilers cough up some money too since there gonna try and take it from us anyway.
rant over
I like the idea of trail passes, make those non snowmobilers cough up some money too since there gonna try and take it from us anyway.
rant over
F
frock
Well-known member
I would have agreed with you a few years back Warrior, but not anymore. I believe it is this exact same thought process that has divided us sledders to the point that the Greenies can come and take the riding areas, that sledders have been maintaining and developing for years, pretty much at will. Read MenzToys post carefully and the most important thing in there is the club money going into keeping the very well organized, well funded treehuggers from stealing more public areas.
just sayin, there are ungroomed trails out there if that dude doesn't want to ride em he don't have too, the rewards are there if he can stomach the punishment. Not everyone can though, and those who can don't want too all the time.
I didn't mean to take anything away from any clubs work, I'm all for it and I belong to a club here at home too.
People should be paying a lot more to ride trails then they do right now IMO. Grooming equipment is expensive, trail work and maintenance don't come free even if it's all volunteer and most clubs I know and work with or are involved with are all purely NOT FOR PROFIT clubs. Sure you need to cover your costs mind you but not one groomer operator I know does it for profit. Lot of them do it to keep thier businesses open in the winter, for tourism, and some to keep the good employees employed for what ever their summer business is.
Snowmobiling is a expensive sport and whether you ride the trails or not you are benefiting from it just from the fact that people are coming to your area to ride, people are buying the sleds that make your riding better and so on and so forth. It's a big never ending circle. That's all there is to it.
I say pay more for user permits. It's still one of the cheapest parts of the whole sport.
Snowmobiling is a expensive sport and whether you ride the trails or not you are benefiting from it just from the fact that people are coming to your area to ride, people are buying the sleds that make your riding better and so on and so forth. It's a big never ending circle. That's all there is to it.
I say pay more for user permits. It's still one of the cheapest parts of the whole sport.
so far menztoys answered my question. The ministry of forests gives them the right to charge money for people to ride the groomed trail if they please. Everyones points are valid, I just wanted to know how a club would have the authority to charge money seeing as the trails belong to the crown.
In my opinion, the number one reason to groom trails is to preserve the area for the sport of snowmobiling. Do some research in your area and you will see that people continue to try to close down more and more terrain every year so that we can't snowmobile. Grooming keeps that area preserved for the sport. Even if you don't ride the groomed trails it is still important if you want to keep riding in your area. If you don't like the additional snowmobilers, go hit the ski slopes and you will get a real taste for over crowded.
I buy a trail pass to support the cause. There are a lot of land closures going on in BC right now and I am guessing that only about 10% or less of sledders actually buy a trail pass. I think it would make a difference if everyone who rode these areas bought a pass to show just how many of us there are. We have recently lost Callaghan Valley as a riding area just because of some cross country skiers and it would be a shame to lose more of these fantastic riding areas. Large number talk!!
That being said....I do hate paying $15.00 grooming fees only to find 15-20 KM of pure moguls. That is frustrating!!
That being said....I do hate paying $15.00 grooming fees only to find 15-20 KM of pure moguls. That is frustrating!!
I agree with you 100% on the topic of keeping areas open by having groomed trails. I do think alot of closures are valid though from snowmobiling, modern snowmobiles are super loud especially people who put cans on their sleds. Im surprised alot of areas are actually still open to sledding. I know where I go alot there are many restricted areas and there are only more to come.
G
Gold5th
ACCOUNT CLOSED
we have a local club you need to pay to be a member of for a trail pass.. the groom once a year, if that, it looks like they just used a bobcat in reverse. I also ride mainly on well used trailed(snowmobile, quad, and skiers) no probs, parts are bumpy,, but oh well.
I do need to look into the local club a bit more, see if there are trails I'm missing. I might show up to thier poker rally to ask some Q's
I do need to look into the local club a bit more, see if there are trails I'm missing. I might show up to thier poker rally to ask some Q's
In Alberta we pay a yearly trail pass fee of $60 before Dec 1 or $70 after Dec 1. Pass is good for all trails in the province. It seems like a much better system than the fragmented system in use in BC.
Sounds like socialist thinking here in this thread. We ride in areas where a groomer never runs and I prefer it because alot less people will take a bad washboard trail to get to the good stuff. But it is sometimes nice to haul a$$ down a sweet trail at speed.
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