Welcome to the Eastman SnoPALS Website
Eastman Snopals continues to upgrade its snowmobile groomer equipment.
On December 21st, Eastman SnoPALS took delivery of another Sur-Track snowmobile groomer from Snow Track in Wausau Wisconsin. This new groomer will be used in the Lac du Bonnet area for trail grooming. The club has had good success with the groomer purchased three years ago and was willing to try a similar one again this year.
Our thanks go to Mark Krupka who identified, negotiated and arranged the deal to get the groomer here. Our special thanks must go to the groomer operators who provided the required grooming hours to make this purchase possible. See the Pictures of the groomer at the link.
Eastman SnoPALS; Fourteen Years and Still Going Strong.
Eastman SnoPALS is a regional snowmobile club formed in 1996 by the amalgamation of several smaller, local clubs from Pinawa, Agassiz (Seddon's Corner) and Lac du Bonnet. This is where the acronym PALS originates from. Other clubs have joined us since then. The SnoPALS is presently comprised of members from Pinawa, Lac du Bonnet, Seddon's Corner, Seven Sister Falls, Whitemouth and Elma.
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The clubs objectives, as stated in the by-laws are: |
The SnoPALS club maintains approximately 300 km of trails, stretching
from Red Deer (Great Falls area) in the north, Elma to the south,
Seddon's Corner to
the west and Pinawa in the east. The trails connect with trails
maintained by neighbouring clubs and are part of the provincial trail
network overseen by Snoman (Snowmobilers of
Manitoba), the
provincial snowmobiling association.
The SnoPALS have always been safety-oriented with hundreds of kilometres of trails cleared, signed and groomed annually. The trails range from a nice flowing ride through a pine forest in the Canadian Shield to a straight line over an old rail bed through swampy and sandy pastureland. Every season, the all-volunteer crews clear debris and fallen trees off of the trails to allow for signage and movement once the snow falls. The club also has five warm up shelters along their network for use by snowmobilers. They are open anytime to allow snowmobilers to stop and rest, build a fire and enjoy a quick meal on the trail. Alternatively they can proceed to a restaurant located in every hamlet along the network of trails.
The club will always be present when the discussion of drinking and riding comes up. Eastman SnoPALS along with the Snowmobilers of Manitoba (Snoman) does NOT encourage consuming alcohol and snowmobiling.
Eastman SnoPALS is concerned about respecting the private landowners. Wherever possible, the club tries to get permission from any landowner where the trail may parallel, intersect or runs over private land. As a general rule most of our trail system is located on public lands through forests and bogs that our region is noted for. Trails over private lands are only requested when needed to connect to other similar locations in eastern Manitoba. Snoman and Eastman SnoPALS also encourage snowmobile riders to respect landowner’s rights when riding is not permitted on private land.
The club has three groomer units, which are farm tractors converted to run on tracks. The club has a groomer in Pinawa, one in Lac du Bonnet and one in Whitemouth to help out with grooming nearly 300 KM of trails in the club’s network. Everything done by Eastman SnoPALS would not be possible without the core group of dedicated volunteers that work on our trails for nothing more than the love of it and the desire to see safe, groomed trails to ride on themselves.
In all we have approximately $125,000 invested in equipment. In addition, the club has built and maintains five warm-up shelters located along the trail network. All the work of developing and maintaining the trails is carried out entirely by volunteers. This is remarkable when you consider the amount of effort involved and wouldn't happen without the efforts of a dedicated core of people who love the sport.
As a club, we think of ourselves as a social network as well. We are online and we also have fundraisers to help promote safe riding and exposure for the club. For the past two seasons the club has held an appreciation Bar-B-Q at our Half Way Hut the first weekend in March to allow riders coming in from all over Eastern Manitoba see how nice our trails are. We have had two wrap-up/ thank you potluck dinners to thank all those who have worked on the network in the past and we try to organize a social event fundraiser in the fall to raise awareness for the club as well as money for club projects.
Trail Improvements for the Coming Season of 2011 - 2012
The summer of 2011 has been quite dry and this has allowed Eastman SnoPALS attend to some much needed trail improvements especially those that travel through swampy areas and pose a safety issue for snowmobilers or the groomer. Many of the water crossings on the railbed trail required leveling out and the remaining wooden piles had to be removed. The Betker Trail that goes by the Agassiz Hut was also straighten and widened to allow easier grooming and a safer trail to travel with a snowmobile.
There has been logging operations along the Centerline Trail going north from PTH 44. Following our brushing activity from two years ago, the logging company has added a solid gravel base to the trail this past summer. This should make the trail considerably better as a snowmobile route. The Hellsgate trail going to Seven Sisters from Halfway Hut also needed some repairs to water crossings as well. These were achieved with the help of a local contractor.
The trail north of Whitemouth to Seven Sisters has also had water crossings improved as well. This trail was not passable until late January last season. In addition, trails along Provincial Road 211 going to Pinawa required some earthworks as well.
This winter there will again be logging operations along the trail south of Julius to PTH 15. It will likely be posted but caution is always needed. Overall we are pleased with the improvements that have been made this fall of 2011.
Further improvements are planned for the trail from Old Pinawa to Kings Kookout later this winter or early spring.
Previous Years Trail Improvements
During the season of 2009 - 10 we spend over $30,000 on trail improvements in the Whitemouth and Agassiz forest areas of our trail system. This work was largely made possible by a grant of nearly $15,000 made to the club from the National Trails Coalition through Canada’s Economic Action Plan.
Most of this work involved brushing and straightening of the trails to make them safer for snowmobilers and to facilitate grooming operations. Ten different sections of our trail system were upgraded and the total distance of trails improved was about 62 KM. In all about 20% of our trails received some upgrading this season.
Area north of
Whitemouth showing newly cleared out trail area. The trail was widened
and cleared with funding assistance from the National Trails Coalition.
(on left).
Snowmobilers at
Three’s Company warm up shack south of Whitemouth on February 27 2010.
The area around the shack and the trails leading to the shack were
cleared with assistance from the National Trails Coalition. (on right)The Eastman region has a reputation of being the premier
snowmobiling area in Manitoba.
We hope you enjoy our trail system as you pass through our communities and make use of our services and facilities. Club membership and volunteer participation is always encouraged.
next Meeting
| Date: | March 12, 2012 | |
| Day: | Monday | |
| Time: | 6:30 PM supper | |
| 7:15 meeting | ||
| Place: | Whitemouth Hotel | |
| Town: | Whitemouth |
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