January Newsletter

January Newsletter 2008

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Smart Snowmobile Club welcomes anyone who wishes to VOLUNTEER. Even if you can only help for one day. It will make a great contribution to our club. Please email Don, we need your help. Thank you Smart Valentine Ride 2008 Huge Success Smart Snowmobile Poker Run February 23rd 2008 - CANCELLED I wish to congratulate Jean and Greg Rapson who were our club volunteers of the year for 2007. Volunteers working hard tearing out the old bridge in - 21 celcius Finished bridge - deck& railing in one day. Click here for larger Picture Before and after photos. Don Martin re-decked the bridge at Lone Creek and put a new railing on it.	Click Here Printable Newsletter Inside January 2008 Newsletter President Message Trail work Event dates To Remember On behalf of the SMART Snowmobile Club executive, I wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday. The season started off awesome with the amount of snow fall but we were not able open our trails because of the mud hole issues in our area. There was no frost and therefore when it came time to take our BR180 on the trails to pack snow we were breaking open the ice in the mud holes caused by ATV's and 4X4 trucks. We did put on over 1,200 km's on our Skandics packing the trails. The trails were one day away from being opened before the warm weather hit. Now! Our MSR President, Norm Hoffstetter always wishes the news letters to be positive. I was reading my January 2006 article and the first paragraph was as follows:” Let's think positive. As I am writing this article it is +6 celcius and raining. The trails are still listed as closed and we are closing in on the middle of January “ It is now January 8th, 2008 as I am writing this article. It is +10 celcius and pouring rain. There was a thunderstorm with lightning and a down pour yesterday. The 18” of snow on my lawn has nearly all disappeared. Most of the lawns are green. Now on that note, I will try to be positive. Our club has been very busy with the construction of our new groomer shop. At the time of this article we were waiting for the man door and a window to be installed and then we are complete except for hydro and shelving inside. The construction of this project could not have been done without the hundreds of volunteer hours. I wish to thank those who have been able to come out and help for 2 or 3 hours and those who helped for a half day. But there are a few persons that really need to be thanked. Those persons are: Ron Martin, Greg Rapson, Andy Dunlop, Rob Roth and myself (Don Martin). These persons have been out working on the building every weekend and some weekdays. But, it is not only these people who need to be thanked. I personally want to thank their spouses who have allowed them to put in that much time. I know I want to thank my wife Pam, big time as not only have I been busy with the building, I am doing the trails work, signage, permits etc… I was away moose hunting for the first week and a half of December and that is December 1st permit reconciliation is due and the main rush on permit sales. Pam was running around getting more permits to the outlets as they sold out, picking up the sold permits and then sorting them out. Again, I wish to thank her very much for her much needed help. The volunteer construction crew had to eat while doing this project. I want to thank Bob and Marilyn Snider (owners of The River Emporium) for preparing and donating 3 lunches. Bob also donated his BBQ for us to cook on and make lunches. They also brought out coffee for the guys when the construction started and it was cold out. A hot coffee was awesome. It sure hit the spot. Pam Martin made chili twice and Tracy Roth made home made soup and brought out snacks. Peggy Fouracre and Lisa Martin picked up lunches for us in Coldwater and transported them out for us. Greg Rapson brought out his generator and made coffee every day he was out. It is volunteers like this that make snowmobiling happen. I do have two more SMART volunteer stories.

Click here for larger Picture

TRAIL Work

LOST CHANNEL BRIDGE

On Saturday December 15, 2007 the 50' bridge at Lost Channel on TOP Trail B105 near Trail #10 was redecked and new railings attached. This was a big project and the weather was very cold, touching the -15 celcius mark. Tom Wideman put out an email to our list of volunteers for help and the following people came out. Remember this was getting close to Christmas. Tom Wideman, John Clark, Dave Davidson, Dan Smith, Paul Blackwell, Jim Rowntree, Bill Dunbrook, Brian Langsford, Kevin Dawson, Paul Burden and Tom Braun. Again, I want to thank the Six Mile Lake crew for their help. They brought out all the lumber to the site via boat prior to freeze up. Great job guys.

FLOATING BRIDGE

Our land use permit with the MNR gives us permission to put the bridge into place on December 1st of each year. But we try to be fair to everyone who resides or have cottages on Gloucester Pool and McLean Lake (Black Lake). We do not want to block the river with the bridge to prohibit boat traffic so we try to wait until ice starts forming on the lakes. This year was so busy with the construction of our new shop that the bridge kind of got put off to the wayside. Then all of a sudden it got really cold and everything froze, even the river. Well, again we put out a cry for help over the holidays. On Thursday December 27, 2007 we tackled the challenge. There was 160' of bridge tied along side of the south shore, frozen in 8 inches of ice. We started by breaking the bridge into its 16' sections, broke the ice around them and dragged them up onto the ice with the BR180 and dragged each section across the ice. It was a major job, believe me. The last 5 sections had to go in by chain sawing the ice and eventually floating the section into place. It was finally done and it only took 10 hours. What a long day. The following persons came out to help and need to be thanked: Ron Martin, Don Martin, Andy Dunlop, Rob Roth, Greg Rapson, John Swailes, Bob McKeller, Bud Knowles and Gord Fontaine.

Thanks again guys.

Well, I think that is about it. I thought this was going to be a short article. But, I find it very important to thank our volunteers for their help.On that note, thank you everyone, you know who you are and I hope to see you on the trails.

Event Dates To Remember

EVENTS

VALENTINE'S DAY RIDE - Friday February 8th, 2008

Meet Location - River House Restaurant in Severn Falls on Top Trail B105 and on Upper Big Chute Rd.

Start Time - 8.00 A.M. - Register, meet riders, Continental breakfast and get prepared for the ride.

Ride Start Time - 9.00 A.M. ride the trails to a lunch destination and return to the Riverhouse Restaurant for dinner.

Note: Spouse's, partner's and friends are more than welcome to come along for the ride. Please register early as the restaurant has a limited seating capacity.

Cost: $45.00 per person

Please call Don Martin at (705) 686-7653 for information and reservations.

email: smart@amtlecom.net or Jean Rapson (705) 686-7781 if you wish to register or get information.

SMART FAMILY FUN DAY/ POKER RIDE - Saturday February 23,2008

CANCELLED

VOLUNTEERS OF THE YEAR - 2007

I wish to congratulate Jean and Greg Rapson who were our club volunteers of the year for 2007.

Jean Rapson volunteered last fall (2006) to take over our website. She did an awesome job redesigning it and it is awesome. Jean then volunteered to help organize our annual Valentine's Day ride. She got a crew of ladies and men, held meetings and gathered prizes for the event and made up games for the evening's entertainment on the day of the ride. Again it was awesome. Jean is now a director with the SMART Club. Jean, I can't thank you enough for all your help and congratulations.

Greg Rapson is a club volunteer like you can't imagine. The Rapson's live on a Concession which is at the very south end of our trail system where Top Trail B105 crosses the North River and joins the Orillia District Snowmobile Club. There is approximately 2 km's of trail that we cannot get to with our industrial groomer because of a swamp. A few years ago, Greg offered to groom that section with small equipment. We gave him a 1994 Alpine and a drag. He fixed up the Alpine and made it like new. He runs the trail continuosly with it and the trail is fantastic. Then he volunteers his time to help with trail maintenance and worked on our shop as you will read in the newsletter. Congratulations Greg, you deserve it. Thanks for all your help.