grover_yyz

thanks for all your dedicated hard work. I would help but I have appointments on Wednesdays. We were hammered in Lindsay area and we have cleared some trail. We are waiting now until the fall to continue. The OFSC has so little money that they want some trails closed and groomers gone. How will that save money is beyond me. Jerry

I gave up on using phone for navigation. I have Track maps on Garmin Nuvi 68 GPS with RAM handle bar mount and very happy they have maps again. For my phone i purchased a mini sleeping bag and i can add a hand warmer for the coldest days. It has a little Canadian flag so I hope it was made here. Jerry

With all the windy days lately we groom our trails and its blown over with drifts. We can't seem to keep up on the open fields.

We enjoyed staying at this place. Too bad about dinner no longer being served. They had an excellent Schnitzel. The cookhouse is not that far away and has good pub food. water tasted awful.

That is correct. Only to gather a list of possible volunteers. I believe a club will cease to exist when the number of km's of trails goes down to a bare minimum. New policy as well if a trail is not groomed for two consecutive seasons its permanently closed.

I am waiting on City of Kawartha Lakes to sign our MOU. Has to go to council at end of January and hope they sign. Our issue is our snow banks are getting higher and harder which will make it difficult to knock down and smooth out. I have been working on this since early spring and around August I submitted all our request for roads. We had to wait for District 2 to ave a final agreement and I figured a copy with outt district would be attached to the council meeting. Well, it was not and now our turn to go to council. Now the old Carden area club is trying to restart and they will need to also go to council since they are also mainly in Kawartha Lakes with their road crossings so I hope it goes well for them. Sorry, not intending to hijack the thread. Just time is needed when dealing with municipalities. Jerry

If its Mono township then I vaguely remember at our district meeting the club is still waiting on the MOU/ LUP to be signed.

I believe that would be the Orilla Club as Carden no longer exists. There is a grassroots group trying to restart the Carden Club.

Carden club was mismanaged along with District 8 from what I have heard. Everyone is hush hush about it at a district and OFSC level. I suspect something really bad happened if they don't talk about it and hope it goes away. Carden ran like an old boys club and not accepting any help from locals. (That I know is a fact) Locals from Kirkfield offered many times to help out and they were refused or ignored. Now the club is gone and there are people I would think like to take it over and get the trails open again. Its in the hands of locals and District 2. The mandate from OFSC is no new trails may be created without special permission. I was trying to get a trail from Beaverton/ Woodville area back to Kirkfield (Carden trails) but my district is saying it must be approved. I need to do all the leg work to find new route, sign agreements and then present to district. No time and not taking the chance they will reject the trail due to the "no new trail mandate"

You hit the nail right on the head with this comment. After sending and receiving many emails with our local Hydro One contact and all they can offer me is to pay $1600 (non refundable) for an assessment and look into the situation. I gave up and sent off to district. Now I am still dealing with Regions, cities, townships, conservation authorities and the hoops they want me to go through and sign. I'm no lawyer and can't sign their documents. Our LUP/MOU doesn't seem to be good enough for the larger landowners. The last punch in the gut is the big players will throw at me is " we will sign if we are added to your insurance" Sure thing I say; ...however....; OFSC says "we can't add them to insurance until they sign MOU/LUP". (Insert my screams of frustration here!!) We are close to the end of this and we lost many landowners and several of our trails will be shorter as we don't have manpower or time to locate new properties as we have no idea who the owners are or they won't return our calls. We have been working on this since June and many of our agreements were verbal. Jerry

maybe we need to go back to the old ways and just let everyone ride where ever they want. Police can't catch us all. The mass chaos should wake up municipalities that riders will still ride whether there is a managed trail or not. A managed trail system will keep most (almost all) on the proper trails. I can't blame municipalities for all our issues, it more likely the lawyers and insurance companies. As for LUP getting signed, the municipalities are the most difficult. For example, one town will sign if they are added to the insurance policy. OFSC won't add them to the policy until they sign the LUP. I had another township sign with no issues at all. Don't get me started on the larger "numbered" companies ... Its not as simple as presenting a piece of paper and say just sign it. They want to know every road crossing, every ditch and road we ride on and how long it is. They want it presented in a nice document with a map. This all takes time. Once you have it it all needs to be entered into the database. It appears I may be ranting and I apologize, I just hope its worth it and we get enough snow. Jerry

Love the Peterborough show. 30 min drive, no 401 and outdoor vintage and newer "yard sale" of related sledding parts. Jerry

road running is becoming more difficult as well. We are still negotiating with Kawartha lakes and Durham Region for signed access to the ditches on the sides of roads. Finally received our agreement for a small section that the MTO controls near Beaverton. Our government who is all in favour and support snowmobiling could step up and help with land access on their roadways and help with Hydro One access.

LUP is a permission form that grants snowmobilers access to private/public property. Also known as a MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU). The term LUP and MOU which means the same thing (i think) I believe LUP is Landowner Use Permission. The form protects OFSC, districts, riders and landowners from being sued or being liable if a situation was to occur. Without the signed form we are considered trespassing. For example.. we have permission to ride on a specific section of property and someone decides to ride off trail on said property and hurt themselves, the rider has a more difficult task of suing successfully. Jerry

We are also having issues with many landowners we are trying to contact. We are having a lot of difficulty with larger landowners and government and Hydro One is a one landowner that appear to not want to have anything to do with us or snowmobiling. I am glad OFSC has taken over dealing with Hydro One. We have been working on renewals of landowners since early summer and still many more to renew. Jerry VP Heart of Ontario Snowmobile Club