Club #1 Closing Message

06:00 AM - April 15, 2019

On behalf of the Nepisiguit Snowmobile Club #1 I first want to thank all our members who signed up with the club this year plus all those who rode our trails this past season. As far as the season went we had almost a duplicate year of operations compared to last year with numbers showing about the same for the busiest seasons on record. There were a lot of positives to take away this season and the biggest one was the extra groomer “Big Blue” as we like to call it. It made a tremendous difference in our trail grooming just taking care of the short section between Nepisiguit and Rogers Lake. It freed up our two other groomers for the remainder of the trail system. We want to acknowledge all of our sponsors, without them it would be impossible to put a product out there for you snowmobilers. Lastly we want to thank Joan, Charlene, Micheline, Jessie & Paul at the lodge, Ron Scott our director of grooming operations and his operators: Melvin, Roger, Jack, Josh, Bryan, & Troy who all did an amazing job.
Our season started off with a bang with the groomers hitting the trails on Dec 15th after a few good snowfalls prior to the 15th. We had an above average year at the lodge and our Wednesday night suppers were a fantastic draw again this year with a few bumps due to inclement weather. We don’t have a handle on membership numbers, but we should “hold our own”. As far as snow it was almost a flip flop from last season with all of our snow coming in Jan & Feb and barely none in March. Our trails held up very well with nary a blip during the whole season. I have to revert back to the addition of the third groomer to help us through those times to keep up with the many storms we had this winter.
Going forward the club is in decent shape and we have our usual problems of keeping the system running. Presently we’re working on our groomers getting them stored away and making them ready for next year. We made significant upgrades in our trail system with the moving of Trail 503 from the old TV Tower trail to the one out of Popple Depot and connecting to Traiil 19 at the old Simpson Fields intersection. This trail was a big hit for all riders and a relatively easy trail to maintain. We also added a trail 502 into the Austin Brook Cluster, but fell short on the much needed Trail 501 into the city with many road blocks posed to us by the DTI. We have a plan in place to get this done for next season. We made some significant changes at our lodge with the new storage facility plus a fresh new look inside and outside the lodge. We could be making some changes around the lodge again this year and we’ll keep you filled in on this.
Our Wednesday night suppers were an amazing hit again this year and well attended by local and visitors as well. These suppers are a big hit and a mainstay of fund raising for trail maintenance and with this and a few other fund raisers and lodge advertising it would be virtually impossible to have the product out there on the trails. Having said this, a big thank you to all our great sponsors who make the aforesaid happen. Without your support the above would not have taken place.
The club is also in need of new and more directors to ensure the longevity of the club. We don’t have problems with getting volunteers, but it is at the administrative end where numbers are lacking. We’ve added a key director, Shelter Director; Tyler Mullin who really “took the bull by the horns” and is looking after our shelters. We’ve added a fourth shelter at Popple Depot and Tyler is in the midst of changing out the old shelter at Red Pine Brook (we’ll keep you updated on that).
For myself, I’m not sure where the future is going to take me, as I had a few life changing events, but my heart is and always will be with club #1 and will hopefully be around again next year God willing. In closing we would again like to thank all for your support for this past year and look forward to seeing you all back next year. Please stay posted as periodically we will have info to pass on. Have a great summer and remember Club #1 next year when registering. “BUY WHERE YOU RIDE”