Trail work

[Doug]

Found out last night one of the clubs in the county disbanded because of lack of active members and their trails got split up between 4 clubs.  At our club meeting heard the club ride was discussed by more of the social club type members and they want to keep it as one group that would be about 20 sleds.  Been on those rides and also ended up leading reluctantly a couple times.  It's just to hard to keep a group like that together with the different riding styles.  We'll pass.  Normally like to ride in groups of 6 or less.

Fixed income guys LOL I call it broken income since I'm retired guess I qualify.  In a normal year I would have had some trails marked and brushed around home already.  This year been working on a lot more sleds.  Got 8 shocks dropped off this morning to rebuild and asked if they could be done before the weekend.

For trail work I'll just show up on the scheduled dates and see what happens.  We have some younger members also but they have families with kids so its understand they have limited time.

[Mag6240]

@Doug I hear ya on the bigger groups and having to lead.  They don’t even ask me any more they just assign the 8-10 guys who can keep up.  Yes, I let others lead if they want, but most don’t want to, or I don’t want them to because they can’t stay to the right as the leader.  
We didn’t have a single sled with these two groups come up behind us last year over 150 miles.

[Doug]

2 minutes ago, Mag6240 said:

@Doug I hear ya on the bigger groups and having to lead.  They don’t even ask me any more they just assign the 8-10 guys who can keep up.  Yes, I let others lead if they want, but most don’t want to, or I don’t want them to because they can’t stay to the right as the leader.  
We didn’t have a single sled with these two groups come up behind us last year over 150 miles.

Enjoy getting back to the motel sit around the pool or lobby with some drinks and BS it's a good time.

Last large group I lead had one guy in the middle to signal up the the leader and a guy at the end.  Worked OK but just not my preference.

[Mag6240]

4 minutes ago, Doug said:

Enjoy getting back to the motel sit around the pool or lobby with some drinks and BS it's a good time.

Last large group I lead had one guy in the middle to signal up the the leader and a guy at the end.  Worked OK but just not my preference.

Agree 100% - 3-4 of us is just right IMO. 

In bigger groups, like the two above, each guy has to act like the leader.  If the guy behind you falls back, then you fall back.  That way if someone has an issue, we don't get miles and miles of separation. 

I was the sweep one time in a group of only 4, had an issue, and the guy in front of me never looked back.  I think it was something around 30 miles before the leader stopped, "Where's Kevin?"  His response was:  "Uuuh, I don't know, was I supposed to look??"  I'll never follow the guy in front of me that day EVER again.

[Bontz]

We need to start figuring out a way to "incentivize" being a club member.  Not like it needs to be something every month, but we don't do the "get away" type of club rides any longer & it would be fun to try and get that going away.  That said, we wouldn't expect the club to pay for any of the lodging ... maybe a drink ticket or two for a night out or something.  But the overall idea of trying to make something FUN instead of always being, "we need volunteers to help with X, Y, and Z" gets kind of frustrating ... especially to those smaller groups of members that always offer to help.

If we get snow locally, it at least makes it easy to schedule a club ride and doing similar to what you guys mention by breaking it into groups & then just meeting somewhere at the end of the day.

[Sled_Hed]

8 minutes ago, Bontz said:

We need to start figuring out a way to "incentivize" being a club member.  Not like it needs to be something every month, but we don't do the "get away" type of club rides any longer & it would be fun to try and get that going away.  That said, we wouldn't expect the club to pay for any of the lodging ... maybe a drink ticket or two for a night out or something.  But the overall idea of trying to make something FUN instead of always being, "we need volunteers to help with X, Y, and Z" gets kind of frustrating ... especially to those smaller groups of members that always offer to help.

If we get snow locally, it at least makes it easy to schedule a club ride and doing similar to what you guys mention by breaking it into groups & then just meeting somewhere at the end of the day.

I agree. This is one thing our club didn't do at all and at times it did disappoint me. It was all about trail work and no socializing to speak of. I didn't expect them to pay for anything but getting together for a ride once would have been fun. 

[Mag6240]

Besides trail work, club meetings monthly, and club rides, we also do a Christmas Party (Instead of a December meeting) where we cater in food, paid on a per plate basis by each club member, and additional family members that show up, a Land Owners appreciation meal (About 4 hours with the owners split into two groups), where club members can buy their own meal, land owners are free, and then we do "Drive and Dine" dinners throughout the summer months to local establishments on our trail system.  Yeah, the turn out isn't always high in the summer months, but there are quite a few of us who get together all year long.

[Doug]

19 minutes ago, Bontz said:

We need to start figuring out a way to "incentivize" being a club member.  Not like it needs to be something every month, but we don't do the "get away" type of club rides any longer & it would be fun to try and get that going away.  That said, we wouldn't expect the club to pay for any of the lodging ... maybe a drink ticket or two for a night out or something.  But the overall idea of trying to make something FUN instead of always being, "we need volunteers to help with X, Y, and Z" gets kind of frustrating ... especially to those smaller groups of members that always offer to help.

If we get snow locally, it at least makes it easy to schedule a club ride and doing similar to what you guys mention by breaking it into groups & then just meeting somewhere at the end of the day.

That's a yes and no post.

Like seeing new members but you really hope the new members help with some function of the club.  Not every single event, fund raiser, trail work or grooming but some.  The burn I currently have is the members that are saying we should have more club sponsored social events are the ones that never show up for the work or fundraising.

We use to have a Christmas party that included 2 drink tickets and a meal off of a limited member to include the member and spouse.  Had members there that you wouldn't see any other time.

Now when we mark trails we'll pick up the breakfast.  When we're done marking or pick up trails, making signs getting the groomers ready we get some pizzas and adult beverages.

When we have snow around home there's an open invite to meet on Saturday morning and go for rides.

Just a little frustrated at the moment with this.

[Doug]

13 minutes ago, Mag6240 said:

Besides trail work, club meetings monthly, and club rides, we also do a Christmas Party (Instead of a December meeting) where we cater in food, paid on a per plate basis by each club member, and additional family members that show up, a Land Owners appreciation meal (About 4 hours with the owners split into two groups), where club members can buy their own meal, land owners are free, and then we do "Drive and Dine" dinners throughout the summer months to local establishments on our trail system.  Yeah, the turn out isn't always high in the summer months, but there are quite a few of us who get together all year long.

We now do similar at our Christmas party by catering in the meal and 2 drink tickets.  Ask members to bring in canned goods or toy that we donate to a food pantry or the children's ward at the hospital.

Landowners are invited to the Christmas party with meal and drinks free.  We also give them a chamber of commerce gift certificate.

[racinfarmer]

10 hours ago, poopooforme said:

Right across from the golf course is a motel.  Its owned by a friend of mine.  yes he is indian... LOL  He has a local family running it for him and its clean and has plenty of parking.  The Crest Inn.  For what its worth.  Or there is a motel in Houston MN.  Even if that place in town was still open I would tell you to go to the Crest instead.  That place in town was a fucking dumpster fire!

When the one hotel opened and was a AmericInn, it was nice. 

Then the next owners got it and it went to shit in like 3 months.

Didn't realize the Crest Inn was still open.

The last few times we stayed down there, we either rented the Eitzen Inn or staying in Decorah.  

[SayatodaU.P.eh?]

2 hours ago, Mag6240 said:

 

In bigger groups, like the two above, each guy has to act like the leader.  If the guy behind you falls back, then you fall back.  That way if someone has an issue, we don't get miles and miles of separation. 

This is how I learned to trail ride and still use this principle always. The only deviation is that at a major intersection, or turn, the lead guy will sometimes wait for the whole group. Not always though because if the guy ahead of you makes sure that you make the turn, then there’s not always a reason for everyone to stop. 

[SayatodaU.P.eh?]

When I was out doing signs this weekend, it was me (45) with our lead groomer driver (66) and his neighbor (70) who isn’t even a member of the club. He just likes spending time out in the woods. 
 

Last year our club had a great fundraising dinner that everyone seemed to enjoy. Probably 80 people there. For a club with 4-5 people on the BOD, that’s pretty big imo. This year, they couldn’t even get enough people to commit to coming so they had to give all of the raffle prizes back. 
 

I’ve always thought that it would be nice if more area business owners got involved. Doesn’t have to be much. Buy the brushing crew a burger at your bar afterwards or something. I’ve helped a lot of clubs over the years and I’ve rarely seen very much involvement from the area business owners that certainly benefit from sled traffic. 
 

As far as group ride? Hard pass. We have five, if the wife’s entire family goes out with me and that’s too many, imo. 2-3 riders total is perfect. 4 is pushing it. Anymore than that is too much. 

[Sled_Hed]

18 minutes ago, SayatodaU.P.eh? said:

When I was out doing signs this weekend, it was me (45) with our lead groomer driver (66) and his neighbor (70) who isn’t even a member of the club. He just likes spending time out in the woods. 
 

Last year our club had a great fundraising dinner that everyone seemed to enjoy. Probably 80 people there. For a club with 4-5 people on the BOD, that’s pretty big imo. This year, they couldn’t even get enough people to commit to coming so they had to give all of the raffle prizes back. 
 

I’ve always thought that it would be nice if more area business owners got involved. Doesn’t have to be much. Buy the brushing crew a burger at your bar afterwards or something. I’ve helped a lot of clubs over the years and I’ve rarely seen very much involvement from the area business owners that certainly benefit from sled traffic. 
 

As far as group ride? Hard pass. We have five, if the wife’s entire family goes out with me and that’s too many, imo. 2-3 riders total is perfect. 4 is pushing it. Anymore than that is too much. 

On the bold we have one bar in our area that would give me a couple free beers every so often when I was involved. He is also a die hard sledder that understands the impact from snowmobiles. 

[poopooforme]

Got 95% of my signs in yesterday.  Gotta run through with the tractor and mower next week someday.  My boots were soaked by the time I was done.  Pants were soaked up to the knee.  Started at 730 and was in a scalding hot shower by 130!!  It went much better this year as I left my signs in spots along the trail so I didn't have to start from scratch like I have the last couple of years.  Only thing for next spring is I am going to place some barrels in a few places to drop the signs into.  It was a bitch trying to find those signs in the snow covered brush!  All that brush wasn't there when I dropped the signs last spring.....  Dumbass LOL

[Mag6240]

@poopooforme Nice - I've been keeping my signs in bundles by section since I started signing.  Makes things a whole lot easier the next season.

[poopooforme]

1 minute ago, Mag6240 said:

@poopooforme Nice - I've been keeping my signs in bundles by section since I started signing.  Makes things a whole lot easier the next season.

Ya my trails started out because the land belonged to my wifes Grandfather.  So he was taking care of this huge amount of sled trails.  He is retired and had lots of time.  9 years ago they became my responsibility.  So the deal was I would do fall work and my father in law would take them down in spring.  Well he would just pile em all up in the barn and I would have no idea what went where.  So this year I finally started taking them down myself.  I think now I have a system that will save me a shitload of time.  

[Bontz]

Looks great @poopooforme ... thanks for doing what you do!

A retired buddy of mine, any myself, are heading out later this morning to finish up some side boards/runners on a bridge we've been trying to update & then hopefully we can get some trail signs pounded in, too.  This snow definitely has the "itch" hitting me.

[Bontz]

Today was a good day ... man, it feels good to have snow on the ground!  Got our last few planks and side runners on the bridge, signs put in on a few sections of trail, and fired up the snowblower for the first driveway clearing of the season.  I hope my excitement doesn't turn into that funny story about the Texan who moved to Minnesota  (sorry for the long read, but if you haven't seen this before it's pretty good):

A Texan Moves to Minnesota 

December 8:  6:00 PM.  It started to snow.  The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven.  It looked like a Grandma Moses Print.  So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9:  We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the Whole World?  Moving here was the best idea I've ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks.  This afternoon the snowplow came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again.  What a perfect life.

 December 12:  The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment.  My neighbor tells me not to worry, we'll definitely have a white Christmas.  No snow on Christmas would be awful!  Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I'll never want to see snow again.  l don't think that's possible.  Bob is such a nice man I'm glad he's our neighbor.

 December 14:  Snow lovely snow!  8" last night. The temperature dropped to -20.  The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life!  The snowplow came back this afternoon and buried everything again. l didn't realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I'll certainly get back in shape this way.  I wish l wouldn't huff and puff so.

 December 15:  20 inches forecast.  Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife's car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer. The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's silly.  We aren't in Alaska, after all.

 December 16:  Ice storm this morning. Fell on my ass on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like hell. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think was very cruel.

 December 17:  Still way below freezing.  Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm.  Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her.  Guess I should've bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. God I hate it when she's right.  I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.

 December 20:  Electricity's back on, but had another 14" of the damn stuff last night.  More shoveling. Took all day.  Goddamn snowplow came by twice.  Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey.  I think they're lying.  Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they're out.  Might have another shipment in March.  I think they're lying.  Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me.  I think he's lying.

 December 22:  Bob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white shit fell today, and it's so cold it probably won't melt till August.  Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to piss. By the time I got undressed, pissed and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plow on his truck for the rest of the winter; but he says he's too busy. I think the asshole is lying.

 December 23:  Only 2" of snow today.  And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she nuts?!! Why didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think she's lying.

 December 24:  6".  Snow packed so hard by snowplow, I broke the shovel.  Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the son of a bitch who drives that snowplow, I'll drag him through the snow by his balls. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shoveling and then he comes down the street at a 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I've just been! Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I was busy watching for the goddamn snowplow.

 December 25:  Merry Christmas.  20 more inches of the f***ing slop tonight.  Snowed in.  The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. God I hate the snow!  Then the snowplow driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel.  The wife says I have a bad attitude.  I think she's an idiot.  If I have to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" one more time, I'm going to kill her.

 December 26:  Still snowed in.  Why the hell did I ever move here? It was all HER idea.  She's really getting on my nerves.

 December 27:  Temperature dropped to -30 and the pipes froze.

 December 28:  Warmed up to -40 today.  Still snowed in.  THE BITCH is driving me crazy!!!!!

 December 29:  10 more inches.  Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in.  That's the silliest thing I ever heard.  How dumb does he think I am?

 December 30:  Roof caved in.  The snow plow driver is suing me for a million dollars.  The wife went home to her mother.  9" predicted.

 December 31:  Set fire to what's left of the house.  No more shoveling.

 January 8:  I feel so good.  I just love those little white pills they keep giving me.  Why am I tied to the bed?

 

[Mag6240]

It’s pretty awesome when a land owner takes the time to plow around where he wants you to run the trail…

[Doug]

Guys that help with trails and Thank you all for doing that keep in mind the width of the groomer and drag especially in the corners.  Keep them as wide as possible.

[Mag6240]

We got some of these bridge corner markers this year - too bad the guy that ordered them only ordered left sides!!

Edited November 28, 2022 by Mag6240

[Doug]

Marked a small section of what I normally mark today before the weather turns to shit.  

Little different attitude this year and I'll wait for the official club trail marking Saturday and see what happens.

[Mag6240]

Two signs...Impressive!   

 

J/K!  Nice work Doug, I hope to make it over your way this winter!

[Doug]

37 minutes ago, Mag6240 said:

Two signs...Impressive!   

 

J/K!  Nice work Doug, I hope to make it over your way this winter!

It was more than then The social club members still have me and others a little cranked up.

Let know if your in Wisconsin this year.  Up Nth our place is 25 miles East of Eagle Rive but guys I ride with have places in Conover and Mercer.  Normally ride where the snow is.

[poopooforme]

2 hours ago, Mag6240 said:

Two signs...Impressive!   

 

J/K!  Nice work Doug, I hope to make it over your way this winter!

Like you would ever do something besides N MN....  Look me up fellas.  I am down for some NWisco riding!