St Helen Snow Packers - Trail

There is still plenty of SNOW.

We are (and have been grooming) the entire system 4 times a week. Normally,
this would be Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nites. There has been
downtime, with equipment breaking down, lighting systems going out, etc. We
have been on top of the problems, but with all the snow and use of
equipment, breakdowns do continue.

The Trail Conditions report on the MSA Website is being kept up by the
groomers. There has been some problems, but they are being worked out. The
snow on the trails is holding up, and we are keeping the system in as good a
condition as we can. Temps are projected to continue cold through mid-week,
with a potential warmup coming on for next week end. This week end, many of
our groomers are attending the functions relating to grooming in the Ste
Sainte Marie area.

The season is well underway, and the base currently looks good. Each
section of trail, whether the Prudenville section or the Roscommon
section takes anywhere from 8 to 14 hours of volunteer time to groom.
This is dependant on the section of trail, and the condition it is in when
we groom. This translates to puting in a minimum of 20 to 26 hours of
volunteer time each of the 4 days we groom. This does not include
maintenance time spent on servicing or repairing equipment. That is 80
to 104 hours per week just in the groomers. Drivers are not compensat-
ed for their time or out of pocket expenses. This does not include time
spent in replacing signs, clean-up of downed trees, repairs to trail
damage, meetings or required paperwork, which is also covered under
voluteer