On the trails with Rural Cass Snowmobile Club

Trail signing will be the key topic at the November 11 meeting of the Rural Cass Snowmobile Club. This meeting will begin at 7 PM at the Pizza Ranch in Casselton.

We’ve lined up members of the Farmhouse Fraternity from North Dakota State University to help with trail signing, but we’ll need lots of club volunteers to also be there. We need drivers and others to help ensure we maximize the time they help us.  Our goal is to get the trail done during the time that we have the extra help from the NDSU team.

The designated trail signing weekend is Nov. 15 and 16. Plans are to start at 8 AM. Additional work days are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22 and Sunday, Nov. 23, if they are needed. Snowmobile North Dakota requires that club’s complete trail signing by Dec 1.

Final details on this plan will be worked out at the meeting Tuesday.

Other topics at the meeting will include:

• Update on Snowmobile North Dakota annual convention
• Membership drive update
• SnowJam sponsorship update
• Other topics members bring up

Southern Valley Trail Riders will host the State Snowmobile Ride on February 7, 2015 at the Mooreton Community Center.  A vintage show and poker run will be held in conjunction with the event.  

ND Parks and Recreation Department owns a fleet of 14 groomers and drags.  The use and management of this equipment is contracted to Snowmobile North Dakota.  They require all groomer operators to have taken a state Groomer Certification Class in order to operate the equipment.  This class is held at Snowmobile North Dakota’s annual convention.

Classes outside of the convention are considered Remote Groomer Certification Classes and are scheduled as requested by the state trail associations.  After completing the class, new operators are required to spend four hours grooming with an experienced groomer operator (someone that has groomed for the state snowmobile trail program in previous years.)  During the four hours, the new operator is required to observe the experienced groomer operate the equipment for two hours.  The remaining two hours, the experienced groomer operator must observe and monitor the new groomer operate the equipment.

Groomer operators are paid employees of the state snowmobile trail system.  However, to help reduce costs for the program, many groomer operators donate their time.