SSA Board Article: Troy Foster

Hello snowmobilers I am from the South East Corner of Saskatchewan where we have snow covered trails for a second year in a row and another wonderful Saskatchewan winter. The biggest news in Saskatchewan is always found in any small town at the local coffee shops. The same holds true for what snowmobilers are talking about and that is found at one of many hundreds of shelters along the trails. Our club Moose Mountain operates the trails within one of the three Provincial parks and I am often asked about how the trails operate in the Provincial parks compared to club trails.

Back in 2017 the three Provincial Parks with designated snowmobile trails became part of the trail funded trails in Saskatchewan. This included Greenwater Provincial Park located near Porcupine Plain, Duck Mountain Provincial Park located near Kamsack and Moose Mountain Provincial Park Located near Carlyle. With these three parks it added 286 km of trail to the SSA funded trails. This agreement with Parks combined all the groomed trails into the same system from which the clubs operate from, including trail funding, safety programs, trail evaluations and grooming. Duck Mountain and Greenwater trails are operated by the Ministry of Parks Culture and Sport where Moose Mountain Provincial Park trails are operated by our local club Moose Mountain Snowmobile Club.

I would have to say this has been a great success story for snowmobilers across the province. With the parks being signed to the same standards as the rest of the clubs and regular grooming cycles it has been a win for snowmobilers.  The snow usually comes early and last longer in these Provincial Parks that are surrounded on the outside by farm land. In the south east we can often start riding in late November right up to mid April because of the higher elevation and forest. Moose Mountain Provincial Park is 1000 feet higher than the farm lands just 50km south. The views are breathtaking off the south side where at night you can easily see the lights of Estevan and all the other towns towards the US border.

Within these three Provincial parks you will find all the same signage, maps and shelters as you would on the trails that clubs look after. Duck Mountain Provincial park P348 has 3 shelters and 78 km of groomed trails. Greenwater Provincial Park P239 has 3 shelters with 100km of groomed trails. The Moose Mountain Provincial Park P346 has 9 shelters and 108km of trail. For prairie riders these Provincial park forests allow riders a place to seek shelter and enjoy a day of riding even on the windy blustery days. The contacts for the parks can be found on the club directory on sasksnow.com. If anyone would like more information about these areas please reach out to those contacts or the SSA office. Enjoy the rest of winter and I will see some of you at the festival in Nipawin.