New Snowmobile Club Growing Support

Angela Mouly Reporter

The Vermilion River Trailblazers Association was officially formed last year and has grown from four members to over 20. Their main goal is to create a trail system throughout the entire County of Vermilion River.

President, Lyle Lawrence, said he doesn’t want to seem unrealistic and that each step takes time, but their goal is to achieve this by the fall of 2023. Their current members are from Clandonald, Marwayne, and Blackfoot, but eventually they hope to include people from all areas including the City of Lloydminster, and would eventually tie into existing trails used by the Vermilion Ridge Riders and Myrnam Ridge Riders.

“The goal is to replicate what the County of Two Hills has, where a trail system covers the most of the county. Instead of each community creating their own club, we’d have a club where each of the communities can work together, and it would be used by everybody,” said Lawrence.

The county may have to create bylaws for riders to access the communities for fuel, or for riders from those communities to access the trail. Lawrence said there are a lot of roads that don’t get plowed in the winter so they make grade trails and so the club has asked for permission to use them. In addition, they hope to access the abandoned rail line, and says if they can get access it would simplify the process.

Part of their motivation to start the club Lawrence said was the growing disconnect between rural landowners and urban people. He knew riders who had moved to the area from larger centres and didn’t know many landowners, so they rode in ditches or followed other sled tracks.

“Technically they are trespassing as has been the status quo, and we want to try and change that. Once we have a trail marked and mapped, all people would need to do (we would ask they purchase a member- ship), is just follow the route,” said Lawrence. He pointed out that it would be a lot safer for children and seniors as well who make up a large portion of interested riders in the area. Trails would be inspected to make sure there were no hazards, and people with mobility issues would have a safe place to go learn.

Potentially, they could also have staging areas so that people who don’t live close to to the trail, could bring their snowmobile with their vehicle, leave their vehicle there and ride off.

“For me what makes snowmobiling fun is the passion of the outdoors; the wind in your face. The scenery in this region is a sight to behold. When you come up over a hill and can see for 20 miles; it’s hard to get that connection any other way, because you can access areas that you can’t in other ways,” said Lawrence. “We have such long winters so if you can’t find things to enjoy you are in the wrong place, and snowmobiling is one of those things that is easy to enjoy.”

Having been snowmobiling for 35 years, Lawrence said it provides an instant connection to the land, and that with prices skyrocketing instead of taking trips to the mountains, people can expand their boundaries close to home.

“All I know is where I want to go with this project, but in the age we live in to get peoples contact information is almost impossible. There are no phone books, and organizations won’t release people’s information. The large majority of landowners support the idea of the trails, but some have questions of liability. With our club comes protection of liability because our club would have the insurance for it. We would have to inspect and sign agreements for it,” said Lawrence. “The work we have to do to establish the club and the trails is mostly political and paperwork. A lot of people are excited to volunteer with clearing brush and chopping wood once we get set up. It’s a ton of work, but the membership we have right now are quite passionate and getting a ton of work done is a short amount of time.”

Other concerns include people who don’t want the noise or any theft. Lawrence said there is an image that snowmobilers are like bikers, but he wants people to know that their target audience and membership is seniors and young families.

“The reality is that it’s not a biker gang, but a community club. I’ve talked to people both for and against, and we always have a good conversation,” said Lawrence.

The completed process he says will help support local businesses from riders purchasing gas and groceries. The Vermilion River Trailblazers are sanctioned with the Alberta Snowmobile Association.

The club will be presenting to the County of Vermilion River council during their meeting on March 14. Anyone interested can sign up to listen in or attend the meeting. They will be presenting a response, discussing their landowner agreements, and how their liability agreements will work. The results of the landowner engagements will be summarized to show the level of support and concerns, as well as how they plan to address those concerns.

To make the club sustainable, he said they will have to sell memberships, so there is no sense developing the trails if there is no interest. In order to obtain feedback from residents in the county or communities within the county, they have set up a survey that you can fill out by visiting https://www. surveymonkey.com/r/FJG5PKY?fbclid=IwA R2Xt7Yw6AiNYfoYNWTIFuFUKSMMUUvboNhy6tFWH6vYPT4pQzTQkZgAP0

For more information or to let him know how you can help, you can message Lyle at the Vermilion River Trailblazers page on Facebook, or call or text 780-581-8403.