snookered

Let’s try not to get too revved up.  Indeed, we got some snow (really the first real snow since Halloween); but it’s already settled down to not all that much, and the forecast isn’t giving us much hope: warm-ish and little precipitation.  

But hear us out.  The Ranger’s Board came up with what’s become known as ‘Sunday Service’.  We meet at the garage and head out to do a trail project of some need.  It’s the general time for a Packer’s game; but there’s always someone ready to work.  Over the past couple of months, a couple of wet spots have been corduroyed, many wind falls have been cut and our old President (Mike F, gone from us a long time ago) would be pleased with the amount of pole-grabbing seedlings that got brush sawed.  Once the snow piles up, we won’t notice a lot of the work that got done; but the trail crew will be saved from hours of work opening the trails and the early grooming won’t have a lot of stems sticking up into the tracks.  

There are new (bigger) signs for Montreal. The Iron County Miner printed them for us and you’ll love them.  A big section of the Pence Connection on Uller has been widened and improved with the help of Iron County Forestry and Parks Department, and we said good bye to a suicide hill out on Uller’s far  western loop with a short re-route.

The Chief of Trails has kept records of every winter for the past five decades; over all those years, the average first day of grooming is 12 December.  We’ve been snookered by early winter snows the past few years.  Don’t get depressed, we’ll be skiing (freely) soon.

All the equipment will be converted from dirt to snow soon.  The new signs will get installed.  We’ll be ready.  Z