Paudash Trail Blazers

3 hours ago

What it Can Take When a Groomer Runs Into Trouble

The club recently had a breakdown of the Case groomer drag when grooming 601 (Miskwabi). Late in the afternoon, a significant weld failed on the drag hitch, making it impossible to carry on grooming. The groomer operator contacted our Grooming Coordinator Darrin to let him know that he was stranded. Darrin and club President Jon loaded a sled onto a snowmobile trailer and drove over an hour to the closest road access (Burleigh Road and Kennaway Road) and Darrin sledded in to get the operator and to do an assessment of what it was going to take to get the groomer out.

The next day, Darrin, Jon and several other volunteers and another groomer operator mounted an operation to retrieve the groomer. We used our John Deere groomer to tow a temporary drag to the location (a trip of several hours) and we loaded a side-by-side with tools, chains and volunteers and trailered it to the closest road location. We met two other volunteers at the site and worked to figure out how to connect the broken drag sufficiently to get it out of the bush. We managed to get the broken drag out and connect the replacement drag to the Case by mid-afternoon. Once this was done, the groomers made the long trek back to the shop. This was an all-day process and we were glad that it was completed before dark.

The broken drag is being assessed to see if it's worth repairing and we are hoping we can make sufficient modifications to the temporary drag to use it in the interim.

We can't say enough about our volunteers, many of whom gave up their own plans to rescue the groomer operator and then recover the groomer. We can't stress enough that without volunteers, organized snowmobiling would not be possible so a tip of the helmet to this group: Darrin S, Jon C, Ron M, Ron H, Steve J, and Tom. ... See MoreSee Less