OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, Wis. (WFRV) – For snowmobiling enthusiasts, the weather couldn’t have decided to warm up at a worse time.
After a 10-day window of good snowmobiling conditions, this warmup means that many counties in Northeast Wisconsin now have to close their snowmobile trails.
“It’s not an easy decision, but out of respect for our landowners it’s a necessary decision,” said president of the Freedom Trailblazers snowmobile club Larry Oudenhoven.
In Outagamie County, local snowmobile clubs help to maintain the 300 miles of trails in the county. They collaborate closely with county park department officials to determine when trails will open up and when they have to close.
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Only a few trails were open on Tuesday in Outagamie County and those will all close on Wednesday morning.
After back-to-back winters with poor snowmobiling conditions, Freedom Trailblazer snowmobile club officials said they’re thankful that they were able to get this short stretch of good conditions.
“I think a lot of snowmobile enthusiasts are really happy that they could ride for the last 10 days, it’s the first time it’s happened in a few years,” said club treasurer Greg Seiler.
Calumet County officials closed all their trails on Tuesday morning. By Tuesday night, Brown County only had a few trails still open and these will shut down on Wednesday morning.
For a full report on the status of snowmobiling trails in Wisconsin, click here.
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“It’s frustrating for us too, we want to have them out and we want to have them active,” said Sarah Sura with the Outagamie County parks department. “I think most people know that when it warms up like this we got to shut them down to save the trails and keep the landowners happy.”
Although it’s tough to see the trails closed again, snowmobiling enthusiasts that Local Five News spoke with said they’re optimistic that it’ll get cold enough again this winter for them to reopen.
Members of the Freedom Trailblazers snowmobile club said getting the trails ready to go is a year round process and for them to continue to offer this service for years to come they need younger people to join their local snowmobile clubs.
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For more information on the Freedom Trailblazers snowmobile club, click here. They are responsible for 26.5 miles of trails in Outagamie County.
In total, 17 snowmobile clubs split up maintenance of the 300 miles of trails in Outagamie County.
“We’ve got an excellent snow base we have started here but because of weather and respect for our landowners we had to make the decision to shut them down,” said Oudenhoven.
“The main thing is to make sure there’s a good base on the trail, it has to be packed down so the sleds can go on it. Making sure there’s no standing water and the crops are covered in the fields,” Sura added.
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