The Woodridge ATV Sandhogs have officially closed down the trail for the season.
The trail is still open to ride, but the club will not be maintaining or checking on the trail until spring, so ride at your own risk.
Gary Hora, President of the Woodridge ATV Sandhogs as well as the President of ATV Manitoba says the season went really well.
“At the beginning it seemed like winter didn’t want to let go, we had a very short spring, and then we went straight into hot summer. Wo did get one spell of high fire hazard rating, and after that our summer turned out really good.”
He says Manitoba was pretty lucky that we didn't have any dry or overly wet conditions.
Hora says the trails were pretty good for the most part right up until about fall.
“And then we had a lot of increased traffic through September and into October, but with that said, the sand was soft from some of the rain, so it did get rutted up a fair bit and unfortunately, we didn't have time to do any grooming on it for the rest of the year, so we'll have to get onto that in the spring, but overall the trails held up pretty well.”
He says it was really nice in October until the unexpected snowstorm which brought around 10 inches of snow to the Woodridge area.
With the sudden arrival of winter, the Southeast Sno-Riders are starting to prepare for their season.
Hora says the Sandhogs are currently covering up some of the signs that are meant specifically for ATVers.
“On parts of our trails that are designated ATV trails that the Sandhogs take care of, we do bag up some of those signs, and those are mostly where we have some shared sections on the snowmobile route in town, and then the crossover points. It's just so that we don't have any confusion, for safety factors, we just try to help out that way.”
Out of respect for the Sno-Riders they bag up the signs and also promote people to stay off the trails.
“Or if you are on the trails, be mindful that you are going to be crossing snowmobile trails.”
He notes that it is currently hunting season and encourages people to stay out of the bush.
“I don't like to be out in the bush a lot during high power season and quadding because there's a lot of guys out there with guns. I mean, high viz orange is always good to have, but you have to be mindful that there are a lot of hunters out there, so safety would be probably my biggest concern.”
Hora says it gets very busy in this area, especially through the Sandilands Forest because it’s a large section of crown land.
“You'll get people all the way from North of Winnipeg coming this way, not only just the locals. So, it can get incredibly busy in the forest with hunters, and they need their season as well, so better to stay out of their way.”
With files from Adi Loewen
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