The BEAST 306 trail north of Wolf Grove Rd has gone through some changes due to landowner turnover during the past 20 years. The trail at one time had used the old Drynan hunt camp property. It left the 4th line and headed west through Drynan’s to the 3rd line and then on to Clayton Rd. A reroute saw the 306 stay on the 4th and then on to Clayton Rd….the way the trail has been for a great number of years now.
That current trail had been identified as a potential target for a trail improvement project. The roadway in this corridor is narrow and has four residential laneway entrances to be crossed. Signage had been utilized in the past to help with snowmobile traffic at laneway intersections, but moving the trail to the opposite side of the roadway was a better, safer alternative and an idea in the making.
The trail relocate was a daunting proposition; the untraveled portion was approximately 700metres long and plenty wide enough with no unreasonable ditch grades to negotiate however the undergrowth and trees had been ignored for a great many years. This provided a seemingly mountainous task to even consider.
Enter the tireless BEAST volunteers and neighbours residing along and near this trail! Cooperation with equipment, tools and manual labour over 2 days of (crazy hard) work and some wet weather, the new trail had been cut and cleaned up.
Work started on Friday afternoon with four men armed with saws. Saturday at 8am the men mustered and began working. This squad quickly became a platoon and vehicle parking started to become an issue on the narrow roadway. By lunchtime the task was not quite at the halfway mark, but troops travel on their stomachs so hot pizza and pop was served in a local resident’s garage (plenty of room for social distancing!), with cookies and coffee to energize the afternoon. We returned back to work and gave it our best until darkness and freezing rain made things unsafe for this type of work. Sunday morning a group of seven men assembled and worked till 2pm to cleanup the rest of the downed trees and brush.
We had 17 bodies at our strongest point for a good portion of the day on Saturday. Some could only dedicate a few hours, some the entire length of the project …. this is how it’s done; many hands make light work. That being said there was nothing light about this work!
There was lots of other parts too. A backhoe with operator, a huge 12” wood chipper, a tractor/loader, two trucks with dump trailers all donated by businesses and personal interests alike. An appreciative sledder came along with his fuel supply truck and provided a diesel fuel contribution to the effort!
Besides sore backs and bodies, there were no injuries or damages. Safety was a priority and professionalism was apparent. There were new acquaintances made, and everyone pulled together. Residents who were not involved were completely understanding of our efforts and were not in the least upset by some minor delays in temporary road closure. Some were amazed and very impressed by the BEAST Army that had descended on their quiet lane for the weekend!
We hope that this effort will provide a safe, more enjoyable trail that should accommodate better early and late season usage, as well as showing local residents that we listen to their concerns too.
Many thanks to our hardworking volunteers who made this
possible. The BEAST and all the snowmobile clubs rely on volunteer
participation to make our pastime enjoyable and safe. Most of our trail work is performed by people who donate their precious time …. people who have a desire to contribute, not complain. Please consider becoming a volunteer!
Grant Penstone
