Hope you had an enjoyable summer; the start of the Fall season is only a few days away. It will bring cooler temperatures, colored leafs and all that good stuff. I’m sure you know what comes after that!

Summer Picnic: For many years our club has held its annual end of summer picnic. It was a good time that brought members together and kicked off the coming snowmobile season. It also gave us an opportunity to show appreciation to our many trail landowners that might want to attend. Due to a lack of sufficient reservations, the picnic was cancelled this year. A first. Times are a changing. People are busy and there are a lot of interests pulling on your time. What is the future of our club picnic? As a member of Wales, you need to speak up and let your Board of Directors know what kind of events you would like to see the club provide. If not a picnic, what and when?

Trails: In the spring and the end of the riding season, a list of trail conditions needing attention is complied. These are addressed during the summer to improve conditions for the next riding season. 15 potential projects were identified for this year. To date, 5 have been completed. The Lander’s wood trail (between Kuhl and Heibel Road) has received a lot of TLC from Frank Winkelbauer. It’s going to be straighter, dryer and smoother this year. As you enjoy this improvement, you need to give Frank a hearty THANK YOU. Rob Russ with his backhoe made improvements in the woods trail off Plum Road to the gas line. He removed the stump at the top of the hill and dug in several drainpipes at the base of that hill. Some fill material that Dan Postlewaite acquired at a very reasonable cost has been placed in some of the wet areas (if the Yanmar would not of broke-down "again" the remaining wet areas would have been filled – if you want the "rest of the story", come to the membership meeting). Mark Omniewski and his son have been very busy on the trail behind his place off Dutch Road. He has removed trees, dug in a drainpipe and placed several more yards of new bank gravel in the remaining wet spots. Here again, it should be straighter, dryer and smoother. THANK YOU Mark. Mark Matczak has worked with the landowner on Turner Road toward Phillipsville to give us a new, dryer exit off Turner. In addition, it will safer and easier to groom. Watch for the new trail markers. Several more projects are planned to be completed before regular trail maintenance begins.

Which brings us to the next subject: "General Trail Maintenance". All trails will have to be walked, cutback and brush-hogged as necessary to make them ready for the coming snowmobile season. That’s where you can help. If you have a favorite section you are familiar with and would like to work on, we would appreciate your help! Starting on Sunday September 30^th and each following Sunday, work crews will be needed. The plan will be to meet at the Route 8 Fire Hall each Sunday morning at approx. 9:00am (or whatever works for the group) and leave with equipment and tools for the day’s work. Will you be able to come out and Help? If so, give Mark Matczak a call 796-6666 and get on the schedule. If he is not there, he said to please leave a message.

Trail Documentation: The trails of Wales Sno-Drifters have been fully documented. The main loop and connectors all have been traced with GPS. Individual sections (road to road) have been plotted with property lines and sign locations. We need to give a big THANK YOU to Deny Engesser for her hours of research to up date all the landowner info. All the trail data has been loaded into the computer and copies given to the Board members with trail responsibilities. It should be a great tool to address trail problems and bases for good trail signing. The club has never had such an accurate record of its trail’s details. Wales continues to receive kudos’ from PSSA on this effort and uses it as an example of what the state needs to have as they move forward on their statewide trail initiative.

Warning: Again we caution you and all you friends NOT to ride on the Game Lands except for their approved trail for us. We have had a good working relationship through the years with the Game Commission but that is being placed at risk due to a few in our sport that have no respect for the regards and interests of the Game Commission. The Game Lands are a restricted area and regulated for use by many out door enthusiasts (we are but one). They also have responsibility for the wildlife in this space. Some snomobilers are jeopardizing our current game lands trail by riding in areas other than the approved trail. Areas of concern are along the gas line that crosses the game lands and the area south of Siegel Road. If we fail to communicate and control the misuse of the game lands by snowmobilers, we will loose all and any trail rights. Please heed and take this seriously.

Club Equipment: As you know the Yanmar has been a good summer trail piece of equipment but has proven the opposite for grooming for which it was purchased. Therefore, it is now for sale. It will be posted on eBay and the Equipment Trader. If you know anyone locally that would be interested in a great hauling machine, please contact one of your Directors.

Presque Isle has received their new groomer. What a machine! In addition to the drag and special traction drives, they ordered regular wheels for summer work along with a front high lift bucket. It’s big and should do a great job once their trails are modified for its size. We hope to get them to give a try on some of our trails to prove its ability before we have to file for our groomer grant. A draft of a DCNR grant request for a groomer for our club has been completed. We are waiting for a DCNR review and the next window of opportunity for submission.

Our large enclosed equipment trailer has a new home. It has been moved from its previous home base off Wales Road to its new storage location at Church & Murdock Electric. We need to thank Mike Murdock for this space and service to the club.