We are rolling heavy towards another winter season and we are ready. Behind the scenes the club exec and our volunteers have been working away to get prepared for a great season of grooming. What have we been up to?
Preparing
Our volunteer groomers put in a lot of time even before the first snow flies. A lot of time is spent planning the grooming routes, and making sure that our fleet of hard-working sleds are well maintained. Dan Breau and Tim Dine have both spent time replacing old worn parts. There’s time spent setting up our parking lot plows and clearing trails of late fall blow-downs. You may have also seen the slick new winterized RVC logo that Christina Tracy did for us! The exec has worked to flip our membership registration over to winter mode (join for 2023/24), and prepare a budget.
Fundraising
Early this spring we set a goal for ourselves – a new sled for our longest-serving volunteer snow-sculptor: Dan Breau. For those that don’t know Dan, he is our groomer who has been looking after MVP since winterbike first evolved beyond early experiments. We’ve come a long way since Wilson’s Loop was kept open by running a leaf blower through the first few snowfalls. The thing is that our fleet of sleds that pull the grooming gear are old, and the maintenance is high. So – we set out to find the money needed to buy RVC’s first brand new sled. With the help of long-time volunteer Kelly Murray we applied to the City of Fredericton’s Community Grant program and we just got word that we were successful! They’ve agreed to put forward $6,500, about half of our target, if we can find the other half. We think we’re just about there. We had some money left in the piggy bank from previous fund raising and we think we can sell some of our older assets to make up the rest. All without raising membership costs. We’re excited.
How can you help?
- Trail clearing – if you have time for a shoulder season project we need someone to walk the length of Back 40 and Cakewalk at MVP and clear any downed trees. Same goes for Islandview. If you are going to clear trail please let us know what sections you’ve walked and whether you’ve taken care of everything. Keep in mind the groomers need more room to pass than a bike.
- Shoe-to-ride – we could really use a few dedicated people to lead up some purposeful snowshoeing. Our top priority is to have people willing to hit Odell park after snowfall. For fatbiking we need at least 3 shoes wide and you need to be able to follow the trail once it’s covered up with snow. We also want someone willing to take on a short section at Islandview (~375m) from the parking lot to the last point where Jeremy is permitted to groom. Jeremy does an amazing job but this first bit needs a dedicated person to beat it down.
- Join RVC Winterbike – this is how you can all help us. Your membership covers all of the basic necessities that our fundraising doesn’t. Gas, insurance, plowing, parts, etc. For a modest contribution you can enjoy our groomed trails and get access to group rides and events.
