November Club Meeting – Tuesday Nov. 3rd

On November 2, 2015   /   Club meetings, News and Events, Signage, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  

volunteers brushing trailsPlease join us at the West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association November club meeting – to be held tomorrow – Tuesday Nov 3rd, 7:30pm, in the board room at the Kinburn Community Centre (doors to the left of the main entrance).

The club is currently looking for volunteer coordinators, people to help with brushing and signage and other volunteer positions. Have any special skills that you might be willing to share to help make our club, our trails and our events even better? Please come and introduce yourself at a meeting, or  contact us.

Signage and pre-season trail work will be key topics at this meeting. If you are one of the many people who adopted a section of trail last spring, or if you would like to find out how you can help get our trails ready for the upcoming season we encourage you to join us. We hope to see you there!

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WCSTA October Meeting – Tuesday Oct. 20th

On October 3, 2015   /   Club meetings, Feature, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  
WCSTA October Meeting - Tuesday Oct. 20th

volunteers brushing trailsPlease join us at the West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association October club meeting – to be held on Tuesday October 20th, 7:30pm, in the board room at the Kinburn Community Centre (doors to the left of the main entrance).

The club is currently looking for volunteer coordinators, people to help with brushing and signage and other volunteer positions. Have any special skills that you might be willing to share to help make our club, our trails and our events even better? Please contact us.

Signage and pre-season trail work will be key topics at this meeting. If you are one of the many people who adopted a section of trail last spring, or if you would like to find out how you can help get our trails ready for the upcoming season we encourage you to join us. We hope to see you there!

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WCSTA Partnering with Kinburn Community Association for improved facilities

On September 10, 2015   /   Feature, News and Events, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  

A break at the clubhouseExciting news! The West Carleton Snowmobile Club has been working with the Kinburn Community Association, and are pleased to announce that for the 2014-2015 season we will be able to expand club activities and amenities through shared use of the Kinburn Community Centre.

Thanks to efforts of club volunteers and members of the Kinburn Community Association we will now have a clubhouse room that is open during certain hours of the week (to be determined). It will have trail maps, washrooms and a place to warm up. A canteen will be open on the weekends and possibly other times depending on the number of people who stop in and extent of usage. Plenty of trailer parking onsite and a gas station one block away make this an excellent launching point for your ride as well.

Our club will be offering a few breakfast outings and dinner parties this year. More events equals more sledding fun, so stay tuned for more information and come and get involved with our great club as we grow again!

Bring on the SNOW!

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WCSTA Annual General Meeting – Sept. 15, 2015

On August 27, 2015   /   AGM, Club meetings, Feature, News and Events, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  

WCSTA AGM 2015

Please join us at the West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association Annual General Meeting – to be held on Tuesday September 15th, 7:30pm, at the Kinburn Community Centre.

Board of directors will be nominated and elected by our members at this meeting, and we encourage all current permit holders to join us and participate in setting the course for snowmobiling in West Carleton, and representation of our club within the OFSC for next season.

The club is currently looking for people who would be willing to join as directors, volunteer coordinators and in other volunteer positions. Have any special skills that you might be willing to share to help make our club, our trails and our events even better? Please contact us.

Amendments to club bylaws will also be presented for member approval at this meeting. If you would like a copy of the proposed updates to the Bylaws, please contact Doug Elderkin douglas_elderkin@hotmail.com.

Immediately following the AGM the newly appointed Board will commence with the election of President, Vice President and other Officers for the 2015-2016 season.

We hope to see you there!

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RESCHEDULED – WCSTA meeting now May 12th

On May 4, 2015   /   Club meetings, Feature, News and Events, OFSC, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  

volunteers brushing trailsThe WCSTA meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday May 5th has been rescheduled to Tuesday May 12. This will be the last regularly scheduled club meeting of the 2014-2015 season. Same time and place – at the W. Erskine Johnston arena in Carp. We will be upstairs in the meeting room off the Amateur Sports Club and bar starting at 7:30. All are welcome!

There will be more club projects to help with over the summer, and we are still looking for candidates to fill positions such as area signage coordinators, volunteer coordination and others. Come and join us, or get in touch if you would like to find out details, or if you have someone in mind that would be good in a particular role.

Please stay tuned for announcement of the date for our Annual General Meeting.

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Our trails are now closed – Thank you!

On March 19, 2015   /   Feature, Landowners, Media Release, News and Events, OFSC, Trail Conditions, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  

Spring thaw - Trails Closed

Trails are now closed. Thanks to our landowners and permit buyers

Snowmobilers are being warned to stay off of area OFSC Prescribed snowmobile trails effective immediately as the snowmobile season has come to an end. These trails are now reported as “Unavailable” (Red) on the OFSC Interactive Trail Guide at www.ofsc.on.ca, because area clubs have stopped regular grooming operations, and signs and stakes are being removed and gates and fences closed. Snowmobilers are also advised that rapidly deteriorating snow and ice conditions due to spring thaw make snowmobiling extremely hazardous anywhere. Roads and road crossings are now generally bare and the ice on all waterways is melted, melting or unstable, and now the only safe and sensible course of action for snowmobilers is to put away their sleds until next winter. The risks of trying that ‘one last ride’ are simply too high now that spring thaw has commenced.

The public is also reminded that an OFSC snowmobile trail on private land reported as “Unavailable” means that access to that trail is also prohibited for any other users or persons for all other seasons, without the specific prior permission of the landowner. On behalf of our clubs and volunteers, we want to thank all of the landowners who have generously allowed the use of their property for an OFSC snowmobile trail this winter. We also appreciate the support of the many snowmobilers who bought trail permits to help pay their share of the cost of trail operations for the past season.

A very special thanks is also extended to all of the club volunteers who donated their services to assist local clubs in providing a successful season of snowmobiling. Although the winter is over, snowmobiling has become a year round business, so many volunteers will start immediately to plan and prepare for next winter.

We are actively looking to fill a number of roles within the West Carleton club, as well as looking for individuals, groups or families to ‘adopt’ sections of trail and help with signing and maintenance of them. If you are interested in helping out, please let us know.

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New WCSTA Wayfinding Billboards Start to Go Up

On March 9, 2015   /   Feature, Media Release, News and Events, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  

WCSTA Wayfinding BillboardsSince last summer WCSTA board members and volunteers have been working hard to develop a series of nine brand new way finding billboards to be placed in key locations around West Carleton. With the help of Ontario Ministry of Tourism, OFSC and our friends at District 1, we now have all nine of these, ready to be put in place on West Carleton trails. In addition, the District 1 Tourism Development Fund Committee allowed WCSTA and our graphic design partner, Pivot Point Solutions, to spearhead a pilot project with unique, club-branded billboard designs.

These are also designed to accept interchangeable map panels that can be updated when changes to our trail system need to occur. Three different images have been used on the billboards as well to keep them interesting from location to location. You won’t find ones that look like these anywhere else!

We still have a fair bit of work to do, to complete the building of structures and get the billboards into place on the trails, and we are looking for volunteers to spearhead small teams to get them installed, as well as folks with some basic woodworking skills to build the structures. If you are able to help, please contact us at volunteer@wcstai.com.

Special thanks to Mike Asquini, Ted Kelly, Ron Anderchek, John Boals, and Neil Murphy for their hard work and support of this project!

IMG_2877

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Trail opening – please read

On December 18, 2014   /   Feature, Trail Conditions, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  

Trails are not open yet! Please note the last paragraph

Attached is the current state of our trails, the green are the trails that have been picketed and are signed and ready for inspection.

The major push are the trails is the area south of the 417, Thursday we hope to complete the W 10 and W 9, and Friday the W 12 either side of Pakenham (from W 10 to W 9 intersection)

The big effort required this Saturday is the new re-route for the W 12 from Blakeney towards the A Trail (coming into Almonte), a small group attacked it last weekend, but there is still aprox 1 km left of a trail that has not we used or brushed in aprox 10 years. Please show up this Saturday at 9 AM, park on the side of the road around 314 Ridge Road off the top of Panmure, and then follow the trail makers in to the work party. The work requires pruners, chain saws, work gloves, we will provide a brush saw and pole saw. Due to the distance involved best to bring your sled or ATV

We need to get all trails signed and inspected before we can start the grooming and using the trails (and of course we still need some more snow). The few of us that are doing the bulk of the work are exhausted from a 3 month effort, and we know it’s the busy Christmas season, but these are the simple facts of what is required to open trails. Please lend a hand.

trail status december 16 2014

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OFSC Signage Course – Sept 23rd

On September 18, 2014   /   Club meetings, News and Events, OFSC, Volunteers, West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association  
OFSC Signage Course - Sept 23rd

 

trail signage

On Tuesday September 23rd at 7:30pm West Carleton Snowmobile Trails Association will be giving an OFSC Signage Course, to run thru all the do’s and don’ts of installing signs, distances to install them at etc. We are being hosted by the Greystone Grill in Constance Bay.

If you’ve wondered about helping with signing our trails, and want to participate, please come and meet some of the other signage volunteers. If you’re already a signage volunteer, it’s a good chance to get updated on any signage requirements (risk management) changes, or refresh your memory!

Hope to see you then.

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