THUNDER BAY — One of the best snowmobiling seasons in years is coming to a close on the Thunder Bay Adventure Trails network.
The system of several hundred kilometres of groomed trails officially closes for the season Tuesday night.
April 5 is the latest date that TBAT has had open, groomed trails in recent history.
The decision to shut the network down was prompted by a forecast of rain, although Environment Canada now says there will likely be considerably more snow than rain.
With concern about rain and rising temperatures exposing hazards on the trails and washing out snow bridges, TBAT decided to be cautious and give its members advance notice of the closure.
"Take advantage of the warmer weather and get out for one last ride before we close them," it said in a social media post Monday.
Adrian Tessier, grooming coordinator for TBAT, said the network typically shuts down in mid-March, but last year it was in early March.
"We got so much snow this year, that we haven't had for quite a few years," he said.
All that snow, and prolonged stretches of extreme cold, also caused occasional challenges for groomers.
"We don't like grooming when it's really cold, because we end up breaking equipment. And heavy, wet snow is very difficult to groom. After one storm we got stuck in the middle of the trails with the groomer. It was a struggle," Tessier said.
This was a good year for membership sales.
About 285 permits were sold compared with just 120 in the season prior to the arrival of COVID-19.
Tessier said border restrictions also kept local snowmobilers from travelling to Minnesota to use the trail network there.
"It kept people here who would go down and buy permits in the U.S. So we had a captive market, I guess you could say."
Looking ahead, TBAT is in early discussions with the Municipality of Neebing and Fort William First Nation about the possibility of building a trail to the U.S. border.
There's no decision yet to proceed with the project.
But next season, Tessier hopes the trails that connect the TBAT network to the Atikokan area will reopen.
After being accessible the last couple of years, the return of logging operations in some areas meant that bush roads previously used by snowmobiles could no longer be used because they were plowed right down to gravel.
"Our hope is that next year they will be finished what they're doing, and the trail to Atikokan that connects to other towns and ultimately to the Manitoba border will be open again," Tessier said.
