On Friday, October 15, our club held a volunteer work day to improve the Willow Region Trails. In response to an email blast, 25 club members participated, some of them were our experienced members, but quite a few members who have not had an opportunity to do trail maintenance became involved for the first time. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of this group. They did so much more than I expected.  We were able to split into four groups:

• Group One: Worked on Trail 8 West, from Willow Road to the Price County Line.
• Group Two: Worked on Trail 5 South, from Lamar Springs Road to Muskellunge Road.
• Group Three: Worked on Trail 5 South, from the west side of Willow Road southwest to Ruth Road.
• Group Four: Worked on Trail 5 South, from Flowage Road to the spillway.

The workers were able to improve over 15 miles of the Willow Region Trails. Their work included cutting up and removing downed trees and trees that were leaning over the trail; This is no small task. To accomplish this, we used 12 ATVs and UTVs to transport workers to the sites, 9 chainsaws, 2 pole saws, and one skid steer for removing the ruts and rocks from the trail and then filling in the potholes. This work was desperately needed so we can safely use our mowing equipment to prepare the trails for the season ahead and our grooming equipment to provide a safe trail for our snowmobile riders.

I’d like to thank the following members:

Dave Hermes (Trail Supervisor)
Jerry Larson (Area 5 Leader)
Jim McCafferty (Area 4 Leader)
Scott Haggard
Dan Sikora
Dan Solheid
Doug Holle
Jon Hollander – skid steer
Jim Smetana
Scott Rosen
Jerry Wakefield
George Tamms
Michael & Selena Krajnik
David & Sue Klemm
Jeff Darrin
Merrill Schield
Mike Deutscher
Kevin & Lori Peterson
Jim & Debbi Echlin

A special thanks goes to:
– Mary Deutscher for providing the pumpkin bars
– Tom Teichmiller for letting Dave and Gordon use his UTV
– Joyce Murray for putting up with me and making sure we were fed
– Behnke’s Bucksnort Resort for the pizza party at the end of the day!

With Much Appreciation,
Gordon Murray