The aim of the ride is to bring women snowmobile enthusiasts together of all riding abilities for a day of camaraderie.

The ride will be known as the “Divas Snow Run”

Date; Sunday, Feb 25, 2018

Time:  0930 meet at the City Dock return 1600-1630

Route: Reid Lake and Back

Once at Reid Lake we will have a fire, hot dogs, hot chocolate etc. We are looking for some volunteers to preposition out at Reid to have the fire going, hot dogs cooking and hot chocolate on etc. so if you’d prefer to drive out let the club know and we’ll hook you up with Jennifer.

Jennifer

Hello Everyone

Sorry to bug everyone, we had three sets of Gang-lines (the ropes that connect sled dogs to the dog sled) stolen from our property at 158 Curry, which is located right across the street from the Kam Lake Access.

It’s a very odd thing to steal a $500 line off a $3000 dollar sled, even more odd if you don’t have a half-dozen huskies looking to pull a sled. Perhaps a rogue snowmobiler or 4×4 enthusiast got stuck near Kam Lake and “borrowed” them as a tow line. If anyone sees multi-colour ropes with loops, snaps and toggles please drop me an email, or text 867 444 0137 or drop off at Qimmiq Kennels. Some generic pictures attached. Ours were hand-made and very unique.

Incidentally, they wanted them badly as they were behind a chain link fence, not on display to borrow.

Thanks very much, Happy Trails.

Shane

World Snow Day activities are taking place this Sunday in Yellowknife. GSSA will be hosting an open leisurely ride for all members and general public starting at 10 am on Sunday. Meet on Frame Lake by City Hall invite your friends and ride the trails around town with a little stop for a fire and hot chocolate. We will have you home by dark.

Members have started to groom the trails with the new snowfall, we are still looking for volunteers to help with grooming. If you are interested contact [email protected]

Good evening snowmobilers,

One of our members was out for a ride to Prelude and supplied us with the following trail report.

My son and I went for a spin up to Prelude on Thursday.

We originally planned doing the Hay Lake route but the portage leaving Hay Lake going to Prosperous had exposed rocks (need more snow).  We also noted a number of rocks sticking up through the ice on the south end of the lake that I never knew were there before.

We headed back to YK/Back Bay and headed up the portage at the top of the bay that crosses the highway and YK river and then on to Walsh.  There has been some brush clearing at the highway and the old trail that used to run adjacent to the highway is not really identifiable.  Lots of sharp sticks, brush and small logs to ride over right near the highway.  The portage from the highway to the YK river crossing was a bit rough but not bad considering we don’t have a lot of snow yet.

The  portage from YK River to Walsh Lake was nasty. Lots of fairly deep ruts from quads (I think). It appears that this portage was used to access Walsh Lake from the river. More snow might fill in the voids. If it doesn’t get any better I’m not sure they’ll want to use this route for the Frostbite 50 if they do it again this year. Rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.

Larger lakes have small drifts. Smaller lakes not so much. Portages still rough from not enough snow.

Hi GSSA folks,

Just thought I should send a note about trails, snowmachines and dog teams.We’ve been running sled dogs in the Yellowknife area for over 30 years. Things have changed a lot in this time. There are many more people out on machines, the machines are bigger and faster. Our trails are narrow and twisty in places so you can’t always see or hear what’s coming. Also dog team travel is very quiet so people often aren’t aware of their approach until they are right there

Dog teams don’t have reverse or the ease of steering that a machine has. The front dogs are often 40 ft or more from their musher and a team is composed of many dogs that can react in different ways. Their ears are more sensitive than ours and they can be spooked by the noise. When encountering a team head on my advice is to pull off the trail as far as possible, shut your motor off and let the team pass. If you come up behind a team on a narrow trail it’s best to wait for the  musher to find a wide part of the trail or a pond or lake to stop  in to let you pass. There’s lines, harness and rope on a team and you might easily hook something trying to pass on a narrow trail.

If you are running a loose dog on a portage, leash or grab the dog and pull it off the trail so there’s no chance of a canine confrontation.

Some of the common trails that teams use are on Kam, Grace, Meg, Peg, Keg and out toward the Mink Ranch.  The Duck Lake , Mason and Jennejohn route, Bluefish and Quyta Lakes.  These are not the only ones used. I personally love to explore this land by dog sled might be on any trail.

Get out there, have fun, enjoy and respect this beautiful  country. 

See you on the trails.

Thank you very much. 

Terry Woolf

Our great volunteers and GSSA members were once again out spreading gravel to smooth out the airport fence trail today near Deh Cho Boulevard 

All the gravel for this trail maintenance was purchased using a grant from the City of Yellowknife

On December 14th a large group of twenty-two snowmobiles were passing through a narrows between an island and the shore near Burwash Point when a snowmobile in the middle of the group went through the ice on a path previously traveled by ten other sleds.

The water was shallow (four feet) and the operator was able to quickly get out of the water and the snowmobile was safely retrieved

Please be advised when traveling in this area 

1) A dog walker dropped through to her knee last weekend on Range Lake just south of Parker Park and near shore.  This was likely overflow but still be attentive as the lake is shallow.

2) The city has a curtain installed under the causeway to Latham Island.   Its intention is to assist in freezing the ice but the water levels dropped so it has become a barricade.  The City is going to haul snow down to the curtain and bank up both sides to make it passable. 

3) There weak ice on Banting Lake at the North East corner of the big island at the north end of the lake.  Trails are open but rough.

4) There is open water hole if you are traveling by snowmobile, walking or skiing towards Burwash but it is at the Burwash end just before you start the Burwash-Hay Lake trail

Keep the trail reports coming in!

For those interested we’ll be putting out another (smaller) load of gravel this Saturday.  We’d appreciate your help with sled/toboggan, quad/trailer or simply a shovel.  The plan is to have gravel dropped off along Deh Cho boulevard at the road crossing.  At 10:00am we will haul it in towards the airport fence to fix some of that trail. 

A huge thank you to those that were out last Saturday spreading 2 loads of gravel.  The Range Lake airport fence trail will be much better for grooming this year and the big rock off Hordal is much easier to pass.   

Your board will be meeting this Thursday to set some dates for events this year.  Let us know if there’s anything specific you would like or if you’d like to host something.  We’re in this together.

On December 9th a group of GSSA Members got together and completed some maintenance along the airport fence trail which included laying down several loads of gravel to smooth things out.

While GSSA Members provided the “sweat equity” for this project,  the gravel and materials used for this Trail Maintenance was purchased with funds from a grant received from the City of Yellowknife

There will be another work party on Saturday December 15th starting at 10:00am from the snowmobile crossing at Deh Cho Boulevard to lay another load of gravel along the Airport Fence Trail if you would like to help out!