Local groups for snowmobilers, skiers and snowshoers are working hard to clear trails in and around Flin Flon, Man., but poor snow conditions and damage from last summer’s fires — hundreds of downed trees, burned terrain, upturned roots and destroyed buildings and bridges — is making it difficult.
Residents of Flin Flon, Creighton and Denare Beach who fled the flames on May 28 found hundreds of homes burned down in Denare Beach, as well as untold damage to the region’s environment, when they returned home a month later.
John Trumbley, a past-president and co-founder of the Border Explorers Snowmobile Club, saw it all up close. His son, Dustin, lost his home, one of nearly 300 that were destroyed by fire. The club’s headquarters, located near Denare Beach, barely avoided the flames.
Trumbley says the group looks after more than 200 kilometres of sled trails each year. About 30 per cent of the group’s trails are on frozen lakes and waterways, but nearly all of the remainder has been affected.
“Every trail we’ve been on so far has massive amounts of damage,” he said.
Leslie Beck, co-chair of wâhkôhtowin Trails, which mainly focuses on snowshoeing, scenic and history walks, says the group had planned to expand into areas near Flin Flon and Denare Beach.
However, those plans are on hold because entire areas to the east, west and north of town have been damaged.
“We lost an entire area, like right from Flin Flon to Bakers Narrows. If you just take the old highway from town to Bakers, that area is all lost,” Beck said.
“We are looking at probably 30-40 years to bring back those forests that have been burnt out.,” Beck said.
Skiers are also seeing changes.
The Flin Flon Ski Club operates and grooms around 28 kilometres of trails each winter, but six of those were affected by the fire, wrecking warmup shacks and destroying bridges.
Club president Dean Grove says the McRae trail, the club’s southernmost loop, was badly damaged. Those trails have largely been repaired, but not all are ready for skiers.
“We’ve had to take a lot of trees out that have fallen across the trail. We anticipate we’re going to have a lot more that are going to fall down after because they’ve had the roots burned, but they’re still standing,” he said.
Grove says he was surprised to see how much the area had been damaged, but he’s already seeing signs that nature is recovering.
“We walked it two weeks after we came back and already some growth was coming back on the trail. It’s pretty amazing actually how nature bounces back,” he said.
“On the positive, I guess it’s opened our eyes to maybe some changes we could make to the trail that might improve it going forward.”
Aside from a heavy snowstorm in October, the winter has also seen light snowfall, causing issues especially for the snowmobilers and skiers, and making trails hard to groom and maintain.
That storm caused a lot of deadfall, knocking down trees already burned and damaged by the fire. Several are still standing but also at risk of toppling. Exposed root systems have also cut off trails in some spots.
“There is lots of damage even done by the snowstorm, more than we would have anticipated,” Trumbley said.
All three groups say they’ve been encouraged by the fact that all have seen volunteers come out to help clear the trails.
The Border Explorers group is preparing trails for the Journey for Sight, a long-distance snowmobile trek for charity that starts in Flin Flon later this month.
“We could use as much help as we can get right now, Trumbley said. “There’s a lot of work and the more help we get, the faster we get. We’ve had a lot of help so far. It’s been a really good turnout, we’ve had lots of volunteers out, even non-club members helping as much as they can.”
The Flin Flon Ski Club is also planning to host events, including a Saskatchewan Cup race in February and the Val and Ivor Hedman Centaloppet in March, a non-competitive event for skiers of all ages, with some even decked out in costume.
“We had a lot of people that stepped up and really helped us out. We’re pretty well on schedule again,” Grove said.
Beck with wahkohtowin Trails says the group saw “some really strong volunteers with chainsaws and stuff cut up several hundred trees we had to move off of the trails to get them back open again.”
Last summer’s devastating wildfires in northern Manitoba left downed trees and damaged buildings around Flin Flon. That’s been followed by a winter short on snow, but local groups are working hard to make hundreds of kilometres of snowmobile, ski and snowshoe trails usable again.
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