Syracuse.com - Local snowmobilers are getting out -- but not riding yet.

[HuntingNY-News]

With the warm weather this past week, volunteers were out on trails across the area, continuing to fix them up and trying to make them safe for others for when the snow finally does come.

David Lassman/The Post-StandardChuck Swanson (left) and Derek Joncas, members of the Chittenango Polar Bears snowmobile club, help build a 35-foot-long bridge spanning a culvert in the town of Manlius.David Lassman/The Post-Standard Derek Joncas says that fixing up snowmobile trails sometimes feels like cram time for college students during finals.

“You try to cram in as much work as possible in a short period of time,” said the 40-year-old vice president of the Chittenango Polar Bears as he and others worked Thursday morning, hoping to finish a newly constructed bridge spanning a culvert in the town of Manlius by this weekend. Work on the 35-foot-long bridge started New Year’s Day.

“It’s such a short season,” he said. “If we don’t put this work in, it’s going to be hard for anyone else to enjoy it. We want everyone to be as safe as possible.”

The lack of snow this winter has put a real crimp on the Central New York snowmobiling scene.

Some local snowmobilers like Joncas are still getting out on the trails all across the area and continuing to fix them up and make them safe for others when the snow finally does come. Their dedication and efforts highlight the fact that much of the state’s some 10,500 miles of snowmobile trails are maintained by dedicated volunteers.

The majority of the trail system isn’t propped up with tax dollars. It’s supported entirely with money collected from snowmobile registration fees. The clubs are reimbursed for their time, effort and expenses through the snowmobile registration fund on a formula based on the miles of trail they’re maintaining, and on whether the trails they maintain are primary or smaller, secondary trails.

In Onondaga County alone, there’s 11 snowmobile clubs, with more than 2,000 members. These clubs are responsible for more than 270 miles of trails.

The 250-member, Chittenango Polar Bears is a relatively new club, having formed in late 2005. Other local clubs have been around 30 to 50 years, Joncas said, and have long-established routes and infrastructure.

Regardless, the nature of the beast is that clubs rely on the good graces of property owners to ride on their land. One bad incident or problem, a change of ownership or the building of a new housing development can take that permission away and an alternative route must be found — sometimes on a moment’s notice.

“You always have to have a Plan B, C — or even a Plan D just in case,” said Chuck Swanson, one of the club’s eight trail coordinators. He noted, for example, that one of the supporters of the club passed away in November. The estate took over the land, he said, and closed a quarter mile section of trail that the club had been using.

“Now we have to find a way around it,” he said. “This sort of stuff happens all the time.”

The Chittenango Polar Bears maintain nearly 25 miles of trail, which starts a little bit north of Lafayette, travels through the towns of Manlius and Chittenango and up through Canastota and to the windmills in the town of Fenner. It connects with trails maintained by other snowmobile clubs.

“You can ride straight up toward Utica and Old Forge or south to Marathon and Binghamton if you want,” Swanson said.

The bridge Joncas and Swanson were working on Thursday morning is part of a new, 1.5-mile stretch the club decided to create in response to property owners along Gulf Road in the town of Manlius who weren’t happy with the noise and snowmobile traffic on the seasonal road.

“We have a right to be on that seasonal road, but we decided to reroute our trail,” Joncas said. “Fortunately, a generous landowner has given us permission to do it.”

Shortly after Thanksgiving, he said, club members with chainsaws and other tools worked weekends and evenings through the deer-hunting season to help clear the trail. Once it had been roughed out, a local construction guy came in with a bulldozer and helped put the final touches on a trail which Joncas said should enjoy year-round use from snowmobilers and horseback riders.

“Just before Christmas, we were up here nearly every day. Some even were here on New Year’s Day,” he said.

Joncas, marketing manager for an electronics company, said he grew up snowmobiling as a youngster and the wintertime activity has “always been a family activity for me.” His involvement in the club and long hours working on trails is “one way of me giving back.

“I work in a very high-tech, fast-paced work environment,” he said. “So being able to get out into the woods, get some slivers, get dirty ... it’s just something I like to do.”

Swanson, 47, a computer consultant, said the bridge on the rerouted trail is the third the club has constructed since Thanksgiving on its trail system. In addition, the club has also put in 3-½ miles of new trail in the town of Fenner.

He said as trail coordinator of the rerouted section, he has the final say on when it gets opened for public use.

“Technically, trails can be opened when there’s 4 to 6 inches of snow,” he said. “We’d like to have at least a 12-inch base, so we can pack and groom it so it will last the winter.

“A nicely groomed trail is like driving on a roadway that’s just been paved.”

David Lassman/The Post-StandardSwanson and Joncas said club members have built three new bridges this season on the nearly 25 miles of trails maintained by their snowmobile club.

Safe to snowmobile yet?

The New York State Snowmobile Association reminds snowmobilers that local trails are not open until the local club has inspected and cleared trails.

The lack of snow hasn’t helped. As of Friday afternoon, no trails had officially been reported open in Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, Madison, Cortland or Oneida counties. Generally, clubs wait until there’s at least three to six inches of base (depending on the conditions) before allowing riders to travel on their trails.

“Our number one priority is safety and that is why we ask all snowmobilers to reach out to their local club before hitting the trails for the first time,” said Jim Rolf, Trail Coordinator for NYSSA. “New York State was hit by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee this summer and due to their destructive nature the clubs are finding damage to, and the wash-out of trails throughout the state, especially in the Adirondacks, Catskill and Eastern part of the state.

For updates on local trails, check the NYSSA Web site at www.nysnowmobiler.com for links to the Web sites of local snowmobile clubs.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog