Groomer Report
February 22, 2023 Update:
We’ve received 4-6” recently and stated to get 6-12” more At this point we plan to groom tomorrow (Thursday) and access from there. Reminder we’ve had a lot of melt and rain. You may encounter some soft spots and lots of ice under the snow, adjust your riding to the conditions. The little bit of recon we’ve done in the past week trails before this snow had 0-4” depending where you are on the trail system and a lot of rough frozen ice due to the terrain. Stay tuned for more updates through the weekend.
Don’t forget to get out there and support the clubs in our council! Antrim County Snowmobile Club and East Jordan Trailblazers would love to have you as a member as well as attending their fundraising efforts! Check out their respective Facebook pages and plan to attend their many events.
Remember there is no centerline, stay on your side of the trail, ride right, ride safe, ride sober, give our volunteer groomers a thumbs up, and please remember groomers don’t back up, get off the trail well ahead of the groomer so they can safely get by you.
Any questions please message us on our Facebook page or email jordanvalleytrailscouncil@gmail.com and we can help you with any questions!
ORV riders, please be aware that we have sections of our trail that we are generously afforded the right to use for snowmobile trails. When you see “NO ORV” signs please turn around and find an alternate path! Trails closed to ORV are trails: 4 west of 131, 4/76 and 768 along 131, 766 in the Jordan Valley, 4/76 between 131 and Cinder Hill Road, and 4 along the powerlines (this is PRIVATE property not Lakes of the North property). ORV and snowmobile traffic on private property are jeopardizing trail access all around the state.
Stay tuned to the JVTC Facebook page as well as the Antrim County Snowmobile Club and East Jordan Sno-mobilers Inc. pages for further trail updates.
THE JORDAN VALLEY TRAILS COUNCIL GROOMS 24 HOURS A DAY
Did you know…. both the Antrim County Snowmobile Club and East Jordan Snowmobilers Inc. clubhouses are DNR park and ride locations? Well lit and plowed out for your day trip or overnight parking.
Ride safe, ride sober, ride right!
Remember to re-new your club memberships! Call MiSORVA, get your trail permits and be ready! Well it’s December 1st and technically trails are open, we just need some snow! Looking forward to seeing everyone on the trails!
ORV enthusiasts, please remember that we have multiple places where our trails cross portions of private land. We have contracts with these landowners for snowmobile use only and ORV traffic has nearly jeopardized a few of these leases. We have installed new NO ORV sings to help understand where private land is, please know where you are riding and avoid private land. Private sections are on trail 76, trail 4/76 and the powerlines near Lakes of the North (YES they are private property!)
Check out our individual clubs Facebook pages for more information and their other upcoming events
#JVTC #fueledbyvolunteers
Be sure to check out our supporting clubs, @antrimcountysnowmobileclub @eastjordansnowmobilersinc for their latest events and membership opportunities.
#JVTC #volubteers #dubiegroomers #fueledbyvolunteers #bestinthebusiness #washboardsareforlaundry #sledmichigan #dubiegroomers #johndeere #pistenbully
We have a great group of volunteers, if you’d like to help out in the offseason or inspire to be a groomer driver, contact any of our affiliated clubs or email jordanvalleytrailscouncil@gmail.com.
A friendly reminder – we groom 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and most groomer runs average between 5 and 8 hours, our trail system now entails roughly 75 one- way miles with the majority of our segments groomed down and back. Remember to grab those 2021 trail permits before you hit the trail, they fund us to be able to give you great trails. Ride safe!
Local JVTC Club Affiliate News:
Antrim County Snowmobile Club (Located on Trail 4/76 in Alba) – Give them a 👍🏽 on Facebook. Weekly trail rides through the winter.
East Jordan Trailblazers (Located on Trail 4 in East Jordan) – Give them a 👍🏽 on Facebook, Breakfast being December 1st thru March 31st (cancelled for 2021 due to COVID)
Charlevoix County Snowmobile Club (No Clubhouse) – No events planned
Become a member and get involved with a local club, without them there are no trails to ride!
ORV RIDERS!!! : As we head into snowmobile season we please ask that ORV’s refrain from using our groomed snowmobile trails. It is not only dangerous for both ORV riders as well as snowmobile riders but our groomer operators spend countless hours preparing and maintaining trails. Ruts created from ORV can be very dangerous for snowmobilers as well as stressful for groomer operators as it requires much more time and effort to properly get the trail back into great condition. Please be respectful of fellow sportsmen. The JVTC is pro ORV and one of our board members has been fighting to gain further ORV routes in the area, but we also realize there is a need for each user group to have their own seasons.
As we transition from snow to grass and tracks to wheels remember that MANY snowmobile trails in the Lower Peninsula ARE NOT ORV trails!
Off season traffic on sled trails causes many contour changes in the trails from banked corners to washed out hills to creating potholes and whoops. All this damage, if fixed, is repaired by snowmobile dollars! If it is not fixed it causes us to start the season with terrain that is already sub par which will create trails of equal caliber. Please be aware of this and ride wisely.
Please respect the trails. Being able to cross an individual’s private property is a PRIVILEGE not a Right…
Onto the touchy part of our volunteering. When December 1st rolls around and conditions aren’t ideal we have to constantly juggle the dilemma of when is the right time to start grooming. The JVTC is fortunate enough to have decades of knowledge of Northern Michigan trails from our board of directors all the way down to our three trail masters and awesome volunteer groomer operators. Our decisions to groom are calculated decisions and many times involve conversations with area grooming clubs, groomer operators, trail users, MSA volunteers as well as our DNR contact. Many times our decisions are accurate, but there are also times we make the wrong call, it is literally a flip of the coin (which would somedays be a better option). Many of these decisions involve the short-term forecast and snowfall on the ground. These decisions aren’t always popular by a few but in the end most of the time the right decisions are made to benefit the trials as we move forward into the season. While these decisions are made we have to upholding our commitment as a grant sponsor to make educated decisions for the betterment of the program. At anytime our trail users have questions about what happens behind the scenes we are always here to answer questions. Send a message to the Jordan Valley Trails Council Facebook page or email jordanvalleytrailscouncil@gmail.com and you will be put in contact with the appropriate people promptly. We’re always looking for volunteers to help with trail work, drop us a line if your interested.
The Jordan Valley Trails Council is a joint effort between the Antrim County Snowmobile Club, East Jordan Trailblazers, and the Charlevoix Snowmobile Club. Please support these clubs and remember all the trail workers and groomer drivers are volunteers! GIVE THEM A BIG THUMBS UP!
Our fleet includes a John Deere 6150R with a 8 1/2′ Dubie Groomer with dual 30″ wings out of East Jordan, a John Deere 6215R with a 9 1/2′ Dubie Groomer with 30″ dual wings out of Elmira, and a Pisten Bully 400 with a 9 1/2′ Dubie Groomer with dual 30″ wings centered in Mancelona. At full load out 2 of our 3 groomers are capable of grooming 14 1/2′ of snow in one pass! We also have a John Deere 5090 that the Jordan Valley Trails Council owns with a front bucket and Dubie Brush Cutter front attachment for limb cutting as well as 2 mower attachments for storm and seasonal clean up as well as a rear Dubie blade
